[AT] There are Good Tractor Days and Bad Tractor Days.

[STEVE ALLEN]

Hello, all!  
Have you ever noticed how conveniently good days and bad
days fit together?  Since the list
remains slow, let me share with you how such a drama might play out on this
episode of “The Flywheel Turns.”
Dramatis Personae:
’47 JD B.  A.K.A. Old
John.  Old John needs a new manifold
since the old one has rotted away between the exhaust ports.  Old John gave a new manifold and new studs
along with some necessary tools to my older son for Christmas last year.  This tractor has been in the family since the
mid-‘70s.
’49 JD A.  A.K.A. Big
John.  Big John has had a cracked
flywheel for about two years, now.  We
discovered this injury the last time we used him, when he began to shake and
make strange sounds.  We pulled the flywheel
cover and found significant cracks, pics of which we shared with the list.  This tractor came into the family on
Christmas Eve, 1984.
’51 JD A.  A.K.A Old
Reliable.  Old Reliable, once Dean VP
helped us with getting the right brake unstuck and rebuilt, has proven to be an
easy starter and a tough tractor, easily accomplishing all the tasks we have
used him for.  We bought this tractor in
March of ’17.
Denereth Allen.  A.K.A. Older Son.  We actually
call him Reth.  Determined to carry on
the family interest in old tractors, particularly old Deere (Deeres?).  Possesses some basic mechanical know-how and
wants to know more.
The “original” Steve Allen.  A.K.A. Dad.  Taught mechanicing by
his dad, who was an aircraft mechanic by trade.  Has read widely about JDs and used the three tractors for . . . well,
ever.  Knows just enough to get them all
in trouble.  
 
Scene One:
Setting:  Saturday, August 25th.  Two-stall tractor shed which opens onto the
field.  In the left stall is Old
Reliable.  Old John and Big John are
nestled together in the right stall (making the job in this scene harder to
do).  
Older Son and Dad finally have time and weather to tackle
the flywheel on Big John.  Older Son
decides we should use a ½” drive breaker bar to try to get the old flywheel
off.  When it proves inadequate to the
purpose, Dad suggests they switch to a ¾” drive breaker bar with 5’ cheater
pipe.  The new method proves effective;
when we get the flywheel off, two good-sized chucks fall out of the hub.  Shipping weight on the replacement flywheel
was, IIRC, 150 lbs.  No trouble believing
it.  That weight is why both of us were
necessary for the job.  I don’t have that
kind of horsepower any more :-(  Took
some fiddly work to get the crank end play set within specs—Older son is
thoroughly disgusted with my cheap dial indicator for having a weak
magnet.  By the time we got done, there
was no time to crank Big John up to test.  Darkness falls on the scene, and the tractors continue to rest.  That was a good tractor day.
 
Scene Two: 
Setting:  Saturday, September
1st, mid-morning.  Two-stall
tractor shed which opens onto the field.  In the left stall is Old Reliable.  Old John and Big John are nestled together in the right stall.
Older Son and Dad crank up Old Reliable, hook up the brush
hog, and take turns cutting the field and some of the brush around it.  Other than Dad leaving the brush hog partly
raised on one round, no problems encountered.
While one is mowing, the other is working to prepare the
other two tractors to move.  The intent
is to put Old John in the left stall where there is room to work and then
nestle Big John and Old Reliable together on the right side.  Preparation work includes airing up Old
John’s tires and setting him on his feet and off the blocks he was on (the very
first time I ever saw that tractor, I had air up the back tires with a bicycle
pump:  getting these tires fixed or
replaced is LONG overdue!).  Big John was
due for a rear end lube change.  Both
needed fuel and the sediment bowls cleaned out (Stabil only goes so far,
apparently).
When the brush hogging was finished, Old Reliable sat
resting to the west of the tractor shed.  Big John has been a cranky starter for most of ever.  We have gone through that Wico X many times.  If there has been any time between starts, he
wants to be babied.  Touch up the points,
touch up the rotor, touch up the plugs.  Anyway, we got him started, and – Wow!  He was banging!  He was running
well except for an odd but not rhythmic banging.  It is becoming apparent that the work he did
with the cracked flywheel must have caused some lasting damage.  Still, they’ve got to move, so we back Big
John out and parked him near Old Reliable.  Moving produced more untoward sounds, but not from the transmission.  
Next, we needed to move Old John.  He, too, was reluctant to start, but we had
spark and eventually fuel.  Near as I can
figure, some little particle got stuck somewhere in the newly rebuilt barb and
finally let go.  When he started, he ran
fine.  We moved him outside of the shed
for the first time since we pulled him in there about 12 years ago.  We parked him running to the south of the
shed at the edge of the field as the first step in a long-planned event.
 
Scene Three:
Setting:  Saturday,
September 1st, mid-afternoon.  South of the two-stall tractor shed at the edge of the field.  
I start Big John again and move him along side Old
John.  Not so much banging this time, but
he is smoking from behind the clutch—oil smoke, not clutch dust.  Older son starts up Old Reliable and moves
him next to Big John.  We have 3 running
tractors all in a row by age:  ’47, ’49,
’51.  Older son took some pics and some
video.  We have been working toward this
end for years.  Shoulda been a
Triumph!  But, alas! that Big John and
his ailments.
We obviously have more work to do.
 
Scene Four:
Setting:  Saturday,
September 1st, late afternoon.  Two-stall tractor shed which opens onto the field.  
Time to rearrange the resting places.  First, Older Son drives Old John into the
left stall.  It becomes apparent that the
clutch needs adjustment (no surprise—he hasn’t moved since those days some of
you may remember when I had to pull it apart and free up the transmission).
Next, Big John needs to be backed into the right stall.  He is obviously not at all happy—snorting,
wheezing, and fuming.  He stalled just
before getting to where he needed to be.  I got him restarted, moved him another couple feet, and shut him down.
Finally, Old Reliable slips in next to Big John, nose
in.  We shut off the gas, let him empty
the carb, and turned off the key.  The
afternoon falls quiet with no beautiful 2-cylinder music anymore for the day.
We go back and set Old John on blocks in preparation for
pulling the rims and tires off.  Then, we
clean up the waste oil and various and sundry tools and unused cribbing.  While we accomplished our goal, that was not
so good a tractor day.
 
Scene Five:
Setting:  Future.  Two-stall tractor shed which opens onto the
field.  In the left stall is Old
John.  Old Reliable and Big John are
nestled together in the right stall.
The Plan is for Older Son to use some jackstands to
supplement the cribbing under the rear of Old John and pull the tires and rims
off.  He is thinking repair, but they are
an odd size for a late B:  36” in
diameter.  They should by 38”s.  He’s looking for a set of used tires and rims
as new are shockingly expensive these days.  We will also be pulling the hood and fuel tank off to get at the
manifold.  Sometime after, we’ll adjust
the clutch.  Having grown up on this
tractor, I look forward to having it in operation again.
While he is doing that, I’m going to pull open the crankcase
cover on Big John to see what I can see.  If it’s bad enough, we’ll have to put him into an induced coma so we can
start disassembling his innards.   Don’t
want to do that, but . . . . 
 
Anyway, this little drama showing that there are Good
Tractor Days and Bad Tractor Days is over, and I hope I didn’t bore anyone too
badly.  As that renowned philosopher
Ralphie Parker once noted, “Oh, life is like that. Sometimes, at the height of
our revelries, when our joy is at its zenith, when all is most right with the
world, the most unthinkable disasters descend upon us.”  For just a few minutes, we had three tractors
running and driving, but disaster has apparently beset Big John.  Stay tuned to see what happens on the next
episode of “The Flywheel Turns.”
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