Thursday, July 8, 2010

Farmall M road grader


I always enjoy seeing how companies worked together to build equipment that handled a variety of tasks,this is an M Farmall probably built in the later 1930s or early 1940s that shows up occasionally at shows around here,it's fitted with a road grader attachment built by the Trojan co,it looks like a pretty nice setup although it wouldn't be real easy to take off and put back on.

1943 B&S model A engine

I've had this B&S model A engine for almost a year and finally got around to getting it running.The engine was complete when I got it,it looked like someone had cleaned it up some a tried to get it running.When I got into it,the first thing that I found was that it was turning pretty tight,I found that the engine had been put together without a gasket that sets the crankshaft end play,so I made a gasket for that,the points plunger was sticking,probably from old oil so I had to get that free again.Once I got those things out of the way,I tried cranking it and found that the compression felt pretty low,I tried to start it a few times but it wouldn't even putt.I ended up taking the piston out and found the rings were stuck in the ring grooves from carbon,I was able to carefully and with the help of liberal amounts of wd40,I was able to get the rings free.Once I buttoned it back up,it didn't take to much to get this one singing again.To me these old engines are a testament to sound engineering,this engine was built in 1943.It's all cast iron,even the head shroud and blower housing,it weights about 75lbs and produces about 1 1/2 hp,that's probably the real reason why they last as long as they do,while they are a far sight better than the hit N miss engines that came before,they a far cry from the engines that power lawn equipment a such today.