[Farmall] FW: SHE RUNS! (long)

Al Jones aljones at ncfreedom.net
Fri Oct 28 18:11:28 PDT 2005



-----Original Message-----
From: Al Jones [mailto:aljones at ncfreedom.net] 
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 9:08 PM
To: Antique-Tractor (at at lists.antique-tractor.com); farmall at atis.net
Subject: SHE RUNS! (long)

All, I posted this over on Redpower.  Just wanted to share my happiness.
To set the stage, I haven't heard my tractor run since January of '04
when I drove it on my trailer, and tore it down to a rolling chassis for
paint.  It literally took THIS long to get it to semi-running condition
again.  I still don't have the wiring done, and there's a lot of small
details left but I'm hoping to have it presentable for our local
Christmas parade. When I first subscribed to ATIS 10 years ago, bringing
my Super A back to near-new was just a dream.  Hard to believe I've come
this far!  

It has been one of those weeks. Nay, it has been one of those MONTHS.
School has been so busy lately that I feel like I am passing myself
coming and going, some days I honestly just want to tell my students to
"go play" and lock myself in my office! Then after hurricane Ophelia we
have been dealing with the joys of flattened corn with no end in sight.
Wednesday evening I got home from school a bit early. Took the 424 and
trailer and helped my daddy move 6 bred sows to another pen for
gestation, came back to the house and decided I would tinker on the
Super A. When last I fooled with it, I had >>no<< spark at the mag after
getting it all back together from being painted. So I got one of those
free, "vote for me" paper nail files I had laying around and went out to
tinker. Filed the points and noticed obvious crud on the file so I knew
they were dirty. Put it back together and hooked the spark tester back
and still nothing. In the mean time, my wife had come back from a trip
to town and so I went to greet her, figuring that I had done all I could
do and might as well get ready to order a coil. Decided I would give it
"one more try" and then I would call it a day. While she and I chatted,
I rubbed the points vigorously. Put it all back together, hooked the
tester up, and on the third click of the impulse A SPARK! My first
thought was it really didn't look like much of one. What I really wanted
was such a hot, firey spark that my tester would just shatter from the
electrical force and I would be left with singed eyebrows. But it was
blue so I decided to give it a try. The tractor has NO wires right now
so I would have to "wind" it with the crank. Gave her a few pulls,
nothing. Choke, two more pulls, LOUD BANG!!! Well she must be out of
time. Sure enough had the wires plugged in 90 deg. off. Two more pulls,
then some choke, another pull, all of a sudden, a puff of smoke, soot,
and she was off!!! Sputter sputter miss miss, "push the choke in dummy!"
and she leveled out. Let it run a couple seconds, oil pressure is where
it needs to be, time to bleed the touch control, since there's no bat.
box on it yet the instrument panel is wobbly, it inadvertently moves the
throttle to idle too fast and she dies. Two pulls of the crank and away
we go again! Touch control's working good, have forgotten the pin for
the right linkage so grab a nail for a pin for now. Run to the house to
tell the wife to "bring the camera!!!!" Shoot a little video of it,
finally decide I have had enough and begin to shut off the gas (again no
wiring yet!) about that time she runs out on her own (I had only put
about a thimbleful in the tank) and come to a stop.

After the uphoria wore off, I took a quick walk down to my grandaddy's
field. (My wife and I are living in his old house) Stopped to pick up a
few pecans that had fallen, continue on to the field and crack a couple
to munch on as I go along, the faint smell of gas and oil on my hands.
Walk right past the spot where my dad remembers the Super A being
unloaded its very first time, brand new from the dealer, in 1948. I
strolled across the branch (creek) where it worked for so many years.
Time to turn back now, past the old pear tree, grab one to munch on,
admire the sunset, and now ornery youngun's flat corn, and none of that
other mess means a thing. The ol' bird runs again, and I didn't even
have to call a professional in to make it go! We still have a long way
to go, wiring has to be done and I am praying the hood and grille will
fit right after all the work that had to be done to them. It's
absolutely filthy from being under the shed, even with a sheet over it.
No telling how long it will take to wash it so I can really enjoy the
new paint. But she runs. I can remember as a young boy talking with
grandaddy about how "we are going to get the 'ol Super A painted one of
these days." He never got to see it but I am finally almost there.

Thanks for letting me share
Al





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