Anyone into old tractors?

[Leadeye]

An excellent hobby, enjoy.

 

[4651feeder]

Smith's Implement in Edwardsburg, you say? Guess where my Dad got the A-C.

Figured it either likely there or Longs. Smith & his daughter were good people to do business with.

Mine was drug out of a barn in Granger back around 97', shortly before I saw it setting under the trees on M62.

 

[IndyDave1776]

Be careful my friend. Old tractors can become an infectious disease! Today you baby the old AC, tomorrow you will be building a new barn to house it along with a WC, a WD, a WD-45, and tractors starting with D- ranging from 10 to 21! Oh, and you can't forget to get a G. I think they called it that because they look like Persian orange grasshoppers, but gee are they cute!

 

[littletommy]

Had a Hoyt-Clagwell years ago, never could get her running right.

 

[Gary119]

Had a Hoyt-Clagwell years ago, never could get her running right.

Well you could have called their factory in Fargo, North Dakota. But Sarah doesn't have a Fargo hole on the switchboard, so you needed to call Chicago, they route it through there.

 

[HoughMade]

Right now, a 50/50 mix of kerosene and automatic transmission fluid...and patience, are my friends.

Gives me a chance to get other stuff cleaned up.

 

[Gary119]

Right now, a 50/50 mix of kerosene and automatic transmission fluid...and patience, are my friends.

Gives me a chance to get other stuff cleaned up.

I pulled the head on a Case 210 backhoe last night that had been sitting like for about 4-6 months and wouldn't free up. Lucky I did l, a mouse had made a home in there. If you don't pull the head you might use a borescope to see in cylinders, intake and exhaust.

 

[HoughMade]

I pulled the head on a Case 210 backhoe last night that had been sitting like for about 4-6 months and wouldn't free up. Lucky I did l, a mouse had made a home in there. If you don't pull the head you might use a borescope to see in cylinders, intake and exhaust.

Good advise. I'm thinking of pulling the head and taking the opportunity to refresh the valves. I have the rockers off now and cleaned them up. The tractor was stored indoors, but in the basement of the barn, so with some humidity.

 

[Gary119]

I've freed up quite a few with the kerosene /ATF and rocking the tractor back and forth in gear. Don't try pulling or using a wrench on the pully bolt, that will end up breaking / bending something. If you pull the head might try using a LITTLE heat around the piston where it meets the cylinder. Expansion/ contraction you know, that's what I'll be doing tonight. Just a little hand propane torch.

Should mark the pushrods to put them back in the same place they came from also.

Do you already know all this? I'm not trying to sound bossy or like a know it all.

 

[HoughMade]

I've freed up quite a few with the kerosene /ATF and rocking the tractor back and forth in gear. Don't try pulling or using a wrench on the pully bolt, that will end up breaking / bending something. If you pull the head might try using a LITTLE heat around the piston where it meets the cylinder. Expansion/ contraction you know, that's what I'll be doing tonight. Just a little hand propane torch.

Should mark the pushrods to put them back in the same place they came from also.

Do you already know all this? I'm not trying to sound bossy or like a know it all.

I appreciate any advice, so always feel free to expound....but I'm not new to tearing into old engines.

Regardless of whether I pull the head or not, i will be keeping the cylinders full of ATF/Kerosene and rocking the tractor in gear before I leave for work in the morning, and in the evening....my wife is thrilled that's its in the #2 stall in the garage, but it keeps me off the streets. She hasn't said it, but I think she likes that my new project has a top speed of about 8mph (eventually), while the old one, my '79 Yamaha, could "do the ton" as they say.

 

[ghuns]

Only the green ones...

My dad is on a plow bender right now. He's bought a bunch of them over the years. Now that he's retired they are getting some attention.

When I was little kid, early 80s I guess, my dad restored grandpa's 1950 John Deere A. It was the first new tractor grandpa had bought and the same year my dad was born. My grandpa liked it so much he started buying old John Deeres like there was no tomorrow. My dad did the restoration work and grandpa wrote the checks. Grandpa had more money than dad had time, so several got sold off to other collectors. But the dozen or so that we still have aren't going anywhere. We load them up and take them to local shows, parades, plow days, family photo ops...

My kids, now college aged, still love to drive them around. My daughter especially. From the time she was little, all she had to do was say, "grandpa, can I drive a tractor?", and a tractor was coming out. Even when she said, "grandpa, can you get a tractor clean enough for me to have my picture taken on it in my white prom dress?"...

She always asks grandpa because with me, there's a chance of a no. With grandpa, no such chance exists.

 

[HoughMade]

Very nice tractors.

I mean, the color....it's no Persian Orange, but it's not bad.

 

[Gary119]

I understand. The tractor might be a lot slower but I bet it's a lot harder to get a straight furrow with one of them motorcycle thingys.

