I ordered new manifold and muffler off of ebay and they should be here next week.   The manifold that is on the tractor now is interesting (if manifolds can be interesting) since the tractor was originally designed to run on distillate.  There are two fuel tanks, a one gallon tank to get the engine running and warmed up and then a second 17 gallon tank for the distillate.  Once the engine was good and warm the fuel line was switched over to distillate tank.  So what does this have to do with the manifold?  The manifold for a setup like this has a heat control valve in it and the manifold is designed so the hot exhaust gasses pass around the intake manifold to heat up the incoming distillate fuel mixture so it properly vaporizes and burns efficiently.  The muffler on the other hand is more straight forward.  Currently there is no muffler and funny enough, the operators manual includes a muffler in the "special equipment" section.

Tonight Fenn and I did a compression test to see what kind of shape the engine is in.  Unfortunately the test results were a bit puzzling to me and didn't really line up with what I expected.  Since this is new territory for me I posted the test results and a question on the antique tractor forum I frequent (YTMag).  It's been an incredible source of information over the years so hopefully I'll get some sound advice on this one.  As far as the test goes, all four cylinders had 65 lbs of pressure plus or minus 2 lbs.  Consistent across all cylinders is good but consistently low.  The tester I'm using isn't a great tester so that may be an issue.  Then I squirted oil in each cylinder and tested it again and all were at 75 lbs.  Some difference between the wet and dry but not sure if the difference is enough to worry about.  I had expected the difference between the wet and dry test to be significantly different as Frank had said it burned a lot of oil and I thought the rings were the culprit.  So we'll see what the folks on the forum have to say.......

To keep things interesting here are a couple of pics from the farm.  Yesterday when I went to the barn to feed the horses I pulled a bale of hay off the stack to find a clutch of eggs from one of our wondering hens.  She apparently liked the privacy.  The other pic is of our pony Pippin. 



Is a pony 1/2 horse power??

It was a good news bad news day.  The good news is that the carburetor kit finally arrived so I could finish the work on it and get it back on the tractor.  Last weekend I drained the old gas out in case it was bad and put in some fresh.  With the overhauled carb back on the tractor I was going to crank it over but first had to figure out which way was "on" on the ignition switch.  A quick check with a tester answered that question.  With the switch on I hit the starter button and she turned over but no pop.  Tested for spark and there was none so checked out the points and discovered they were corroded so I cleaned them up and re-gapped them and cranked it over again.  This time it fired up almost immediately.  A little adjustment to the idle screw on the carb and she was running pretty good.  That was the good news, actually really good news.  Some smoke was coming from under the hood which turned out to be some cedar tree needles that had accumulated on the top of the manifold.  I took the hood off to clean it off and noticed a couple of gaping holes in the exhaust part of the manifold.  That was the bad news:  add a manifold to the shopping list.  So with the needles gone and the hood back on and air in the front tires it was time for a test drive.  Wow is that seat high in the air!  The Fords seats are down low between the back wheels but the H has its seat near the top of its much taller rear tires.  After the initial shock it was pretty cool driving it around up there and the view is great.  So aside from the manifold discovery it was awesome getting it running again.  Probably not that big of a deal really since it was running some time last year but all the same I was pretty pleased.

There's a matching hole on the opposite side

Just for comparison here are a picture of the '52 Ford 8N, notice how low the seat is. This was me last weekend moving the chicken coop to a new location.

That's Morgan riding herd on the hens

 

 

The new old grill arrived today and it appeared to be in good shape as advertised!  It has dzus fasteners to attach it to the chassis so if information on the web is correct it came off an earlier model H.  Apparently after serial number 49750 the grills were attached with four screws, which is how the present grill is attached.  Also, the serial number of this tractor is 111816.  As promised here are a few pics of the new grill: 

 

That's Agate checking things out.  He turned 33 this month and is still hanging in there (along with his back - and no, he's not ridden anymore).  The grill is just sitting in place and hasn't been attached - I just wanted to see how it looked.  Pretty good I'd say and it still has an open "mouth" at the bottom for Renae and Lani to feed it.  I'll get the insert that fits in that mouth at some point down the road. 

The carburetor kit hasn't arrived yet.  Hopefully it will tomorrow as I'd like to take a crack at getting her running this weekend.  For anyone wonder what the heck a dzus fastener is, here's a picture:

Now that the tractor is home the first thing I want to do is get it running to see what kind of shape the engine is in.  From talks in the past with Frank I’m guessing some major engine work will be in order.  He had commented on the amount of oil it burns so new rings and sleeves are likely in order and if I tear into it that much a complete overhaul may make sense.  But, first things first.

When we were picking it up I had tried to start it only to find that when the gas was turned on it just ran out of the carburetor (float stuck open?).  Obviously it didn’t start hence the reason for winching it onto the trailer.  So last week I ordered a carburetor overhaul kit from Mcdonald carb and a new set of spark plug wires (copper core and cloth coated like the originals) from Brillman.  Tearing into the carb it was clear it wouldn’t run in its present condition.  The screen that filters the gas coming into the carb, for example, was loaded with rust.  Hopefully the gas tank is not the same, I’ll check that later.  I also needed to get a new air pre-cleaner tube that goes from the carb to the air filter as it was missing.  Surprisingly I found one on eBay (gotta love eBay).

"New" tube from ebay

Carb cleaned awaiting rebuild kit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting a little ahead of myself on the project I also purchased a front grill off of eBay.  It looked to be in good shape but with some rust which shouldn’t be a problem as long as it’s not rusted through somewhere.  That set me back $120 but it cost an additional $68 to ship the darn thing from Connecticut.   Here's a picture of the present grill...a bit beyond repair.  I'll post a picture of the replacement when it arrives.

Also, here's a pic Stephanie took a few days back of our hay cutting.  We finished baling on July third.  Steph described the hot weather during haying this year as punishing.  Well put!

Cutting hay with the 1959 Ford 861

 

 







In 1942, a then 18 year old Frank Mobius purchased a new Farmall H tractor to work his 132 acre farm in Lake Stevens Washington.  Sadly in the spring of 2015 at the age of 91, Frank passed leaving behind his wife Bette and daughters Renae and Lani.  My wife Stephanie is Frank and Bette's niece and years ago at a family gathering I had expressed my interest in Frank's old tractor.  Following the funeral service, the very tired beauty was offered to me. 

This will be the story of its restoration.............


The first step was to somehow get the tractor home so to see what we were up against on May 24th Stephanie our son Fenn and I drove from our home in Enumclaw up to Lake Stevens, about an hour and a half drive, to see what we were up against.  The tractor was parked under an old cedar tree and was accessible with a trailer so we just needed to wait for the ground to dry out to avoid getting stuck and we'd be in business.

On Father's Day, June 21st, we drove up with a trailer rented from Bunce in Puyallup.  I had trouble finding a trailer that was wide enough to accommodate the width of the rear tires.  It wasn't running so some chains and a couple of come-alongs and we were able to get her loaded.

Fenn was a great help in winching it onto the trailer.  With the tires loaded with water and calcium it's estimated weight is around 5,000 lbs.


Cousin Renae

Aunt Bette bidding the H farewell

Luckily we made the drive home without any major problems and got the trailer back before the rental yard closed with 1 minute to spare.