I 
160 
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C Worth of Fuel 
in a Sturdy 
McCormick'Deering 
Engine 
Will Do Any of These Jobs 
Separate 4000 pounds of milk 
Pump 3000 gallons of water 
Shell 25 bushels of corn 
Grind 6 bushels of feed 
Cut 1 ton of ensilage 
Press 15 gallons of cider 
Grind 2 bushels of corn meal 
Saw 1 cord of wood 
Churn 200 pounds of butter 
Bale y 2 ton of hay 
Clean 30 bushels of seed wheat 
Grind 25 gallons of cane juice 
Light up the farm for 2 hours 
Do a family’s weekly washing 
Grind the mower knives for a season 
% 
A Tireless Hired Man 
Removable 
Cylinder 
Sleeves 
Enclosed 
Crank 
Case 
iy 2 , 3, 6, 10 h. p. 
International Harvester Company 
of America 
[ Incorporated] 
93 Branch Houses in the U. S.; the following in American Agriculturist territory Albany, 
Auburn, Boston, Buffalo, Elmira, Harrisburg, Ogdensburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburg. 
606 So. Michigan Ave. 
Chicago, Illinois 
kiiill 
uniiinyiiiii 
Post Your 
Farm 
and 
Keep Trespassers Off 
We have had a new supply 
of trespass signs made up. 
This time they are made of 
extra heavy linen on which the 
lettering is printed directly. 
There is no card facing to be 
water-soaked by the rain and 
blown away by the wind. We 
have had these new signs made 
up of extra heavy material be¬ 
cause severe storms will tear 
and otherwise make useless a 
lighter constructed material. 
We unreservedly advise farm¬ 
ers to post their land and 
the notices we have prepared 
comply in all respects with the 
law. The price to subscribers is 
95 cents a dozen, the same rate 
applying to larger quantities. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
461 4th Ave., New York City 
ALLIGATOR 
TRADE MARK R*a.U.*.**AX.OrrtCE 
STEEL BELT LACING 
P OINT by point the best belt lacing 
for the farmer: Quick and easy to put 
on; gives long service on farm engine, 
tractor and all belts; clinches down 
smooth and flat; protects belt ends. To 
take apart, just push out hinge pin. 
At your dealer’s in “Handy 
Packages” or standard boxes 
Flexible Steel Lacing Company 
4666 Lexington St. Chicago, 111. 
Saws Logs —Falls Trees— 
Buzzes Branches 
-Does Belt Work 
10-rtarGuir. 
' TRT Xante, — Caak 
_ SO ' larEaayTarma. 
'One ManA!3 
1 Saws 1 5 Cords a Day! 
—Easy with the OTTAWA Log Sawl Wood 
selling for $3 a cord brings owner $45 a day. Use 
4 H. P. Engine for other work. Wheel mounted— 
easy to move. Saws faster than 10 men. Shipped 
from f actory or nearest of 10 Branch houses. W rite 
for FREE Book—‘‘Wood Encyclopedia”—today. 
OTTAWA MANUFACTURING CO. 
Room 801-T Magee Bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
American Agriculturist, September 6, 1924 
“Timing” Gas Engines 
It Calls for Head Work, Not a Hammer 
T HERE seems to be 
a popular belief 
that there is something mysterious about 
gas engines, but in reality they are 
extremely simple. The reason some peo¬ 
ple never get to understand them is that 
they never take the trouble to learn them. 
They will crank until they ate black in the 
face when anyone should know that if the 
engine is right it will go. If it won't go it 
is not right, and cranking will not make 
it right. If one of my engines fails to kick 
the third time over I lay off from cranking 
and start looking for trouble. Of course 
in very cold weather it may take a little 
longer to arouse interest in the engine 
than when everything is warm, but the 
best way to warm a cold engine is to put 
a lot of boiling water into the radiator, 
rather than to try to furnish the heat by 
means of friction generated by cranking, 
plus the heated words that frequently 
flow on such occasions. 
Three Seats of Trouble 
There are only three things that ever 
get out of order on such an engine, mix¬ 
ture, compression and spark. If there is 
good compression, which may easily be 
determined by turning over the machine, 
it must be either in the mixture or the 
spark. Sometimes one floods an engine, 
but if the spark is right one nearly always 
gets one or two kicks before this takes 
place. In the ordinary farm engine there 
is seldom any other trouble with the mix¬ 
ture, for there is nothing complicated to 
get out of order. About the only other 
trouble is dirt or water in the gas or 
kerosene or lack of gas. 
