[Farmall] O-12 Progress

[Karl Olmstead]

I did burn a little wood to heat the shop up in the mornings, John, but we 
had T-shirt weather by lunch time last weekend.

The 'real' projects include setting up twelve 5-shelf shelving units in my 
storage building and sorting all my tractor parts onto them.  I bought a 
trailer load of parts and two complete F-12s last month, and needed to get 
my parts collection organized.  That's pretty well done now, so I'll go back 
to my main project, which is another '36 O-12 that I've been working on for 
over a year.  That's the one that I've been going through the front end on, 
boring out worn bearing surfaces, pressing in new bronze bushings, and 
making new pins.  The whole front end has been renewed, except for tie rod 
connections on the steering knuckles.  I need to build a fixture to hold 
them perpendicular to the mill table so that I can accurately bore and bush 
the connections.  I also need to track down new wheel bearings and seals.

Then I can decide what to do with the back half of the tractor.  At a 
minimum, it'll need new seals and some brake work.  The engine, which used 
to run, is on my stand right now.  I need to open it up and look for 
something that is clanking when I turn it.

On a slightly different topic, does anyone have any information that would 
indicate that early O-12s were painted red instead of gray?  I have a friend 
with a low-numbered O-12 who says that they started out red.  Every one I've 
examined has gray under the red....  and I've looked at quite a few!

-Karl
-----------------
> Ok, no fair!!!! Either its too warm where you are or you got too much 
> spare time on your hands!
>
> And what do you mean "eventually"? Got another project in the shop 
> already? At least thats my favorite excuse.
>
> John Hall