WD-45 No Spark (Update, 6/13/2020)

Well you may remember the WD-45 I've been working on for my relatives' that had a giant piece of wood in the gas tank, gunk in the carb, and had no spark. Well I've got parts in for the gas tank and the carb gasket, so I need to put that all back together (and maybe do one more cleaning pass on the gas tank first), but today I went and worked on the spark issue.

Looked like new battery cables and stuff in the last 20 years and connections were shiny and I had voltage to the coil. Started out good. Then popped the distributor cap off, and got no spark at the points.



Took me three tries to clean the points. Tried to not go abrasive, but was getting literally nowhere. Finally got some fine emery cloth. Worked at it for a bit. Then went back over it with some card stock. Finally, used my old carpenter pencil to pop the points, AND THERE WAS SPARK!



So at this point, I put everything back together, and wouldn't you know the head popped off my spark plug tester. No problem I said, I'll hold it in the middle of the wire...

Some of you are already cringing or laughing at this point. But yes, I held the wire, pulled the starter, and got some fantastic bright bulb flashes about the same time I felt the jolt hit my hand lol. Live and learn.

So now that we've got spark, just got to get fuel put back in here and top off the fluids and see if she'll fire up! Already went ahead and replaced the old cracked shifter boot while I was in there today.



Also for the curious, I took some pics of that hydraulic reservoir on the right hand side... Seems plumbed in to the main hydraulic system?







Can't figure out what they'd have run off the two remotes in the back that would've been that thirsty, but seemed interesting.

Going to start back in on the carb and the gas tank on Monday probably... And we'll take it from there!

Keep -a- Goin. Jim

That is the most unique WD45 I've ever seen. I appreciate your sharing it with us.

Thanks guys, gonna keep at it and hope I can get her fired up soon. Just get the fuel side sorted and I think we'll be ready to test 'er out. At least she cranks over nice with the 6V battery.

Be nice if I could take a picture of her parked outside one of these days!!

Oh, and here's a pic from the back, you can just see the two hydraulic ports under/behind the seat:



Think the dip stick in the regular hydraulic reservoir is still correct?

I've always wondered what Allis Chalmers was thinking when they put that ignition switch down there! The one we had growing up was the same way.

Something looks different up by the steering wheel on yours. What's going on there--a power steering unit of some sort?

The reservoir is for the loader, those long cylinders take a lot of oil.

(quoted from post at 13:42:49 06/14/20)
I've always wondered what Allis Chalmers was thinking when they put that ignition switch down there! The one we had growing up was the same way.

Something looks different up by the steering wheel on yours. What's going on there--a power steering unit of some sort?

Click to expand...

I am told it is some sort of gear box to assist with steering at the wheel itself, since it has a loader and no power steering on it.

(quoted from post at 14:00:13 06/14/20) The reservoir is for the loader, those long cylinders take a lot of oil.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I figured the loader rams were all controlled by the towers on the loader that hold the oil. Haven't traced down all the jumbo hoses on this thing yet though.