John Deere Stuff

John Deere’s are a MONEY PIT! (Ya, Pops, you warned us and I quote “There ain’t nothin’ cheap about that John Deere A”!)

 

This is about a 1951 John Deere A.

 

 

 

Here’s how we bought it in April of 2006.  A stuck engine but it was all there.

 

 

Here it is TWO DAYS later.  I am the Charley Daniels of the torque wrench!

 

 

Two stuck coffee cans.  Solution: lot’s of Kroil (good stuff), lot’s of cussin’, lots of beverage, a bigger hammer, and more patience!

(For those unfamiliar with two cylinder tractors [like me 12 months ago] – those two coffee cans are 321 cubic inches of displacement!)

 

 

Here it is 4 months later.  Everything taken apart, cleaned, inspected, polished, fretted over, a second mortgage, reassembled and painted.  Thanks to Clint for helping with some machining on the governors.

 

 

A very nice traction troll 3 point hitch courtesy of the most knowledgeable fellow of I’ve ever wrenched with!  Thanks Pops!

 

 

Time to make some compression with the coffee cans.  A nice lookin’ head!

 

 

We better put on live hydraulics while we’re at it.

 

 

We’re getting closer.  Lot’s of trinkets put on… steering mast completely overhauled.  Rick!  Where are those clutch bolts?

 

 

Time to start working on the sheet metal.  Note the crumpled right fender (your left).  The flywheel cover was also crumpled, having been used in a demolition derby during its life.  Check out the final product at the end…  Thanks goes to Paul Camp for showing me the old fashioned way to straighten sheet metal: an acetylene torch, a coat hanger, a body file, LOTS of practice, and even more patience.  The final product (scroll down for pics) has less than a teaspoon of body filler as a result (no joke).  Note the custom exhaust being fabbed up.

 

 

OK, now we’re really getting close.  The fenders and hood are painted.

 

The poor boy’s paint booth:  a garage bay, plastic sheeting, lot’s of dust, a K-Mart fan, AND A LOT OF FUN!

 

 

And here are some final shots for now:  she’s ready to start!  (April 27, 2007)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special thanks to Pops Jones for all the help, parts, encouragement, and laughs.

 

The tractor was started on May 30, 2007 and it runs great!  We dialed it in and will now seat the engine on a dynamometer.

 

 

Taken over the holiday break in December 2007.

 

 

Click the play button on the video above to see and hear the tractor on the dynamometer (4 Meg file).  The A was seated on January 4, 2008.  It only produced 33 horse and 395 foot pounds of torque.  After we returned the A to the shop, we found three things wrong with the carburetor and fixed them.  If we re-dyno the A, I’ll post updated rating here.