Well, Sally's running ........

I got the SA 200 running today. I was lucky enough to get the distributor right the first time I dropped it in, as it is either right or 180 out. New plugs and points and everything. Tried to fire it and it wouldn't. Checked spark by taking out plug and holding it to the head. Got too close to the contact with my fingers, and got zapped good. It had spark.

Mounted the cartridge oil filter back on, installed new roll of toilet paper filter, put in 1/3 qt. Marvel Mystery Oil and new 30 wt oil. All new lines. Put on new gas line and filters.

I figured I'd be lucky if the carb would run without rebuilding from the looks of everything else. I was right. Took it apart, and full of gook and sand. Disassembled, made new gaskets, cleaned in Simple green solution, ran pipe cleaners through, and blew out ports with compressed air, reassembled, and after a couple of primings, it took off and stayed running. That updraft carb was pretty simple, although I may not have it exactly right yet, it was nice to take something totally alien apart and make it work.

I will hook the leads up tomorrow and see if it welds. They are a teal color, and I cleaned them today with Simple Green soaking, and they look great. Something's not quite right as it runs at high idle all the time, and has to have the choke on to run. I'll play with it a bit, and make sure it welds, and if I can't figure it out, I'll find a good mechanic familiar with Lincolns or take it to a Lincoln service center. It's probably something simple.

But it does run, and it sounds good and doesn't smoke. Tomorrow's another day. Some work to be done on the trailer, as the weldor who owned this wasn't much of a weldor. I'll post pics on Flickr. Just going to clean it up, get it running right, paint it Lincoln grey with red trim to match my truck, and put it to work.

It was kind of deja vu all over again. As a teenager in the sixties, I cut my teeth on 55-57 Chevies. It was nice working with something with points again, and simple components. And it was nice to see I can still take a basket case and figure it out. It was sure sweet when it fired and ran.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB
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Just couldn't stand it. SWMBO was late with dinner because of a home remodeling show on TV, so I went out and put the leads on and fired it up. Ran four 7018 rods, and it runs great. Used the plug for the Makita stringer brush to clean them up. Ran them at slightly different settings, and had one that just curled up and popped right off by itself. I love those.

Running rods at night has an unusual aspect. The inside lower part of my NexGen lens is white, and gives quite a reflection and distraction.

I'll get the engine hiccups solved, but the powerplant is okay. It's so nice when a plan comes together.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Congratulations. Sounds very fun. Awesome machine for a song. Great fixing. I went through almost exactly the same story with a Cummins L423D diesel engine. (if you google for L423D, the first six entries are about my engine)

i
Reply to
Ignoramus547

If it only runs with the choke on you probably need to clean the carb again and maybe reset the float level.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct email address for reply)

Reply to
Bruce in Bangkok

You have some trash left in the carb somewhere, having to leave the choke on is a common problem on these carbs. A passage becomes blocked and you need to increase the vacuum to get enough fuel. This happens to my Continental powered fork lift sometimes.

Take great care in removing and replacing the orifices, this is pretty much the whole ball game with carbs, but it needs to be done. Make sure your screwdrivers fit correctly. If you round the edges of a stuck orifice and can no longer remove it, you can just about toss the carb. Also take care not to over tighen them when you replace them, they will need to come out again some day. I use "Brake Clean" spray or "Carb and Choke" spray to blown out the passages, followed by compressed air, unless you have something better.

NAPA has a gasket set for the carb, and a high quality fuel filter is good insurance for the future.

Does the throttle linkage have a spring and vacuum chamber attached to it?

Reply to
Maxwell

afternoon and ran some pipe

If the thing only runs with the choke on then you aren't getting enough gas through the carburetor. I'd first make sure that it was clean. You probably have some jets clogged somewhere. The one that takes the big screwdriver is probably the main jet. Get it out and be sure that the holes from the jet into the throat of the carb is clear. Carbonator Cleaner is your friend.

I've seen two types of welders. We had some old Lincolns with the Perkins engine that always ran at the same speed. Then others have a sort of a relay that speed the engine up when you start to weld and idle back when you aren't welding.

If I didn't have any specs I'd set the float level so when you turn the carb top bottom side up the floats are parallel with the cover.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct email address for reply)

Reply to
Bruce in Bangkok

Blue box?? Does it have a removable inspeciton cover? Doesn't sound like a vaccum controlled model to me. I'm no sure when they changed.

I really don't know, but you shouldn't need one. They are really simple. It's just the kind of job you need to handle with great care. Especially when removing, replacing and cleaning the orifices. You can usually check the orifices by holding them up to a light. Make sure you can "sight" through them.

