Late last summer (2010) I was mowing with the MD when the throwout bearing broke and wiped out two towers on the pressure plate and left me stranded in the field...
I picked up an Oliver 1600 that was just this side of a basket case to finish the mowing with the intention to bring the MD into the shop and get it repaired and then sell the Oliver... The Oliver was running on 5 cylinders mostly, leaked at every seal and fitting, and had steering that could be best described as herding goats as opposed to actually steering with 3/4 turn of slop at the wheel... Anyway, it continued to rattle and huff for another 20 hours and finished the field work...
Well, the rain started... Then the mud... Then in October I ruptured L4 in my spine leaving me paralyzed in the left leg for 3 days until they could do surgery... And that little hiccup left the MD frozen into the ground out in the field...
Late in the spring when I was getting around better I decided to do a tune up on the Oliver to use it again this year because I was not going to split the MD in the near future... Anyway, one thing led to another and a whole bunch of parts, money, sweat, and four letter words later the Oliver is looking pretty good and running like a champ...
So, today I FINALLY got around to going to the field and putting a chain on the forlorn looking MD that had wintered out there and we pulled it up by the shop... No room in the shop today and I am going to empty two benches off and remove them freeing up a bay to hold another tractor (3 tractors in progress - two greens and a red)
So, decided to see if it will run after sitting outside for 8 months... Gas had completely dried up leaving some nasty looking stuff in the sediment bowl... Cleaned that out and ran a little gas through the tank and out the bottom of the carb to flush out the goop... Put a hot battery into the holder and cranked it up... After a couple of missed starts it fired off and kept running... Let it run for a few minutes and switched to diesel... Had one injector not firing for about 5 seconds then it smoothed out and it is running as I type this, popping merrily away out there... Some good old iron, that red tractor...
I will keep the group informed as we get the shop rearranged and begin to split the MD...
cheers,
denny-o
I picked up an Oliver 1600 that was just this side of a basket case to finish the mowing with the intention to bring the MD into the shop and get it repaired and then sell the Oliver... The Oliver was running on 5 cylinders mostly, leaked at every seal and fitting, and had steering that could be best described as herding goats as opposed to actually steering with 3/4 turn of slop at the wheel... Anyway, it continued to rattle and huff for another 20 hours and finished the field work...
Well, the rain started... Then the mud... Then in October I ruptured L4 in my spine leaving me paralyzed in the left leg for 3 days until they could do surgery... And that little hiccup left the MD frozen into the ground out in the field...
Late in the spring when I was getting around better I decided to do a tune up on the Oliver to use it again this year because I was not going to split the MD in the near future... Anyway, one thing led to another and a whole bunch of parts, money, sweat, and four letter words later the Oliver is looking pretty good and running like a champ...
So, today I FINALLY got around to going to the field and putting a chain on the forlorn looking MD that had wintered out there and we pulled it up by the shop... No room in the shop today and I am going to empty two benches off and remove them freeing up a bay to hold another tractor (3 tractors in progress - two greens and a red)
So, decided to see if it will run after sitting outside for 8 months... Gas had completely dried up leaving some nasty looking stuff in the sediment bowl... Cleaned that out and ran a little gas through the tank and out the bottom of the carb to flush out the goop... Put a hot battery into the holder and cranked it up... After a couple of missed starts it fired off and kept running... Let it run for a few minutes and switched to diesel... Had one injector not firing for about 5 seconds then it smoothed out and it is running as I type this, popping merrily away out there... Some good old iron, that red tractor...
I will keep the group informed as we get the shop rearranged and begin to split the MD...
cheers,
denny-o
