[AT] New Old Tractor Purchase, was Plowing in Ohio/Long

[Al Jones]

Charlie, here's a picture one the way home at a Wendy's, I believe we
were near Richmond.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1030/1389121391_fa9345cb07.jpg

I'll summarize by posting what I copied/pasted from the Red Power Forum.

I found it on Ebay, 5 hrs. away in King George, VA. We had a fun trip.
This was the longest I have ever pulled my trailer and it did great.  (I
forgot to grease the wheel bearings!  It did ok though.)


The 6 volt charging system WORKS! You have to give it a little RPM but
it does indeed appear to be charging the battery.... one headlight still
works. The rear light is not original and appears to have one of the old
pancake style sealed beam lights wedged in there.

It very much has the "Sherwin Williams Restoration" going on. Paint
right over old grease/dirt in many places. The tin looks pretty good
though. Not all beat up. From 50 feet away, it looks nice.

The set screw holding the RH steering arm is in bad shape--right much
flop, but the steering gear itself is pretty tight. LH tie rod looks a
little tweaked.

It has the newer ZENITH carb. A little bit-a choke and the little booger
fires right up. It has a definate miss though, one cylinder sounds plumb
dead. My heart sank to my stomach the first time I heard it run.  But, I
think/hope the miss is a bad plug, bad plug wire, needs a tuneup, etc.
It starts up and runs too good to have more serious trouble--I hope.  In
other words, I hope I haven't bought myself a paperweight.....  It has
been changed over to IH distributor ignition--no magneto.

The touch control wouldn't work this evening and when I checked it, it
was way low on fluid--I found that there's a pinhole leak on the
pressure line where it's soldered (?) to the block which bolts to the
back of the hyd. pump. I added a little fluid and the system works fine
with no load. So I gotta get that brazed. My first fear was the pump was
bad and pumping Hy-Tran into the engine. That doesn't seem to be
happening but I'll have to keep it watched.

The brakes are good enough I can stall it in any gear. (OR should that
be: the engine's in such bad shape I can stall it in any gear?  Again, I
hope it ain't a paperweight.....  ) 

Seems to smoke just a touch at startup or when I "loaded" it with the
brakes. Maybe that's just because it hasn't been run much---or see
above! 

OH--the oil gauge--it's the older gauge with the IHC emblem on the face
instead of the IH. Did any Cub's ever have that gauge? From the looks of
things it's a '49 by the S/N but I gotta go look if it's early, late, or
whatever. Most of the codes on it are late '48 that I have looked at so
far. 

It has Goodyear tires all the way around. One front is a replacement,
but I am suspicious that the other three may be original. If not, they
are way-old. Wish they had some sorta date code I could read. 

In general, I wish this tractor could talk and tell me what it's seen
and done. As I said, all the mounting holes except the ones for the
drawbar have cork in them, except also for the two lower ones on the
clutch housing. I wonder if it didn't do a lot of sicklebar mowing or
belt work. It has the belt pulley attachment on it, but the flat pulley
is gone--it has the sicklebar mower pulley (I think) on it instead. Cubs
around here cultivated, cultivated, cultivated. And put out lots of
fertilizer at the same time. This one doesn't appear to have done as
much as that. I got it as a bare tractor--no implements, not even a
drawbar. 

I have to confess: I bought it with the idea of possibly re-selling it
for a modest "profit." It's beginning to grow on me though  ...and the
seat is actually very comfortable....

Al

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 9:52 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Plowing in Ohio/Long

Al, give us an update.  How was the trip, was the Cub as advertised,
etc.?

Charlie