[Farmall] one thing leads to another

[John Hall]

A couple weeks back we were straightening up the mess the rats caused to my 
clutch on my I-20. Once we got everything reinstalled and started to hook up 
the linkage, I found a ridiculous amount of slop in the pedal. Too much to 
even attempt trying to get the free travel right. Off comes the pedal to 
reveal this tractor has started and stopped so many times it has probably 
wore out 3-4 clutches. The hole for the pivot in the pedal  had already been 
filled in with brass and rebored and it had worn out. The hole for the 
linkage to connect had officially become a slot. The pin might as well have 
been a bent nail. And yes, there was a bent nail in the pedal that they used 
to hook the return spring to.

I decided to sleeve the pedal so I bored it out to fit a thin walled steel 
sleeve I made. The shaft that the pedal goes on had bad wear as well however 
it isn't simply removed. It is somehow hooked to the inner workings of the 
transmission and I didn't want to get into all of that!! I took my Dremel 
and ground off a couple of high spots until I could get the sleeve to just 
slip on. You just got to love trying to machine parts to fit something 
egg-shaped! As for the linkage  hole I welded up the worn areea with nickel 
rod and used the Dremel to make that side of the hole round again. 
Everything fits well now--just got to set my free travel.

Oh Yeah. While putting the clutch back in, dad  spotted that the fuel line 
had rusted in half. I don't mena no pin hole--it was two pieces with a gap 
in between. Don't know how it happened or when. I last drove this tractor no 
more than 3 years ago when I put it under the shed. Anyway, the original 
steel fuel line has now been replaced by copper. I did salvage the ends off 
the old line and soldered them to the new. I duplicated the loop and bends 
in the line as best as I could. Maybe when this tractor is painted in 20?? 
the correct police won't find the copper!

We'll try cranking it next week. If it does, I'm almost afraid to put it 
back under the shed. After all, it was field ready the last time I put it 
away!!

John Hall