Anybody Remember Back When?

[bunyip]

Ok you got me! What is a bunt plug?

Good thing when the crank handle was on the rim of the heavy flywheel. The ones with the crank like car took some real umph. That was probably what generated the pony engine idea.

Ron

I think that was a rolled up paper about the size of a cheroot filled with saltpetre, lit then put in a plug and scewed into the cylinder or manifold, a crude form of glow plug, it would smoulder red hot for a while.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I was looking for a tractor (before my first Kubota) around 1999. A fellow had an older one for sale and we went to look at it. He was driving out of town but he said his wife was there and we should go ahead and start it and try it out. It turned out to be a pony motor. I had my son along, he was a truck mechanic at the time. We managed to get the pony started but had no clue how to start he diesel. Maybe we didn't realize that it took 10-30 minutes, LOL. We gave up. After reading this thread, I am very glad we did!



Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps. There was a CCC camp in Shawnee State Forest (Ohio) until about ten years ago when they tore it down. It was well maintained and looked like it was in use but IDK what they used it for.

Brother Dave Gardner (anyone remember him? The Voice of the South?) was talking about growing up poor, and his comment was "The first piece of light bread I ever saw was thrown off the back of a CCC truck". :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

How many of you know what the WPA was? Then there was the CCC.

My dad told me about them and showed me many of their works in our area.Lots of rock wall and structures all over the country.

 

[Streetcar]

I was looking for a tractor (before my first Kubota) around 1999. A fellow had an older one for sale and we went to look at it. He was driving out of town but he said his wife was there and we should go ahead and start it and try it out. It turned out to be a pony motor. I had my son along, he was a truck mechanic at the time. We managed to get the pony started but had no clue how to start he diesel. Maybe we didn't realize that it took 10-30 minutes, LOL. We gave up. After reading this thread, I am very glad we did!



Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps. There was a CCC camp in Shawnee State Forest (Ohio) until about ten years ago when they tore it down. It was well maintained and looked like it was in use but IDK what they used it for.

Ken
Was the camp converted to a scout camp and then closed. Time line and area right for camp my son went to

 

[QRTRHRS]

Memory fails after 50 plus years so I do not recall if any of those old CAT's had a compression release but the White tractor we used for pulling the low bed did. It had a 220 Cummins. You would pull the release lever and the electric starter would then be able to turn it over. Once it got to spinning then you would push the lever back in and hopefully it would still continue to turn over until it fired.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Memory fails after 50 plus years so I do not recall if any of those old CAT's had a compression release but the White tractor we used for pulling the low bed did. It had a 220 Cummins. You would pull the release lever and the electric starter would then be able to turn it over. Once it got to spinning then you would push the lever back in and hopefully it would still continue to turn over until it fired.

Memory, what's that? Seems that compression release was pretty universal, both pony engines and hand crank ones.

Ron

 

[Tractor Seabee]

I think that was a rolled up paper about the size of a cheroot filled with saltpetre, lit then put in a plug and scewed into the cylinder or manifold, a crude form of glow plug, it would smoulder red hot for a while.

Thanks for increasing my trivia base. Ether seemed to popular in my recollection. There were always empty cans laying about. Some engines had a place to screw them in and a push button to charge.

Ron

 

[stuckmotor]

Ron,
Grand Dad had a gasser and I was tiny in those days. Were the fires you built under the diesels wood fires or was there an oil or gas appliance made for the job?

 

[Looking4new]

We had little red pellets about the size of a quarter all round that were filled with ether. Just open the cap, drop the pellet in and close the cap. A pin at the bottom of the chamber would pierce the pellet and ether would flow into the intake manifold and off she would go. IF you were lucky.

 

[turnkey4099]

It was also so the customer could see and verify that he was getting what he was paying for. Apparently, there was some paranoia going around those days.

May have been a minor part of it but since that was the only delivery system I doubt many worried about being cheated.

 

[turnkey4099]

How many of you know what the WPA was? Then there was the CCC.

they were active in my area back in the late 30s early 40s. Quite a few features and remains of features still around, mostly in parks.

I helped dad farm with horses on to modern (for the 40s) equipment. Of couse the "help" with horses was mostly to hold the team while he hooked up but me and my brother did a lot of haying with horses even into the 50s.

 

[turnkey4099]

Ok you got me! What is a bunt plug?

Good thing when the crank handle was on the rim of the heavy flywheel. The ones with the crank like car took some real umph. That was probably what generated the pony engine idea.

Ron

Heh. TD6 start on gas and change to diesel, worked by setting a decompression lever and fuel selector. I was using it working summer fallow. One morning I hit the field, set every thing and heaved on the crank. Almost drove my ankles into the dirt. The toggle that operated the decompression valve had come adrift and I was trying to crank it on diesel compression.

 

[turnkey4099]

The old time wobble gas pumps used the glass container as there might be no electricity or meters available.

That and mostly because there weren't any totalizer pumps. Must have been late 30s/early 40s before I saw one of those.

 

[turnkey4099]

Memory fails after 50 plus years so I do not recall if any of those old CAT's had a compression release but the White tractor we used for pulling the low bed did. It had a 220 Cummins. You would pull the release lever and the electric starter would then be able to turn it over. Once it got to spinning then you would push the lever back in and hopefully it would still continue to turn over until it fired.

I used a small modern dozer, can't recall the make now, just a few years ago that started that way. Owner demonstrated how. "hold this switch to 'on', uh, uh, uh" let go. That is just what it sounded like as it cranked. I suspect it also lit a glow plug.

 

[turnkey4099]

Thanks for increasing my trivia base. Ether seemed to popular in my recollection. There were always empty cans laying about. Some engines had a place to screw them in and a push button to charge.

Ron

I had never heard of that system, thought I had seen just about every method possible including shot gun shells.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

May have been a minor part of it but since that was the only delivery system I doubt many worried about being cheated.

Yeah, you're right. I'll never forget putting 14.5 gallons in a tank that the book says only holds something like 13.5...and the tank wasn't completely empty.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Ron,
Grand Dad had a gasser and I was tiny in those days. Were the fires you built under the diesels wood fires or was there an oil or gas appliance made for the job?

No appliances that I know of. Depended on what was available. Wood, coal, diesel oil in a pan. Gasoline did not last long enough and was dangerous getting lit and normally not available easy. It all made a lot of soot. Another clean up job at day's end military protocol at work.

Ron

 

[PILOON]

I recall riding on the horse drawn hay rake as a child. Every so often he'd pull a lever and dump the load.
Later the same horse would be hitched to the hay wagon and all the kids would trample the load down tight.
Later the same horse would be hitched to a rope and a hay clamp would lift the hay into the loft above the cattle barn.
The local farmer had about 6 cows and the wife did all the milking by hand while occasionally giving the barn cat a squirt or two.
They had a hand operated creamer that would separate the cream.
Now that was nice thick cream.
They kept the milk and cream hanging on a cord into the well hole as fridges were not available and ice was costly.
When we came from the city we would bring the old phone books that served a second life in the outhouse and were much appreciated.
In the winter they did not plow the snow but rather rolled it to compact it for the sleds to glide on.

That was at my maternal granpa's neighbors place that we'd visit every so often.
Sweet memories.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I recall riding on the horse drawn hay rake as a child. Every so often he'd pull a lever and dump the load.
Later the same horse would be hitched to the hay wagon and all the kids would trample the load down tight.
Later the same horse would be hitched to a rope and a hay clamp would lift the hay into the loft above the cattle barn.
The local farmer had about 6 cows and the wife did all the milking by hand while occasionally giving the barn cat a squirt or two.
They had a hand operated creamer that would separate the cream.
Now that was nice thick cream.
They kept the milk and cream hanging on a cord into the well hole as fridges were not available and ice was costly.
When we came from the city we would bring the old phone books that served a second life in the outhouse and were much appreciated.
In the winter they did not plow the snow but rather rolled it to compact it for the sleds to glide on.

That was at my maternal granpa's neighbors place that we'd visit every so often.
Sweet memories.

Wow! That sounds so much like life on my Grand dad's farm back in the 40's...except he had electricity, and the old horse drawn hay rake was pulled by a 1935 International tractor with rubber tires.