[AT] An observation and a Ford and Ferguson question

[Indiana Robinson]

I bought this TO-20 Ferguson and 8N Ford and have noticed something I
had not really thought about much before. While we have always done
most of our own tractor work here on the farm and have used these
types of tractors for a very long time I keep noticing funny little
bits of missing information in my knowledge base.
Our tractors and machinery have all lasted a very long time. Stuff
does wear out and we rebuilt a good number of engines, some of the a
couple of times just because of the huge number of hours running they
got over the years. We "do" occasionally break something but very
rarely. Son Scott and I constantly look at old stuff and ask "How on
earth did they break that???" We do work carefully but we also try
very hard to just not be abusive with stuff. I have a friend that
works like he was killing snakes all of the time (well, he still was a
few years ago). His stuff is all broken up in strange places and bent
all out of whack from things like turning into implements at sharp
turns and hitting stuff like stumps and rocks. I don't suppose he has
ever owned an "old" front tire... :-) He usually hits something and
tears a hole in a front tire in a few years or less. I have some front
tires that are 30 years old.
Now the actual observation... While I have read the books on the
little Ferguson's and Fords and have done work due to engine wear and
stuff like replacing a worn clutch or like on my 8N I owned some years
ago I had to do repair on the rear axle seals, there are a lot of
little things on these two I bought that I will need to work on that I
never had occasion to even touch on the ones we bought new. One case
in point is the pins in the rear housing that hold the front end of
the lift arms. We never had to touch the lift arms or any of the links
on ours in the past yet I see all kinds of breakage on the used
tractors I look at.
Now for the question... Both of these tractors have a huge amount of
play due to the hole in the ball at the end of the lift arm being much
larger than the anchor pin. It looks like there should be a bushing in
there similar to the ones used to drop from cat. 2 to cat 1 but
smaller. I have not found a listing for any but the slop is just
silly. Is it possible that the lift arms are replacements and the ball
hole too big or is there a bushing that I am not finding and they are
both missing on both tractors?



-- 
Have you hugged your horses today?

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com