Just when I thought I was getting ahead on the giant list of Shit To Do….
I pulled Ye Olde FrankenMotor trick on an old Briggs and Stratton 5 horse to put back onto a vintage Monkey Wards rototiller that belonged to my future Sister In Law’s Dad.
He was Old School and had a huge garden every year and she is still on the same piece of property so all of his old tools and equipment are still around.
This is where I got that old David Bradley walk behind tractor with all of the implements from.
My brother wanted to get the thing going again and I tore into it last Winter.
The engine that was on it is possibly salvageable but it needs a whole bunch of work and parts.
A buddy gave me an old engine that had been sitting outside in the weather for years and it didn’t have a drop of oil in it when I got it either. A real Crap Shoot. After a few rounds on Flea Bay scrounging, gathering up parts like an air cleaner housing and a pull start housing, I actually got the thing running in short order.
It’s been sitting out in the garage ever since.
The Sun came out yesterday and I took it over there and mounted it up.
After messing around getting the new drive belts put on and the throttle cable hooked up, the thing started right up.
Enter the problems.
The throttle cable hooked up so that pushing the knob in increased the speed and there was no speed control after it came off ide.
It was either idle or ungoverned wide open throttle.
It’s amazing the rev’s one of those little engines will turn.
Can’t be having that.
So I messed with it and messed with it and finally loaded it up and drug it home.
A couple of Youtube videos confirmed that I had the throttle linkage and the spring bullshit they use to control it hooked up right but still no love.
I went up and got a new Universal Choke cable, measured and cut it down, made a new Z bend in the end of it and mounted it so that it pulled instead of pushed to control the throttle.
Back to Youtube to find out how to adjust the governor and lo and behold, it was out of whack.
Put it back together and the magic happened.
The engine runs, the belts work and even reverse works!
That amazed me that I got that going.
So back to my Brothers I went and here ya go.
I told him to remember the damn thing is old like we are so you can’t just start it up and expect to take off at full blast. Ya gotta let it warm up a bit and then SLOOOOOOWLY pull the throttle back.
But she’s a runner again finally.
So then he starts in about the generator I gave him a year or so ago.
He let the battery go dead and then broke the pull start rope.
Sigh.
It never ends.
So now I have that shit to dick with.
It’s gonna have to wait.
I have an absolute shit ton of other things that are way ahead of it on my list and right this minute the Sun is shining.
It’s been cold and wet around here for months now.
Time to start knocking some other, more pressing items off of my To Do list.
No rest for the wicked kiddies.
I had an old Monkey Wards tiller. They were made by Gilson. darn near indestructible. Had the 8 horse engine on it and would wear you out before it needed gas.
dude you need to go fishin’ next weekend!
Bingo
You’re too much like me, Phil. I have shit loads of my own projects but as soon as somebody comes by or calls, I have things brought to me that get put in line to fix, usually ahead of my own stuff.
Oh, well….at least we have a reputation for knowing shit, and getting stuff fixed.
I’ve been wary of the critters, since a friend managed to climb a chain link fence with his tiller before it finally stopped. They’re beasts, and require situational awareness. One false move, and they till up a foot.
Gotta love the exhaust manifold on that beast.
You noticed that too! OSHA would have kittens. Screw ’em!
Fixing that pull rope is a 5 minute job.
Your brothers fingers are broke?
10 minutes at the most, including digging out and putting away tools. It takes longer to order the right part than to change it out.
rear tiller are a lot better to use. the front ones seem like you fighting it the whole time. still, it is a tiller and you got it working. you have a skill that is worth money
went the time comes. like yea, I fix it, but I want some food in return like,,
the problem is, most people have no idea how to garden these days.
the whole idea of working the soil to grow food is alien to them.
that needs to change here and fast the way things are going
Yep – rear tine tillers. I tried using a front tine tiller (back when I was young) and got more of a workout than I ever did at the gym. Bought a Troy rear tine tiller and used it for a number of year, then gave it to my son.
Just the other day, I noticed the bed on my ’02 GMC had a slight but noticeable slant. Looking in the bed, I see where the leaf spring rear mount is popping up thru. A look under where the mount end is, well, a rusting bent mangle of corrosion. Well, at least I have 3 decent points of connection for my rear end. Yeah….it never ends.