Farmall Cub brings Lanz back to life.

This article has already been published on the farmallcub.com forum and is a spoof newspaper report, but true however!

I am sorry some of the content has already been covered, but............humour me, just this once, please!

CUB in life saving rescue attempt.

“BABY, a Farmall Cub built in 1956, was seen on Wednesday of this week (Sep 2005) in an extraordinary situation coupled with a much bigger tractor in a valiant rescue attempt.” Writes our local mid-Finistère reporter.

The Ailing Tractor, a Blue Lanz Bulldog, having only one cylinder, had been standing idle for between 20 and 23 years, not having turned a piston.

Noëlle, bought the tractor in the hope that life could be brought back to it after so long, told us “It was a long shot, we cleaned all it’s pipework, tank and filters, fortunately, as they were completely blocked with a strange rusty, dusty, musty, muddy, crud. We put new oil in the reservoir. Diesel in the tank and tried the starter.” Said Noëlle, “But to no avail, the starter would not work. There was a clunk as several electric relays tried sternly to turn the motor, but no.” It would seem that the starter motor is in a parlous state and as it is an oscillating Bosch type from the 40/50s it will be difficult to find parts for it.

The Lanz the day we collected it

“Not to be outdone we took the Starter off the tractor to see about a replacement but no, it will take several weeks.” Says Noëlle “Our mission to restart the heart of this tractor is urgent, time is running out, other methods will have to be tried.”

Well as our readers already know, this type of tractor was originally designed to be started by hand, no electric start, in the era when men were MEN and had muscles in their arms and could flip an elephant over just as we now flip a fly!

Off with the side cover to discover the starting disk about 20 inches across with finger indents attached to one of the two fly-wheels. “We couldn’t wait to see if it would turn over” Hands on the starter ring, try to turn, and yes hurrah it turns, but continues to turn with nothing stopping it. “There was no compression!” States NoNo.

Mission Failed! What to do, take the whole tractor to pieces, replece the piston rings, absolutely floored and in deep depression the team retire for a cup of reviving coffee and a croissant. Hey Guys, one of the Farmall CUBS has a belt drive on its PTO, yes it’s Baby. Jean Jacques, a local farmer gave us a flat belt a while ago to power the grain mill, what about it. The poor ailing Lanz also has a belt pulley, it is in fact one of the two fly-wheels.

Baby is called over to sit in front of Lanz whilst the belt is coupled up. Not long enough! The draw-bar had to be taken off the Cub, but in the end our intrepid mechanic managed to couple the two up with a wooden lever system to maintain the tension.

Tension is the right word to use readers, Tension was mounting as to whether Baby would turn such an antediluvian monster with only one lung. Tentatively, the breather plug in Lanz’s cylinder was extracted and the newly restored engine in the Cub raised all it’s strength, strained it’s governor’s spring and opened it’s throttle completely, not wishing to let it’s owner, Pat’, down.

The belt started to turn, the idea being to run the Lanz engine to circulate the oil and ‘run in’ the piston and rings in an attempt to regain the vital compression needed for Life.
The CUB turned manfully and YES, the Lanz started turning too, at first slowly, but as the clutch started to bite more firmly, the belt stayed on it’s domed pulleys, speed mounted till the Cub engine was at a fast tick-over actually running the Lanz engine over splashing oil and gunk from every orifice available.

Cub and Lanz united by the belt.

15 Minutes like this with lots of fine oil being fed into the air intake to help act like an upper cylinder lubricant, the whole shebang was stopped, to see where we were.
A little more, but not enough compression, some wheezing in and out of the air inlet was evident but not enough compression to ignite the diesel oil. It was clear that there is a problem with the automatic air intake flap which is found on top of the horizontal crankcase, a large square plate with a 2.5” hole for the air. Four bolts later and the flapper was exposed. What was to be found readers?

Part 2

In our mid-Finistère reporter’s first part in the nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat, life-saving attempt of a little courageous red CUB valiantly turning the engine of an almost dead Blue LANZ, our readers will remember that we got as far as the Cub turning the Lanz to help improve the compression, and that the flapper valve was exposed to the light of day after 20 years of obscurity. The story continues….

