Forklift Rebuild Progress, Part 1
Five or six years ago, I made a deal with the owner of the building where I have my shop, for an old non-functioning forklift that had been sitting outside under a rotten tarp for many years. If I could make it run, it was mine. And so I did. At first it ran only on three of the four cylinders of it's Continental flathead engine. Because of how much smoke it made, you could basically only use it on windy days; otherwise the cloud of smoke surrounding you would soon prevent you from seeing what you were doing. Not to mention, it leaked a watery-oil mixture all over the parking lot wherever it went (you can see the beginnings of a water/oil trail in the photos below). But, it was useful for getting machinery up and down from loading-dock height, and I used it like that for a couple years. So, just before the pandemic hit, I had decided to do a complete nut-and-bolt rebuild of the forklift. This forklift is a 1930's Clark Carloader; apparently the first model of "shor
