Tractor Stories

Today I cleaned off the valve access cover and the side of the engine where the cover was. It took me two hours to get that old gasket material off. There was also some squeeze tube gasket material along with the cork. I used a stiff wire brush, sharp pry bar and a dental pick to get it off, then primed and painted the cover. The tappets are adjusted by using two small wrenches. The #1 spark plug is removed and the engine cranked (I have a Ford crank) until compression is felt, then the pointed on the left side of the engine is aligned with the notch on the fly wheel. At first I did not follow that plan exactly and the valves were open at #1 cylinder so I could not get the .013 feeler gauge in place. After a while I figured it out and found most of the tappets were close to where they should be. I tweaked a few. One of the nice things about these old Cubs is the firing order is cast into the engine – 1-3-4-2. The engine is revolved half a turn following the first cylinder. I just fo...

The paint is dry on the battery box and tool box so I reassembled them to the tractor. The tool box was easy, just one bolt which I greased well. The battery box was almost easy. Since the ground wire from the battery attaches to the side of the battery box, I used a Dremel tool to remove the paint around the bolt holes in the box. A different bit was used to clean and polish the lock washers. One of them fell and is still hiding so a flat washer was drafted to replace it. Dielectric grease was applied to the bolts and washers before putting them through the bottom of the battery box into the tractor. Next the ground cable was removed and cleaned along with its bolt and nut. It will go on once the paint dries which I sprayed where the cable had been after masking the hole itself so a good contact could be made. The ohm meter was attached to the edge of the ground cable bolt hole and then to a bare place on a bolt elsewhere at the rear of the tractor. The reading tells me there is a p...

  Today I used my sand blaster for the first time. Yesterday I removed the battery box and broke off two bolts in the process. Since I had some 3/8-16 bolts, I cut off the ends of two and made replacement bolts. Getting the old bolts out was a challenge so I used a 3/8 drill bit to enlarge the holes so The bolts would move freely through the riser blocks and not get stuck again.   As soon as I started sand blasting I realized a full face mask was necessary as well as a breathing mask. A NIOSH 95 mask works just fine for this fine sand. The full face mask protected my face, and I placed my glasses at a safe distance so they did not get scratched. The sand blaster works pretty well. Perhaps with aluminum oxide instead of fine sand, the rust would have come off faster. Still, I got it done. I even brushed the rust from the platform and back of the tractor then painted it red.   Once the parts were blasted, I wiped off the dust, primed with a rust inhibitor (excep...

 

I removed both the tool box and the battery box from the Cub today. My air wrench removed the head from two of the four bolts. I actually got them off the tractor and removed one of the broken off bolts. I am soaking the other with penetrating oil before putting it in a vice and seeing whether I can get it off without too much more trouble. They each broke off in a flat steel riser so I could turn that off the tractor body. J I am getting ready to sand blast for the first time. That could be interesting. I have a breathing mask to wear and will wear leather gloves too. No sense in cutting myself to ribbons with the sand blaster gun. Air compressor is working just fine today. Of course it is hot here in Central Texas so I am perspiring profusely.   Tractor Boy

The Cub: Nearly done!!! I could probably reinstall the steering wheel any time now. Today I bought a set of proper spark plugs ( Champion D-21) and gapped them .024 which is close enough (I have seen anywhere from .023 to .025) It is time to build a platform for the auxiliary fuel tank I got used today so I can test the Cub without installing the hood. I will make the platform of wood and mount it to the location where the hydraulic system should go. I need a shut off valve for the fuel and a means to attach to the carburetor. Not a difficult task to complete. The commutator on the starter as well as the generator need cleaning, I am sure. The valve gap needs to be measured and adjusted if needed. The points want to be examined. I have replacement points and rotor. I can buy a six volt battery from Car Quest. It will just fit and is a 650 CCA power house. It means getting a different ground wire and grounding to a different location than inside the battery box althoug...

The wiring harness of the ’49 Cub is now replaced along with two other wires. One of them went from the GEN terminal of the Cutout Relay to the A terminal of the generator, while the other went from the distributor to one side of the coil. The first was too thin, about 20 gauge so I replaced it with ten gauge wire. The second was old and also seemed thin so I replaced it too with a bit thicker wire. When I put on the ends to the wire, I do what I learned from my father which is to solder the connection in addition to crimping it.   The wiring diagram in the owner’s manual did not match what was actually on my tractor. It seems the old Cub has a Cutout Relay instead of a Voltage Regulator and all my standard sources displayed the VR. Once again the Farmall Cub Gurus of www.yesterdaystractor.com helped tremendously. The best help was to a site set up by Farmall Bob which had diagrams of the electrical system of old Farmalls. One was exactly what I had in front of m...

