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NealinCA · 03-13-2013, 06:58 PM

I just fired up a flathead that had been sitting about 15 years, so I will share my experience.

I first had to drop the starter, as the bendix was stuck. Once that was freed, I pulled the plugs, put MMO in the cylinders. I used a wrench on the crankshaft bolt to turn the enging over . After spinning it over a few times, I did so with the starter and did a compression check. The two front cylinders were dead, so I pulled the intake and freed up two stuck intake valves. Next was to check for spark. It ended up that there was a short in the distributor (wire from points to coil had a bare spot). We swapped out distributors and got fire at the plugs. We dumped some fuel down the carb and got it to fire, but the accelerator pump had dried up, so it would not keep running. I pulled the carb top and replaced the acc pump. After that, it fired up and ran OK. After messing with a few loose plug wires, we got it to run very well. After it had run a while, we checked compression again and had 110-130 in all eight holes. It was a good feeling to end up with a good running engine after a long days work.

Neal

03-13-2013, 06:58 PM	#2
NealinCA Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Central Coast, Calif. Posts: 839	Re: Start engine after 20 years sitting I just fired up a flathead that had been sitting about 15 years, so I will share my experience. I first had to drop the starter, as the bendix was stuck. Once that was freed, I pulled the plugs, put MMO in the cylinders. I used a wrench on the crankshaft bolt to turn the enging over . After spinning it over a few times, I did so with the starter and did a compression check. The two front cylinders were dead, so I pulled the intake and freed up two stuck intake valves. Next was to check for spark. It ended up that there was a short in the distributor (wire from points to coil had a bare spot). We swapped out distributors and got fire at the plugs. We dumped some fuel down the carb and got it to fire, but the accelerator pump had dried up, so it would not keep running. I pulled the carb top and replaced the acc pump. After that, it fired up and ran OK. After messing with a few loose plug wires, we got it to run very well. After it had run a while, we checked compression again and had 110-130 in all eight holes. It was a good feeling to end up with a good running engine after a long days work. Neal