[AT] 1939 H

[Dave Ernst]

Fired up for the first time yesterday. Awhile back I posted about the idea I 
wanted an H and within a couple of weeks ended up with 4 of them.  Thought 
about it for a while and decided to build one and sell it for seed money to 
build the one I wanted to keep.  The 1945 sold immediately so I started on 
the 39. First the head got new guides and valves, the cylinder was extremely 
bad but not cracked. Google found Sharp's JD Parts for me which proved to be 
extremely helpful.
Cylinder went to town and the machinist was told his options were to bore 
60, 90 or 125 over,because that was what Sharp's offered in whe way of 
pistons, or bore and sleeve back to original.  After he started .1250 was 
the answer.
Cam was really junk, but I kept thinking about the advertisement in Two 
Cylinder magazine about the shop in Iowa that offered regrinding services. A 
phone call later and the cam and followers were off in the mail to Iowa. 
They offer a build up and grind back to standard, but I had this crazy 
notion so I quizzed him further and he agreed to do a "puller grind". What 
ever that means....
A couple of months later and it's together. With those big pistons and funny 
cam it sounds as if it thumps. The idle is not exactly normal and the deep 
throated exhaust sounds more like a B. I just thought it would be fun to do 
something out of the norm in restoring an old tractor.
Really don't have any plans to put it a contest, but it willl stay here and 
join the rest of the rolling inventory.
 Dave