[Farmall] Got one going

[Karl Olmstead]

I bought a '34 O-12 six or eight months ago and haven't paid much attention to it.  It has decent sheet metal but goofy front wheels; someone has sandwiched 16" automotive rims between the two halves of the small cast iron O-12 wheels.  As a result, the tractor sits very high in the front, quite unlike the normal O-12.  The tractor also has more serious issues; the front axle bracket and the actual cast frame of the tractor have been broken and only partially repaired.  And it has a WICO mag instead of IHC F4.

The seller got the tractor running for me and I drove it on the trailer, but it wouldn't start when I got it home, so I lost interest.  In fact, I hauled it up to Tulare last weekend and tried to sell it.

Tried to get it running, but no go.  Was able to get it to pop if I sprayed brake cleaner in the carburetor, but it wouldn't sustain.  The fuel pump bowl was full of black crud, so I tossed in a rebuilt fuel pump to try at the show.  No luck.  Rebuilt pump was gummed up too.  I found that I didn't really need to try and start the tractor.  By simply leaving the fuel pump outlet disconnected and cranking the engine, I could test the pump.  No flow.

Finally got the pump cleaned up last night.  If the check valves are working, you can blow through the pump from inlet to outlet, but not the other direction.  Once I had the pump working, I was able to get the engine running in just a few minutes.  Smoked a little when it first started, but that soon cleared up.  Clutch feels funny; it only disengages at the very bottom of pedal stroke, and  throwout bearing feels pretty rough.  Engine ran well, but governor doesn't adjust for varying load.

I was going to part this tractor out, but now it's too good for that.  Guess I'll need to identify a parts donor for it, or try and have the broken castings fixed.  The 16" tires are going on my current O-12 project, I think.

-Karl

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