1949 Allis Chalmers Model B - New Acquisition

I think I've done enough "yet another tractor" blogs that it would probably get old to do another one. So... look what is going to follow me home in a few days. A 1949 Allis Chalmers Model B. This will be my first Allis.

All these photos (except the two at the bottom) are from the FB Marketplace ad since I haven't yet picked up the tractor. As the title states, it's a 1949 Allis Chalmers B. It has a 116 cu. in. 16 hp (ooh) engine mated to a 3-speed transmission. AC made about 120,000 B's over its 20 year B life span (1938-1957). My tractor falls right in the middle of production.

That seat looks big enough to fit two people. Nice. And notice the arched front axle. That arched axle went away in 1941, so this tractor having one means someone swapped in an early axle at some point. I much prefer the arched axle to a straight axle even though it's not original to the tractor. This tractor also has a PTO, belt pulley, and onboard hydraulics with rudimentary lift system on the back. According to the net, these three items were separately available options, but were also marketed as a "3-way power package", such that many folks bought the package.

The Model B didn't usually have a straight drawbar poking out the back like most other tractors, but it did have the horseshoe-looking thing that works as one (seen below). An interesting note, when the B first came out, it had a hand lever on each side of the seat for individual turning brakes. At some point they went to the more normal two foot-pedal system like most other tractors of the time. Fortunately this one has the foot pedals. You can see in the photo below the belt pulley on the left side of the differential.

This tractor still has a magneto, and it also has an electric starter (seen in the far left of the below photo). The early tractors were crank-start only and there was not even a provision in the casting to add a starter.

It may not be very noticeable but the second from the top photo shows that the oil bath air cleaner and battery cover are missing. I asked the owner if he happened to have those items and fortunately he said he did (not quite sure why they're off the tractor - it always makes me wonder when things like the air cleaner are removed). He also said he had the three point lift arms and a "digger" (shown below). It looks a lot like a cultivator with the tine teeth worn down or cut off. The ad said this tractor was "running as a horse arena groomer when parked 10 years ago." The tractor does not run now but the ad says it does turn over, so it will need some amount tinkering before it comes to life, but that is what I live for.

Up to this point when I wrote the above information I hadn't yet picked up the tractor. Today, however, I did pick it up. The two below photos were taken today. 

Here's a little back story. The tractor was in Arlington, Wa, two ferry trips ($115 each) and a couple hours' drive away from home. I hadn't committed to buying the tractor for several weeks because of the $350 it would cost to go fetch it (ferry and diesel money). I just couldn't justify the expense for a $700 tractor. But..... I happened to have my 1945 Oliver 60 Row Crop for sale when I was looking at this B and several days ago someone north of Arlington asked if I would be willing to deliver the Oliver to him. I said "sure, as long as you pay $450 for gas and ferry." He willingly agreed (!), so I immediately struck up a deal with the Allis Chalmers guy, and lined up to buy this tractor the same day I was to deliver the Oliver (which was today). Everything worked out great. I got rid of an eyesore Oliver, someone paid me to take the ferry and provide diesel money, and I brought home a cute little B.

This photo below shows the "digger", as the guy called it. I think it's a spring tooth harrow. And it has a massive chunk of I-beam to give it some heft to press into the ground. I think I'll remove the I-beam, as I won't be churning up any dirt with this thing. Fortunately it is just held on with two large bolts and wing nuts.

I failed to ask how long these people owned this B, but it has been at least 40 years, as they told me the engine was "gone through" 40 years ago by them. And another little tidbit of information, one of the family members recently tried to get it going because they wanted to use it at some property. They weren't able to get it going so it went up for sale. A third little tidbit, the tractor has a one-year-old six volt battery. Cool! Can't get any better than that.

Stay tuned for a "will it start" blog....

1942 John Deere H "Parts" Tractor - Cylinder Head and Cylinder Block Replacements

With my HN engine's freeze crack repairs not working, I did quite a bit of searching to find a good used cylinder head and block. I put out feelers to some guys in the tractor club, put a plea out to a Facebook JD H forum, and searched online.

1943 Dodge WC51 Weapon Carrier - Installing "New" NDT Tires

I've been putting off this task for as long as I've owned this truck, which is just about two years now. The guy I bought the truck from mentioned that he had four Non-Directional Tread (NDT) tires off in the woods on his property. He asked if I wanted them and I said sure, so I nabbed them. They are somewhat dry-rotted but are in better overall condition than what's currently on the truck. For two years they've just been sitting in the back of the ol' truck waiting for me to get some motivation to do the dastardly (and very difficult) deed.

