[AT] Still in the M business

[Roy Morgan]

On Jul 18, 2009, at 12:25 PM, Dean Vinson wrote:

> I'd decided it was time to sell my 1950 Farmall M, ... decided to find
> some other way to help my son with a car.  Just too honorable an old  
> machine
> to sell.

Dean,

Three cheers for you and your M.  The '51 IHC W-4 here is quite a mess  
compared to your M, and yours is an inspiration to see.  I have some  
30 years of neglect to undo on mine, though it seems to run pretty  
well and it has cut most of the weeds off the 19 acres we have here.   
I think I'm putting the initial polish on the PTO gears because  
there's no indication that the PTO was ever used.

I walked through the one of the uncut weed patches yesterday and  
discovered a rock half the size of a refrigerator that I can now  
avoid.  LUCKY!  We are working on a deal to get a (very) small manure  
spreader and the W-4 will manage that just fine, too.  Now, if I can  
stumble on a front bucket to put on instead of the simple plow blade,  
I'll be able to muck the barn with less trouble.

We've decided that the sort of ugly bush we don't like by the kitchen  
door might be an English Boxwood and worth lots of money, so we won't  
pull it out like you did your stump.  We had plans to, though.  There  
are some volunteer trees around the place that might get a steady tug  
from the W-4 and be better off for it.

One problem we need to solve is that the seat is too far back from the  
pedals for my 5'-1" wife to manage it.  She's got way more tractor  
time (on an 8N) than I do, so that's a shame.  Gotta figure out what  
to do about that.

At a sheep dog trial recently I met a fellow who used to sell IHC  
tractors for quite a few decades, and he tells me there are a couple  
of grease fittings at or near the water pump I should not miss.  (Can  
you tell me where they are?)

The fellow two doors up the road grew up on this land and is a welder  
and body shop guy.  He's going to help me by  welding the exhaust pipe  
back onto the manifold.  (Anyone have a usable manifold they don't  
need?  I may need one eventually.)  'Seems as if having a village  
helps a lot in keeping one of these running.


Roy Morgan
k1lky at earthlink.net
529 Cobb St.
Groton NY, 13073
Home: 607-898-3607
Cell: 301-928-7794