Hurricane Farm

A while back I was stuck in the mud with my Farmall Cub tractor.  I was furiously running the throttle up and down, back and forth trying to get enough momentum to break free and get the tractor moving forward instead of downward into the mud.  I eventually drove out (with the help of some come-alongs), but I had bent the throttle rod slightly.  I thought that I could bend it back, but when I tried the throttle adjusting lever that connects the rod to the governor broke off.  Ooops! 

The solution at the time was a washer and some cold welding compound.  I used J-B Weld, which seems to always do the trick.  The first two photos show the piece with the welded washer. 

This worked for a while, but I knew that I had to get in there and put a new piece in before the snow starts to fall and before it gets too cold to want to mess around with small parts under the hood of an antique tractor.

The unfortunate thing was...I had to remove the hood/gas tank to get the old part off.  After unhooking the lights and a few bolts, off came the hood.

While I was in there I was able to tighten up a squeaking belt by adjusting the alternator, so I was able to get two tasks done at once.

I wanted to replace the belt on the alternator, but that required removing the fan, the main drive belt, and a bunch of other things that were in the way.  Simply tightening the belt, however, worked out in the long run. 

Once I had the hood off, I thought that I could easily slip off the broken piece on the throttle lever/governor unit.  No so.  I had to take off the entire governor.  I was a bit nervous, but it went right back together.  I snapped several photos to be sure to have evidence of where everything went in case I got lost on the re-assembly.

I wish I had the luxury of having the hood off when I was wiring the tractor up for lights, switches, and the amp meter...everything is so easy to get to!  I remember bashing my knuckles trying to remove the manifold with the hood on.  It would have been alot easier with the tractor like this!

Here is a close-up of the welded piece.  It served its purpose, but I didn't think it would last the winter with the workout that plowing snow puts on the tractor.

Below is the new piece all attached and ready to receive the throttle rod.  They don't manufacture this piece anymore, but I was able to find a used one, all sand-blasted and painted, from a used tractor parts dealer in Texas.

The next shot shows the extent of my dismantling...I had to remove lots of parts--parts that were not even near the area that I was working on.  Amazing engineering on these little tractors.

Here is the governor just about to be pushed back together.  It was a perfect fit, lucky for me.

While the throttle rod was unattached, I was able to straighten it out.  Now that everything is back together, the throttle travels the full range perfectly.  Also, no more alternator belt squeal! 

Bring on the snow!

After several long and stressful months of changing spark plugs, ignition wires, and magneto caps, my Farmall Cub is up and running again!  I was able to get Leon, owner of Reliable Tractor Repair in Lebanon, CT, to come over and correct the incorrect timing on my magneto.  He also checked over the tractor generally and told us we have a great little tractor on our hands.  Who hoo!  If you need any tractor work, I would highly recommend Leon.  We can put you in touch with him if you live here in CT.

Aside from the rebuild on the magneto and the timing, I did a little tinkering myself and the tractor is looking sharp and running strong.  What follows are some photos and some commentary.

First of all, here is my helper, Liev, ready with his tools at hand.  Notice his tractor all ready to be worked on in the background.  We'll get to that after we work on mine.

So I set out to replace the entire exhaust system.  You can see the old one below after removal.  It is supposed to be six distinct parts; however, the old one has been fused together over time into one long and rusty maze.  Just thinking about the new muffler was exciting.  It sure would be a step up from the old one to which I referred to as the "exhaust-redirecting-hole-filled-tube."  Sure, it looked nice, and the rust matched the earthtones so prevalent here on the farm, but it was LOUD!

This is the engine's intake and exhaust ports after removal of the manifold.  Note my shiny new plugs and wires along with the new fuel line and in-line filter. 

I had to be very careful scraping off the old gasket.  If any pieces worked their way into the intake, it would be bad news for the pistons.

Speaking of gaskets...Check out how much was missing on the old set.  No wonder the tractor was having a hard time running.  It may have been sucking in air through a gasket leak.  Or, it may have been leaking exhaust.  At any rate, old ones=bad.  The new ones are quite a step up in the gasket department.

Below on my tool box are some additional parts that I had recently installed.  Lucky for me I got to practice putting them on again after having taken them off to work on the exhaust.  You can see the new carburetor and air intake pipe below along with a pile of tools.  I should really get those organized, but it does give the kids something to do while we work.  "Hey guys, I need a socket that is a little smaller than this one!"

I have found, while working on my tractor, that I need to acquire some new, larger tools.  I never seem to have a wrench large enough for the bolts and nuts on the tractor.  Just today I needed something around the 1" size.  Luckily, I found an old wrench that happened to come with an old table saw that a friend gave us (thanks Bruce!).  It came in handy in removing the oil drain plug this afternoon.  For, as you know, "hand tight" is only good in some applications...

Ah.  The new parts all nestled snuggly in their packages.  These Farmall Cub tractors are so popular that even though they are decades old, many parts are still newly manufactured for them.  That's nice.

Here is the manifold installed on the tractor.  I had to fit the nipple and the elbow onto the manifold and then sneak the whole thing up and under the hood WHILE AT THE SAME TIME sliding it all onto the four bolts that attach it to the engine.  Whew...That took some patience.   But, it was easier than taking off the hood, which is also the gas tank, which is filled with gas.

I had to pull out "Old Cranky" to align the fittings so that the underslung exhause pipe would point down and to the rear as it should.  I think Galileo was indeed onto something.  It's amazing how much torque you can get with a tool like "Old Cranky."  And to think, he was only $4.00 at the livestock auction. 

Check out how little clearance they provide one in accessing the bolts that hold on the manifold.  Luckily, I had the foresight to shoot lots of PB Blaster onto those bolts for a couple of weeks to free up the rust.  They came off and went back on like new (with lots of tiny, short wrench strokes...thanks to that clearance).

I do have a shop manual for the tractor.  It is a genuine International Harvester publication.  But, for some reason, they like to write confusing things like:  "adjustment and alignment will be evident upon removal and inspection of..." 

Huh?

Well, I suppose that these manuals are written for people actually trained in tractor repair.  If the prose is obscure to me, at least the expanded diagrams--with all their arrows and numbers--are somewhat useful to my untrained understanding of what is going on inside these parts.  These annotations and arrows and letters and numbers are probably just like those on the back of the 8 x 10 color glossy photographs from Alice's Restaurant.

Someone out there put a more understandable and usable tractor manual on my Christmas present list...

Well, the tractor is working great now.  We plan to use it tomorrow to plow the manure in the garden and then later on in the day to pull out some trees that I cut down to make room for our new orchard and bee hives.  Yes, bees are indeed on the way to the farm.  Photos on that later!

But wait, oh no!  I'll have to first use the tractor to reclaim Liev's loader from its precarious perch atop a pile of cedar logs.  How did he get it up there?!

I came in to look for the camera to take some photos of the little project that I am immersed in right now.  The tractor is in many more pieces than it should be.

I have the exhaust off, the manifold nuts came off like they were brand new.  I am glad that I sprayed them with "loosen up" stuff for many weeks.

I should have the new exhaust on in an hour or so.  If I can find the camera, I will post some photos of the old and new parts.  If it all goes well, there will be a shot of me driving it around the farmyard...

So one of the coolest things about having a farm is having a tractor!  We've managed to all share in its use.  When it is not being used to stretch fencing, haul manure or wood, plow snow, or pull logs, it spends its time doubling as a jungle-gym for our kids and their friends.  Many a visitor fired it up for a trip around the pasture this past summer...

Here is one of our son striking some sort of pose.

Here is Erica, my wife, pulling a log down the road.  It sure is great living on a road without any traffic!  Look at that form...

Our good friend Mose came for visit.  Not only did we put him to work tilling the garden, but we had him help capture and hold the sheep whilst we trimmed their hooves... Luckily, he came prepared with that fine hat.

The next one is my dad, also known as "Bumpa."  We were stretching fence that day.  He also came prepared with a fine hat, as you can see.

Finally, for now, here are my wife's grandparents.  They were on one of their "red-eye" road trips from VT and happily mounted the tractor for this shot.