[AT] new duties

[John Hall]

Spencer, I doubt in todays farm economy one could justify a building 
like that, a pre-ordered metal building would be much cheaper. I could 
fill it full of bales every year and doubt I could ever come close to 
covering the cost of a wood barn.

Regarding the Case. A lady gave it to my father. How could you go wrong 
with an offer like that? Well here is how. The tractor was halfway up a 
hill in a cinderblock building. It had been there so long one of the 
rims was eaten up by calcium chloride. We hired the local Deere dealer 
to haul it home, but first we had to scale the hillside and drag it 
down. I say scale becasue it was so steep the 4020 Deere couldn't make 
it up the hill in reverse without a running start. Undoubtedly one of 
the strangest locations to build a shed, did I mention it overlooked a 
river? Anyway, we got it in and got it running. Must have been smoking 
bad so dad put in a set of rings. I believe we ordered them and gaskets 
from Central Tractor--don't think they are around any longer.  Engine 
uses babbit rods and all the shims were removed, so I flat filed the 
caps to tighten things up a bit. No we didn't use plastigauge or 
anything else, just stuck it back together. 25 years and a few hundred 
hours later it ain't knocking or smoking. The radiator leaked bad so we 
went to Fitts Salvage in Cascade Va and got another. Also got a rear rim 
off a Farmall--made a little different but bolted right up.

The fuel tank had 2 compartments. It was leaking between the two so we 
somehow hacked away the gas starting portion. so we could fiberglass or 
somehow repair the leak. Somehow it has held all this time. I know, 
quite a butcher job on our part but nobody around here then or now would 
put any money into one of these machines. The front tires were 
practically new, although old--made by FISK. The rear tires were shot. 
Helped a buddy put a set on the rear of his Deere A he was restoring and 
he gave the old ones to dad. Now those are dry rotten and coming apart. 
Been keeping an eye out for another CHEAP used set, no luck so far. I 
can't see putting $500 in tires on a tractor that would sell for $400. 
Some time later the magneto went kaput. Case mags can be a little 
pricey, so the guy at the mag shop told me unless it was a perfect 
restoration, he would just run aftermarket/another brand. So we put on a 
H4 magneto--no modifications required. I must say this is the fastest 
cranking tractor here. Drove it for years with a bad spot in the starter 
gear that got worse/larger every time we cut the engine off. I finally 
told dad enough was enough and ordered one. Built a couple "legs" to 
hold the engine while we split the machine. Worked well I might add.

I need to pull the disc brakes and clean them up. A couple years ago the 
AT List helped me figure out how to salvage the brakes on my Deere 
combine. Somebody came up with the idea of buying a dedicated toaster 
oven, putting the brake discs in a pan of speedi-dri and baking them for 
an hour. In the meantime, the parts that couldn't easily be remachined , 
I ground down any perimeter ridges with a small disc in a Dremel. Did 
likewise to the transmission surfaces. After perimeter ridges were gone 
I hand sanded with coarse paper where the discs would run. If needed I 
cut out the grooves on the discs themselves. The center pcs were taken 
to work and put on a surface grinder. They had warped quite a bit 
actually, took an hour to grind them back in our our wet grinder. Would 
have took 3x's as long using a manual grinder. Anyway, if it will stop a 
combine, it ought to stop this tractor.

Anyway, thats a little story on the machine. One other note, everybody 
that learns to drive it has trouble with the gears---It shifts 
left/right instead of front/back. And then there is the stomping the 
left brake thinking its the clutch pedal.

Spencer, glad to hear your daughter is OK. Amazing how we can suddenly 
become allergic to stuff. A 60 year old guy I work with suddenly became 
allergic to bee stings a couple years ago.

John Hall


On 7/3/2017 7:09 PM, Spencer Yost wrote:
> First off: great picture John!  Wish I had a barn like that; but boy does it take money to build something like that now, even with sawmill lumber.  My dream and my pocketbook disagreed, so my barn is quite a bit smaller with a lot less headroom in the hay mow.
>
> I have never driven one of these Cases, but I did rebuild the engine for one. It was for a fellow who used to be a list member back in the 90s. This is before wrote I wrote the books or anything. I haven't talked with him in probably close to 10 years but even 10 years ago he said it was still running like a top. I could not imagine driving that thing. Looks like more work than I wanted to handle.   The last time I was up there we were still doing the 15 minute warm-up and cooldown's for the head bolts and I never drove it.
>
> I bring it up because there is an interesting story attached. They had horses, so I brought my daughter to ride horses with his wife and children on one of my visits.  My daughter had ridden horses many, many times before and was an accomplished rider at eight years old already. But for some reason on that trip she developed a deadly allergy to horses.  She was a quarter-mile away from the barn when suddenly she couldn't breathe. His wife led her on a fast gallop back to a neighbor - who was a pediatrician .  He knew what was happening, administered EpiPen and that saved her. That rebuild trip was interrupted by a ride in the ambulance to the hospital. To this day she can't even be in the horse barn without having taking Benadryl first, and she can't be close enough  to breath dander  at all.  Very weird that she developed that after being around horses for several years
>
> There but by the grace of god go all of us.
>
> Spencer Yost
>
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