[AT] An observation and a Ford and Ferguson question

[Steve W.]

Indiana Robinson wrote:
> 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?
> 
> 
> 

I have had the arms off both of the ones I have and didn't see any
bushings. The arms fit on reasonably tight.
Could these be conversion arms? They sell some that have cat 1 on the
tractor end and a cat 2 on the other. Plus ones that go the other way.
Maybe someone tried those?

http://www.brokentractor.com/mf-3pt-lower-arm.htm

http://agriparts.vagcorp.com/pb/wp_57a2d4bc.html
-- 
Steve W.