Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

December 13, 2009

Old iron......

.




One day I had the tractor running in the doorway to the shed and I noticed a weird glow down under the hood. I investigated and found that the wire coming from the generator was about to burn off at it's connection to the generator cut-out (an old style of voltage regulator). This was not good! I noticed that the bolt that was supposed to be holding the wire's ring terminal was rusted tight and all the insulating plastic under it was gone. Hmmmm.....



So I did a repair that any old time farmer would be proud of.... I put a new terminal on the wire and clamped it to what remained of the attaching bolt by clamping it on with a very small, needle nosed locking pliers!! You can see it doing it's job right in the center of the photo, just beneath the cylindrical red item. You can see a couple bits of bright blue on the ring terminal, and the terminal itself is sticking down a bit below the bolt. Now it would not be good for any part of this pliers to touch anything metal, as that would short out the charging system. So I put an old towel underneath the pliers, an old rag on top and a bungee cord going from the clutch rod below on the left, up across all the cloth and down to the radius rod mounting plate on the right. This would give me a functional tractor until I could decide what to do next. Pretty crusty looking stuff in that first photo, hey? You have to remember that this tractor is 70 years old! A Ford 9N, which was built from 1939 thru 1941 (this one is from 1939). The 2N followed from 1942 thru 1947, followed by the 8N which came out in 1948. This naming sequence is confusing, and lots of people think the 9N is the newest, but really it was the first model.





Recently Ivan was doing a clean-out on his garage. He had a throw-away pile and asked if I wanted anything. There they, were.... intact, not dented up, a pair of 12 volt headlights from a Ford TO30 tractor! They would work fine on our tractor, if I ever did the 12 volt conversion on it, so I took them home and put them on a shelf.





So, the decision was easy. I would do the 12 volt conversion. This would eliminate the need for the faulty generator cut-out, let me use the lights I had acquired, make for better starting and let me use a 12 volt battery like everything else we have (the original system is 6 volt, positive ground). The two photos above are of the new conversion kit that I received last Friday evening.
I placed a coffee cup in there for size comparison. This kit has a 12V alternator and a 12V coil, the two most important items, three mounting brackets, several bolts, a resistor that I won't use, a new fan/alternator belt, and a complete new wiring harness. Woo hoo!!!! Now I can replace all those wires whose insulation cracks and crumbles if you bend them. I'll do this conversion while I'm off work the next few weeks. I'll post a photo of before/after including generator to alternator switch and the addition of the lights..........





This is interesting. If you double click on this to enlarge it, you can track the progress of my parts package from Washington state to me. Its UPS all the way. Check the Louisville, KY, connection.... twice.





A stock 6volt schematic......





A converted 12 volt schematic........






And here, my friends, is the real reason for using an actual carrot for the nose on your snowman.....


I gotta go, Carlo









.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad that the old, wonderful, Ford tractor is still in use. Good luck in you conversions. Where did you get the picture of the deer. Did that happen up there?? Lucy

yram said...

well, i don't get too much about the tractor stuff but the deer picture is wonderful!

Anonymous said...

that tractor is pretty amazing. it's hard to believe that the vehicles that they make today would never last nearly that long. guess that's why they call it "the GOOD OLD days", huh?

it really was fun "tracking" the package. I'm just glad that we didn't have to pay "by the mile". :)

Today is the first day of my vacation, and tomorrow is Gene's. I don't know what we're going to do, specifically, but it sure will be nice not having to go to work.

Merry Christmas all.
hugs ps

Anonymous said...

You lost me on the electrical stuff - I'll just trust you! But I did enjoy the tracking screen - your package also went to Seattle twice!

Kristi

Carlo said...

I barely remember the Saturday morning when Schlosky's Implement delivered that tractor. I'm guessing mid 50's??? I also remember being pretty small and driving that thing while Pa hung on behind as we plowed that little south field for planting potatoes. Lot's of work done with that thing over many years. It's 70 years old!!