1951 Massey Harris Pony

I could go on and on about how I need to stop looking at want ads for tractors, but we all know how that goes. So, without further ado, may I present the newest addition to the herd, a 1951 Massey Harris Pony.

The above photo shows the tractor sitting in its resting spot for the last who-knows-how-many-years. The engine is stuck (noted by the previous owner), and he said it hadn't run in at least 25 years. Hmm.

While conversing with the PO, he mentioned that he used to live in a town that I also happened to live in. He moved there in 1981 (shortly before he bought the tractor) and I bought my property there in 1982. His place was less than five miles from mine. He moved away from there in the mid-90s, I think he said (and the tractor wasn't running at that time). I moved mid-2000.

The tractor came with a M-H disc harrow and an unknown brand spring tooth harrow. I don't have any acreage to use this stuff on but it's nice to have some old attachments that the tractor had used in its past.

I employed my usual method of winching dead tractors onto my little dump trailer, i.e. a come-along and several chains. It takes a while but I only have myself to blame for this as I haven't taken the time to weld a bracket into the trailer to accept a winch. Someday.

Those are quite the craters the tires left behind (see below), and this tractor isn't all that heavy, so it's been sitting in this spot quite a while. By the way, the previous owner said the rear tires were new. Well, they were new maybe 30 years ago. He said the front tires may be original.

Once the tractor was loaded, I used the come-along to drag the disc harrow into the trailer. It went a little easier, as it was only a few hundred pounds versus the 1,700 pound tractor. The previous owner and I were able to manhandle the spring tooth harrow into the trailer.

The engine is a Continental N62 four cylinder flat head design that is a massive 62 cubic inches and equally massive 11 horsepower. It's pretty tiny. As mentioned, it's stuck, so it will be interesting to find out how stuck it really is. If a lot of water got into the cylinders, the engine block could be unsalvageable. Hopefully not.

The tractor has optional live hydraulics on it, which isn't really saying a whole lot, as it consists of one very small hydraulic cylinder with an integral spool valve (that happens to be stuck at the moment - what a surprise). I'm sure a hydraulic system (however small it is) was a welcome addition for farmers who previously had to raise and lower implements using a hand lever. The photo below kind of shows the hydraulic cylinder in the center of the photo.

I just noticed in the photo above that the one rear wheel has massive corrosion around the valve stem (better view shown below). It looks like that wheel is shot, or at the very least I'll need to weld in some patches to make the wheel serviceable.

The tractor also has the optional Power Take-Off and belt pulley. Woohoo.

I really don't know when I'll get to working on this tractor, as the Dodge Weapons Carrier and Farmall C are currently being worked on in the shop. And I've got to either repair or buy a new rear wheel for the Ford 9N (the wheel is rusted out in one spot). This tractor will just have to patiently wait its turn in the queue.