[AT] Update for a Quiet List

Wed Jun 3 06:32:56 PDT 2020

Steve

Using Loctite can become an issue. It comes in different colors that provide different clamping characteristics. Use the wrong one and it may take a torch to cut the screw out. What I would recommend is nail polish. All you have to do is gum up the thread so that the screw doesn’t turn due to vibration. I’m sure your wife has old an bottle that she’ll let you have.

Other than that, a small lock washer would also work. Also, take a good look at the threads on the screw to see if they’re worn. With the old stuff, you have no idea how many time they’ve been turned in and out, or how many times they’ve been over torqued and now have degrade threads. While working on my Cub I changed out the two screws that hold the rotor in place and the three screws that hold the magneto cover in place. They had worn slots and it was difficult to get a good bite with a screwdriver and ensure I tightened them properly. 

Carl
----- Original Message -----
From: STEVE ALLEN <steveallen855 at centurytel.net>
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Sent: Tue, 02 Jun 2020 21:18:32 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [AT] Update for a Quiet List

The list has been quiet for a few days, so I thought I'd throw a kind of an update at you.

This is on the '51 A; you will remember we got a great deal of work done with it by hanging a lawnmower gas tank on it till I can attend to the real one.

This past Saturday, we had to have my son's dog put down; the poor guy had cancer in his ear and it was spreading throughout his head.  Well, in *this* ground, you don't dig a grave for a 150+ lb Great Pyrenees by hand, oh no!  I asked my neighbor with the JD backhoe to come down and do it, and he came down Friday night and told us to call him after we had the dog covered with a layer of dirt.  (As an aside, I lost count of the head-sized rocks he pulled out of that hole.)

When he came back down to finish filling in the grave, he asked if we were going to finish clearing out the creek bottom, and I said we are, but it is slow going with chainsaw and hand tools even though we now had a brushhog working again.  He asked if I'd mind if he scraped some of the brush away, and I said not at all.  Long story short, 20 minutes later, and a month of hand work was done.  Nifty!

So we brought the brushhog back down to clean up on Sunday afternoon.  Did a great job and even pushed back some blackberry patches that weren't worth using the backhoe on.  After we finished, and my son headed up the hill toward the house, the A started running slower, like a watch winding down.  About a quarter of the way up, it died.  It would not restart.  I checked the plugs and touched up the points--I could tell we had some spark by grabbing the end of the plug when we cranked, but it felt weak, and I didn't jump the plug gap.  It was getting late, so I went and got a chain and my pickup and towed the rig the rest of the way up the hill (I even tried pull-starting, without success).  

Today after work, we went out and went through everything again.  This time, I thought to check the point gap.  That's odd:  it looked like it was too wide.  Used a feeler gauge, and by golly, it was too wide.  A *lot* too wide.  How'd *that* happen?  So I grabbed a screw'em-up driver to loosen the hold down screw to adjust, and I then discovered it already *was* loose; in fact, it was almost falling out of the hole.  Set the points, tightened the screw, and Bingo! he started right up!  Funny how that works, huh?  So we went and cleaned up some other odds and ends patches.

Anyway, I need to be on the lookout for that screw getting loose (yes, lots of people accuse me of having a screw loose, and I guess they are right!).  Now, question:  would that screw be a good application for some Locktite?  If so, what flavor?

Always somethin'!

The "original" Steve Allen

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