1941 John Deere HN - Investigating Cylinder Head and Engine Block Issues Part 2 of 2

Two days ago is where I left off on the previous blog. Yesterday I ground out the engine block crack. I used a carbide burr on an ancient dremel-type drill motor.

1941 John Deere HN - Investigating Cylinder Head and Engine Block Issues Part 1 of 2

As was shown in the previous blog, the engine block has a serious crack in it. The previous owner advertised that the head was cracked, and when I got the tractor going in the last blog, the right cylinder was also not firing so there are at least a couple things going on with this tractor. My current job is to see if the head is serviceable, and just make a general assessment of the engine.

Getting the head off is fairly straightforward, but a bit time-consuming. The carb has to come off, and the exhaust pipe needs to be disconnected. Then the valve cover and breather are next.

1941 John Deere HN Tractor - New Acquisition

I recently sold two tractors, a 1949 Ferguson TO-20 and a 1950 John Deere BN. So what do I do? Why, I surf the net for tractors, of course. My eye came across several potential candidates, an Allis Chalmers B and WD, and a Case VAI (industrial). I went on vacation for a couple weeks so I couldn't act on anything. While on vacation (floating around Norway on a cruise ship), an ad popped up on FB Marketplace for a John Deere. The ad said, "John Deere H tractor has cracked head." Here's the one and only photo from the ad.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - Installing an Air Cleaner

Here's another job on the old 60 Std, installing the oil bath air cleaner I removed from the parts 60. This should have taken a fraction of the time it took to do, but this time it isn't the factory's fault (the other "long" job was putting on the radiator and nose shell (link here)). This 15-minute job took three hours. The reason this time is because the carburetor is not correct for the engine. The carb is close to being correct but the real issue is that the lever for the throttle plate is on the wrong side of the carburetor (it's on the side of the carb facing out and is supposed to be on the side of the carb facing the engine). A previous owner had jury-rigged a piece of all-thread as linkage from the governor lever to the throttle lever. The setup looks very much kludged together but it works well. The problem is, the left part of the all-thread is taking up real estate that the air cleaner needs to occupy.

Vintage Jaeger (British) Speedometer Repair

Don't ask me why I began working on this project because I really don't know. I guess it's the part of me that has the need to fiddle with things. This speedometer came in a box of stuff that came with a basket case Farmall C tractor I bought a while back. The speedometer obviously didn't belong with the tractor.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - "New" Grilles and Radiator

It's been awhile since I did anything of significance on a tractor. Well, a few days ago I did get a guy's David Bradley garden tractor's engine running, but that doesn't really count. Today I decided to install an original Oliver radiator and grille halves on this tractor that I had gotten off somewhat of a parts tractor I'd bought six months ago. It should have been a simple process of swapping parts from one tractor to the other. Well, an hour job took four hours. The final product though is so nice.

New Wen Generator and Generator Cord Modification for Current Transformers

I got a new generator a week or so ago to replace my old faithful 325 pound 1973 Onan 5CCK 5kw behemoth. There are blog entries for the Onan if anyone wants to search for them. The new generator is a Wen DF680iX 6,800-surge / 5,100-rated watts on gasoline or 6,000-surge / 4,500-rated watts on propane. The plan is to only use propane so it has a 4,500 watt rated capacity. This is an inverter generator so it runs slower when little or no load is on it, making it fairly quiet.

Jupiter E-bike Flat Tire - Tube Repair

I suppose it was bound to happen. I got a flat tire on my e-bike. I don't really remember getting a flat tire on a bike in the past but I can't imagine it didn't happen. I went to Sequim with my wife a few days back (she had an appointment). I brought my e-bike to ride around while waiting and started out by riding on the Olympic Discovery Trail but there were more pedestrians than I liked so I decided to get off the trail and ride on one of the little-travelled roads.

There were hardly any cars and no pedestrians, so I was happy. After 5 miles into the ride I came across a couple of dogs on the other side of the street in a fenced yard barking at me. I was looking at them and then, "thud", I ran over something. I kept going for several seconds hoping I didn't get a flat but then I started hearing that dreaded sound of air escaping. Bummer, a hole in the back tire. First thing I tried to do was keep riding slowly but that didn't work so I stopped and looked to see how far I was from the car. Three miles. That's a bit of a hike pushing a bike with a flat.

