More Greasy
October 3, 2007 (5:21am)51º F,
Rain, W Wind, 10 mph.
Good morning,
It started raining just after dark last night and is still rain at the moment. It has been a lot of rain too. The wind has also been up all night, quite unusual in these parts it seems. With the metal roof on the house and the wink causing a whistling sound, it really seemed like there should be a snow storm outside. Kind of an Edgar Allen Poe kind of night.
Went over to Eli’s yesterday morning and worked on the Fjord for a few hours. On the way over, I watched a Bald Eagle chewing on deer carcass along side of the road. It was in the same area we saw a wolf chewing on a deer carcass in a field this spring. Cool!
Got the steering box torn apart and looked over the tractor to order necessary parts. We really had to talk to the steering shaft a lot to get it to come out of the housing. The lower roller bearing was the cause of the steering problems having nearly fallen apart. The upper bearing, really a sleeve bearing really didn’t want to come out. In the process of driving it out, the threads holding on the steering wheel were striped from the shaft (really a piece of tubing). Eli will build up the end, then re-thread it again. Looked at the price of a new steering shaft and decided the $70.00+ for it was a bit much. Just the bearings and a new steering wheel nut were ordered.
The wiring on Fjord is really in sad shape. That will need to be re-done. Eli has a couple of wiring harnesses on hand, but the turned out to be for a newer model with a different distributor and dashboard meters. One wire too short and one wire missing to make it work. I think I just might do some rewiring on my own, rather than use the OEM harness. Ford ran the wiring through a metal tube on top of the engine, including the sparkplug wires. It always caused problems (collecting moisture and shorting out the electrical system) on the earl flathead V-8's and were the first thing to be taken off of them. The later tractors ran the wiring along the underside of the hood instead. I might do the same.
I am trying to decide if I should convert the electrical system to 12 volts from 6 volts. Not sure what I will do with that yet. Need to figure out what “accessories” I will put on the tractor. That too will determine the voltage. Most accessories for sale these days operate on 12 volts. The change over is not as expensive as replacing the present generator. That also will have some input to the decision. The starter doesn’t need to be changed for the voltage difference, but the Bendix drive is the old style and should be replaced. Lots to consider.
Looking at the prices of the various bits and pieces, I am amazed at how little some parts cost and how expensive others cost. There doesn’t seem to be that much rhyme or reason to the pricing. The small tool box, under the hood, above the battery, costs more than the battery! There is much tweaking that needs to be done, and that I want to, to Fjord, but my main goal is to get it up and operating strongly. The rest can wait until later.
I got a chance to see the front end loader too. It is better than I expected. It has a snow bucket on it, along with some tines made of what appear to be 1" square bars, about 6" apart, extending from the normal bucket portion of it. That is important when I start to use it to move logs, rocks, and like that. The snow bucket alone just won’t hack it. The color is yellow, and some rust, so will fit in with the red and gray, and some rust, color scheme of Fjord. ‘-)
Eli also let me take a couple copies of a magazine dedicated to this series of Ford tractors home to read. He also has several books concerning them. The have lots of ideas and information in them. Looked them up on the web ( http://www.n-news.com/ ), and they are also there too, so can read a least some of the material there. There are a ton of websites dedicated to this tractor series and most are very interesting and will be helpful in the future.
While is was playing in the grease, Margriet was baking bread. Two loaves were the result and what I have tasted, rather good! As long as the oven was hot, she also built a meatloaf for supper. Supper consisted of a hot meatloaf sandwich with mushroom gravy. Not too shabby! In fact, excellent. Ate too much too.
I ran out of Aleve a couple of days ago, so have not been taking any. That caught up to me big time yesterday. My hips and knees really told me they were still attached to my anatomy! We went to town to get some yesterday while the bread was rising. I didn’t think it made that big of a difference, but it sure does. Don’t think I will try that again for a while! Also picked up some hand cleaner. We have lots of it in Kewaunee, but just couldn’t reach it from here yesterday.
Time to get a-going.
In Christ My Saviour,
Chris <><
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