For those of you new to the mechanical and chemical side of anything with an engine - orange is bad, lumps are worse. Orange means there is rust in your fluid. The darker the orange the worse it is. If you hit brown you need to look at options.
Lumps are groupings of rust. These form when your fluid has been sitting and the rust settles into a nice low place, say the hole in the bottom of the tank where your fuel line begins transporting fuel to the engine. Lumps are capable of plugging up things like carburetors and fuel injectors which have small openings to meter out the fuel going into the engine. Picture a hairball in your bathroom sink. Equally gross and annoying. Both stop things from flowing.
I removed the carburetor from the tractor and brought it home to work on it this winter. I have no real experience with carbs so I have begun my research. Even better, I have experts to guide me through it. My friends at antiquetractorsforum are always eager with advice, experience, pictures, diagrams and videos. Locally I have found my ace-in-the-hole, Dick Engler. No, not acehole. Brian and I take turns at being the acehole. Dick and his neighbors south of Lafayette do a lot of nice restorations. (At least from the pictures I have seen. I'll need to attend one of their shows to be sure ;)). When I told him what I was working on Dick was able to explain in detail the problems and quirks I would run into and how to handle them.
Cleaning up the carb and putting new gaskets and o-rings will make the tractor run smoother and stronger but the real key will be preventing it from happening again. Virgil, my father-in-law, has used a product that rust-proofs fuel tanks. Performing that process on the A will not be an easy task. I'll go into detail on another post.
Before this turns into a full on ramble I will say: End Chapter.
