Smoking...Test Some Additives

The 8N has been doing some work around the yard.  I traded an old straight pipe which ran under the tractor for one that aims up.  The tractor had a minor miss on one cylinder which got much worse the more I ran it.  I have been testing additives just to see if they have any effect on it (I expect they wouldn't but the tractor seemed like a perfect test subject since I am rebuilding it soon). 

The first additive I tried was SeaFoam.  Since it only took half the can to treat the oil, I used the rest to treat the gas.  It did not solve the miss and the tractor continued to smoke the same. 

I also tried Mystery Oil both in oil and gas.  It seems to make the tractor smoke different (more but different smell and consistency).

As for results, I will say that when I inspected the plugs, cylinder 1 had plenty of crud around the tip so I am not sure if that was a result of the SeaFoam (which was in much longer) but I expect yes.  Here is a picture of the spark plug...

So I plan on servicing the block and ordering an engine rebuild kit depending on what I find in there.

At the same time I plan on welding up a bumper and brush guard for the front.  A very small oak tree leaned against the grill after I backed over it and nudged my grill and radiator, pushing the radiator into the fan blades.  I have been so careful not to drive forward over anything but this proves that when clearing brush with a tractor, anything can happen.

Hood, Front Fenders and Grill...

Today was a roller coaster of a day.  We will start with my mission to add an inline fuel filter (knowing that the gas tank still has rust in it) and I have learned that there is no simple way to add a tubing fitting to a flare line.  I will have to do some creative thinking to see if I can still manage to add the cheap filter so I can replace them regularly at least until some of the rust works its way out of the tank.

Next I spent Sunday trying to repair the severely rusted front fenders.  I wet sanded the hood after the rain fiasco.  I got everything ready for a coat of paint Monday morning and was hoping for assembly Monday night.  All did not go as planned.  After wet sanding I cleaned the hood with a degreaser as recommended by the person behind the paint counter where I bought all the paint.  This was a mistake.  I should have wiped it down with Acetone like I usually do.  After a few swipes down the hood I noticed some really bad fish-eye finish.  I grabbed a rag and soaked it in Acetone and cleaned all the fresh paint off.  I wiped down the other areas I sanded and painted the hood for a second coat.  The fenders turned out as well as expected since I didn’t make them perfect.  I had a feeling they would get beat up someday, I didn’t realize it would be today.  Nothing seemed to fit so it took some beating and bending to get the front fenders to match up with the grill.  Of course I was then missing a critical pin on those fenders to fit into the grill.  I made it work with a bolt tightened into the grill and decided I would put a hole in the fender side to receive the bolt.  I welded a nut to the outside fender (good bye paint finish) and assembled most of the parts.  

Here is where the 1948 Ford 8n sits.  The fenders line up pretty well with the brackets on the front but the radiator cap would not fit.  I have added 2 layers of a high density rubber but it is still not setting the radiator high enough to clear the top of the hood.  I will need to add some spacers and buy some longer carriage bolts to mount.  The hood and fenders are sitting off to the side until I can get some spacers and raise the radiator.  I will hit the parts place and pick up some new steel fuel line and make some pretty bends up and over the engine to the sediment bowl.

Reassemble and Ride...

More progress on the 1948 Ford 8N this past weekend.  Saturday I spent the morning at Acme in Sanford picking up some fasteners to replace the severely rusted ones I removed with Vise-Grips.  After spending $6 on a bag full of stainless fasteners and some steel, I began assembling all the cleaned and painted parts. I mounted the new radiator, attached the dash plate and console.  I attached the battery box and made a wood bottom to set the battery on.  I may make a rubber one later but since I had a scrap piece of thin plywood almost already cut to size I decided that would work and I placed an old battery I had for the boat in there.

Saturday was also spent putting the starter back together.  A few lessons learned: Make sure you press the bushing in far enough that it doesn't rub on the grooves in the starter shaft.  Since my rear plate (think rear of tractor) had a crack I tried to press the bushing into the good half.  I had to press it in more to make it clear those grooves to it ended up in about the middle.  If you have the right sized bushing and your plate it not damaged you would press the bushing to the outside edge.  After clearing that up we had one operational starter.  Too bad the starter solenoid was bad so that would have to wait until Sunday.

