I received this tractor as a Christmas present from my parents in
1999. My mom had found it locally (in Versailles, MO) and I told
them to buy it. The local FFA kids have overhauled the engine
(twice!) but otherwise, the tractor was in pretty rough shape
right down to the rusted out rim on one side and a replacement combine
wheel on the other. It had "ran when parked" I picked the
tractor up in March, 2000 and by spending a lot of money, had it done
in time for the Marshalltown, IA show in August.
This was how the tractor was setting when we looked at it on December
27, 1999.
The first thing I did was to start gathering parts. I stripped
the tractor down and sent it to my sandblaster along with a big pile of
parts. After it came back from the sandblaster I stripped the
tractor down completely to inspect everything and replace gaskets and
oil seals. The reassembly started with a transmission on
sawhorses. I bought a lot of parts from swap meets and from Ron
Stephens in Dunkerton, IA.
The engine was in good shape, except it leaked from every joint on
it. The head had been cracked and repaired a long time ago.
The parts that weren't missing were in fairly good shape, considering
the abust this tractor went through over the years. I painted it
with John Deere primer and paint. I had a lot of help from Zach,
Scott and Gabby. They are old enough now to drive the tractors
themselves with supervision.
Completed by August 2000.
I had bought so many parts from Ron Stephens that he gave me a
cultivator for my tractor. The tractor with cultivator is a real
pain to store and load, but the cultivator really sets it off. It
shows the typical use that a MT did in Iowa.
