Tractor Stories

Today was a work day at the home and the 1952 8N Ford was pressed into service. We were cutting cedar trees, well actually one tree, and found some limbs were hard to pull away from the tree due to grape vines. Some of the vines were easily 1 ½ inches or more in diameter. A solution was to bring out the tractor. A strap was hooked onto the limb and then onto the bar across the 3 point hitch. I found first gear was needed to get enough slow traction to pull the encumbered limbs free of the tree. Pic 1195 shows the tree behind the tractor. Pic 1197 shows a side view. I need to lose weight. The temperature was probably ninety degrees at the time. Tractor Boy http://www.tractorstories.blogspot.com/

Continuing with the nearing completion, Pic 016 shows the Ford decal on the front end of the hood. Another is on the other side. Pic 017 shows the vent covering the screen and air funnel of the air cleaner assembly. Pic 018 is one of the decals under the hood door. Later I removed it and put it back straight. The lower part of the air cleaner (pic 019) has its own decal. So does the oil filter (pic 020) which gets two of them. As I wrote earlier, I thought all was well, but soon found on Saturday evening before the 8N was to be driven across town… it would not start. After removing the cover from the distributor it was obvious why. The rotor (pic 021) was split in half. Of course it destroyed the distributor cap during its death revolutions. Fortunately Tractor Supply had more parts; however, I had a spare anyway and put it on. First I removed the old distributor and points (pic 022) and put in new ones (pic 023). Since I had not put the bumper on the Tractor yet, it was easy to use th...

The past two weeks I have been working furiously on the 1952 * N to get it ready to be a show piece (another name for Parade Queen) for the opening of Vacation Bible School. Painting is pretty complete. I bought a OEM tool box and realized it goes in the location where the solenoid has been on this old 8N since I bought it dead in a field about three years ago. Pics 004-007 show the solenoid on the brace under the hood. The hood is off the body at this time. That was a three person job both to remove it and to replace it again. I still had a quarter tank of fuel which added about 24 pounds to the weight of the hood. Pic 011 and 012 show the solenoid atop the starter where it is supposed to be. I lengthened one wire by soldering a piece in the line, and replaced another, being careful to work one at a time after studying what was supposed to happen electrically. Once the battery was in place I turned the key and pressed the starter (gear shift in neutral) and the starter turned as it...

Previously I discovered the Position Control lever was bent. This 8N must have had a hard life. Picture 62 shows the bent lever. After removing it from the tractor, I pounded it straight against a piece of "I beam" left over from construction of the over head lift. Pic 66 shows the straightened and painted lever back on the 8N. It is pinned in place by a 3/16 X 1 inch flat rivet. I got out early this morning and washed off as much grease and dirt as I intended to, then went back later and painted red paint on the red portions of the 8N. It looks good, and even better from a distance. Pic 68 and 70 are the before pictures and pic 71 and 72 show after painting. Later I decided to clean up the front wheel nuts and paint them. Five of them had to be replaced because they were broken around the leading edge of the nut. I cleaned off the old paint and rust with a steel brush, then used a ½ X 20 tap to refresh the threads. Still later I used a similar sized die to refresh threads p...

Last night and very early this morning I put on my paint-proof breathing mask and had a go at the 8N Ford rear half with Ford Red paint. This evening I began the two hour process of reassembling the fenders to the tractor. It took so long because there are two attachments for anti-sway bars that fasten beneath the axle and are held by the two fender bolts. Also, one of the bolts, which appear to be 9/16 inch size was reluctant to accept the nut. Even though I dabbed good grease in the nut, that one resisted. So, like any good home mechanic, I reached for my tap and die set. The largest size I had was ½ inch. The next step was to hold the carriage bolt (that is what it is) in my brass jawed vice and use a wrench to screw the nut onto the bolt. That did it. Picture 55 shows the tractor painted with the plastic still draped over the rear wheels. Picture 57 shows the left fender with the light bracket attached. About that light bracket. The upper part takes a 7/16 carriage bolt and I coul...

Pix 42-45 show parts of the steering gear box. The access to add 90 weight gear oil is behind a strong steel brace which must be removed or a hole bored through it to get to that plug (pic 46) The adjustment screws on each side of the steering gear box are used to take slack from the steering. The nut through which the screw passes is first loosened, then the screw is tightened. I used a big car jack to raise the front end of the tractor off the floor so I could feel whether the adjustment was right and not too tight. Picture 49-50 show before and after painting. The old tractor is not really that bad. I want it to look better so am working on it. Pic 54 shows the rear of the tractor where I started to paint and am now cleaning and priming before painting. This is before priming. Pic 53 shows the tail light bracket installed and painted to match the left fender. Because I own a milling machine, I was able to elongate two bottom holes on the bracket and thus get the top hole to align wi...

This has been a busy, busy day. I hired a guy to cut brush around my place and he showed up with his son. It took more of my attention than I wanted to get them doing what I wanted. Between the yard guys, I had a few chores for Tractor Girl. I got those done. I fished three chairs from the bottom of the swimming pool. We had very brisk winds and they were blown into the pool. I also removed the fenders from the 8N so I could clean, prime, and paint red. While I was at that, I decided to mount the tail light bracket on the fender since the fender was now off the tractor. It looked like and easy job until the holes did not line up. Grrr so I did what any self respecting Gentleman Farmer would do. I used my milling machine to elongate two of the holes so I could shift the bracket enough to align the third hole. It is now on the fender and grey paint is drying. I was going to clean, scrape, and maybe even paint some more on the rear of the tractor, but must stop and make sure my sermon is ...