I'm sure I've said this before, but anytime someone gets a new project tractor, there are a myriad of piddly little things that need attention. For me, I start working on one thing, then something else catches my eye and I start on that too. At some point the several little things finally get done. Today was one of those days. I started by removing the beginnings of a home-built 3-point hitch the previous owner started. A lot of work went into the project up to this point but I don't see myself finishing it, so off it came. These first two photos show the thing still attached to the tractor, and the seat bracket bolted to the top of it. That's a 3" tall block of aluminum that was used for the main body, so the seat is sitting three inches higher than it should be.
This next photo shows the hitch after removal. It was built very well and it's heavy, but I just don't see myself getting it working, as I'd have to add a hydraulic system and related plumbing. For a perspective, that is a 1" box end wrench sitting beside it.
These next two photos show the seat at its normal height. If you're looking at the seat support and thinking to yourself, "boy that doesn't look very springy and comfy", you'd be right. The only compliant part of the seat and support is the thin seat cushion foam, and it ain't anything to write home about in terms of comfort.
The next project was to replace the sediment bowl, as no matter how tight I made the shut-off valve gland nut, it still dripped. I found a spare in the garage that was a direct fit. It just needed to be cleaned up a bit.
Next was to hook up the ammeter. It had been bypassed ages ago. It was just a matter of hooking the wiring up. The tractor doesn't have a working charging system at the moment so the gauge will be reading negative whenever the ignition switch is on until that happens. If you notice in the photo, the gauge is showing a draw of 8 amps. Don't worry, the photo was taken with the engine not running, and the coil was drawing a lot of current. When the tractor is running, it's only drawing one or two amps.
Next was to fix the coil situation (see below). The coil that came with the tractor didn't have a support bracket so I rummaged around in my box of coils and found one. It's not the most elegant solution since the coil is hanging a bit crooked but it beats having the coil hanging off the tractor by only its center high tension lead.
Last thing, I also removed an add-on step at the rear of the tractor. It didn't look like it belonged on the tractor (and the drawbar frame is right there to step on) so off came the funky step. It actually looks like a step for a horse buggy. I don't know if it is old or a reproduction. There's another shot of the step in the first photo at the top of this page.
I think that's all the projects I got done today. They don't seem like much but each one takes some time to gather specific tools, fiddle with stuff, and scrounge up hardware. The 3-point hitch was the most difficult, as it took my 3/4" drive socket wrench and a 2-foot extension to break loose the four 1/2" bolts. On top of that, two of the bolts were tight the whole way out. It wasn't fun.
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