I’ve lost my bearings!
With the rake tires aired up, I hitched up the old M Farmall. I was confident there would be no problems, as I completely rebuilt the gearbox and replaced the U-Joints on the New Holland 258 hay rake two years ago. Running around to grease the bearings, I noticed one was loose. I gave the bar a jerk and it separated from the hub. That’s pretty loose! After 2 trips to the parts store I had everything I needed, except time.
“What time you gonna start rakin’”, asked the baler man. “Don’t know”, I said, “Rake’s torn apart”. A neighbor hearing of my plight loaned me a wheel rake. “Now I’m ready”, I thought. This time I hitched up the Oliver 880 tractor and was off to rake. After about 20 acres, I started to exit a field, but couldn’t steer straight. I looked back at the rake to see if it was pulling too hard and lifting the front of the tractor. Nope! It was the tractor. The pin in front shaft had worn through and one wheel was facing left and the other right. While searching for parts, baler man showed up with his shiny Case/IH Baler. “Having troubles?” He chuckled.
With the repair completed, I left baler man and headed to another patch of hay. I kept expecting to see him speeding down the gravel road, pushing me to go faster. He never showed. Even when I finished raking, no baler man! Upon further investigation, I found a bearing had gone out on top of his baler. He smoked a couple belts and the shaft spun a clean foot long slice down the side of his shiny baler. “Havin’ troubles?”, I asked.
Quite Puzzling!
Farmall B Mount
If Erno Rubik had a tractor and mower such as mine, the world may have never seen a Rubik’s Cube! I have swapped my Wood’s belly mower through 3 B Farmalls. When I bought an “A”, it seemed the swap would once again be easy (keyword seemed!)
It soon became obvious that the mower mounts for a “B” Farmall are quite different than an “A”. I was gonna have to try to find the right mounts for a Wood’s 59 mower and a 70 year old Farmall. Surprisingly, a quick search on Ebay, and there it was! The description says its a Woods 59 mower mount that fits Farmall A, Super A, and 140.
Farmall "A" Mount
Click Click, Buy it now!
I was excited when the mount arrived, and soon had it bolted up under the newly acquired “A”. The mower bolted to the mount with no problem. I tightened the belts and took her out for a test drive. It didn’t take long to see I wasn’t mowing much grass. Yep, the blades were running backwards.
I began moving the belt from pulley to pulley trying to reverse the blades. I removed the mount, turned it around, turned it upside down, no luck. Swapping pulleys only resulted in throwing the belt. A quick visit to Yesterdays Tractor and the Wood’s Mower site confirmed my fears. There are many models of 59 mowers, including a large number of L59′s. You may have guessed by now that a 59 and L59 run in opposite directions. I have purchased the wrong mount!
Leg Room
Hopefully I can find someone with the correct mount and do a little swap meet. I did get the correct seat mounted on the “A”. Now I have room for my big feet! Maybe I can use than Monroe seat on a trade for the correct mower mount!
Mystery Seat
This seat is bolted on to my A Farmall. Someone cobbled it on there and painted it before I bought it. I know it doesn’t belong on this model. I searched other pics, and not even sure it goes on a Farmall. A “C” Farmall has the piston in front of spring, and the “M” and “H”s don’t have the flat base. Maybe a different year than I have been able to find. Where does this seat belong?
I would like to sell it, but who would buy a mystery seat?
Here
is another picture if it helps. If you have any ideas, click on the comment box top/right of this post. Thanks for any input in advance!
High Maintenance?
In between farm work and building the house, the work on the Farmall “A” continues. I have to give my wife credit for allowing some of my free time to be taken by the tractor. She names every vehicle and the little red tractor did not escape christening. So from now on, if I refer to “Ginger”, you will know she is not a secret girlfriend!
Ginger is close to ready, but I have been putting off a few things while trying to save some money. It’s not that Ginger is high maintenance, she is just due for some restotoration. I guess she will never get finished unless I get out the checkbook. Replacing stuff that wears out doesn’t really bother me. A steering wheel gets some wear in 60 years! The worst part is spending money on the previous owner’s “modifications”.
While the seat from an “H” has better springs and gives me more legroom, it does not fit well with some attachments and levers. Clamping a clear plastic hose to the carb may let you see if gas is flowing, but the original metal line is not that hard to get. The number one most annoying mod…
Who welded the muffler, exhaust pipe, and manifold into one piece?!? Was this an attempt to make sure nobody stole the hood? Maybe the previous owner thought I may never need to pull the head from the motor. At any rate, an expensive inconvenience for me. Once I Sawzall the muffler off, I will be on the lookout for another manifold. Poor Ginger!
What’s An Old Tractor Worth?
The simple answer is about $160 a ton. That is, of course, before you deduct for tire disposal. Scrap steel prices are up and old iron is heading to the junkyard by the trailer load. Every week I wanna flag down a truck with a load of antique machinery and say, “Hey! What’s wrong with that rake!”
I have my own menagerie of rusted relics. The recent rise in steel prices has me wondering what to keep and what to haul off for cash. While it seems simple to load an old B Farmall frame on the trailer, one has to examine the situation first. I have been told to take the sheet metal off, but after rusting away outside 30 years, it’s not really worth the effort. The old belt pulleys bring pretty good money on ebay. Why not pull the whole pto assembly off and see if its salvageable. Are the axles good?
You get the idea. I am sure there are parts worth more than $160 a ton, but how much acetalyne (cutting torch) will it take! On the other hand I could just advertise whats left of the parts junkers and see if someone is interested. I have a 4 row cultivator for an M Farmall that should be loaded up for scrap, but somewhere out there is someone with an “M” and a field full of weedy corn, wishing they knew my phone number.
Maybe its just my inability to let go of the old days. 
The old Dodge lime truck sits in the barn with a motor that hasn’t turned over in 20 years. I don’t know how many times I had to pull this truck out of a mud hole as a kid. The fertilizer bed is rusted out now, but the yellow “Red Hawk” painted on the front of the red hood is still proud and defiant enough to deserve some honor.
Or, maybe it’s the deep down belief that someday I will need some of this old iron. I know I haven’t taken any parts off of these antiques in years, but you never know! As I drove down a country road today, I saw another Farmall M for sale. “You know”, I thought to myself, “I have a cultivator that will fit that”.
Tractor Tinkerin’
When I bought the Farmall “A” early in the winter, I knew there were things that needed fixing. There was actually a hole in the carb. I got the rebuilt carb installed, and it started and ran fine. In fact there is a short video of the first firin’ up. I could tell at this point the little tractor wouldn’t idle down. While I knew how to adjust the linkage from the govener to the carb, I found that it was impossible to get the linkages to match up. A quick trip over to Yesterdays Tractor got me some answers.
Within 30 minutes of my post, I received a response from
Andrew Z. He gave me the URL for a parts breakdown. Listed some parts that may be worn out. In fact he told me the balls can fall out of a bearing inside the govener. Was the advice any good? I took the offending part off. If you click o the picture of the case, you will see balls from the bearing stuck in the grease. I think this guy has done this before!
I also received an email offering to insert brass bushings into the case to tighten up the throttle linkage rods. The case will be shipped to Iowa for some reworking on Monday. If you are working on an old tractor, I can testify to the efficiency and accuracy of Yesterdays Tractor members!
Red Power
Every year, Farmall and International Harvester owners gather at an event known as the the Red Power Roundup. While I do like my old tractors, I have niether the time or money to travel to most of these shows. In 2008 it was held right here in Missouri. Since it was within my reach, I could not miss the chance to go see hundreds of red tractors. I spent hours showing (dragging) my fiance (No! I didn’t propose there!)around all the sights. There were tractors
, pickups, and lots of vendors selling everything from decals and parts to manuals and hats. This blue pickup caught my attention as I have a run down one like it in the barn. A young man standing close to me remarked, “So that’s what they looked like new.” A little more experienced gentleman said,”They never looked that good new!” He was right, Ha Ha!
Last year the event was in Wisconsin This year will be the 21st show, and will be in Indiana.
Probably a little too far away for me to attend. My tractors aren’t quite as shiny as most of these show pieces. There are lots of rusted and for sale tractors at these shows too. Maybe if Red Power Roundup is close to my location in the near future, I will take a couple of “work” tractors to show off. I can dream of getting one painted up and on the trailer. In the meantime I will just be happy to keep one running long enough to mow the yard!
This Week…
As you can tell by the picture, Scout wants a ride on the new addition to the Salt Creek miniature tractor collection! The little Farmall needs a new carb, but I was happy to find it did fit in my little storage shed as I had hoped. It runs fine with the choke on full. Scout said I should replace the carb so it will run better. He is such a perfectionist considering we don’t even know what breeds he is a mix of.
After a week of fighting the cold, frozen waterers, and slick roads, the calves made it to market and sold today. They brought pretty good money, but not what they were bringing a couple years ago. Sometimes breaking even is a blessing!
I did an interview with Tipper from Blind Pig And The Acorn. It was a real battle. The phones and music files had issues. I stuck with it and luckily for me, Tipper did too. She is truly a patient woman. I have tried to fix the flubs in the show with little success. You can hear the interview by clicking the Salt Creek Radio link. There is a large section of white noise about 2 minutes in, but if you can get past that part, the last 35 minutes were great. Since the phone issues kept us from doing all the trivia questions, I am working on a plan to put a few here on my site. Stay tuned.
Right Under My Nose
The quest for a “new” antique yard mowing tractor was starting to get out of hand. Since the Farmall B started leaking water in one cylinder, I have been looking for a replacement. Last week I mentioned my plight to some guy I met in town. He nonchalantly told me his brother has a Farmall A with a rebuilt motor and newer paint for sale. “Oh really” I said, “And where would this tractor be located”? “About 5 miles out of town”, He replied. I had a hard time believing I had missed any small Farmalls within 25 miles of here, but sure enough!
As I approached the old farm house, I saw lots of old equipment. Piles of old equipment! I saw rusty trucks, tractors, and implements. In the middle of this rusty collection was something shiny and red. My quarry gleamed crimson against the snow covered lot. (that means it stood out!) I circled the little tractor making mental notes. Sheet metal was straight. Most implement attaching hardware was there. Tires looked almost new. Both PTO’s there. In my mind I had already decided the price on this one was gonna be to high for my budget.
It hadn’t been started in a year, the gas tank was dry, and the battery required charging. This gave us time to discuss old tractors we have had, and some history on the Farmall.
In 1939 International Harvester began production of the lettered (A,B,C,H,M) series. That makes some of the little tractors 70 years old and still doing their job. Growing up I had driven about every lettered Farmall. This find was a fine example of an early A Farmall. The original A’s sold for $540 back in their day. Most farmers claimed it was a “fair price” for such a piece of machinery.
Gassed and charged up, the old engine puttered to life. The carb had been cracked and needed replacement, but
the cluch, brakes, and PTO worked without noises or grinding.
“What are you asking?”, I asked. His response, “I thought about listing it on Craigs List for $2000, but I’d take $1500.” Being a farmer and naturally frugal, I stared him down and countered, “That sounds like a ‘fair price’, let me write you check”.
There’s A Monkey On My Back!
There seems to be an issue on this blog that I can’t get away from. A habit I have keeps popping up every couple weeks. Most habits are bad and need to be broken. This one is no different. Is it drinking, smoking, chewing my nails? Nope… Dang Old Tractors!
Some of you may have noticed my recent post about buying a Case tractor on Ebay. Today Honey Bunches and I hooked up a trailer and headed out to retrieve my next problem child. Three hours later I am driving the little Case around the seller’s driveway. I turn the tractor and head for the ditch bank my trailer is backed into. As soon as I start to climb the bank, the tractor comes to a halt. throwing the torque lever forward makes the little 530 lurch forward aggressively. While the paint is perfect and the engine is smooth, the low side is out on the torque converter.
The prospect of getting another unique tractor is exciting. 
The idea of having another tractor in need of repair is not! Since I had been assured all the gears and drive-line worked fine, he agreed to let me out of the purchase.
Pulling out of the driveway, Honey Bunches said, “Aren’t you bummed you didn’t get the tractor?” “I am just thrilled he let me off the hook” I responded!
I was upset that we wasted a whole day, but thrilled that we weren’t fleeced. About an hour from home something caught my eye. A bright red Farmall something with a For Sale sign on it! My fingers punched the number into my cell phone as Honey Bunches begged me to keep driving. “Hello”, I say into the receiver, “Is this your B Farmall for sale up here on the highway?…”
