I had wanted a small tractor to take care of some chores on my small acreage.
I liked to lines of the 8N and the fact that parts are readily available.
I had saved up some cash and went to a local auction and there she was, A 1948 8N. She was pretty clean and had new carb, front wheels and new rubber all the way around. They started it up for about a min and shut it down and the auction began. I got myself my first tractor and I was very excited about it….Until I got it home.
Houston We Have A Problem.
I could only throttle up from the last inch on the throttle quadrant so I pushed on one of the governor levers and found all my power. After tracing it back I found that the throttle control lever at the bottom of the control arm had been turned way back and tightened so the tractor never could be revved up. Upon correcting the linkage I now had power all the way through the quadrant.
The motor starts knocking after you get past idle.
Compression test reads 90-90-90-30 cold & dry. After adding a cap full of oil to pistons it reads 110-110-105-60 cold & wet.
The one that’s bad is the one out front near the fan.
Now lets skip to part B of this story.
I had originally wanted to buy a 8N from the guy I buy my alfalfa from but he wouldn't give me a clear answer or amount, but two days after buying the first one he shows up wanting to sell. With the money gone I ended up trading a rifle for the tractor. The next day he drove it to my house and the deal was done.
The following day I took it out for a drive down the gravel road and found that it can’t be run in third gear and certainly not forth gear because the front end starts shimming back and fourth so bad ya just got to stop. Right side was the worst so I tried to stop it by putting my foot on the drag link. With just about standing on it I could minimize it some but still stopped and dropped down into second and limped it home.
Unfortunately the man failed to tell me the steering was shot, it has no breaks with the rear end leaking like a sieve and the engine oil pan is leaking and the hydraulics only stay up for a few min when I turn it off.
So here are my thoughts and my questions.
I need one of these to work for the next year, blade the snow, blade the driveway and cutting grass on 5 acres.
The other one will be put on blocks so a restoration can began.
Funds are very limited to a couple hundred a month until one is restored.
Question
Which one would be faster to get into service.
Do I go after A with the engine problem to get it running?
Or do I go after the one that runs but is leaking all over the place with no breaks or steering?
Funny part it, they were both supposed to work just fine and they don’t.
And I ended up with two 1948 8N’s in the same week with no planning on that on my part.
I liked to lines of the 8N and the fact that parts are readily available.
I had saved up some cash and went to a local auction and there she was, A 1948 8N. She was pretty clean and had new carb, front wheels and new rubber all the way around. They started it up for about a min and shut it down and the auction began. I got myself my first tractor and I was very excited about it….Until I got it home.
Houston We Have A Problem.
I could only throttle up from the last inch on the throttle quadrant so I pushed on one of the governor levers and found all my power. After tracing it back I found that the throttle control lever at the bottom of the control arm had been turned way back and tightened so the tractor never could be revved up. Upon correcting the linkage I now had power all the way through the quadrant.
The motor starts knocking after you get past idle.
Compression test reads 90-90-90-30 cold & dry. After adding a cap full of oil to pistons it reads 110-110-105-60 cold & wet.
The one that’s bad is the one out front near the fan.
Now lets skip to part B of this story.
I had originally wanted to buy a 8N from the guy I buy my alfalfa from but he wouldn't give me a clear answer or amount, but two days after buying the first one he shows up wanting to sell. With the money gone I ended up trading a rifle for the tractor. The next day he drove it to my house and the deal was done.
The following day I took it out for a drive down the gravel road and found that it can’t be run in third gear and certainly not forth gear because the front end starts shimming back and fourth so bad ya just got to stop. Right side was the worst so I tried to stop it by putting my foot on the drag link. With just about standing on it I could minimize it some but still stopped and dropped down into second and limped it home.
Unfortunately the man failed to tell me the steering was shot, it has no breaks with the rear end leaking like a sieve and the engine oil pan is leaking and the hydraulics only stay up for a few min when I turn it off.
So here are my thoughts and my questions.
I need one of these to work for the next year, blade the snow, blade the driveway and cutting grass on 5 acres.
The other one will be put on blocks so a restoration can began.
Funds are very limited to a couple hundred a month until one is restored.
Question
Which one would be faster to get into service.
Do I go after A with the engine problem to get it running?
Or do I go after the one that runs but is leaking all over the place with no breaks or steering?
Funny part it, they were both supposed to work just fine and they don’t.
And I ended up with two 1948 8N’s in the same week with no planning on that on my part.