A Farmall Restoration Story

This is a story of my first real tractor restoration. My name is Sean Brinston and I was 15 almost 16 at the time of this.My neighbour directly across the road who I had helped with hay all the time had this tractor sitiing at his house for what I thought was 6 years. Finally I got the money and courage to ask him. I phoned him and he said it was already sold, eight years ago! The person had bought it and didn't come to pick it up. He wanted $550 cdn funds. But I only had 200 at the time. I gave him that with the deal that I could leave it there and work on it until I gave him the rest. Heres a diary of my work on the tractor.

Dec 7- I went over to the tractor and moved the metal fence that was wraped around it. I lubricated all the bolts I could find with "Liquid Wrench" I poured 10 dollars worth of diesel into the block to losten it , only to find that there was only 2 bolts holding the oil pan and no gasket. So I went and bought a gasket making kit and 12 more bolts for the oil pan. When I removed the oil pan it was solid ice. Full of frozen water. I took it across the road to my house and cleaned it made the gasket and degreased the whole thing and unstuck the 2 petcocks on it. It was too late/dark to return so I worked on my Ford dexta for the night.

Dec-8 I bought more diesel fuel today, a spark plug wrench, some more degreaser and some liquid wrench. I returned over to his hosue at about 2 and man is he a talker he kept me and my dad stagnat till about 3:30! Oh well we put the oil pan back on , and toped her up with 10 bucks of diesel in the block. Only to find a slight steady leak from the fan belt area. We then tried to move the tractor forward by pulling it with my truck. We did this because we sloped diesel all over the ground. I made sure it was in neutral and depressed the clutch while my dad pulled nothing happened it didn't move. I noticed that the left brake lever is about 4 inches farther ahead then the right, so we think it is either this or its frozen to the ground. It was getiing dark at the time so we packed up and cal led it a day.

Dec-9th- I got off school early today because of a dentist appointment so I went to TSC and bought a bag of salt to place around the wheels to losten them. I used a 20kg bag! The weather is supposed to warm up considerably with temperatures of +5 all week! This is my chance to move/ jack it up off the ground so I can move it when I get my money.

Dec10-Today after school I went over to the tractor with my dexta to see how it was coming along,I tried pulling it with my dexta, and it seemed to be pretty loose in the ground. I bet that if I use a pic ax around the wheels to remove the dirt il get it. Well later on tonight I will go with my dad and do that.

Dec 12- Today it was extremely mild for this time of year so I went to pull it out of the ruts. My little dexta just couldn't handle pulling it out, so they guy got out is ford 4400 with a loader and locking differential , and he pulled her out no prob. When we pulled her forward though , I guess the hydraulics where left on and I got a good soaking of water and hydralic oil. The rear tires belive it or not look like they still have some air in them! At this time it was getting dark so we headed home.

December-13- Today I went back over to my tractor, with a proper(or what we thought proper) Spark plug socket, and a air compressor.We filled the left front wheel and it held air! I was looking at the right and darn the rim is bent! I never noticed that. Oh well , I think with a little heat and a few taps of the hammer it can straighten it. This tire was all chewed up on the side walls, deffinitly not reusable. I couldn't belive how much higher off the ground it seemed with the one front tire blown up. I then attempted to remove the spark plugs and pour some diesel in the holes. Just my luck the socket was too big. So then we removed the hood, and the head, and were looking at the pistons again. Looks like my gasket job on the oil pan didn't hold as good as I thought it would. But it is still holding diesel . The pistons are still frozen but , I figure tomorrow I will pull out the plugs, and fill them up, and leave it till I bring it home, which should be soon. Then I am planning on tapping the pistons with a hammer and some wood, after I try to modify a spark plug into a grease zerk. That's it for today.

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