LEARNING THE HARD WAY

Learning how to operate and maintain farm equipment was usually done by the trial and error method.    Very seldom did anybody read an operator's manual or even know where they were at.  Looking back I never remember seeing one.

Many of the tractors made before 1940 did not have electric starters, some required cranking the engine or turning a flywheel to get the engine running.    Most of the Caterpillar crawlers had gas-starting engines to preheat and start the bigger diesel engines.  International Harvester (IH) came out with a diesel engine that started on gasoline and after a few minutes, you could switch it to diesel.   Most of the equipment my dad had was old and used until 1963 when he bought a new IH crawler.   That winter he sent me out to a field where it had been sitting for some time to move it to another field   As I started the engine it sputtered, started for a few seconds then made a clunking sound and quit.   At the time I did not know the water in it had frozen at some point cracking the head causing water to fill one of the cylinders.   When I started the engine on the gas the piston in the filled cylinder compressed against the water bending the rod to the crankshaft.   Once it started the rod broke causing serious damage to the engine.   I was told later that the spark plug for that cylinder should have been removed to allow the water to be pushed out.   How was I to know and who was responsible for not checking for antifreeze in the radiator?

Eventually, it ended up in our shop where we proceeded to take the engine apart.   There were parts all over the place when the IH dealer came to repossess it due to no monthly payments made for the last few months.   They took it all including the nuts and bolts scattered all over the shop floor.   Sure was a good way to clean up the place.