Just have the front badge and the opening part of the hood to bolt back on, and of course getting the linkage for the governor sorted out.
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Since most of what I have left to do on the Ferguson is rattle-can painting, and it really should be dry and above 50 degrees to do so–and since we live in a hole with only an open carport on the north side of the building…well, it will be April before I can finish. But you can see above I got a lot done, and the machine looks 100% better. It doesn’t stand up to “concours” level inspection, but then again it will be bouncing around the field acquiring scratches and such. Hopefully I can avoid major incidents and keep up with a touch-up brush until I get tired of that.

All that remains, really, is to assemble and paint the hood.

So far I’ve added the following to the list in the previous entry as I discover things wrong:

• New manifold, my old one is cracked
• The front pivot pin and axle bushing need to be renewed–they are really worn
• The front wheel bearings on both sides and the bushings in the front uprights

I found a lot of the old governor in the sump, broken into nice little pieces–that might explain why it didn’t work!

Quite an expensive little overhaul, but the tractor should be ready for another good number of years afterwards–and without looking like it was pulled from a scrapheap.

My shipments of goodies will be:

• Nearly everything mechanical from Yesterday’s Tractors, out of Port Townsend. I use their forums a lot and their prices are in line with other suppliers
• Most of the remainder of the mechanical items from tm tractors, a seller on eBay. I’ve ordered from him in the past and had good service. He had a few things YT did not.
• All new wiring and electrical stuff (minus the starter and generator, which seem in OK condition) from Agri Services in New York. They use original materials and their harnesses are indistinguishable from what was originally on the tractor. We’ll see, but I have high hopes.
• A new used disk for one of the rear wheels, which is currently incorrect. This came from Helm’s Farm Machinery in South Carolina. They were helpful and if YT wasn’t handy, I would have ordered the bulk of my stuff from them.

The remaining big spendy item is going to be new tires. I’ll be picking those up at the local Les Schwab, who will mount them for free, with a small fee to transfer the fluid in the tubes from old to new.

Add in a visit to Autosport Seattle to do the machining on the axle bushing and swivel pin uprights, plus some welding from Mark at Britsport, and my summer fooling around with cars budget is exhausted. I must say I enjoy working on the old machine, though. Pretty nicely engineered and built to last.

Finally, I’ll be buying a new propshaft for the mower, it no longer has a shield and that’s an unnecessary danger that can be fixed for $100 or so (a shield by itself is as much as the entire shaft with shield). I don’t want myself or anyone else getting caught up in the rotating shaft…there is no escape if you get caught.

I have my trusty Ferguson apart to fix a few “niggling” details and to give it a quick cosmetic restoration.

The mechanical list includes:

• Rear axle seals
• Repack rear bearings
• Adjust brakes
• Front left wheel bearing
• Steering column bushings
• New governor
• Carb rebuild
• New exhaust
• New lift arms
• Adjust valves
• New hoses and belts
• Replumb oil pressure gauge
• New right rear wheel
• New tires
• New wiring, voltage regulator and starter relay

Cosmetic:

• New fenders
• Headlights and work light
• Repair battery box
• Repair grille lower panel
• New grille
• Repair right foot board
• Repair hood
• Paint (a quickie spray bomb job)

That’s probably enough. Not a complete restoration but the tractor should work better and be way more pleasing to the eye when I’m done!

My car project this summer is going to be giving old Fergie a face-lift. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just a bit of a dress-up over her current condition, which is pretty scruffy. I have a new pair of fenders, a new wheel center, and a few bits and bobs…and a couple of cans of paint. New tires, too. The machine will still need a full restoration at some point, but for the short-term this will be great.

This is what a carport should look like. Reggie, Fireball, and Fergie. Old Yeller sits outside, knowing that come winter he will take the place of the two fair-weather machines. Or something like that, anyway. Bike is running OK, though the blasted carb is really a piece of junk. Time to try a different one, me thinks.

The PTO seal on the fergie was leaking a bit, so last week I drained the 8 gallons (!) of hydraulic fluid from the machine and changed it. I was feeling very proud of my efficient work, and only noticed at about gallon seven of the refill that the new seal was leaking like a sieve…way worse than the old one.

My short-term solution? Park the tractor on a steep hill to prevent the expensive fluid from pooring out. Today, a week later, I pulled the PTO shaft and examine my work. (I always buy two of any seal I replace on anything mechanical so I have a spare in case I screw up.) Well, it was leaking because I essentially destroyed the new seal putting it in last time. Doh!

My spare is on, installed correctly, and seems to be working fine. Took about fifteen minutes, by the way…

I mowed another couple of acres today up at Pony Hollow, and I’m beginning to believe I’ll have to rebuild the hydraulics on the tractor. They work but they also don’t have a decent range of adjustment, which suggests either wear or bad seals.

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The Fergie was delivered today, and I had a pretty good time trying out the brush hog. I clearly need more work on that part, but the tractor runs well and only has a few mechanical items that need attention (that I know about now, anyway!). That seat is definitely not original and needs to go away…soon!

This is what my Fergie is supposed to look like, and will perhaps one day. Nice thing about tractors is that the finish was never that good to start with, and painting it yourself will return results that will be the equal to how they were delivered.