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Topics - GeorgeBest

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1
ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Stupid mistake
« on: May 16, 2012, 12:39:08 PM »
Last Thursday afternoon I decided to till the garden area again.
I've got a Ford 4000 (3 cylinder diesel) tractor with a tiller.
The tractor has the 10spd SOS transmission so 1st gear is great for tilling.

I had just made a couple passes when I noticed the engine RPM was dropping so I bumped the throttle to get RPM's back up and soon the RPM's were dropping again and this time it died. :(

Yep,  I hadn't checked my fuel level and ran out of diesel.

Unfortunately I have a battery/starter problem where I can't do a lot of cranking.  Usually need to hook up a charger to start the tractor if it doesn't fire off quickly.  So I had the tractor out in the garden area with the tiller sunk in the ground and a fuel system that needed to be bled.  I did put some diesel in the tank and tried briefly to crank the engine hoping that being warm it would start quickly, but must have enough air in the system that it became obvious that I wasn't going to start it in the garden.

Ended up taking my Bobcat skidsteer out to the garden to take the tiller off the tractor.

Then used the Bobcat to tow the tractor back to the shop where I can bleed the fuel system and also use the charger.  Of course having the SOS transmission the tractor couldn't be towed until I could move the drive disconnect lever to disengage the SOS transmission.  It didn't want to budge until I used a piece of wood as a lever.

Haven't had time to bleed the fuel system yet and get it started.

You can be sure that next time the RPM's drop unexpectantly that I'll shut it down quickly before getting more air in the fuel system!

Not sure what my battery/starter problem is.  It will crank fine for a few seconds and then fairly quickly slows down to a slow crank.  Doesn't seem to make any difference if I've got a second battery jumped to help it start or not.

Not sure if the tractor battery is bad or if the starter is the problem.

Actually, I've got a heavy duty new battery I just bought for one of my cars that I might try on the tractor.  If it behaves the same as the current tractor battery it might indicate the starter has a problem.

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Empire tractor
« on: April 05, 2012, 12:02:23 PM »
In August I'm planning on hauling my Empire tractor to the EDGET&TA National Show which is near Billings MT this year.
That's a 900+ mile trip each way for me.

I'm hoping to get some of the other Empire tractor owners in the NW (not many of us) to take our tractors to that show and the annual Empire tractor show is always in the eastern or midwestern part of the country since that is where the majority of the owners are.

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Hood repair
« on: February 14, 2011, 11:27:33 AM »
I'll try to get some pictures of this posted later.

On Saturday I had a guy fix my Empire tractor hood.  At some point in the tractor's life, a F-head Jeep engine was installed and a hole was cut in the hood so the carburetor on the taller engine would fit.  Same problem the Willys 4x4 people had when they swapped out the flathead engine and installed the later F-head engine.

The guy that fixed the hood for me usually works on restoring old cars and lately has been doing a lot of Porche 356 work.  He's one of those guys that can take a piece of sheet metal and make a fender out of it or any other sheet metal part.

Was quite interesting watching him work, fitting the patch piece he shaped to fit the hood then welding it in place with a torch and rod of mild steel.  When he was finished there were only a few spots along the seam where a little bit of filler will be needed.

I'm still planning on having this tractor at the California Antique Farm Equip show in April.

I realize that CA is a long ways away for the few people on this forum, but maybe Dave will make it since he's in Nevada and probably closer to Tulare than I am!

4
'round the pot-bellied stove / Last real member to join and post something
« on: December 02, 2010, 04:47:03 PM »
ATIS Discussion Forums Statistics
Threads:243  Posts:1,325  Members:21,591  Active Members:1,987
Welcome to our newest member, Sawayslespeld

I'm curious on our 1987 active members who has joined this year and has posted anything?

Would be interesting to go back through the postings this year just to see if anyone joined and have posted something.

5
ATIS General Tractor Discussion / 1948 Empire tractor
« on: December 01, 2010, 11:51:18 AM »
I've had an Empire tractor for several years.  These tractors were made after WWII using the running gear from Willys jeeps.  They used the engine, transmission, transfer case, rearend, steering, etc from the jeep.  At some point in my tractors life someone replaced the flathead 4 Willys engine with a F-head Jeep engine.

My tractor looked pretty good, but had some issues like the hole cut in the hood needed for the taller carburetor height when using a F-head engine.  This was also common to the 4x4 Jeeps when people replaced the flathead four with the F-head four.

This year I decided to find a flathead engine to make the tractor more like original.  I ended up buying 3 different Willys/Jeep flathead four engines.  None were complete or running, but I thought with the three engines I would have enough to build one good engine.

Since I don't have enough time to finish any of the numerous other projects I've started I hired a retired professional mechanic to do the engine work for me.  He's done a real nice job on the engine so far and it should be like a new engine when he's finished.

After taking the F-head out of the tractor, I decided to also have the transmission and transfer case gone through as it had some noise when I had driven it in the past.  Good thing I did as it was really worn out and I had another friend that does rearend and manual transmission work completely rebuild both units.

The rebuilt transmission has been reinstalled.
The rebuilt engine has been reinstalled and just needs a few things hooked up and we should be able to get it started.

Hopefully it will be running again before Christmas!

Only bad part is I probably have more money invested in this tractor than it is worth, but on the bright side it will mechanically be just like new.

I don't have any photos handy to load, but will try to load some later.

George

6
'round the pot-bellied stove / Christmas surprise
« on: November 29, 2010, 05:09:13 PM »
I only check this forum occasionally as it pretty much has died from neglect.

Seems that it is around Christmas that Spencer makes changes to the forums, so wondering what he has planned for us this year?

I still think this forum could be viable, but without Spencer's help it is not going to survive.  Last year he gave us the newer fancy look, but never implemented anything or made updates during the year.  Any vistor finding us would see the old dates on messages and ignored questions and pretty much rightly guess that not much is going on there.

