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Dan in CO
11-07-2007 07:44:14
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First a little background;
When I was a Teenager in the 1960’s, My Dad had a 1941 9N on our hobby Farm in Wisconsin. The farm and all of the equipment was sold off when Dad passed in the early 90’s a couple of years after I had moved to Colorado. My Son & I remember the 9N as a sturdy worker and had a lot of fun putting it through its paces hauling firewood & plowing snow. Dad & I did most of the maintenance, but when it came to any heavy work such as new sleeves & rings or anything else that required splitting the tractor, we took it to an old guy named Milt with a one bay shed who would do it for us so I never thought that doing any of the internal work on the tractor should be done by an owner without the proper tools, jacks and lifts.
Now to the present;
In March of 2007, just after I retired, we moved from a tract home in Parker, Colorado (2 stories and a postage stamp yard, you know, the kind where when you want to walk between your house and the neighbor’s, you have to turn sideways)? We moved to a single level house in Castle Rock, Colorado on 6 acres for our retirement home. By mid-Summer, we decided to get a tractor, brush hog, and back blade. The Kubota’s, JD’s etc. were way outside the budget & besides, I remembered the N as being truly a workhorse & fun as well. Since I have restored old cars before (my 1953 MG TD) I thought it would be fun to work on an “N” again.
The one we looked at first was listed on Craigslist, saying it was a 1947 2N (my birth year) with a back blade for $2,450. When I went to see it, the guy seemed really honest. When I asked him how the brakes were, he replied, “Oh, they don’t work at all”. It turned out that they only needed to be adjusted. I bought the tractor & he agreed to deliver it to my new home if I paid full price, which I did. Once I got it home & really looked carefully, I found that it had a few “issues”:
· Gas tank about 1/3 full of “rusticles”
· Fuel shut off inoperable & missing handle
· Gas line plugged nearly shut with rust
· Carburetor about ½ full of crud. Causing it to run way too rich
· Front tires cracked & leaking air
· Right front wheel rusted out around air valve
· Starter safety switch by passed with a starter on the dash (very unsafe) The starter button had been cut short and the washer that engaged the rod to activate the starter switch was broken off
· Starter switch not working
· Hydraulics dropping pretty fast when clutch pushed in
· Lots of oil leaks like around the governor rods
· Manifold rusted so badly around # 4 exhaust port that the block & head were black (Manifold had to be replaced) and rust pits fairly deep in the block
· Battery held in place with a bungee cord
· All of the wiring (including the plug wires) with many bare spots
· Right side adjustable lift arm was a “farmerized” concoction and needed to be replaced
· PTO shaft hemorrhaging oil
· No lights at all
· Steering wheel duct taped & rusted through where the spokes meet the outer wheel
· Points, condenser, distributor cap and rotor all looked original
· Plugs were as black as any I have ever seen
· No thermostat at all
· Water passages in the block so full of crud I think I only got about 1 ½ gal out when I drained the cooling system.
Most of these “issues” have now been corrected with the expenditure of a lot of time (fun time with my son) and $ for parts. I was able to find a used starter button from John Smith. The rest of the parts were aftermarket purchased mostly from YT. I am afraid to add it all up, but I would guess that I have around $5,000 in the beast now, including the purchase price and repair bills.
The confession Part;
Here are the mistakes I have made:
· Should have kept looking or offered a lot less for the thing in the first place, although I have not seen any in our area for less, but I could have found one in better shape. It looked a lot like my Dad’s 9N and it was born the same year as I was. Emotion had no place in this decision.
· Should have had a better idea of what the cost of replacing & repairing all of the problems I found & should have found before I bought it. (There have been a number of lists posted here that are a great checklist of things to look for when surveying an “N”)
· Should have done more research on the “N” forum before I even started looking at N’s (this would have given me a checklist and warning of what I might find)
Now the really big mistake;
When I realized that the hydraulics would not hold an implement up once the clutch was in, I thought that the repair would be one of those that Dad would have sent to Milt (the guy who had all of the lifts etc.) to open the tractor up and really get into the guts, so I had a local JD dealer pick it up and gave them the job of fixing the lift problem and replacing the tires. Well, $1,100 and a month later they called to say it was done & delivered it the next day. When I got it home, the lift was no different; it starts to drop as soon as you push in the clutch with an implement on it. (I sent the tractor to them without an implement, but they said they had plenty to test it with). My guess is that they never tested it with any weight on the lift. By this time, I was educated on what to look for through the inspection plate on the right side. Sure enough, there was a lot of leakage coming down from the cylinder the dealer said they had rebuilt with a new piston and o-ring. When I called the dealer on the repair work they claimed they did, they said the old piston had a hole in it. Well if it did, I wonder what poked the hole? Maybe the culprit is still in there? The dealer agreed to re-do the work and came back to pick it up last week. So now I sit here at the computer with too much time on my hands wishing I had my “N” back so I could get on with the repairs that I know still need doing. Dam it, I wish I had done the cylinder rebuild myself. I could have saved a lot of money & had a lot of fun doing it!
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