John Deere Model E - New Cart Kit

This engine is heavy enough that it is difficult to move it around unless it has wheels under it. I looked around online and came across a universal cart kit for hit and miss engines on a website called Flywheel Supply. The kit came with four 8" diameter cast iron wheels, two cast rear axle supports, a front cast axle swivel bolster, and some U-bolts.

Belco Generator - Wisconsin Engine Gots No Compression

I picked up this generator almost five years ago and got it running back then with a bunch of minor repairs like carb and fuel tank cleaning, magneto points cleaning, and unsticking the exhaust valve. As is with a lot of things I buy and get working, this generator sat for the next four years without being run. I've decided to sell it so I dragged it out of the dark corner it has been sitting in, tried to start it, but it wasn't cooperating as there was no compression. A sad state of affairs.

1943 Dodge Weapon Carrier Starter Switch Repair/Replace

I've mentioned previously the funky starter switch these old Dodge trucks have. It is a long rod in the cab of the truck that you push with your foot. That action does two things, it engages the starter pinion gear to the engine ring gear on the flywheel, and also transmits voltage to the starter motor at the far end of the rod's downward travel. The switch has to pass hundreds of amps of current to the starter motor during this operation, so the contacts in the switch are necessarily beefy. But they still wear out. This first photo shows the starter rod with a long spring wrapped around it (center of photo).

1959 Volkswagen Deluxe - A Walk Down Memory Lane

What special event happened May 4th, 1959? I hadn't yet had my second birthday when this brand spankin' new little German car, a beige 1959 Volkswagen DeLuxe,, showed up in our driveway at Lake Sammamish. This photo was taken in June of 1960 when the car was a year old so I'd be around 2-1/2 then (a neighbor girl is in the photo with us three kids). Ain't that little car a beaut (what you can see of it)?

1950 John Deere BN - Rectify Timing Issues, Small Generator Issue, and Start/Run/Slow Idle Video

It has been awhile since I mentioned my JD BN. I've put a couple of videos on Youtube about fixing the timing of this tractor.

Swatch-Omega Speedmaster MoonSwatch 1965

I restrained myself on our recent trip to Europe. I didn't buy an expensive watch. I may have in the past given in to such excessive-ness but this time I didn't. I should get at least a half of a brownie point for that. Notice though that I didn't say that I didn't buy a watch, because I did. It's a bit different than your normal watch. It is a Swatch brand quartz chronograph styled after the famous Omega Speedmaster Professional "moon watch", which is a hand-wind mechanical chronograph that was the first watch worn on the moon back in 1969. Swatch calls this the Speedmaster MoonSwatch. This first photo is not of my watch but is something I grabbed from the Swatch website (I'm sure they don't mind). My phone doesn't take photos this good.

1973 Onan 5CCK 5kw Generator - Why Don't You Start?

I bought this 1973 Onan 5CCK 5kw 120/240 volt generator January of 2020, right before Covid hit (I also have an old, loud Generac 120/240v 5kw generator from the 90's but got on the Onan 5CCK kick in 2019). I use this Onan when the power goes out. It's not terribly fuel efficient so if I don't need to run the 240v well pump, I can get away with using my Pulsar 2kw 120-only inverter generator to run the house if I switch off all 240 volt circuit breakers and make sure the two laser printers in the office are turned off (they take a ton of wattage when they first come on).

Anyway, it's probably been two or three years since I started up the Onan 5CCK so I figured today was the day. It managed to cough to life after several tries with the starter button and ran for a minute or so but then started missing and finally died. I don't have a recent photo of it but the below one is shortly after I first got it. I added the little grey box on the side of the switch panel, which shows volts/amps/hertz of each 120v leg.

Jupiter Discovery X5 E-bike - Adding Onboard Power Circuit to Tail Light

Something a little odd with this bike is that the rear tail light runs off a 3 volt button cell rather than from the bike's main battery like the headlight does. I wanted to rectify this situation so I bought what's called a DC-DC Buck Converter, or Step-Down Converter. It will take nominal 40 volt bike battery voltage and step it down to pretty much anything you'd like. In this case it will step down to 3 volts (or 12 volts as you will notice further down the blog). Here's a photo of the converter that I found on Amazon ($9 for two). The small rectangular blue thing is an adjustable potentiometer which is used to adjust the output voltage.