The one exception is that the forum still seems to attract the hackers or whatever they are creating bogus user names.  Maybe this was all just a test by Spencer to build a security system to keep hackers out.

7
'round the pot-bellied stove / Forklifts?
« on: March 11, 2010, 12:07:04 PM »
A couple weeks ago I finally got a real forklift, a 5k lb capacity Yale.

In the short time I've had it I've already moved several engines around including my big 12hp Ingeco sideshaft.

Forklifts are probably more commonly owned by engine collectors than tractor collectors as the need to lift and move engines is much more common than needing to lift a tractor.  Although I've moved several Fordson tractors around with a forklift that belonged to a friend several years ago.

Just curious if others on this forum have a forklift and what size?

8
'round the pot-bellied stove / Closing in on 10k members!
« on: March 03, 2010, 04:14:59 PM »
I'm not proposing any contest to guess the date as I'm pretty much giving up on this forum.

I've been tempted several times to call Spencer again and tell him to just pull the plug if he's not going to support us.

Here's my rant :mad:

Spencer made the forums available to us several years ago.  But after getting it set up he basically just ignored the forums and did nothing to promote it.  Didn't even participate in the discussions or answer questions directed to him.

Then the end of last year he loads a new version of the forums and with a new Front Page with the promise of articles and all sorts of fancy stuff (which we didn't ask for).  Immediately after loading the new software he disappears again and doesn't respond to any of the questions that were posted after the software change.

I even called him on the phone towards the end of January to let him know we had problems and needed some help.  Said he was busy at the moment and would look at it later.  He's never gotten back on the forum or updated anything as far as I can tell.

Personally, I'd rather he set it back to the old software as at least we weren't bothered seeing a bunch of dummy articles that no one can use or update.

I think it is insane to provide a forum and to have no support for it.

I can't see continuing to post new topics in the engine/tractor areas while our host/moderator ignores us.

I'm not calling Spencer again, but maybe one of you can convince him to either get the new software working and add articles, or reset it back to the old forum only format, or just pull the plug and take away the fun from the hackers driving up the membership count.

336-924-6109 Spencer's home

9
Tools, Trades and Engineering / Well equipped shop?
« on: January 21, 2010, 10:49:50 AM »
This past weekend I got a J-head Bridgeport milling machine!  It's a 1960's model, so not very new but still much better than I had and was a reasonable price.

I've also got a 14x48 Clausing lathe.
A very old Kearney & Trecker horizontal mill with a Bridgeport J-head adapted to it.  Only paid $200 for it a few years ago and it was better than nothing, but it is too big for me and will try to get rid of it now that I have a real Bridgeport mill.

Also have an assortment of welders, stick, wire, oxy/acetylene, metal cutting bandsaw, hydraulic press, drill press, etc.

Never set it up, but I also have all the stuff for setting up a foundry.  Bought it from a high school that was closing their metal shop.

I guess I pretty much have a well equipped shop for working on engines/tractors.  Unfortunately, what I don't seem to have is the time to work out in the shop and actually get things done.  Hopefully, one of these years I'll get to retire and have more shop time although I'm sure you retired people will say that you still don't have time!

So.... to start a discussion:

What do you have in your shop?
What would you like to have that you don't currently have?

Pretty much have all the wood working tools and machines, but find even less time for woodworking.

10
ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Tractor music
« on: January 14, 2010, 11:05:30 AM »
My sister-in-law forwarded this website link to me yesterday.  I have no idea how she found it.
The webpage is in Czech so I can't read any of it, but the video speaks for itself.

http://www.bibri.net/2009/08/31/kapela-hraje-tak-dobre-jak-hraje-bubenik/

Note the microphone setup next to the tractor to pick up the exhaust sound.

11
'round the pot-bellied stove / New test message for John Hall
« on: January 11, 2010, 03:22:48 PM »
John,

Here's a new message for you.

George

12
Forum Technical Help / Problem adding photos to new forum
« on: December 29, 2009, 03:16:39 PM »
I just tried to add some photos from my computer desktop into one of my albums.

It doesn't work for me.  Don't know if it is working for other people or not.

13
ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Case 900 series
« on: December 23, 2009, 11:34:13 AM »
In the "first tractor YOU bought" thread there was mention of a few Case tractors.  Wanted to share a picture of the Case 900 that I had.  Didn't feel I could post it in the first tractor thread as it was not even in the first thirty I've owned.

It was a pretty good tractor and really sounded nice when all six cylinders were working.  Unfortunately it had a lazy cylinder and didn't run smooth until the engine had warmed up.

It also was an ether addict and first time to start each day you had to give it a little shot to get going.

Sold it last year as I've been trying to get my tractors down to a size I can legally haul on my legal trailer.

14
ATIS General Tractor Discussion / First tractor YOU bought
« on: December 18, 2009, 02:34:38 PM »
What is the first tractor that you bought, not counting ones obtained from family or relatives.

For me the first tractor I bought was a Fordson in running condition that had cutdown rims and converted to rubber tires.  That's the tractor that got me into the old iron hobby back in the 70's.

No longer have that Fordson, but do have around 9 of them although none in running condition at the moment.  Had a lot of other Fordson's pass through my ownership over the years.  Seems that they are the only old tractors that I can still afford :rolleyes:

15
ATIS General Tractor Discussion / How about posting some tractor threads
« on: December 17, 2009, 12:35:24 PM »
I think all of us have tractors.  I may be primarily an engine collector, but I know Dave also has tractors in addition to the engines he has.

Seems that we should be able to get posting going on the tractor side.

George

ps.. your entry for the 8000 member contest better be in soon as we're closing in fast on the 7700 member cutoff.

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