My TEA-20 has given up the ghost, methinks. Since I bought her, 2 years ago, she's only run strong on 3 cylinders, blown oil smoke out of the breather cap by the sky-full (but no smoke from the exhaust), leaked like a sieve from the rear main seal, rods & valves are playing some Caribbean bongo beat only jazz players can keep time to, and has she no brakes. The front spindles are shot and the block is cracked(leaks antifreeze from the side but not into the oil).Well, I made a diaper out of a milk carton so the oil wouldn't leak everywhere (1 qt/hour). I replaced her Lucas starter (US$367), water pump, converted to 12v neg. grd., electronic ignition, new bearings and seals on rear axles to curb the oil bath on the brakes shoes I had custom made. (still no brakes, oil everywhere) I have used her like a mule. I can stop better than most people with brakes because I use the clutch and whatever gear is going in the opposite direction that I can jam it into! Sometimes I use the back blade, sometimes I use the front loader. She's never overheated or run low on oil. Great oil pressure when cold to warm. She has a two-stage transmission but only had power to run in the low range in 1st or 2nd. (I live on a mountain and she's heavy with liquid filled tires and loader and blade) I used the front loader and back blade in October to dig out and clear a space for my neighbor's new garage and parking area. And limped up our mountain to home on very, very low power. Oil pressure was at less than 10psi. I barely made it to her space at what seemed like 2 cylinders firing and plenty of blow-by, cough, cough. Now I can't start her. I can get one cylinder to fire but it's not enough to actually start the engine and run on its own power when I quit the starter. I give you all this background because I would like to get her running again as I've bought a TO-30 and want to use the 20 for the awful jobs she's used to, like lifting and moving 1 ton rocks on my property. I don't mind lots of suggestions or even simple sounding fixes. If I don't have to rebuild the engine right now I really don't want to. That's for summer of '05.
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