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Soon after getting this tractor home it became apparent I was starting this project at the wrong time of the year. Starting in the fall, days are getting shorter, and nights are cooler. That is going to leave me with less shop time than working in the summer. Also, since the 52 is running good, there is no need to rush this project. I can take more time with it and maybe do a better job this time.
This is the list of obvious repairs needed before the inevitable mission creep takes over: Radiator Leaking, Grill Flattened, Hood Bent, Headlights Rotten and Wrong Type, Alternator Not Charging, Bad Wiring, Steering Loose, Front Axle Loose, Carb Linkage Bent, Engine Oil Leaks, Neutral Interlock Broken, Footboard Bent, Radius Rods Bent, Shifter Loose, 3-Point Upper Arm Bushings Bad, Leveling Box Bent, Lower Lift Arms Sloppy Welds, No Taillights or Wiring, Rusty 8N Fenders.
This radiator is leaking, the "new" radiator is a used original. Stay away from the "Made in China" replacement radiators, they often don't fit properly. The leaky radiator will go to the radiator shop to hopefully be repaired and become a spare.
The Seat on a 2N does not flip up like the 8N seat. This is where originality may lose, I like that feature, it keeps the cats from nesting on my seat. I found a good 8N flip seat pan and made a bracket from a piece of scrap steel 3" x 1/4" x 12". It bolts to and extends the 2N seat spring, so I can mount the 8N style flip seat on it. I used two bolts but can make this seat swivel by removing one bolt and putting a fender washer between the two brackets. I will do that if I decide to run the backhoe with this tractor.
The hood and grill were flattened in front. Some folks might be looking for replacements, but I think these can be saved. It's also more fun to save them.
This is the grill being reformed using my shop press.
We got 20 inches of snow in December! This is Virginia, we don't get 20 inches of snow from one storm, ever! Plowed snow with the 52 every day for three days just trying to keep up with the snowfall. That sure put the brakes on any normal projects.
Jacking the hood back out was easy, getting it to stay there was not. There is probably some sheetmetal trick that would make it want to stay. I bent and welded a piece of 1" angle iron then fitted it inside the lip and riveted it to the flange. That should hold it. Another issue was rust. Two small spots on the left side near the dash have rusted through. This seemed to be an odd spot for rust, right in the middle of the panel, but the battery is nearby, and there is a reinforcing rib welded to the back in this location. Moisture and battery acid has done it's worst. Bondo is my least favorite material for sheet metal body work. For this repair, I decided to try some JB Weld. It's almost the same stuff, but baybe a little more durable. I sanded to bare metal on both sides and used a picking hammer to slightly recess the area around each rust-through. Then mixed up a small batch of JB Weld and applied it to both sides of the area. The idea is to help the stuff stick to the metal, push it through the hole and spread it out on both sides. Using the least amount possible minimized the amount of sanding. It looks good, much better than having rust holes.
This was a good shop day. Spent Christmas morning with my Wife, opening presents, having breakfast, and then went out to play with some of my new presents. It was one of those good shop days where I accomplished a lot.
I spent the first hour trying to remove the center pin from the front axle. Tried my slide hammer, a gear puller, and a cold chisel, with no success. Decided to remove the front axle support. Removed the outer axle halves and pulled them out of the way, then removed the six nuts and bolts holding the front support to the oil pan. It came off with the axle center section. Once I had it on the floor, face down, it was a piece of cake to drive the axle pin out and install the new bushing and spacers. Next time I will save some time and agravation by removing the axle before attempting to remove the bushing.
I shouldn't tell on myself, but I got turned around and installed the axle center section into the carrier upside down. Didn't realize it was wrong until I was ready to bolt it to the front of the engine, OOPS! Had to stop and redo that. It comes apart much easier the second time. I put tape on both parts labeled UP and DOWN to prevent another goof up. Should have done that the first time.
Here are the Radius Rods. Both are bent, one is a little worse than the other. This is probably an average pair.
Here is one radius rod set up on my shop press to push the bend out. A floor jack and piece of heavy chain will also work. I've done that, but you need to use a REALLY heavy piece of chain. The radius rods do have some spring-back so the trick is to go slightly past straight, without getting carried away and putting a kink in it. I am using a piece of 1/4" scrap in the middle to spread the load from the jack. The outer points are sitting on 7/8" steel dowels. I set up like this in three or four places along the bent part of each radius rod. I check them with a straightedge each time I release pressure to see how things are going.
Here they are after straightening. It only takes about 10 minutes to do one. This time it took longer to remove and reinstall them than it took to straighten them.
Here it is with the front axle back together, still need to reinstall the radius rods.
