The 530 is home

The seller dropped off the 530 yesterday. Spent a hour or so scraping dirt and cutting off a makeshift tool box. Played with it a little. The clutch does need replacing, but I can move it around pretty good. I found a few other things that need addressing of course. She's tired and wants a sniff of starting fluid when cold. That may be (???) partially due to lack of maintenance, ie- the fuel filter looks like it crossed the Delaware with Washington. The power steering pump whines a bit and it appears someone was adding fluid regularly. I'm not seeing much in the way of drips/leaks as far as the power steering goes at all. Could it be leaking into the engine? The range shifter wants to jump out of low range if you push it much. I imagine something is well worn, but haven't looked at the schematic yet. It runs good, but you can tell it's got a lot of hours. Hydraulics work great, but the bucket curl is "backwards" from what I'd expect it to be, ie- pushing the lever forward curls the bucket up instead of down. 3 pt works fine. Electrical is a birds nest or epic proportion! :roll: Nothing too intimidating, but still a pain to trace out. Rear tires are very, very nice. Fronts are used tires off a pickup and too soft for the job. One wheel bearing looks to need attention up front and probably the spindle bushings/bearings. Loader needs some pins and bushings and some dressing up of the welds. Oh, and that shifter pin or set screw is going to get fixed! That would drive me to drink!

All in all, it's about what I expected, not as bad as it could be, not as good as an optimist would hope- but I'm a realist, not an optimist. My impression is this tractor sat in someones yard for quite a long time (think years) before the seller picked it up. By the time the trading gets done, I might have to shell out $500 or so in cash for this. The clutch is getting done ASAP, fluids will be changed, wiring fixed, range gear repaired. Everything thing else can wait a bit. I can see doing an in frame rebuild down the road. I imagine I'll replace the steering wheel (got to get a pic of that! :lol: ), put lights in it and add some better front tires. I can tell this was a nice tractor back in the day. Now its real rough, but it's what I can swing.

I'll try to get some pics so you gurus can point me towards the right manuals.

The steering wheel isn't a vise-grip, is it? I've seen that already. An older gentleman I knew said the secret was using 2 vise-grips-for balance. LOL Good Luck with your 530, you'll really like it. Don

HA! :lol: No, it's not quite that "refined", but it's a mess. Our area of Northern NY is dirt poor and there just doesn't seem to be any tradition of maintaining tractors, or much else, in tip top shape. Use it hard and put it away wet seems to be the by word. Just having a tractor with working brakes is kind of a rare thing for me. When I see pics of some folks fancy shops here or read about people actually debating the merits of different waxes for their tractors...it's pretty amazing.

Brett, good luck with it. some time, some coins, and some elbow grease and (enginuity), you can make it new again. BTDT.
Loren

Final price after the trading got done- $250.00 cash. Old girl got most of her wiring more of less straightened out as far as can be till new gauges are obtained. Found that set screw someone mentioned on the shifter. Going to have to either helicoil the threads or go up a size. Either way the top cover is coming off shortly. The first major investment will be a decent battery! She wants to spin fast and get a whiff of starting fluid to get going presently. I'm thinking part of that might be the fuel filter or the pump. It's got to spin over pretty good and for longer than I think it should to see smoke. Probably lots lower compression than when it was new!