[AT] RE: No smoking please

[Andy Glines]

>   11.  No smoking please (Indiana Robinson)
>Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:39:50 -0500
>From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
>Subject: [AT] No smoking please
>To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>Message-ID: <432DECB6.18135.14AF052A at localhost>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>	I had my AC-C at the museum show running the buzz saw and I was having 
>some problems
>with scale in the gas tank. Some years ago it got a good bit of water in 
>the tank. I'm
>not quite sure how since it was parked outside for years without any 
>problems and has
>never gotten any water in it since. I suspected a bit of foul-play. When it 
>had the water
>in it the inside of the tank developed a lot of rust and scale. I had been 
>intending to
>pull the tank and shake it out but but always hate to take a painted 
>tractor apart since
>it always chips up paint. That has just given me an excuse to procrastinate 
>and I have
>become increasingly good at that. I have a small piece of rubber tubing in 
>the tractor
>tool box and if some scale blocked the outlet I would take the sediment 
>bowl off and hold
>the tube up against the outlet and blow it clear. Today,since I was at a 
>show, of course
>it decided to really do a first rate job of clogging and wouldn't blow 
>clear. I decided
>to pull the complete sediment bowl assembly and clean it out a bit. The 
>problem was that
>I didn't have a container big enough to hold all of the fuel in the tank. 
>After careful
>deliberation I said to hell with it and removed the fuel line and unscrewed 
>the assembly
>from the tank (looking for nearby smokers first). I held a 1 gallon ice 
>cream bucket
>under the thing as I took it out and I was actually able to remove it and 
>get it screwed
>back in losing only about one half pint of gas (maybe $60 worth).   ;-)   
>My ice cream
>bucket ended up with about 2 tablespoons of scale in it and about 3 quarts 
>of gas. I sat
>it aside for a few minutes to settle out and then strained most of it back 
>through a
>cloth and a funnel into my gas can. The tractor is now running trouble 
>free. I will
>probably pull the thing again when I get it home but I will have a 
>container large enough
>to hold everything. Then I can take time to flush it out better. There does 
>not appear to
>be a stand pipe in this tank but I may put one in it while I have it apart.
>	There were not a lot of "special" tractors at this show, mostly the 
>regular tractors
>used here in the midwest for general farming. One I found interesting was a 
>Massey Harris
>50 which looked like a Massey Ferguson 50 but with the MH decals and the 
>chassis all
>painted gold. I don't recall those being sold here. It was a very nice 
>restoration and
>watching him drive it , seemed very tight and responsive like a new 
>tractor.
>	Another I found interesting was a Ferguson TO-20. It was not really a 
>restoration but
>had been painted. I noticed that it was a little off color from a distance 
>but that's OK,
>I'm not the correct police. What was unusual was that when closer it was 
>very textured
>and grainy. Not just orange peel but more like it was intentional. Maybe 
>some kind of
>industrial coating??? It was not like poly bed liner.
>	I could sympathize with several guys that had nice paint jobs which were 
>partly ruined
>by modern gasoline. One in particular was a very nice Oliver 770 that had a 
>sharp paint
>job but had a 2' circle of blistering paint where gas had leaked from the 
>carb and ran
>down. I saw several others with blistered areas. It kind of makes you 
>appreciate those
>old Farmalls with the little tin shield under the carb.
>
>--
>"farmer", Esquire
>At Hewick Midwest
>       Wealth beyond belief, just no money...
>
>Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
>Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. In America 100
>years
>before the revolution.
>
>
>Francis Robinson
>Central Indiana USA
>robinson at svs.net
Definetly rig a standpipe in your tank even if you do clean it.  I had the 
same problem with the F-20 when I had to temporarilly replace the fuel bowl 
with a standard pipe nipple.  The bowl has a built in stand pipe.  The 
nipple allowed every little piece of funk in the tank into the plumbing 
where it caused no end of problems.  I had open it up to clear the pipe 
until someone pointed out the lack of a standpipe.  After poking around a 
little for something to use as a standpipe I discovered that a BIC pen was 
just the right size to tightly slide into the pipe nipple.  I cut the pen 
tub off so that it was about 1" above the bottom of the tank.  I ran this 
setup for quite awhile and didn't have any more problems.
BTW Seems like I saw someone advertising the truck bed liner material by 
painting an old Ford tractor with it at the IN State Fair a few years ago.