[AT] cub / prime oil pump

[Dean VP]

Gary:

Our antique tractors are supposed to have oil pressure? Oh my God, I thought
they were all splash lubed! :-)

I tend to drain all fluids when I get a new (used) antique tractor on the
yard. Then flush all cavities with Kerosene or Diesel fuel. Then I'm quite
often starting out with no oil pressure. On most, if not all, of the
tractors, I have been able to get adequate oil pressure by hand cranking
them a bit before trying to start them. I failed to do that on one and it
scared me to death because I watch the oil pressure gauge intensely when
starting something I'm not very familiar with. It didn't take long for the
pressure to build but that momentary delay startled me and seemed like
eternity.  I suspect not much, if any, damage will be done to an engine if
it has been running with oil pressure in the recent past. The cylinder walls
should still be lubed and the bearings should still have a coat of
lubricant. I do get a bit nervous about the cylinder wall lubrication if
I've had a carburetor needle and seat failure on a gravity feed gas tank.
When the gasoline fills the cylinder it washes off the lubricant.  

However, in real life, I've brought back enough tractors to life with all
new fluids in them that were so much an improvement over what had been in
there before that I suspect all the surfaces breathed a sigh of relief. If
there was going to be any damage, due to momentary shortage of oil pressure,
it would be very minor compared to the damage done with the filthy, water
logged oil that had been in there previously. The old engines are so dog
gone tolerant and loose toleranced that we sometimes mix today's tight
toleranced engine requirements with 50 year old technology. 

I've come to the conclusion that I can even have an occasional "senior
moment" and forget to do something right and not hurt them very much at all.
I'm not nearly as uptight about it as I once was. Maybe that will get me
into trouble, but I doubt it. If they could handle farmer abuse for years,
they can handle my occasional memory lapses. 

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
storeroom door 


www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of K7jdj at aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 9:47 AM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] cub / prime oil pump

In a message dated 6/10/2005 7:42:20 AM Pacific  Standard Time, 
wild1 at cpe-66-1-196-61.az.sprintbbd.net writes:
Smart start-up  procedures and regular maintenance
go a long way toward keeping this old iron  running.

Good comments Ken.  A Google search turned up a a lot of  site addressing 
lub-oil issues.  Here a couple I looked  at.

http://www.thirskauto.net/Oil_Pumps.html

http://dodgeram.org/ki4cy/preluber/Preluber.htm

Although  this thread has drifted a bit from the original post, I think many

of our old  antique
machines sit idle for extended periods and it is a good idea to pay  
attention to the oil pressure issue at start up. 

Gary
Renton, WA  

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