Noëlle and Pat, our intrepid surgeons, took this large round valve about 5” across based on a cast iron square base to pieces. “Rust had set in” said Pat with tears in his eyes, “But we can save it.” Yes the hardened steel plate that forms the flap valve, is in fact a doughnut shaped disk 1mm thick, held in place by very fine steel springs and an aluminium web onto the base. They opened the unit up, carefully with hands of a surgeon displacing the fine springs to release the disk. Noëlle heart thumping was the first to spot that the disk was badly corroded along with its cast mating seat. They set about careful scraping, sanding and finally with a very fine wet and dry they dressed the two surfaces; fingers were crossed and with hearts in their mouth; the whole heavy concoction was replaced onto the cleaned orifice on the top of the tractor crankcase casting. “Fortunately” states Noëlle “during the operations undertaken during this summer on the very cub tractor that is now helping us in the present intervention, we bought a sheet of gasket material 0.8 mm thick to establish seals throughout the Cub’s system. We kept some in a clean almost sterile location so we were able to cut a new gasket from the fortuitous saving.”

You’re waiting I can tell, did this work change the gravity of the situation? Pat was heard to state “Yes there was more compression, unfortunately not enough to put life back into an ailing engine.

The Cub will have to be put back into service.” BABY the Cub that was waiting still coupled up from a couple of days ago, tried again. This time it was the whole hog, not a light engine with decompression on but with all plugs back in place, more strain for Baby, but needs must when there is an emergency in the air.

Surely the little tractor is up to such a task? The clutch strained, the cubic inches expanded to their full capacity and the whole body vibrated with the effort. The Lanz engine slowly turned, as it came up on its new-found compression, over it went but then the metal joiner on the flat belt came up onto the Cub pulley and it slipped dragging the belt off the pulley and away went the Cub Engine. Pat at the controls was able to restrain the speeding engine, bringing it back to normal revs. Between them they got the belt back on, repeated the process several times increased tension, belt-grip-spray and everything came into the right orbit at the right time. Phlunk, Phlunk, Phlunk, Lanz turns on its meagre compression. Faster and faster the engine turned over until it was at about 300 RPM, lots of oil, attention and prayers. Cub just purred along so proud to be helping. Coupled together they ran for 30 Minutes this time, non-stop, Baby powering his bigger brother’s heart. Off with the belt.

Noëlle had decided it was now time for drastic action, she got out the gas bottle and the number 5 blow torch with the 2 inch head. She opened the Hot-Bulb chamber top and bottom that is found on the side of the cylinder head, inserted torch that happened to be the exact right size, and gas on, lighter, whoosh. 10 Minutes later Noëlle sees the bulb glowing red, so Pat girds his loins, Fuel on, a couple of cranks on the injector pump primer till the resistance of diesel is felt on the injector. He grasped the starter ring attached to the flywheel with both hands, hope high in his heart. He turns it one way then the other onto both compressions, lots of diesel smoke from the exhaust port, (the tall exhaust and silencer was off to ascertain the condition of the rings that appear in view through the exhaust port). Hot metal and old oil smells linked with diesel, and bonk, one compression gently fires and bounces the piston back over onto the other.

Increase the throttle a little and try again, a bigger bonk and more reciprocating compressions. Many tries at this setting but it did not have enough of its newfound power to get over the back compression.

What does one do? Cup of tea? A beer? A Whisky? A bottle of whiskey? No the Cub has put its full power behind the attempt, why not Pat? Soooo, full throttle, bigger bonks, sparks from the exhaust, stronger oscillation, over the back compression but not the other, the correct one. A moments rest, salve the sores on his hand, a good wipe round, it is now getting late, 4.30 on the third day of this delicate life saving operation. “Back to it, you can’t give up now” says Noëlle. She noticed that the foot throttle has a bit more movement than the hand throttle so a lump of wood was gently inserted onto it to overcome the spring forces. Reheat the hot-bulb to cherry and the starting disk is grasped again. The engine fires, bonk, turns for about 10 revs-----in the wrong direction, backwards! Not to be outdone, and as Baden Powel would have it, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” Bang! off it goes, 20 turns in the ---right direction!!!!! After another half hour of trying, coaxing and adjusting, the engine starts to run well, the radiator full of water but slightly leaking, heats up and the engine goes for about an hour, stopping and restarting without too much difficulty.

Noëlle & Lanz the first time it ran and moved.

It even moves from one side of the road to the other with a very crisp exhaust note, but the clutch is difficult to disengage. A complicated affair with no disk but lots of cranks and Vee shaped blocks engaging in a mating Vee slot in one fly-wheel, but that, as they say, “is another story” LANZ breaths new life, thanks to CUB. “Where would we be without our Cubs and Jean Jaque’s belt, even the massively constructed German machine needs the delicate touch of a Cub?” States one half of the contented rescue team to the other!

Lanz 5506 as is today, 2 years later