Covid induced Ferguson TE20

[bob w]

Nice work, MM.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thank you gentlemen.
Bama, Ford and Ferguson were partners from '39 to '47 on the 9N and the 2N Fords, but they broke up in '47. Ford started making the 8N in '48 and Ferguson started his own tractor also in '48. This was the TE 20 and TO 20. Mine is a '48 TE 20, [TE --tractor England; TO --tractor Overseas]
Ya, the two old partners used each others ideas, but not because they were friends anymore.

 

[dutch]

Fords are better...

 

[Bamamav]

You can see the early Ford influence on the Ferguson. I knew they were partners but had forgotten the years. Ferguson's 3 point hitch probably saved thousands of farmers lives by keeping the tractor from walking over on itself and the operator. Best I remember, their parting had something to do with Ferguson wanting payment for his hitch design, and Henry told him to go pound sand.

 

[MercuryMac]

Dutch, I'll have you know, ----- I walked past many Fords just to get to a Ferguson project.
Dad had a Ferguson when I was a kid, so I learned to drive on it.
Bama, Henry Ford was quite a good inventor, but Harry Ferguson was a genius inventor. I don't think either one of them could get along with people, though. It's too bad. If they could have kept going along making tractors together, we would have some spectacular machinery today.

Yesterday was a day of setbacks. I had to ground one headlight better. The starter wouldn't make any noise, until I found out it also needed better ground. Both previous items were from too much paint. After I chipped off enough paint on the starter mounting bolts and bosses, I remounted it and got some noise, but not a good enough sound to actually start the engine. On our test start-ups we had used a twelve volt battery, and now on six volts -phhssth- not much action.

 

[dutch]

just kidding Mac.
Ever wonder how much of an upgrade going from hand cranck to 6v electric really was...? I guess most gain would have been frustration.

 

[MercuryMac]

Dutch, I'm actually a Ford man, and I can usually see the twinkle in you eye from here. ----- Maybe the world is flat, if I can see you from a wee bit north and quite a ways west of you.

Today I imagineered where to mount the crank and then made a bracket out of a chunk of plastic five-gallon-pail.
The tool box is reinstalled, now. I had it off to make it marginally easier to mount the voltage regulator and do the bulk of the wiring. Also, I really thought that I could hang the crank down between the gas tank and the battery with the long end hanging down behind the toolbox if the box was moved out about an inch. I couldn't quite make it work, so I looked elsewhere, like under the seat, beside the transmission. I topped up the oil levels with Lucas oil treatment to help stop any seal leaks.

 

[MercuryMac]

Another day of setbacks. As I added antifreeze to the tractor I started to hear water hitting the floor. Oh-oh, everything is tight and close on this little tractor so it was had to find the leak quickly, but it looked like the water pump gasket is broken at the bottom. I will have to take the whole front end apart again.
I had taken the starter off and sent it to a shop in town, so I thought I'd just crank start the tractor and move it out of the way. The crank was too short so it scarred the paint on the grille. The little Continental fired right up and roared. Oh-oh, as the exhaust grew thicker in the shop, I tried to figure out why the engine ran at high revs. It turns out that the fan belt is slightly too short and the generator is too close to the block, and in the road of the governor arm. Anyhow, I decided not to move the tractor to the back of the shop tonight. There are no pictures of all of the wrecks.

 

[dutch]

sorry to hear that Mac. In my experience when everything in a build goes smooth like butter, disaster will strike in the near future... that said, I think you`re on the right path...

 

[BillM]

Sorry to hear about all your bad luck MM.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thank you for your sympathy, guys. Last night I gave up and went to the house early. But then, I got some ideas.
Today I went out there, with my optimism restored. Lo and behold, all I needed was a plan and some positive attitude. I took the generator off and realized that the water pump pulley is adjustable, so if I made the upper pulley wider it would become smaller and allow the generator to lean out farther, away for the governor arm. Now, to get the water pump pulley off I had to take the fan off, inside the shroud. This operation reminded me of a brain surgeon fixing your brain up through your nose so he doesn't scar your forehead. He can do it, but he's going to grumble the whole time. That was me. Once I got the fan off, the pulley came off fairly easily. It was sorta' tricky to adjust but not impossible, so I remounted it and tried the generator on again and all is good. Off came the stuff again and I took the water pump off and discovered a bent housing on the pump. I'm trying my own trick on the housing. Sometimes I silicone something and let it solidify over night and then remount it. Most people put their siliconed part on while it's still wet and the silicone squishes out too much, I think.
Anyhow I grabbed the crank, found a chunk of 5/8 shaft, bored a 19/64" hole through it for the cross piece and welded it onto the end of the crank.

 

[MercuryMac]

I remounted the 'set-up' siliconed water pump and added antifreeze for the test. It almost passed. pic 0ne. There was one little wee leak up the side of the pump. I took the pump off again and slathered on a thin skim of silicone, and remounted it. That worked. I re-installed the pulley and lined up the bolt holes with the threaded water pump flange. Then finagled the fan back into the shroud and lined it up with the bolt holes in the pulley and the pump flange. As I was snugging up the last fan bolt, it broke. The air turned blue. This was the last straw. I started to take it all apart again. After I got the fan back out of there and the pulley removed, I reached in to the pump flange and ran my hand over the broken bolt to see if maybe I could grab it with the needle nose vise-grips. There seemed like there was enough bolt sticking out to get a hold on. I fiddled with my thumb and forefinger for a bit and it started to unscrew, so I undid it by hand. Not all of my luck is bad. I put it all back together again for the umpteenth time. Then I re-installed the generator, tightened it and rewired it. One picture is looking down behind the generator to show the governor arm in the clear. I finished building the crank longer and tried to start the tractor. No luck.

 

[DozerII]

Man sometimes they just fight ya right to the end, glad your winning the war MM. [P[P

 

[MercuryMac]

I have been looking forward to this day. On Friday afternoon I got a phone call saying my starter was fixed, so I went to town today and got it. It's installed and tested. The tractor started and I tried every gear, successfully. The brakes work. It idles and revs up. The three point hitch arms just lie there at the bottom, so that's uncool. The water pump leaks again.
The little dead tractor now runs and looks nice. [cl [cl

 

[dutch]

congrats Mac. dead hydropump?

 

[MercuryMac]

I put some Viagra in the three point hitch arms system. The hydraulics work now, but the starter is still needing a little zip. Is there 'starter Viagra'? Anyhow, as I was going to sleep last night I had a thought. This tractor has 'dependent' PTO, [dependent on the transmission, not live], so what if the hydraulic system is dependent on the PTO. I didn't have the PTO in gear, so I put it in gear on the test drive and the three point hitch sprang to life. Good show.
I test drove it in the snow for a bit and then put it away in the machine shed.
The last picture has the lift arms up.

 

[dutch]

looks great out there!

... next! ..... [P

 

[BillM]

Nice MM! These old girls with the "dependant" or "dead" systems always throw me off now that I'm used to the newer stuff. I still get suprised every time I try to stop my Farmall and the mower keeps pushing the tractor after the clutch is in!

 

[bruno]

If the arms don't go down in four hours it needs to see a mechanic.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks Dutch, It was getting dark when I took it outside so I brightened up the pictures a wee bit so I lost some detail.
Thanks Bill, I've heard about guys running into fences because of the momentum of the PTO driven equipment.
Thanks Bruno, I hadn't given much thought to that problem, and now that you mention it, I can't get it out of my mind.