Taken at Early Days Temple Tractor Show - 1997
Left to right: Goodwrench (aka Jim Pfrommer), Benny Wood, Tw Cook, & Jim Becker
This is Benny Wood's Minneapolis-Moline. I believe it is very much the same as Maggie
I tried to move Maggie's wheels in
to get her on my trailer, but I couldn't budge them. The place even let
me use their torch to get the nuts and bolts loose. Still, even when we
lifted the back end of the tractor and dropped it back down, the wheels
stayed rusted solidly to their shafts. The people at the dealer used
the big heavy duty boom on the Oliver to just lift first the front end
and then the rear of Maggie on to the trailer. When they dropped the
back end down, it wedged tightly between the trailer's side rails. When
I tried to yank Maggie off the trailer back at the ranch, I was using
Jeep in 4WD low range. All that happened was that Gus and Tanya got
dragged backwards. Finally Goodwench got in Gus and put the brakes on,
and with a bit of a yank, Maggie rolled off the trailer. Later
Goodwench steered as I towed Maggie out to the shop. By the time we got
to the shop, the back wheel had not only broken itself loose; it had
moved all the out to where it was just about ready to fall off.
I'll need to get a battery for this
tractor first thing. I don't know whether to get one of the big ones
like is in it now, or to use two auto batteries. After I have juice,
I'll be able to find out whether it is the starter or solenoid that is
bad.
10/17/98 I put an old but
charged up car battery in Maggie today. Opening the gas valves was
really hard as they were starting to freeze up from being out in the
weather. Though the ground was still pretty muddy, I got Micah to tow
me in the Jeep. If I let the clutch out in any of the first three
gears, the rear wheels would just lock and skid along in the mud. When
I finally put her in 5th gear, I was able to get dragged a
fair distance with the engine turning over. I never heard a hint of her
trying to fire. I later noticed there is a choke on the LP gas carb,
but the cable is frozen with rust. I'm not sure if there was even any
spark. I've now got another battery charging up so that I can try to
get her to turn over with her own starter.
6/20/99 Figured it was
about time to try starting Maggie again. Put an old battery on the
charger. I pulled off the distributor cap and cleaned off the contacts,
rotor, and points. The gas valve turned a bit easier this time. The
switch has positions for: Off, Start, Dim, Bright, and Tail light only.
I put it on start and dropped her into third gear. The ground is very
dry now and I got Micah to tow me with his 4x4 Dodge. When the clutch
was left out, the wheels were still a bit reluctant to start turning,
the left even more so than the right. As it was towed along it really
sounded as if it might even be running, but it never pulled ahead and
slackened the chain any. I had tried moving the throttle lever back and
forth so hard, I actually even bent some of the linkage. Finally I
tried moving the switch up to where it was labeled Dim or Bright. As I
moved the throttle forward, in the direction I would have considered
less fuel, she fired briefly with a throaty growl It seemed to run
better the farther forward I pushed the throttle, so I reached my left
arm in front of the steering wheel and held it forward. When it sounded
like it was really running, I pushed in the clutch. I had that huge
grin reserved for when something that hasn't been run in a very long
time finally starts up. We unhitched the chain and I drove it a bit in
second gear. Got a little braver and tried it in third. Fortunately,
the cattle seem to be pretty used to tractors running around them and
they didn't get too excited. All the while, the bolts tightening the
adjustment on the left wheel are still loosened and it's moving around
a bit on the axle shaft. I drove back up to the shop door and jacked
the back wheel up. One half of the collar still appears too frozen to
the axle shaft, so we couldn't move the wheel in. Removing the radiator
cap, no water could be seen. I decided to drive on over to where a
sprinkler was running from a hose. Just before I got within reach of
the hose, Maggie's engine died. It had run probably almost ten minutes
by this point. Micah hitched the truck back on and towed over to where
the hose would reach. As the water started going into the radiator, the
leaks became immediately apparent. It seems the whole bottom tank is
pretty well rusted away. As I continued letting the hose run in, it
started sending powerful steam back. We towed her back to in front of
the shop door. There is a small piece of tubing that runs into the
propane regulator, and that appears to cracked as well, because water
dripped out there as well. I had been concerned that it seemed a bit of
water may have gotten into the oil, so I took advantage of her being
warm. The drain plug was a 9/16" square and we couldn't get it out.
Fortunately the plug was in a plate held on by 4 1/2" bolts which did
come out. Removing this plate also allowed a filter screen to drop down
and out as well. While cleaning the plate in the parts washer, we
discovered another 1/2" bolt buried in the goo over the drain plug. My
mind scanned for the horrible things a bolt dropping out of the engine
could mean. Turns out this bolt simply held the filter screen up to the
oil pump. By removing the pre-cleaner from the top of the air cleaner
and the radiator cap, we were able to lift the hood up off over the
exhaust pipe. I loosened the upper and lower radiator hoses. By moving
the nut back and forth, I was able to get the first of the two main
radiator bolts loose. The second easily sheared off. I could see there
was a plate under the radiator and grill, but it wasn't clear if that
was to come off with the radiator and grill or not. Prying a bit each
way, we lifted the radiator and grill off, leaving the plate behind.
This plate covers the steering box area where a worm gear turns a
sector to move the main spindle that drops down through the pedastyle.
The reason for the small crack and leaking lube became immediately
clear to me. The rusted out radiator had allowed the plate to rust
through, allowing water down into bottom of the pedastyle. The water
probably froze at some time, causing the small crack. There must have
been about 4 cartridges of grease in there. Using a putty knife I
lifted a fair amount out and into a coffee can. Pouring a bit of diesel
fuel into there got the leak flowing nicely. I used a patch panel from
the floor of Truckster
to temporarily cover this area. The cap from a spray paint can nicely
sealed the exhaust manifold and the cut off bottom of a GatorAid bottle
sealed the air cleaner. A large coffee can covered the coil and
distributor. Micah used the wire wheel on the bottom of the exhaust
pipe and it's clamp. The pre-cleaner assembly is submerged in the parts
washer and its time for me to start looking for some parts.
