1950 John Deere BN - Narrowing Rear Wheel Width

This tractor's rear wheel width is 74 inches, outside to outside. My little dump trailer is 72 inches in width between the sides. The more astute may see a problem there. I measured the wheel width before I bought the tractor, so I knew what I was getting myself into. As I mentioned in the first blog posting of this tractor, the previous owner graciously offered to deliver the tractor to me, so I didn't have to do this painful job away from home. That would have been horrible.

This first photo is of the left side. If you look closely at the nuts relative to the round opening, the nuts barely (if at all) have room to rotate, and there's a small lip that makes it so a socket can't get all the way onto the lug nuts. This may be a problem. [I later found out that this small inner lip is actually a register for the center splined hub to fit into - more on that later.]

1950 John Deere BN - Cleaning the Gas Tank, Fixing an Oil Leak, Repairing the Voltage Regulator, Finding and Fixing A Hydraulic Leak, and a New Ammeter

The gas tank on this tractor is filthy with rust and crud. It won't run more than a few minutes before the tank's outlet is silted over with junk, so it's time to take off the tank and do some deep cleaning. It's not as easy as it sounds though. The tank is bolted to the hood as a unit and the steering shaft also goes through the hood so the shaft has to come out. The steering wheel needs to come off to get the shaft out. A woodruff key is in the end of the steering shaft to key the shaft to the steering wheel. The woodruff key was so rusted in the shaft slot that I ended up shearing off the key with a hammer and cold chisel. Normally these woodruff keys slide out of their slots fairly easily.

Changing A Tire The Hard Way (and Replacing the PTO Shaft and Cut-Out Relay, and Fixing the Carburetor) - 1941 Ford 9N

The day I showed up to buy this 9N, the previous owner told me he was filling one of the rear tires with air on the tractor and the rim let go. As in, a section of the rim flange blew out. See it there? Kinda hard to miss. That was back 4-1/2 months ago. I figure it's time to tackle this little problem, as the tire obviously won't hold air the way it is and I can't move the tractor very easily.

When Will The Madness End - Several New Projects: Wisconsin, Briggs & Stratton and Other Engines

I have tractor projects coming out of my ears and what do I do? Buy two new projects (update - there are more, read to the end). Oh boy. At least they're small projects, and they were too cheap to pass up. Ten bucks for two Wisconsin single cylinder engines.

First Time Fiddling With The 1950 John Deere BN - First Issues: Water in Oil and Gas Tank, Corroded Magneto Points, Stuck Throttle Lever, Stuck Choke, Broken Carburetor (and Float Repair), and Stuck Clutch

My newly acquired tractor made it home yesterday afternoon. The person I got it from owns a tractor rental company and he kindly delivered the tractor to me on his mighty-nice roll-back hauler. It was a big rig to fit down my cramped driveway. As you may or may not have noticed, the Massey Harris Pony hasn't been unloaded from my dump trailer yet. I got that tractor a month ago, although Christmas goings-on were in there also.

1957 Greenerd 3 Ton Arbor Press No. 3

When glancing through random online Craigslist/FB Marketplace ads, I occasionally run across something I need. Yes, you read that right, "need." This time probably wasn't one of those times, but this new addition is something I've wanted. It's a Greenerd 3-ton arbor press. What's an arbor press, you say? When these things were invented over 100 years ago, they were used to press arbors into things, like pulleys or whatever. An arbor is just a round rod like an axle or spindle, and it gets pressed into something like a hub or pulley. Thus the name "arbor press." You can probably guess these presses are used for a multitude of jobs besides just arbors.

1950 John Deere BN "High Clearance" and State of the Collection

The tractor situation is pretty normal. A week goes by and Yet Another Tractor (YAT) shows up at my doorstep. Ok so this one isn't exactly here yet but I have paid for it and the place that has it will deliver it in a few days. Incoming is a 1950 John Deere BN. The "N" in BN signifies a narrow front, also called High Clearance because it sits a little higher than a normal John Deere B. JD accomplished that by putting on larger wheels/tires. The regular B had 38 inch wheels in the back and the BN got 42 inch wheels (although 38 inch wheels were an option). The BN also got a single front wheel rather than the normal tricycle front with two close-together wheels.