My advice. Being that that the motor is free and seems to be in good order do this. Ensure there is coolant in motor. If coolant in motor continue, if not fill with regular water (if your area isn't cold enough to freeze right now) and inspect. You might have a leak someplace. If leak is obvious and severe IE radiator core has major hole pull and consider replacement/repair but not immediately. If coolant disappears but no obvious leaks FIND IT. It's going someplace, might be in the crankcase. If coolant in crankcase ABORT it aint gonna run for long if at all and might have issues. If no leaks are present and coolant is in radiator leave alone for time being (more than likely the cooling system is going to need attention but it can wait).
Next pull plugs and pour favorite lubricant down hole turn over and let sit overnight. Repeat at least once more.
Pull valve cover pour favorite lubricant over valvetrain while turning motor over. Ensure valvetrain not binding AT ALL AND FREE. Let sit overnight and inspect. Repeat at least once more, valvetrain must be completely free or you'll be learning how to replace pushrods possibly more. After above steps more than likely junk has filtered down to the pan.
PULL PAN. Clean out pan and crankcase walls and oil pump pickup. These are bound to have junk in them after 30 years anyways.
Pull off carb and install rebuild kit. Seals and such are probiably dried out and no good JUST DO IT. Carb kit is cheap.
Inspect electrical and get it to a point where it will run safely.
As this point you can elect to pull the tank and clean it or just rig a temporary system to get the old girl breathing. I would more than likely just rig a temp system to get her running but it's up to you. You might find the tank rusted full of pin holes and in need of major repair. If you plan to immediately hook up the air cleaner tube pull the system COMPLETELY apart and clean it. If not you will suck whatever built a nest in the last 30 years into the engine. JUST DO IT.
Replace oil filter and refill crankcase with cheap oil (you won't want to keep it in there long if you get it running).
ENSURE TRACTOR IS IN NEUTRAL. I wouldn't trust or place my life or that of anyone else on the line with a clutch of that age that is unknown. Pull starting is a bad idea as far as I'm concerned reference above comment. It's possible that the disc is seized to the flywheel/pressure plate. Give the motor a spin with the starter and try to start it. If it fails to start determine reason for failure. IE spark/fuel/compression.
Once running keep a good eye on oil pressure. If no oil pressure within 5-10 seconds of running SHUT HER DOWN. Might be a bad guage might be no oil pressure. Find out which you got. Run her 5-10 minutes at low throttle and inspect engine temperature. If radiator is gone/rotted out shut down and evaluate next step. If holding water and no temperature suspect one of two things if not both. Bad thermostat or broken guage.
You initial objective is to see what kinda shape the engine is truely in. If the radiator leaks alittle so what fix it after you determine the tractor's worth it. I'd spend as little money on it as possible, just enough to determine the condition of the motor.
30 years is a long time and I wouldn't be surprised if you find alot of things have issues. Sitting tears em up just as bad and people running em everyday.
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Today's Featured Article - Identifying Tractor Noises - by Curtis Von Fange. Listening To Your Tractor : Part 3 - In this series we are continuing to learn the fine art of listening to our tractor in hopes of keeping it running longer. One particularly important facet is to hear and identify the particular noises that our
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