Enjoy you tractor.

 

[ghuns]

Very nice tractors.

I mean, the color....it's no Persian Orange, but it's not bad.

Orange is my favorite color, except for on a tractor.

It might be apparent that I come from a John Deere family, but my mom's brother worked for International Harvester for years. My dad and him always went round and round over tractors. When I was a toddler, my uncle thought it'd be funny, and aggravate my dad, to give me a toy IH tractor for my birthday. Upon opening the box, I burst into tears.

 

[Gary119]

I currently have Case, Massey (2), Farmall (2), International, Ford, and John Deere. Brand don't mean much to me. They all made good and bad ones. Just bought the tractor to do the job. Some were made by one company, and sold by another. Massey 95 made by Minnealopis Moline, Massey 97 made by MM, and Massey 98 made by Oliver. Others did this also. Still want a Moline UDlx and a Massey 97 amongst others.

Try this for fun, walk into a John Deere dealer wearing a IH hat, and by the way yes, I wear a IH hat driving my John Deere.

 

[HoughMade]

After the B, Gramps had a JD and a couple of Olivers until he retired. My Dad had a MM before this one. My Mom's Dad (dairy farmer) was a Ford guy his whole life.

 

[ghuns]

Still want a Moline UDlx...

A guy down the road from me, who typically restores Vettes, had one that he restored. Suckers had a road gear in them for sure.

...and by the way yes, I wear a IH hat driving my John Deere.

That's just wrong man.

My daughter's best friend comes from an IH family. All the cars in my driveway sport John Deere front license plates. When she showed up with her first car, and an IH license plate on it, I told her she had to park elsewhere or lose the plate. She spent so much time at our house, I didn't want people who drove by and saw it to think someone in my family had been led astray. I was joking... Kinda.

So I swapped it out for a Deere plate when she wasn't looking. She drove around like that for a month before her dad noticed and freaked out. Being the kind of daughter who places pushing her father's buttons above loyalty to a tractor brand, she said, hmmm, I thought it had been running better. Maybe I should keep it on there.

 

[Gary119]

A guy down the road from me, who typically restores Vettes, had one that he restored. Suckers had a road gear in them for sure.



That's just wrong man.

My daughter's best friend comes from an IH family. All the cars in my driveway sport John Deere front license plates. When she showed up with her first car, and an IH license plate on it, I told her she had to park elsewhere or lose the plate. She spent so much time at our house, I didn't want people who drove by and saw it to think someone in my family had been led astray. I was joking... Kinda.

So I swapped it out for a Deere plate when she wasn't looking. She drove around like that for a month before her dad noticed and freaked out. Being the kind of daughter who places pushing her father's buttons above loyalty to a tractor brand, she said, hmmm, I thought it had been running better. Maybe I should keep it on there.

I have a buddy that's a I bleed green guy, (i do tend to be more of a red guy) we toss witty coments back and forth. One year we were having a fireworks display, jab here a jab there, one of the bigger fireworks was lit but instead of taking off it just kinda plopped out of the tube, next thing I hear from green guy is "I didn't know IH got into the fireworks business" yeah I still think it's funny

 

[HoughMade]

...Still want a Moline UDlx...

From what I understand, those things fetch classic Hemi Charger money. Here's my younger son 6 years ago at the State Fair with someone's fine example:

 

[ghuns]

Grandpa bought these brand new in the late 60s and we still use them daily. I guess with the two cylinders around, I've never considered them old, but they are...

3010...

2020...

We have a 2 row corn picker for that 3010 that my dad keeps threatening to restore. I voted to scrap it. That thing has more moving parts than all the tractors he has restored combined.

That 2020 is the first tractor I learned to drive. I remember dad and grandpa overhauled the motor and split it to replace the clutch when I was a kid. Dad was driving semi at the time so grandpa was finishing it up and called me over to help. I was about 10-12 so I thought that was a big deal. We buttoned it up and it started up like a champ. Grandpa took it for a spin down the road. There's a curve by our house, so he was out of sight, but I heard the tractor stop. Grandpa was partially disabled and didn't walk that great, so I jumped in our old Chevy truck and drove that way. When I got there, he looked upset. There was a trail of oil that started about a 1/4 mile from home, went a couple hundred feet, and the tractor was at about the 1/2 mark. He had left the drain plug loose and it fell out. The motor was seized. We towed it home and left it in the shop overnight.

The next morning I woke up and there's grandpa driving it around. He hadn't slept much and got up early and went out to the shop. He was starring at it wondering what to do and just reached up and turned the key. It turned over. He found a drain plug in a box of misc parts and filled it up with oil. It started, and has run for the last 30 years. Though it has smoked like a mosquito fogger for at least the last 20.