A Generator Story

Last night, a Fed-Ex box arrives, and in it is the generator, a couple gauges, and a key switch. Not having anything better to do, I decide to paint it this weekend. But, before I do that, I should take it to the generator man here in town and have it tested.

So, at 8:00AM this morning, I'm at the generator man's place of business, and I bring in a box with an 850 generator and the 9N generator and I show the fella my pictures of the 9N I'm working on. He remembered me well from last summers' efforts of fixing the electrical on the tractor so we start a jawing, you know, shooting the breeze, yammering away, and his friend Mike, the fire truck repair gut, is with him behind the counter, and asks to see the pictures of my tractor.

Lo and behold he asks if it is a 9N. So the next thing you know, here are three of us looking up catalogs on old generators and he restored a 9N a few years ago and he works it in his woodlot. Then Andy from the tire store walks in and the four of us are talking about Model A's, old trucks, generators and tractors.

Mike asks about my hood, and wants to know if it is steel...and I say yes, it is a steel one, then I tell him about cast aluminum hoods and the first 700 9N's with those, and I ask him: "by chance, did your 9N have a cast aluminum hood?" ...and he goes, "yeah, it did, but I took it off because it a had a couple cracks and I tossed it in my heap out back.

And I says to the fella (excuse the grammar, but it's part of the story you know...) do you still have it? and he says yep I sure do. So we agreed that when this 4 feet of snow finally melts were a going a rummaging through his pile to find that hood. And, I plan to call him to find out the serial number too... But, let's put it this way...he has a lot more interest in his tractor now more than ever, and I suspect I'll be getting a call from him sometime soon telling me about his low serial number 9N.

And the generators? I picked them up this afternoon, and they tested fine and are in good condition. Thank you Crutch...I ower you one -9N'er

>>"I have a 9N generator I just took off my tractor, you can have it...and someday, I may need a part that you may have, so I'll just give you this generator..."<<

Maybe he'll ask you for your aluminum instrument panel someday. :-)

I was just reading some info out of my complete collection of the N-Newsletters. In the summer of '89 issue, Robert Brown says the hood is cast before #4000. So, does he mean there were 4,000 aluminum hoods? How acurate would his info be?

Wish someone kept better records.

Tyman

Depending on the book and author most say the first 700-900 9N's were aluminum hoods. And i've been thinking about "cast" aluminum hood? were they cast? or were they sheet alumiunum formed, and molded? Someday, I hope to see one of the cast aluminum hoods up close...and maybe, if this fella isn't telling a story, I will see one, once this 4 feet of snow disapears in 6 months.