Today I began the wiring adventure. It is going to be a slow process. I verified the ignition switch is good, using a trusty ohm meter. Since it is good, I will make a knob for it. I have some thick plastic and can cut a piece, turn it on my lathe, drill and tap it for the thread size (once I determine that). I was going to use aluminum but decided plastic was safer; however, I may go back to aluminum as I have plenty of that too. I cleaned the wiring connections for the one pole of the switch using emery paper. Then I verified the next wire was good too so will likely not replace it, just clean the contact surfaces. All this took me a half hour. I am confident that, one wire and contact at a time, this job will be professional when I am done. Tractor Boy

The past few days I have been working to remove the steering wheel of the ’49 Cub so I can replace it with a new steering wheel. First, I tried squirting it with Parts Blaster (PB) for a few days, several times a day. Then I tried striking the forward side of the spokes with a brass hammer. Finally I got some washers to protect the center of the steering column and used a two pronged gear puller and still more PB. The wheel is almost off. It is soaking in yet more PB. Later I think I can get it off.   The wheels are held on by 7/16X20 wheel bolts. Half of them are corroded near the hex head. If I can buy replacements, I will replace them. The better ones were all refurbished with a proper size die. I also used a tap to clean all ten bolt holes on the wheel hub. The lower set of bolts in the pictures shows the corrosion.   I used one of the bolts to provide leverage with a wooden 4X4 so I could remove the center cover and get to the cotter pin and nut holding th...

Today I continued progress on the ’49 Farmall Cub. This morning at six a.m. I was out in my Tractor Building making a new gasket for the right rear wheel pan which I had removed, cleaned, and painted yesterday. This time, learning from the previous attempt, I used sharp scissors to cut out the gasket from the pencil marked material. Again it was glued to the metal using rubber cement. Also, yesterday, I removed the small plugs in the distributor and found that 1/8X27 NPT (fine?) grease zerk was just right. I bought one, greased the two parts, and replaced the plugs. Before putting 90 weight gear oil in the two rear pans, I lay under the tractor and inserted the grease gun tube into the clutch housing then put several squirts of grease in the zerk located there. I hope I put in enough as I am not sure I saw where it came out. Once that was done I used a big half inch wrench to remove the filler plugs from the wheel areas above the pans. I made a filler funnel using some clear plastic t...

 

Yesterday I bought some rubberized gasket material to make home-made gaskets for the rear wheel pans. I decided to work on one at a time and this is the left side. Rubber cement was used to hold the gasket to the pan, and a sharp knife cut the gasket. As I started to put it back on the tractor there was some old gasket material clinging to the tractor which needed to be scraped off. Everything went on as smoothly as can be while I am lying on my back beneath the tractor and reaching around the gear wheel and the pan itself to insert and tighten the bolts. Ten bolts later, I snugged them a bit at a time to get fairly even compression all around. This pan is ready for gear oil. It will wait until I get the other off and cleaned up.   Tractor Boy

Today I decided to start cleaning the rear wheel pan. There are two. I started with the one on the left side. Ten bolts hold the pan to the tractor. It is supposed to be filled with gear oil to a point about an inch above the joint where the pan joins the Cub rear end. It wasn’t that full. The liquid was black just like the gear oil for the steering. This was a dirty, dirty job. After I got it off and dumped, I used a kerosene spray to begin cleaning the pan. Also, I flushed the inside of the area where the pan goes. I have a cleaning tank with some sort of corrosive liquid. The pan was immersed in it and scrubbed. After dipping in water to dilute the cleaner, I wiped it off, scrubbed it with a stiff steel brush, and primed it then painted it red. Somewhere in the process the bolts were cleaned of old dirt and crud.   The last picture is the tan colored grease that came from the transmission. Since I have found no other evidence of water in the system, I am concluding t...

Replacing gear oil and greasing the ’49 Cub ought to be a straight forward task(s). Well it hasn’t been. The transmission fluid was tan, looking like tan paint. Folks on Yesterday’s Tractor Farmall forum said it meant water had got inside the transmission. I wonder whether this tractor was under water at one time. I bought a Spectricide brand insecticide pump, put kerosene in it, and flushed the transmission, then refilled with 90 weight gear oil. The gear oil looked like and had the consistency of thin honey. Pic 1300 shows the transmission filler plug. A lot easier to reach than the plug for emptying the transmission. Note it has a square head. All of these plugs are square headed. Three and a half pints later, the transmission was back together. After the transmission, I decided to check the steering gear oil. It was not tan. It was black as could be so I flushed the housing with kerosene again and refilled with ¾ pint of 90 weight gear oil and replaced the filler plug. Pic 1301 s...

WEATHER!! Last year we had a very wet Spring. The wind blew the tarp off the 640 Ford in the side yard and I ignored it, forgetting that the air cleaner had been removed for refurbishing. This Summer I removed the carburetor to refurbish it and discovered that water had entered it through the air cleaner air tube. Pic 1277-1282 show the sad condition of the old carburetor from that ’55 Ford tractor. I spent hours cleaning it inside and out. Pic 1283 and 1284 show the carburetor cleaned and ready to reassemble.   While waiting for the Ford 640 carburetor to get cleaned in the carb cleaner stuff, I worked on the ’49 Farmall Cub some more. The fuel tank came home cleaned and re-lined, but certainly needed painting. The shop used a torch to heat the metal so the liner goop would adhere better. Pic 1285 shows the hood and integral fuel tank as it came home. Pic 1296 shows the hood after some high quality rattle can paint from Tractor Supply. It looks very much better...