Oliver 60 - Straightening Radiator Grilles and Nameplate

The grilles and radiator shroud are in OK condition but I really do need to try and straighten things out as much as possible.

1945 Oliver 60 Row Crop Tractor - New Acquisition

Yet another tractor followed me home, or that's the story us tractor hoarders always want everyone to think. I do acknowledge I'm the problem. That's the first step, or so they say. And to be fair, this tractor is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

This new tractor is a 60 Row Crop, meaning it has adjustable wheel width spacing for planting and cultivating crops planted in rows. The back story of this purchase is this. I needed some parts for my 1942 Oliver 60 Standard, things like grille halves, the all-important Oliver grille nameplate, oil bath air cleaner, correct carburetor, and a couple other little tidbits. I had contacted someone on Facebook in an Oliver tractor forum and he said he should have all the parts. I asked for photos and prices on what he had. Well, he just kept stringing me along for over a month, giving one excuse after another (including losing my messages - how does someone lose messages that are stored on Facebook Messenger?). The worst part was, during this time he kept putting up postings on the forum of other tractor parts for sale, so he certainly had time to do things he wanted to do. In the end however, it was all for the best, as this 1945 Oliver tractor popped up on Facebook Marketplace for $550, I'm guessing a number not too far off from what the Facebook guy probably would have wanted for the few parts I'd asked for.

Costco Jupiter Discovery X5 E-bike Battery Replacement

We bought two of these e-bikes from Costco in April of 2021 to take with us when we went camping in our truck camper. The bikes are 36 volts with a 350 watt motor, so no speed demons, but they would fold in half and fit in the back seat area of our F350 crew cab without too much trouble. One little hiccup, when the pandemic hit in 2020, everyone and their brother went out and bought an RV, so by 2022 all the campgrounds got overcrowded and difficult to get reservations. We ended up selling our camper in May of 2023 but kept the bikes.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - Seat Repair

The wood seat bottom on the tractor has seen better days, and the first photo says it all. The vinyl looks great but the plywood base is rotting away to nothingness. Whenever the tractor is running, detrious flows out from under the seat. And by the way, the steel seat frame and square steel plate aren't original to the tractor.

Ryobi RY38BP Leaf Blower Engine Kickback Issue

A friend has a two-cycle Ryobi RY38BP leaf blower that has stopped working. Initially I thought the whole problem was that the pull cord was messed up, as it was partially hanging out of the motor housing. After pulling on the cord several times at their house, it decided to not retract at all and the engine no longer spun. Easy fix, or so I thought. This photo is off the net.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - "New" 75-Year-Old Carburetor

The carburetor that came on this ol' beauty was not correct for the tractor. It is a Zenith/Bendix that is supposedly for a Continental flathead engine of similar displacement to the Oliver's 120 cubic inches. This first photo is of the carb when I first got the tractor, along with the patched-together linkage setup and the choke cable's big loopty loop.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - New Front Tires

With an old tractor, purt-near everything that needs fixin' is a chore. The tractor desperately needs new front tires. One is a retread and is part way through the delamination process, and the other tire is just plain old and cracked. Also, they are truck tires, not tractor tires (the horror). Below is a photo of the retread. You can kind of make out the separation between the layers.

Traveller 12,000 Pound Winch Repair

A guy in the tractor club had his trailer's 12,000 pound winch quit working. He decided to just get a new one rather than try and fix this one, as it has been acting up for years. I asked if I could try and fix it. He had no objections. This photo is the finished product, and the winch works once again.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - New OIL/TEMP/AMPS Gauges and Clutch Adjustment

This old tractor still has one of its original gauges, the ammeter. I guess with maybe one moving part (the needle), there is little to go wrong. The replacement water temperature gauge doesn't work and the replacement 0-80 psi oil pressure gauge barely moves off the zero mark with the tractor engine's 20 psi operating pressure.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - Radiator, Generator and Tach Updates, and New Side Panels (Again)

Radiator hoses showed up at my door so I spent the morning finishing up the radiator mounts for the new aluminum radiator.

1948 Oliver 60 "Standard" Tractor - New Acquisition

"Um, didn't you JUST TWO WEEKS AGO pick up an Oliver 60 Standard tractor?!"

