[SEL] O.T. Test now question about touch paper

Tue Aug 11 08:00:42 PDT 2009

I had a series 2 in the early 70's. It was already out of date as a
workhorse but I used it on the farm for a number of years before we sold the
farm there and moved to another area. It was a great tractor with a bit of
character.It would pull a 12 disc plow at a pinch. Would run for days and
nights on end running a belt driven pump of the pulley. I normally started
it with the crank handle and on a cold morning it was both me and my brother
on it. If it was frosty it was to much for two strong young blokes and we
used a cartridge.I remember having to sometimes give the left hand
pully/flywheel a belt with a bit of timber to unstick the cone clutch. If it
got bogged do the same as a Lanz and shut it down before it vibrated its way
deep into the mud.Starting it with the cartridge was whoa to go in a split
second but the crank and conrod was a serious bit of iron. I think they were
built to take that sort of strain.The only mechanical maintenance I did was
get the solid bronze big end cap machined to stop it knocking.It used a bit
of oil because of the ball valve under the crankcase was worn and let a bit
of oil through.  I remember I paid $250 and sold it for the same. It ended
its life on a pump near Kyabram.
Ray Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of Best, George
Sent: Tuesday, 11 August 2009 9:54 PM
To: The SEL email discussion list
Subject: Re: [SEL] O.T. Test now question about touch paper

Just curious, how many people on this list actually have or had a Field
Marshall?

I've owned a Series II Field Marshall since some time in the mid 90's.

I would agree that "power starting" (using a cartridge) rather than hand
cranking would put more strain on the engine.  After all, when hand cranking
you've already built up some inertia and have the flywheel turning when it
first fires.  Using the starting shell, the engine is setting still with the
flywheel in the starting position which is just past TDC.  It has got to be
harder on the engine having an explosion in the cylinder while the piston is
stopped.

Now does it hurt the engine?  I don't think so.  In all the years I've had
mine I've never hand cranked it.  I've always used a starting shell.

As for carbon deposits and strain, I think that can vary on how your
starting shells are loaded.  When I got mine, I talked to the collectors in
Washington and BC that already had been showing FM tractors for years and
got a reloading formula from them.  It has worked well for me all these
years and a friend of mine with a Series III FM, just commented this past
month to me that it has been working well for him for years.

Here's a bit of FM trivia most of you may not be aware of.

The engine on the FM Series III turns in the opposite direction than the
earlier FM tractors.  My engine runs counter clockwise looking at the
flywheel, while the Series III runs clockwise.  I read this change was made
to help reduce the amount of bounce by having the power stroke on the
downside of the crank.

George

-----Original Message-----

Bob W7AVK wrote:
>  This method, however, deposits carbon which often causes 
> jamming of the decompression valve if cartridges are regularly used. It 
> also puts significantly more strain on the moving parts of the engine.

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