Good news!  Apparently the pieces of bearing that were found when we changed the differential oil were remnants from an earlier failure that Frank had fixed.  This is one of the few times I was happy to have done a lot of work for nothing.  The cover was darn heavy so I used the boom lift and the Ford 861 to help with the lifting.  Here's the cover, you can see the gear shift fingers sticking out the bottom.

 Here are a couple of pics of what it looks like inside the belly of the beast.

Some mighty big gears in the rear end

The Transmission

Upon inspection all the bearings appeared to be in place and intact with no more "spare" bearing parts laying about.  After cleaning things up a bit Fenn helped me put the cover back on.  It was a bit of a rush since a storm was coming and I didn't want to have everything open to the elements and of course it was a challenge to get the finger lined up with the gears and the cover had to slide down perfectly level or it would bind on the pins that aligned it.  We poured in the six gallons of oil and called it good.  That storm left us without power for about eight hours.  That was all yesterday; today I started putting everything back together.  Got the gas tank and the steering all back on as well as making a new breather tube for the air cleaner.  This was the tube that goes from the head to the air cleaner.  The existing one had a couple big holes in it and wasn't attached to the air cleaner because the part of the old air cleaner was missing (why I needed to get a replacement).  The old breather tube was made of steel but I made the new one out of copper which will not last nearly as long but was much easier to make.  The last thing I need to do is put on the "new" ampere meter box and connect it and the starter button then she should be running again.

Last week before the weather turned bad Stephanie's sister Stacy and her daughter Brittany came over for a pony drive.  Pippin was a gentleman and treated everyone well.  He seems to really enjoy his time driving.

Stephanie and Stacy

Brit driving the great beast

Stacy and Brit

The last post was actually from a couple weeks ago, forgot to hit "publish" so it's dated August 26th instead of August 9th.  Since then we've been taking parts off so we can get into the transmission to see if the bearing parts were left over from a previous failure that's been repaired (I hope) or from an existing problem that needs our attention.  To get into the tranny the seat, the steering column, and the gas tank came off.  Of course there was a learning curve to all of them so next time it will go much faster.  Today Fenn and I took off the belt pulley gearbox that sits on top of the transmission.  It simply unbolted and lifted off but it was darn heavy.

Fenn removing the belt pulley bolts

The belt pulley is just what the name implies; it's a pulley that is powered by the tractor and when  a belt is attached it can power any number of contraptions from sawmills, to threshers to peanut washers like pictured below.  This was a picture I found on the web.  You can see the wide belt going from the belt pulley on the tractor to a pulley on the peanut washer. 

Probably something Jimmy Carter was familiar with.........

Here's a picture of the belt pulley after removing from the tractor and a picture of the gears below.  From the looks of the gasket, it appears Frank has been in here before.  Hopefully that's a good sign.  We'll see tomorrow when we lift off the transmission cover.

So I posted the picture of the metal parts that I found in the bottom of differential case on the YTMag forum and the consensus was as I suspected; the parts were from a bearing.  One person had an interesting comment: Where's the ball bearings?  Good point, they should be in there still at the bottom of the case.  I need to get a magnate to slide in the drain hole and see what else is in there.  Additionally the consensus was to open it up and see what's going on in the transmission.  It's possible that the pieces remained in there from a previous repair that Frank may have done but that's probably wishful thinking.  Unfortunately getting into the transmission is no small task and will involve removing the seat, the steering column, the gas tank, the belt pulley and then remove a large heavy steel cover plate.  The first thing was to get all the rusted bolts loose related to all these parts so I was back to several days of spraying penetrating oil.  Today I was able to get everything loosened but the bolts on the cover plate were a real challenge as about half of them were very rusted and not their original size or shape.  Going down in socket size and switching between metric and standard sizes, pounding each socket onto the bolt when I found the right size allowed for a good grip on the bolt and its eventual removal.

You can see the loosened bolts here.  Under the steel plate is the transmission.

I'm not sure when I'll get to removing the seat, gas tank, etc., but since this isn't yet a working tractor time is a luxury I have for once.

