1942 Oliver 60 Standard - Installing an Air Cleaner

Here's another job on the old 60 Std, installing the oil bath air cleaner I removed from the parts 60. This should have taken a fraction of the time it took to do, but this time it isn't the factory's fault (the other "long" job was putting on the radiator and nose shell (link here)). This 15-minute job took three hours. The reason this time is because the carburetor is not correct for the engine. The carb is close to being correct but the real issue is that the lever for the throttle plate is on the wrong side of the carburetor (it's on the side of the carb facing out and is supposed to be on the side of the carb facing the engine). A previous owner had jury-rigged a piece of all-thread as linkage from the governor lever to the throttle lever. The setup looks very much kludged together but it works well. The problem is, the left part of the all-thread is taking up real estate that the air cleaner needs to occupy.

I took maybe an hour to re-bend/fit/re-bend/fit the all-thread so it would tuck in behind the air cleaner (there is very little room) and also reach the throttle lever. It was a challenge but the below photo is the end result.

One minor problem, the total length of the rod was too short by maybe an inch and the governor/throttle lever interaction didn't go well. When I did a test run of the engine, it was either at slow idle or revving halfway to the moon. Time to reshape the all-thread yet again. I had to use a propane torch to get the all-thread red hot so it didn't just bend and break, as these things are prone to do on a regular basis. I was able to get an additional one inch of length by making gentler bends in the all-thread. The below photo is of the final product. Now the engine RPM control is back to its normal fine self. I reused the rubber hose between the air cleaner and carb from the parts tractor. It was rock hard so it was most difficult to get it in place.

Finally, an Oliver air cleaner! Things are ever so slowly taking shape.

A final note, I did take the original throttle linkage off the parts tractor but since the throttle lever is on the wrong side of the carb (same as on the parts tractor), I decided to just reuse the all-thread, as I didn't want to bend the original piece all out of whack to get it to work here. If I ever get the right carburetor for this tractor, I will have the right linkage to go with it.