Reply to
Maxwell

Higher or lower? I pulled it again this afternoon and ran some pipe cleaners through again and blew some more air through, and it was better. There are still a couple of small brass orifices I could not get out. And one that takes a very big screwdriver that I cannot find, but will look for. I tend to think it's something else, because when you put it on automatic idle, it doesn't drop down when you cease welding. Even though it would probably die if it did attempt to idle at a lower speed. Like I said, I'll get it figured out or fix it. I'll pull it again today and repeat. Hell, I can pull it off in five minutes now and be looking at the float chamber.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

As others said, if you need to run with partial choke, you have crud in the jets or a low float setting. These carbs are not too fussy on the float setting. Just set it to level when the carb is installed.

If it really had a lot of crud, I'd just do a second cleaning. And that means cleaning out the main jet with the huge screwriver slot. And as others mentioned, MAKE SURE YOU DON'T BUGGER THE SLOT!!! That often means setting the carb down on the open jaws of the vice (protected with a cloth), have your buddy hold it in place (don't even think about closing the vice on that pot metal!), and getting a good position to loosen the offending brass jet. You only get one try, do it right.

Reply to
RoyJ

It's really common on old gas-powered welders that the weld idle bit fails. It's entirely possible that you can get the gas engine running great and the welder welding great but that one part where when you stop welding, the idle kicks down or when you start welding, it kicks up, may be broken.

It also may be really expensive to fix. Hopefully you can still get parts on an SA-200 weld idle control.

Grant

Reply to
Grant Erwin

There's two arms that run forward, one, I believe to the governor, the other to a blue box which is mounted in the upper position. Both located in the fan shroud area.

How much would you guess a carb is for these?

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

They looked to be a little downward from that position when I originally looked at it, so I bent them more up parallel. I'm going to find that big screwdriver today and pull that main jet. I think that sounds like the most logical so far. But I will get some carb cleaner and probe with pipe cleaners and blow with air again. These things can be messed up with the tiniest bit of crud, and this had a LOT.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

I forgot to mention: if the thing runs somewhat OK, mix a special batch of fuel: couple gallons of fresh gas and a can of SeaFoam, just run the gas through and keep tweaking the choke as it cleans out. You can use some of the other carb cleaners, SeaFoam seems to work better on older engines with dried up crud from storage.

Reply to
RoyJ

ayup. Thats what I used in Moby Dick Worked very well.

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner

Check the resistance between those two wires. Should be something like five ohms. Check for continuity between each wire and ground. Shouldn't be any. Then apply 12 volts and see if the plunger actuates. If so, there's nothing wrong with your weld idle solenoid.

Grant

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Pulled it off today. It has two wires to it, and a sliding plunger. When activated by electricity, it holds the idle at fast idle.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Thats called a solenoid.

If the solenoid is being energized all the time, either the fast/slow switch is bad, or the arc/load sensor is bad.

My Ranger 9 has a similar issue. It doesn't recognize that I'm striking an arc, so wont speed up. I can do this manually with the fast/slow switch on the front. So I know the solenoid is ok. So either Ive a wiring issue, or the load sensor board is DOA...please Crom..let it not be that....

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner

You need to move to a place with REAL shops. I have my choice of several shops that can do a full radiator tear down, replace or plug cores as required, resemble, clean, test, repaint. Last one I had done was $60 or so a couple years back.

Reply to
RoyJ

"Grant Erwin" wrote

Did that, and it tested okay. Then I got the hole punched in the radiator and everything stopped. I think it's in the circuit board. I'll take the radiator to Vegas Wednesday and have it repaired, and after that, use the machine without the auto idle feature, and just clean up and paint. After that, I'll take it to Vegas, or find a local shop that can fix the Lincoln electronics on it. Right now, I'm dead in the water, so I'm working on home remodel stuff for a few days.

As an aside, I called local radiator shops, and no one in town does rod and core jobs on radiators. None have a dip tank. They say it's cheaper just to buy a new one. I don't know about this old machine, and finding a radiator, so I'll try my guy first. If it can be fixed, he'll fix it. He can take the tops off and splice in a new core section, and all sorts of marvelous tricks. But the bottom pan has mounting bolts that have to stay where they are to mount it back up.

Drat.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

My wife and I have 100 years between us living in Las Vegas. It is over a million now and a zoo. We now live in a town of 1400 at the end of a dirt road. We call it Green Acres after the TV show, because that is what it is like around here. We go to the "big city" of St. George once in a while, or to the next town to go to Ace or the market.

I'll gladly trade the inconvenience of not having access to some conveniences for the peace and quiet I live in now. We go to Las Vegas at least once a month for business, and if there's anything we "really" need, it will wait a month.

When you move to a small town, you have to adjust your internal speedometer, as life moves slower.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

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