I drained and replaced the oil with 20w50.  I put in the new oil filter.  I drained and added the 90w Mineral Oil I purchased from NAPA to the transmission.  I installed the radiator and hoses (putting a thin coat of Teflon pipe compound to keep them from rusting more) an used some new all stainless pipe clamps.  I filled the radiator with Anti-freeze and distilled water.

We attached a temporary tank to the dash and hooked up the fuel line.  My dad and I hot-wired the starter and cranked it up.  We ran it much longer than last time so it had a chance to warm up.  The flat head 4 cylinder has a unique sound to it especially when there is no exhaust pipe.

Sunday I attached the air cleaner, attached the new starter solenoid from a 1970's ford.  I think the original should be a 3 pole but mine is a 4 pole.  I will add another page talking about wiring the tractor later.  We wired in the new key ignition and the push button.  Once everything was ready we attached the temporary gas tank again and started it up.  This was the first chance I had to drive it so it was time for a road test.

We first adjusted the carburetor now that it had an air cleaner to give proper airflow resistance.  I may also add another page talking about carb adjustment later.  I put it in gear and pulled out of the shop.  Under load it sputtered a lot so we continued with adjustments.  Eventually it ran pretty good.  I tried all the gears and pulled it up the hill.  I will say that 4th gear really moves compared to the others.  It is definitely a "get home for supper" gear.  It did smoke once it got warmed up and the oil got thin.  I will probably first try some Seafoam as I have read a few posts saying in some cases it works to help clean and free sticky rings.  I will also check compression to see if any of the cylinders are real bad.

That's it for now.  Next I need to work on fixing the front fenders to support my hood.  So stay tuned...

Painting Gone Bad...

This weekend was a busy weekend for the 1948 Ford 8N, tons of prep and painting.  All of my parts arrived, one large box at a time.  The hood was here early and the grill, radiator and rest followed.  During the week I picked up some paint from a local paint shop.  I purchased an epoxy primer and I believe a polyester 2 part gray for the hood.  Since I had already exceeded my budget the red paint I chose is a much lower quality than the gray.  Because of that I decided to paint the gas tank in the gray.  Saturday I finished some body work and prepped all the surfaces for priming.  Saturday afternoon I shot some primer on the hood, grill, gas tank, and spot primed the radiator.  The rain held out despite some dark clouds but the humidity was a little high.

Sunday was different.  We rolled out the tractor and I cleaned basically the clutch housing and all the surfaces I will be covering up with parts (battery box and dash) and applied some phosphoric acid to all the rusted surfaces.  I also readied the fan and radiator mounts since they were accessible.  Then I mixed the good paint.  I have never sprayed a high quality paint so I will admit there was a learning curve.  I sprayed the inside of the hood (very heavy along the bottom rail since it was not easy to hit).  One side of the gas tank looked great as did one side of the grill.  Then on to the top of the hood since some dark clouds were rolling in (which were not there 10 mins ago).  I hustled on the hood and payed the price.  Two runs and one was right on the top ridge.  I knew I needed to hurry so I rolled it flat knowing it would probably leave marks on the bottom rails.  I sprayed the rest of the top and as I made the final 2 passes drops began to fall from the sky.  In the coming weeks I will be wet sanding and applying a second coat to the hood since mother nature needed to sprinkle for a few minutes.

After the rain cleared the sun came back out and so I primed the tractor body section and a few other parts.  Let that dry for about 15-30 mins per the instructions and then sprayed the red.  The fenders even got a coat of primer since I overshot the mix by a few ounces.

Aftermarket Hood

Ford 8N Dash

Ford 8N Seat

I also took apart the starter and found that the brushes were hardly worn.  The bushing was not in the front plate and I suspect that it was the reason for the locked up condition when we brought the tractor home (pinned in the flywheel).  I am heading to a bearing shop this week to see if I can pick up a new one to press in while I have it torn apart.  Some new grease and hopefully next weekend we can start putting things back on.

Ordering Parts...

So I ordered some parts last night and I should be heading to Apopka, FL today to pickup and order a few more.