Maybe..... but I did sell four tractors recently. Getting two new ones is a fair trade I think, and this tractor is fully restored. And you'll have to admit, my other 60 is at the complete opposite end of the restoration spectrum from this one.

New Gas Cap for 1931 John Deere Model E 1-1/2hp Engine

John Deere model E engines have a special oil fill cap and gas cap. The two caps are identical and are basically a 3/4" pipe thread plug with a spade type handle instead of a square drive end. Below is what an original JD cap looks like (photo taken from Flywheel Supply website).

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - Transmission Shifter: The Definition of Wallered-Out

"Well there's your problem. The parts are just wallered-out." This is the normal progression of fit between two tractor parts that rub against each other for decades on end in a farming environment. These first two photos are the offending shift tower and shift lever. Light should not be showing through the shift tower like it does. The wear is also shown in other photos below. It's quite impressive.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard Generator, Radiator Shroud, Broken Bolts, Oil Filter, and Misc

This morning I thought I'd try to hook up the non-original Motorcraft alternator that is on the tractor, just to see if it makes power. There are four connections on the back of the alternator, marked Bat (battery), Fld (field), Sta (stator), and Gnd (ground). I did some checking online and it seems that if I hook the Sta terminal to the Bat terminal, then put 12 volts to the Fld terminal, I should be able to read something around 14.5 volts from the Bat terminal. I did just that, started the tractor, and read right around 15 volts. Cool, the alternator works. The next step was to semi-permanently run wiring to the Ammeter and battery.

1931 John Deere Model E 1-1/2 HP Hit and Miss Engine Acquisition

Another new addition to the clutter followed me home last night. As the title states, it's a hit-n-miss engine. Right at the moment though, it's only a "miss" engine, as the magneto is kaput. I'll tell the story of the acquisition at the end. Here are some beauty shots.

It's Amazing What A Little Paint Can Do

My John Deere BN came adorned with some primer paint on the grill and a couple other spots from someone long ago starting a restoration but then moving out of state and abandoning the project. The brown paint makes the tractor look unsightly. The lichen growing on the thing in this photo doesn't help.

Four Tractors and a Mower Leave The Roost

I can fully appreciate the fact that I have acquired too many tractors. But you know what? I can also thin the herd from time to tome. The biggest problem is that I then have to deal with Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace flakes. You know the ones. They shoot a message asking, "Is it still available?", even though I've said in my ads that I won't respond to that inquiry. One guy asked that question and I didn't respond. He then pushed the subject and said, "Why won't you answer me?".... I then had to ask him if he had any questions, and that I said in the ad that I won't respond to "is it available". He came back with a very nasty remark and nothing else. I don't know why people like that get to me but they do. I think some folks are just plain mean, but I digress.

Ok, so I need to thin the tractor herd. Which ones can I most easily live without? Part of that is pretty simple. The Ford 9N and the Farmall C. The Ferguson TO-20 and TO-35 are next in line.

April 2, 2025 I put those four on FB Marketplace. Six days later, the 9N was the first to go. I just didn't have any attachment to it, so it was easy to watch it leave.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - Miscellaneous Little Tasks

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.

1942 Oliver 60 Standard - Zenith Carburetor Cleaning

Yesterday I delved into the carburetor. In the title, I didn't say "carburetor rebuild" because I didn't buy any new parts for the project. I reused everything except the gasket between the two main halves. Usually a carburetor rebuild has new gaskets, new needle and seat, and maybe one or two other items.

The carburetor is not what came on the tractor. Oh, no, we can't be so fortunate to have the proper Marvel Schebler TSX-49. In fact, the more I work on this tractor, the more I think it was a parts tractor for someone's other Standard refurb. The tractor has wiring for lights, but there are no lights or brackets. The belt pulley is missing. The carburetor and linkage is wrong. There's no generator and an alternator that has never been hooked up is in its place. And the biggie, the radiator, radiator shell, and side panels are all missing. But in all fairness, this tractor was in this condition 30 or more years ago, when it was "only" a 50 year old tractor and probably not so desirable. Ok, so maybe it's still not that desirable but I'm sure it is more so now that it is 83 years old.

Whatever the case may be, I work with what I have. This Zenith carburetor, from what the all-knowing interweb says, is for a Towmotor Forklift with a Continental F-140 or F-162 flathead engine. Um, ok.

