[AJD] Tractor play

Kyle Sands willys_46 at mail.com
Mon Jul 19 06:33:04 PDT 2004


Hi guys, just wanted to let everyone know how much fun I had last Friday playing with tractors.  Some of you may remember vaguely the story of my grandfather's 1939 John Deere AW and how it had been sitting up in the remote northern MN wilderness for years, dormant, in disrepair until I decided it would be fun to resurrect it.  We did so, then ice broke the block and head and we were forced to make a true "shade tree" repair with replacement parts.  Then we lost a tire (age) and it took a couple years to locate a good used 36" tire and get that mounted on the tractor - it was an interesting run getting the tractor driveable - the story is documented here: http://oldtractors.homestead.com/home.html

After all the fun we had in the wilderness, the JD was finally hauled out and transported to Gramps tree farm in central MN.  There it has been sitting basically unused for the last couple of years.  I have had very little time to get up there and do any kind of work on it until this last week.  The one problem that has cropped up is that the other rear tire has deteriorated to the point where the sidewall is starting to crack.  I noticed this last year and was fortunate enough to locate a good used 36" tire at the Lesueur, MN swap meet this spring.  The rims are mismatched with two different widths.  The first used tire we found a few years ago was not quite wide enough to seat up against the rim all the way around.  This "new" used tire was wider and my intention was to take the "old" used tire off, mount this wider tire on the wider rim, and then take the narrower tire and put it on the other side.  Well, I succeeded in getting part of the job done.  I was able to demount 
 the "old" used tire and put the "new" one on.  However, I couldn't break the bead on the original tire to finish the tire swap.  I really worked at it for awhile and almost decided to take a saw and cut the tire off.  But with my time running down before I had to leave, I decided to leave it on and just air it up so I could drive the tractor around.

That's where the real fun began - the tractor hasn't been running for at least a year.  I checked oil, poured in fresh gas, and filled up the radiator.  With full choke, I turned the flywheel over twice and she caught.  Choke off (or so I thought), two more cranks and the A was putting away!  What a great sound!  Gramps "farm" is 120 acres of pine and popple woodland with a nice system of trails.  I drove out to his sawmill, drove down to the lake, drove up and down the trails for an hour or so just having a great time.  That is the most I have driven this tractor, and it never missed a beat (I later discovered I had left the choke half on, which explained the exta puff of exhaust I was seeing).  It was pure joy just to "cruise" with this old iron - who else gets this kind of enjoyment just driving around aimlessly?

Just wanted to share that story with you.  Regards,

Kyle Sands <>< Huntley, MN
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