Before I knew it I was surrounded by Berlin, Ron T, Tim Ezell, and General Jim and Billy Ray (if I missed any one please forgive my CRS). They all wanted to see what this ugly Cub would offer. The carb was a mess so I swapped that out. The points were a bit glazed, but Berlin took care of that. Tim checked the plug wires as well as some cut ignition wires. Billy Ray, myself and Berlin did a quick compression test. A dry test showed #1 @ 125, #2 @ 120, #3 @ 105 (BR forgot to tighten the tester
) and #4 @ 100. At that point I decided to pass on a wet test. The plugs needed some attention so we put a new set in.Once we had it timed and together we tried to start it. No luck with that so we decided to pull it. But first we had to repair the front tie rods and steering. One steering arm was bent so with a little heat and gentle nudging we had that back in shape (well close enough for what was needed at the time). We then had to get one of the spindles loose to get it to turn. A little heat from Ron and brass hammer swinging from the tandem team of Cecil and myself and we had the spindle knocked down to were we could get it lube just enough to where we could get it to somewhat steer. By then it was time to give it a rest until morning.
Friday morning we hooked it up to a pull Cub driven by Doug Miller (1541). We pulled it around the yard and it would pop and sputter. Figuring out it may be 180 out of time we swapped 1 and 4 and 2 and 3 wires. It wouldn't do anything so we switched the wires back and pulled some more. Still nothing other than a pop here and there. Berlin and Ron decided we should head for the shop and give everything another look. Once inside we pulled number 1 plug to get top dead center again. While doing so we also found #2 and #4 wires reversed. It was something that was missed from the night before. Once those wires were back in place we hit the starter and it fired right up from the battery. Tim had lubed the throttle at the governor the day before, so it worked pretty good to see how it idled. A little carb tweaking by Berlin and she was idling just as sweet as could be.
The clutch is out of it, but I was able to start it in gear to drive it to the trailer. I never heard any growling or whining at the time so hopefully all is well there.
A big thanks to all involved. Ideas and thoughts from each of you made this a fun project. It shows that a CubFest is a great place to meet great people. It shows that no matter what a lonely Cub may look like, there is always the chance it is that diamond in a rough and not just a pig in a poke.
