Long overdue tractor maintenance

 You might remember my 1952 Farmall Super M:

Pictured here with the '98 Ford 1920

Over the last couple years the transmission in the old Super M has been getting progressively louder, this isn't unusual in a machine with straight cut gears. At this point I've owned the machine going on 20 years and I've never serviced the transmission. Dad thinks it's not been serviced since the 1960s when my great uncles quit farming.

The transaxle holds 13 gallons of gear oil so first I acquired the replacement oil which brings up a fun northern Maine story. It's been a little hard finding 80w90 gear oil in the kind of volume I need so I called up MPG (Maine Potato Growers) who had plenty in stock at the best price I've seen. Dad and I headed over but it turned out the computers were down. Well that's no problem, the guy took dad's phone number and said "I'll call you tomorrow." and that was it, we left with $130+ in oil with the promise that tomorrow we could pay for it...

Anyhow it was with some trepidation that I removed the drain plug:

I was greeted by 11 gallons of tar...

Yeah, 11 gallons out of what should be 13. I hadn't run the machine since November, in retrospect I should have started it up and run it around to warm things up.

With the worst drained out I put in 4 gallons of diesel fuel for a rinse cycle. I drove the machine around the yard a little and drained it again:

That stuff was clear only 20 minutes before

This time 6 gallons came out so I suppose I got 12 gallons of the original crud.

I left it sitting open to hopefully get some more crud to drain. I should probably do another rinse cycle but really with new oil we should be ready for another 50 years.

As an aside the factory recommended drain interval is yearly...

Old tractor update

 You might remember my 1952 Farmall Super M

Pictured here with the dirty old Ferd I've had the Super M since 2002, it's been in the family a lot longer than that, probably back into the 1960s.

The engine was rebuilt at some point and usually runs really well but this year it's been hard to start, was only firing on 3 cylinders (of 4) until it warmed up and was down on power. We've had trouble with the electrics in the past and after running some Seafoam gas additive through it I figured that was the place to look. I'd done a basic tune up, cap, rotor, plugs and wires about 10 years ago when we rewired and converted it to 12v. Certainly we were due at least for plugs.

It needs a new thermostat too, the one in it is stuck open and it never comes up to temp. While shopping the thermostat I somehow lost my mind and also bought a Pertronix Ignitor electronic ignition conversion. During a rainy day a couple weeks ago I set out to install it.

This is the brains of the operation, well brains and hall-effect sensor all in one. Spin a magnet past it to trigger spark events and Bob is your mother's brother as they say.

These are all the bits that came out, breaker points and condenser, and the electrical block to ground same. On the left is one of the crimp on ends for the new system and the two nuts that hold the hall-effect sensor in place.

Everything installed, in this picture the magnet pack (the black thing in the center) isn't pushed down all the way, I couldn't get the rotor all the way down with it like this and thus the cap wouldn't fit. I like that I couldn't get it wrong...

Think the plugs needed replacing? I can't imagine why, they were only 10 years old. The old ones were Autolite 386, the new ones are 3116, a slightly hotter plug recommended for 4 cylinder engines.

Here is the system installed. The white thing in the foreground is the resistor for the coil. I hate it, I'll be looking for a coil that works with no resistor. Notice how the wires that come out of the distributor loop back in to the coil quickly. A lot of the installs I've seen online they leave those wires long and flopping, just waiting to get caught on stuff. I mow a lot of brush, those would get ripped of quick.

So how does it work?

Great. The tractor fired up on the first revolution and sat there idling perfectly. It's quieter, there is less vibration, it runs super smooth. I haven't had a chance to really work the machine with this installed yet, it rained the day I installed it and we went home the next day but I'll get back up there soon to give it a real load test.

I really wish I had thought to shoot before and after video, the change is dramatic.