I ordered a radiator and hoses, hood and starter rebuild kit from  http://www.ytmag.com/parts/

I am heading to pick up the rest of the parts I need from http://www.dmtractorparts.com/

This weekend I will probably get into some bodywork, cleaning and painting.  I just wanted to post those links for anyone shopping for 8n Parts.

Steering and Shifting Problems Under Control

This weekend we continued to work on the 1948 8n although now it has become a mixture of '48 and '52.  Dad had a 1952 he picked up for parts to keep his '51 running.  It was time to salvage from the old boy.  I checked the radiator but it's got too many holes in it.  I also need the hood but you will have to wait for some pics of that beauty.  I torn down much of the '52 and put my '48 parts back to replace what I borrowed.

The steering box on the '48 was in bad shape,  there was way too much up and down play in the steering shaft.    Steering felt tight on the '52 so it was spoken for.

A trick I read online came in handy.  Remove all the bolts holding the housing in place.  Then to remove the ball joins connected to the pitman arms, place a wood block behind the pitman arm where the threaded nut goes.  Grab a large hammer and give the pitman arm a few whacks at the joint.  This pushes the pitman arm towards the tractor and pops the ball join out using the treads.  After a little cleaning and primer and red paint it looks pretty sharp. 

Next it was time to address the shifter problem.  The shifter pin was sheered off so the shifter spun in the socket.  If you recall from the previous post my complaints about finding 4th gear, this was part of the problem.  So I removed the cover and all from the '52.  Here I checked the neutral safety switch and it didn't seem to work consistently.  In the end my cover was in the best shape so I swapped out the shift lever and starter button.  Cleaned and painted both and here is the progress so far...

No that is not "Factory Ford Red" but since this will be a workhorse I am not worried about it.  Now it's time to make a parts list.  I need a few odds and ends but for the most part the '48 is coming together.  It might be a few weekends before I get all the parts ordered and delivered so stay tuned.

Until next time...

My Wife's First Impression

Saturday was the first time my wife has seen the tractor.  I think she's happy I have a project and has seen me work on things before so her imagination has been prepared for projects like this.  I still have a feeling that she was not impressed.  Whats worse is that she met the '48 after I had removed many of the parts.  I felt it necessary to inform her that many of the parts were scattered around the shop area so I had actually purchased more tractor than she saw.

It's alive...IT'S ALIVE!

Sunday was our first attempt at making the ’48 run.  Let's start by examining the current state.  As promised here are a few pics...

 
We started by removing starter since that was not working.  As I have read, it was essential to remove the oil filter housing to get proper clearance for the starter.  It was also not easy to get it to clear the valve for draining the water from the block.

Here are a few things we removed:

• Generator
• Air filter
• Homemade hood
• Gas tank
• Voltage regulator (no longer will be needed)
• And the old wiring harness (most of which was not being used)
• Pulled the spark plugs to inspect
• Removed frequently damaged and repaired original front bumper
• Radiator and hoses

 Finally we got down to business.  Using another running 8n (’51 I believe) we pulled it in the field to see what was happening.  Pulled the plugs and checked for spark.  None was present.  Towed it back and cleaned the points and built a homemade crank for it.  Replaced some wiring and rewired a switch as the kill switch.  Cranked it over by hand and “bang” plenty of spark now.  Poured some gas down the fuel line and filled the bowl and took it back to the field.  Put it in 4^th (which is not as easy as one might think but we’ll cover that another day).  After a few sputters and some playing with the choke, it fired up.  I let it run for a few seconds and I hit the switch to cut it and we towed it back.

I feel great since the engine should be in good working order and shouldn’t take much work.  The plan is to start picking up the bare essentials to get it to a working condition (radiator, starter rebuild kit…) and then eventually save up for the engine rebuild kit.

Here is how she sits at end of this weekend...

Well, until next time…

And so it begins...

Yesterday evening I picked up my newly acquired 1948 Ford 8N Tractor.  I picked it up in Oak Hill, FL for $350.  I am the third owner, and was handed the original owners manual and sales invoice.  The tractor was purchased October 7th 1948 for a purchase price of $1,320.  Below are pictures from the posting on Craigslist, since it was dark when we arrived home I do not have any better pictures yet.  Those will come soon.  The bush hog pictured did not come with it.