[AT] Simple lessons
Cecil R Bearden
crbearden at copper.net
Fri Apr 11 07:25:28 PDT 2014
When I was 12, Dad bought me my first tractor, a 9N ford that needed an
overhaul. I drove it from the Far East side of OKC to the then West
side of OKC. Through the center of OKC. About 35 miles. It was about
40 deg with a 20mph N wind. (typical spring weather in OK) I would duck
down in the seat to get the engine heat. We had to stop about 6 miles
from the beginning to replace spark plugs and pour in 2 quarts of oil.
Back then we had TG&Y stores, An OKlahoma Company, sort of the beginning
Wal Marts, that had everything. We bought spark plugs and a wrench to
change them and doubled the road speed from 5 to 10 mph. It took 5
hours to get home with it. I spent the summer overhauling it, The
first time out in the field, it broke a sleeve. I also found out how
underpowered it was compared to the MF 50 diesel we had. I repaired the
sleeve, and promptly traded it for a WD Allis. Then sold the Allis and
bought a MF 85 on Propane. Then bought an MF 85 Diesel. Sold the
Diesel and b ought an 1850 Oliver diesel. Now there was a real tractor!!!
Cecil in OKla
On 4/11/2014 8:28 AM, David Rotigel wrote:
> Many years from now Dean (as you grow older) you will look back on all this as simply another adventure along the road of life!
> Dave
>
> On Apr 10, 2014, at 10:06 PM, Dean Vinson <dean at vinsonfarm.net> wrote:
>
>> I'm preparing to move my 53 Super M from its and my suburban home to our
>> long-awaited little old farm in the country, and the onset of warm weather
>> makes me think I'll simply drive it the 35 miles rather than arrange to have
>> it hauled. This evening's chore was to take it down to the corner gas
>> station and fill the tank, and then change the oil once back home, and 70+
>> degree temperatures and warm evening sunlight made it seem like a simple
>> task.
>>
>> First discovery was that my battery was dead, again, somewhat to my surprise
>> since I had removed it from the tractor and fully charged it not that long
>> ago. Okay, it was probably six months ago, but in my mind it was very
>> recent. So I threw the charger back on it for a while and attended to some
>> household chores, but as sunset approached I thought I'd best get on my way
>> so I took the charger off, flipped the seat base back down over the battery
>> and bolted it tight, and cranked the engine over. Fired right up like the
>> fine old girl she is, and I chugged my way down to the station.
>>
>> Chugged being the right word, too, since last year's remnant of gasoline was
>> looking rather orange in the sediment bowl and seemed to cause the engine to
>> be undecided about what RPM it ought to be running at, or possibly whether
>> it ought to be running at all. In hindsight, I notice my factory-sealed
>> little bottle of StaBil sitting right there near the battery charger where I
>> set it not that long ago, intending to put it in the tank before winter.
>> Okay, it was six months ago, but in my mind it was very recent.
>>
>> $63.00 worth of fresh gasoline later, I climbed back up, listened to that
>> familiar rhythm of clank-rattle-rattle-squeak-click-scratch (clutch in, make
>> sure gear shift's in neutral, little tug on throttle, pull out ignition
>> switch, pull back starter rod). As always, that part sounded great. But
>> the following "click-click-silence" wasn't so endearing a tune. #@*$! that
>> battery.
>>
>> Now, I refer to this place as the "corner gas station," since it is in fact
>> a gas station and on a corner, and I like it because one of the roads that
>> forms the corner is a quiet neighborhood street that links up to some other
>> quiet neighborhood streets, one of which eventually links up with my
>> driveway. Trouble is, the other road on the corner is a six-lane divided
>> artery two-tenths of a mile from the interstate off-ramp and one-tenth in
>> the other direction from a traffic light at the entrance to the mall, and it
>> turns out I wasn't the only one who'd thought to stop at the gas station
>> this evening. I was the only one with an old farm tractor, to be sure, but
>> the fact that it was dead silent and blocking one of the service aisles at
>> the station detracted somewhat from whatever cachet I imagined I'd had up to
>> that point.
>>
>> So I left it in neutral, climbed back off, and proceeded to roll it out of
>> the way. For a 6000-pound machine, it rolls pretty easily on nice smooth
>> level asphalt, which would have come in right handy if the gas station
>> parking lot had had very much of that. As it was, I was working up a sweat
>> leaning into one of the rear wheels and inching my way along over potholes
>> and patches, when a young man pulled up in the next aisle and came over to
>> ask if I needed jumper cables. I thanked him and said yes, that would be
>> terrific, since my alternate plan was to inch my way the remaining two
>> hundred yards or so to where I hoped the road sloped down steeply enough and
>> for far enough that I could roll-start the tractor. So he hopped back in
>> his SUV, pulled around and parked nose-to-nose with the tractor, and got out
>> with his jumper cables. Then after I showed him that the battery was
>> actually under the operator's seat at the back of the tractor, he patiently
>> drove back around to the back.
>>
>> By then I'd climbed up to open the toolbox to get the big crescent wrench to
>> loosen the battery-cover bolts, only to be greeted by its distinct absence
>> along with a crystal-clear mental image of it sitting on the bench in my
>> garage where I'd set it about 12 minutes earlier after tightening hell out
>> of those bolts. Evan (as the young man was named, I later learned), turned
>> out to be more patient and helpful than I could have hoped for and offered
>> to drive me home to get the wrench. So we made a quick round trip, opened
>> up the battery box, and hooked up the cables. I realized I'd have to break
>> my rule about never starting the tractor unless I'm in the seat with the
>> clutch in, since the seat was flipped back over and the
>> jumper-cabled-battery didn't seem too appealing an alternative. So after
>> making sure it was in neutral with the brakes set I settled for the
>> squeak-click-scratch of throttle/ignition/starter rod, and the Super M fired
>> right up like the fine old girl she is.
>>
>> Evan said his goodbyes as I bolted the seat base/battery cover back down,
>> and then I hopped up, switched the lights onto Low, and hummed off into the
>> darkness. Hummed being the right word, too, since that new yellow gasoline
>> flushed the sediment bowl and flowed on down to the carburetor and made it
>> nice and easy for the engine to know right what RPM it ought to be running
>> at.
>>
>> Dean Vinson
>> (Soon to be from) Saint Paris, Ohio
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> AT mailing list
>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
More information about the AT
mailing list