[AT] Tractor day

[Billy Hood]

My son and I had rebuilt the engine on the '39 H that we are building for my grandson, but needed to do the rear axles and brakes.  I had all of the seals and since Brad had the day off and the boy was out for spring break, we worked on the axles today.  This tractor had sat in a barn for 22 years and was gunky, breaks stuck on one side and seals leaked.

We broke the housings off, pulled the break drums and started cleaning parts.  Trent at 8 can scrape off grease and wash parts--he loves to get dirty and his grandmother can throw the clothes he had on today away.  We got it all down and washed and the break linings are fine to replace as well as the bearings.  This tractor does not show much wear even on drawbar hole.  I really enjoyed the day with son and grandson, but got to thinking about the day as I came into the house tonight.

I like to turn wrenches and make old iron come back to life, but part of the fun was that I was using many of the tools that I had to fabricate in order to do the work.  I used a home built(hb) puller to pull the break drums,  hb bearing press, hb jack stands, hb parts washer for larger parts (half drum over a drum with pump and oil filter).  Used torch on hb cart, welder on hb cart and welded nuts on cultivator studs in the axle housing to remove them.  I then set up a 45 gallon electrolysis bath the clean up the splined ends of the axles where they have set in the Texas weather these 64 or so years.  I have a hb polishing lathe that I chucked some parts in and cleaned up.  There is a lot of satisfaction in working on our toys, but sometimes the toys are the tools we use and have fabricated.

Thanks for letting me share my day
Bear

Now I am designing the jib crane for the machine shop with several ideas I got from my friends here.