I would say from my experience that 
probably 95 per cent, of all the trouble 
encountered is in the spark. There are 
several different sorts of ignition de¬ 
vices used. With batteries sometimes 
connections break or a cell will go dead. 
One can test this in no time by removing 
one terminal wire from the “make and 
break” igniter and scratching it across 
the post to which it is supposed to be 
connected with the points first held to¬ 
gether and then when they are apart. If 
there is a spark with the points together 
and none when they are apart, the bat¬ 
teries are all right and the points are 
clean". Also the insulation on the fixed 
electrode is all right. This simple test 
is all that is required to test these 
points out. 
W ith most of the engines sold nowa¬ 
days, one has the option of a magneto at 
slightly additional cost. This seldom gets 
out of order, though one may get dirty and 
need cleaning after several years’ use. 
The high tension magneto with the spark 
plug and the oscillating type magnetos 
are less likely to get out of time than the 
ordinary low tension type. All, however, 
should give the spark at a certain time in 
the cycle, and they may get out of time. 
The expression “timing an engine” 
seems to be Greek 
to some people. In 
reality it is one of 
the simplest things 
in the world. The 
engine makes two 
revolutions for 
every explosion 
unless it is of the 
hit and miss type, 
and this type does 
when running at 
capacity. Starting 
with the explosion, 
the piston travels 
out, turning the 
crank and wheels 
as it goes. When 
it gets rather more 
than three quarters 
of the way to the 
end of the stroke, 
the exhaust valve 
opens and stays 
open until just 
after the piston 
gets clear back to 
the other end of the 
stroke. One can sim¬ 
ply turn the engine over and watch 
when the push rod starts to open the 
valve and when it releases again and 
see whether it is in time or not. Then 
the pison starts out again, with the 
exhaust valve again closed but with the 
intake valve open. On most small engines 
this opens automatically against a spring. 
The engine is now “sucking” in the 
charge. At the end of this stroke the 
piston travels back again with both 
valves closed, and compresses the charge. 
Just before the piston reaches the exact 
end of the stroke, the spark should occur, 
and" the whole thing starts over. 
Problem to Get Three Together 
The spark is the place where there is the 
most trouble about getting out of time. 
With the ordinary type of magneto, there 
are three things that must be synchro¬ 
nized if the explosion is to take place. In 
the first place, the engine must be on com¬ 
pression. Then the igniter points must he 
pushed together an instant and then 
snapped apart, and at the same time the 
magneto must be itself in time. It would 
be a little too complicated to explain here 
just why the magneto only delivers a good 
spark at a certain time in its revolution, 
but it suffices to state that this is the case. 
Every magneto has on it a timing mark, 
and when the movable mark is passing the 
stationary mark, the magneto delivers its 
spark. To find this mark, look up the 
directions given by the manufacturer or 
get the agent to show you. To tell 
whether the machine is in time or not, 
turn it over slowly until the igniter snaps 
off, and then leave it right there. Look 
to see the position of the crank. This 
should be not quite to the inner dead 
center, in other words, the piston should not 
have quite reached the end of its stroke. 
Then look at the magneto. The timing 
marks should be opposite each other. 
Save Your Temper 
If either of these things are off much, 
there will be no spark. If the engine is 
firing late, that is after the dead center, it 
will fire all right but will lack power and 
will heat up. If the igniters do not snap 
when the timing marks are opposite, 
there will be little or no spark and you can 
crank till doomsday with absolutely no 
result except to your temper. If the 
timing is wrong, it is more likely to be the 
igniter than the “mag” unless you have 
taken the “mag” off. To correct this, 
there is on most engines an adjustment on 
the igniter trip which may be moved back 
or forward enough to make the correction. 
The best thing to do is to look the en¬ 
gine over CAREFULLY when it is all 
right, observing just what the positions 
of these things are when the different stages 
are reached. Then you will know what is 
the matter when something is wrong. In 
conclusion I exh ort 
you to use your 
head instead of a 
hammer and cold 
chisel. It will get 
you farther and 
is easier on the 
engine. 
* * * 
Watch the Oil 
Feed 
Oil is cheaper 
than machinery. 
Excess of oil is 
also bad. Too much 
oil on a magneto 
may cause it to be¬ 
come dirty and fail 
to give a spark. An 
excess quantity of 
oil in the cylinder 
may form carbon 
and foul the spark 
plugs. Too much 
oil keeps the engine 
generally oily and 
dirty. 
By A. H. DE GRAFF 
