1951 Baird Beaver - New Front Tires and Implement Lift Repair

The front tires on this tractor are in sad shape. Holes in the sidewalls kept me from pumping them up very much. I ordered two new tri-rib tires off the net and today is the day to install them. With the wheels being a two piece design. I thought it would be a simple matter of removing the bolts, splitting the halves, and getting the new tires on. Nope. Firstly, the bolts fought me the whole way. One problem is, the head side of the bolts (screws?) have a slot for a screwdriver, so I couldn't use a wrench on that side. Secondly, the nuts were so tight on the threads that even with a vice-grip clamped to the screw heads I barely got the nuts off with an impact driver (I actually broke an adapter too). Once the bolts were removed and the old tires were off, I noticed both wheels had rust holes. Bummer.

This wheel is the worst, as there are large holes in both halves. It must have sat with a flat tire in the dirt for quite a while.

I used a piece of sheet metal removed from my Barracuda rear quarter panel as a patch.

This next photo shows the patch welded in place, and another couple holes filled with weld.

The first wheel is done, now to concentrate on the second wheel. It's not as bad, so I managed to fill the holes with weld without using any patch pieces of sheet metal. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos after welding.

Once I thought I was done with welding, I wire-wheeled the wheel halves and discovered a couple dozen more holes to weld up.... Never a dull moment with an old tractor.

As I'd mentioned, the screws and nuts holding the two wheels together were rather difficult to get unthreaded. Nine of the 12 screw heads got chewed up by the vice grips, as the heads would turn in the jaws. I used the 1929 South Bend lathe to smooth the screw heads.

This next photo shows one of the screw heads. I didn't get photos of the worst ones. This one was a pretty good specimen.

While waiting to pick up paint supplies, I decided to work on the implement lift mechanism. Someone has been messing with it. The photo below shows two of the catch notches have been ground wide for some unknown reason. I plan on filling them in with weld.

The lift lever catch is shown below. It is supposed to have a tab poking down but it's broken off. I'll weld that up also.

This next photo shows the catch welded up.

The notches are filled in.

Both parts ground smooth.

The parts are reinstalled.

I got two new black handles, one for steering and one for the implement lift.

Once paint was bought, I got things sprayed and reassembled. One inner tube has a hole in it so I have to take the wheel back apart and replace the tube. The orange color on the implement lift is the color I'll be painting the tractor. It was grey originally but that's a little too boring.