1942 Oliver 60 "Standard" Tractor - New Acquisition

I've actually pared down my hoard of tractors by three, so you know what that means. Buy more. Not really. I mean, it is always fun to look but my desire to thin the herd wasn't so I could buy more. It just so happened that we decided to get an Oliver tractor recently because we take care of a "church grandson" once a week named Oliver. It just seemed appropriate. This is one of the few times I've had an objective while looking for a tractor. Most of the tractors I buy just appear on my radar and I get tempted.

Here's the path I took to acquire an Oliver. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace were the two places I looked but Craigslist seems to have dropped off the face of the earth in terms of number of tractors for sale, so it was mainly FB that I looked. And I also talked to a couple of guys in my tractor club. One guy, Fred, has probably 10 or more Olivers but wasn't interested in selling. The other guy, Bob, happened to know of one. He had given an Oliver 60 Standard to his brother Jim, and Jim happens to go to the same church we do. One problem, the tractor was missing the grill and engine side panels, and they are difficult and/or expensive to come by, so that prospect wasn't too promising.

I'd like to briefly explain what a "Standard" tractor is. Most tractors used to plant and cultivate crops were called "row crop" tractors, and they usually had a tricycle front end, which was two tires close together in front, then an adjustable rear track width so farmers could plant/cultivate/harvest a variety of crop's row spacings. Tractors that were used for things like orchards didn't need adjustable wheel width so companies made fixed-track-width tractors that were low to the ground and stable on hilly terrain. These were called "Standard" tractors usually, and this is what the Oliver 60 is that Jim has.

Enter FB Marketplace. Some guy put up an ad that showed seven fully restored tractors, with a very generic title (Antique Tractors For Sale), and very minimal wording saying they were $4500 each, or offer. One of the tractors happened to be another Oliver 60 Standard (same as Jim's). I then happened to run across the same group of tractors on Craigslist with two separate listings, both just as cryptic as FB, with one asking $3500 or offer each and the other asking $4500 or offer each. To make matters more confusing, at some point the FB ad price was lowered from $4500 to $3900 (meaning in my mind that all tractors were $3900 or less). I finally caved and called the guy. I said I was confused by all the different pricing, so asked what he wanted for the Oliver. He said it was the nicest of the lot, so he wanted $4500. So he advertises a group of tractors for as low as $3500 each but then wants $4500 for this one. That put a damper on things pretty fast. I was willing to pay $3200 for the tractor but he said $4200 was his lowest. Maybe the tractor is worth that to someone, but not me, especially with no concrete evidence of what was done during the restoration beyond a nice paint job and new tires.

It was back to searching. But the 60 owned by Jim was still in the back of my mind and old Oliver tractors are few and far between, so I finally called Jim and asked if his was for sale. Yes, it could be, he said. He lived only 20 minutes away so it was time for a little trip across town to go look. When we arrived and saw the thing, it looked pretty pathetic. Not only the grill and side panels were gone, but the whole radiator shell and original radiator were also missing (and a too-wide Jeep or Toyota radiator was cobbled in).

Are you ready for a photo? Yes, this is the face only a mother (or I) could love. A diamond in the rough, you might say.

1923 Dain Hay Press Flat Belt Pulley Fabrication

A friend in my tractor club has a 100-year-old Dain hay press that makes bales of straw or hay. It's got a John Deere Model E 3hp hit-and-miss engine to run the press. A four-inch-wide flat belt drives the press. One minor problem is, the 5-inch-diameter belt pulley on the engine is too small, so the press runs very slowly.

1950 John Deere BN Front Grill Repair

The ol' BN had a bit of a run-in with an immovable object at some point in its past, creating a hole in the mesh screen behind the left grill sheet metal.

1943 Dodge Weapon Carrier New Brake/Tail/Turn/Hazard Lights

This was way more of an ordeal than it should have been. I ordered a cheap turn signal switch and an LED brake light package to install on the ol' beast. Brake lights and turn signals would be a welcome addition that the truck currently doesn't have. Here's the first turn signal switch I bought from Amazon. Notice it says LED right in the title.

1943 Dodge WC51 Rebuilding Brake Wheel Cylinders

The ending photo in the Master Cylinder Repair blog kinda hinted that diving into brake wheel cylinder repair was a chore that needed to jump to the top of the Dodge's to-do list. Here's the photo again: