The challenges of old Iron

Aka... Blood, sweat, bandages and a bent carb.

My good friend "D", stalwart accomplice in many of my rust retrieval efforts tries to revive my latest haul a few weeks ago, in the junkyard I found it in.

My need for a running loader tractor drove me to hunt down a running machine. We found the Super C, (we being another regular character and myself ) resting and rusting in the "Good junk" area of our local ag salvage operation. After they proved to me it ran, (It did run) I made the trip to ag credit and begged a loan, conned Uncle Ted into helping me and off we went.

Farmall #3 came home.

All that was well and good, and one cold March weekend I became the proud owner of a mid 1950's International Farmall Super C. I drove it off the trailer, around the barn once and into it's slot in the barn. Then we started trying to patch it up. All antique tractors pose challenges, this one needed a rim replaced, which involved me and Dad manhandleing 500lbs of loaded wheel assembly off the tractor and onto my trailer.

To be honest, it needed/needs a load more than that, I've been chasing gremlins right and left on what was supposed to be an "Easy" project, cables were frayed, plug wires were botched, sparkplugs were mismatched, all the fun little projects of it's previous owners had to be undone.

Today was the 14th project day dedicated to trying to fix the Super C's Carburetor. Now, generally I have a talent for carburetors, rarely to I have to fiddle with one more than a few minutes to make it act like I want. This miserable Carter, this horrid abomination has proven my undoing. After my standard, full cleaning, polish and new paint. a parts kit and new packing procured at murderous expense from IH ($60+ in parts), and a few hours work I thought I had succeeded, until, that is,. we bolted it back up. My customary farmall carb rebuilds always fire on the first turn, no...it just started pouring gas all over the barn floor. Several times now I've had it apart, including seven attempts just today.

Finally I have come to the conclusion that the carb itsself, is warped. I believe the float is stuck in either the up, or down position depending on how I have it assembled.

Anticlimaticly, I failed to fix the problem, and I'm off to the junkyard to find a Zenith.