Keeping an eye on EBay I found a few needed parts and since there were no other bidders the opening bid won.  So sometime this week the mailman should be delivering an Amp Box, and air cleaner and the cap that goes with it.  I was very happy with the price but shipping cost more than the parts - still a good deal.  The parts are coming from a guy in Wisconsin that is parting out an H.  Here's a picture of the Amp Box that I'll be replacing. 

I'll try to still use the existing face plate since all the ones I've seen for sale have not only the amp meter but also a dial below it for the lights.  This one doesn't have a hole for the light dial so apparently the tractor was not purchased with that option.  I hope to use the amp meter from the one I purchased if it works and then the box it goes in since this one is all corroded around the edge where the faceplate fits on (can't really see it from this pic). 

Here's a couple of pics from this year's hay crop.  The baler is a New Holland 271 that I purchased sixteen years ago for $400.  It took a bit of work but has been a pretty good baler for us since we only make about 600 bales a year.  It's one my newest pieces of equipment being built sometime between 1961 and 1963.

That's Eclipse wishing his neck was a bit longer

Got the new manifold and muffler on and beside dropping and losing a nut and having to go to town for a replacement it all went on just fine.  Today Fenn and I were going to change the oil in the differential.  The first challenge was figuring out how to open the fill plug.  It's located at your feet when driving and has a big square recess so you need something big and square to open it.  Here's what it looks like:

The recessed area is about 3/4 inches and I didn't have anything that size so I went to the hardware store and bought a plug that had the male version of this and with a little grinding it fit and by grabbing that with a pair of channel locks I was able to spin it open.  Here's the plug:

So far so good.  To drain the six gallons of oil from the differential there are two plugs; one below the PTO and the other by where the belly pump is supposed to be (it's missing from this tractor). Expecting there would be a fair amount of old crud in there I first poured in about a half gallon of kerosene and drove around for a bit to loosen things up.  Fenn pulled the first plug near the belly pump and the oil that came out didn't look to horrible, a bit of water but that was about it.  When he pulled the rear plug a lot of water came gushing out then some oil.  I'm guessing there was maybe four gallons total we drained.  When the rear area was finished draining I looked in the hole and saw something so I stuck my finger in and pulled out a bunch of metal pieces (crap!).  This can't be good.  The pieces look like they were part of a bearing.  I'll post the pics on the Yesterdays Tractor Magazine website and see what I can learn before replacing the oil.  I was hoping to not have to get into the transmission but that may now be in the cards;

The new manifold and muffler installed .... much quieter

In anticipation of the new manifold and muffler arriving, last weekend Fenn and I took off the old manifold and finally this week the new ones arrived.    The manifold nuts holding on the old one were very rusted and I was concerned the studs would break off when trying to remove them so for the previous week or so I'd spray each with some penetrating oil.  The family got a chuckle when I'd tell them I was heading outside to put some penetrating oil on my nuts.  Anyway, three nuts came off and three studs came out of the block with the nuts tightly rusted to the threads.  I went to Tacoma Screw in Kent this week and picked up new studs to replace the three that came out.  The old manifold was in remarkably bad shape.  Here's another picture of the back side.  Not much exhaust was coming out the stack.

No wonder it was so loud 

Here's the new manifold and muffler that arrived.  Today I'll clean off the manifold and put some hi-temp paint on it.  I expect the paint to burn off the exhaust portion but hopefully the intake portion will stay cool enough to hold the paint.  We'll see.

Last weekend was really tough, we had to put down Agate, our 33 year old swayback horse.  In his younger years he was a competition and then schooling horse.  We bought him when he was fifteen and being retired.  He was a great riding horse that you could hop on bareback after not being ridden for a long time and he was a perfect gentleman.  Over the past few years his age was catching up with him and his back began to cause him problems.  Finally last weekend he began losing coordination in his back legs and was having a lot of trouble standing.  The vet came out early Sunday morning and said he wouldn't improve so we made the right but very difficult decision to put him down.  Eldon our neighbor that afternoon came over with his backhoe and we buried him out in the back of our hay field.

Rest in peace old friend, you will be missed.