My first mission today was to pull apart the top cover to replace the bushings for the upper lift shaft. This is the first tractor I have seen where these bushings were worn out. I have not heard that this is a common problem. This will require complete dissassembly of the top cover, so while I am at it, I will also install an upgraded lift cylinder. The original lift cylinder uses metal sealing rings that have a gap. The upgraded piston has a single groove for a rubber O-ring and backup ring.
This is a test, what do you see wrong in the following two photos?
This does not look good. When I pulled the top cover, the first thing that jumped out at me is this big chunk missing out of the housing. There is a corresponding piece knocked out of the top cover. This is old damage, it looks like whatever came loose and broke the castings has been repaired. It was not leaking, but this is not a really wet part of the housing. The fluid is mostly down in the bottom where the pump is. I'm more worried that this spot may allow water and dirt to get into the housing. I will try to build back some of the sealing area with JB Weld (R).
On the 8N you simply remove the top cover. On the 9N-2N you have to remove the hood, dash and steering column first. Good thing this is already a major rebuild project. Pulling the steering column off reveals the steering sectors. The teeth looked ok after a good cleaning. One of the steering arms has a weld on it that looks bad. Might have to grind that down and do a better job on it.
Flipping the steering column over reveals the gear on the bottom of the steering shaft. The bearings and preload adjustment on the shaft were great, but this little gear looks terrible. Went on-line to check parts sources and was not happy to discover the gear is part of the steering shaft. Best price I could get was $70. I saw a couple of used ones that were cheaper, but they were also worn. Bummer, gotta spend some money.
Finally got down to the top cover and replaced the shifter pin, spring, and retaining clip with new parts. The shifter should work much better now. Visible in this photo to the right of the spring is a repair I had to make to the shift lever lock casting. The non-functional neutral interlock was because the front of this casting was broken off. Both parts were still there, but required welding cast iron with my arc welder. I love a challenge. In this case the welding was easy. The hard part was figuring out how to hold the parts together long enough to weld them. I really should have snapped a photo of the splint made from a piece of coat hanger, stainless tie wire, nut, and bolt. The real beauty was that it still left enough room to make a couple of tack welds. Soon as that was done, the splint needed to be taken apart so I could complete the welds, grind them smooth, and then re-drill the slot for the interlock plunger. The photo just shows it back together and almost ready to go back on the tractor.
Only had to wait a couple of days for the new steering shaft/gear to arrive. Ordered on Sunday from just8ns.com and the parts arrived Tuesday! The Barkley's operation continues to exceed my expectations with their great service. The transmission top cover, steering column, and hydraulic top cover all went back together without any trouble, following along with the FO-4 manual. The only thing that was a little tricky was getting the valve assembly reconnected to the touch control linkage. Had to remove both side inspection covers and reach in through both sides at the same time to pull the linkage apart and guide the ends of the valve into position. Lucky nobody saw that. It might have been difficult to explain why I was hugging my tractor, GRIN.
Since I have it torn down this far already, I decided to go ahead and do a front split so I could have a look at the flywheel and clutch. Glad I did, but that is skipping ahead. First I removed a bolt from each side of the belhousing, and installed my guide pins. These are made from two 3" long bolts that have the same threads as the bolts I removed. I ground the heads off and put a slightly rounded point on them. You can see one in the photo to the right and below the starter. These really help the two parts of the tractor slide apart without binding. They help even more when putting the two halves back together. Next I hammered a wedge-shaped piece of 2x4 between the front axle and axle support on either side of the engine. These wedges are the same ones I made when I did the Sherman transmission installation. Yep, I'm a pack rat to keep "tools" like this around for years.
Guide Pins and wedges in place. Jack stand and blocking under the transmission. I decided to move the front half this time. So I couldn't use my trailer screw jack as a third wheel. I'm just using my small floor jack under the engine in these photos.
Here they are split. With the guide pins in place I remove all of the rest of the bellhousing bolts and start wiggling the tractor apart. Keep an eye on the jack height. You may need to move it up or down a hair to free things up so they slide apart easy.
This is a photo of the overdrive transmission. This is not a Sherman Combo or Step-up, It is a very rare F&T Overdrive. Obviously, it installs different from the Sherman. I cannot see or feel the bolts that hold it to the front of the transmission. It looks like this one has to be dissassembled in place.
Yep, after removing the Overdrive front cover and input shaft, there are the four bolts INSIDE the housing. The real bummer here is that in pulling the auxiliary transmission apart, needle bearings went everywhere. Even more fun, they are in more than one size. The trick is finding them all, cleaning them, sorting, inspecting, and "gluing" them into the races with a little grease.
Putting the roller bearing back and reinstalling the "guts" gave me a chance to inspect each part. All of the internal parts of the auxiliary transmission appear to be in excellent condition. That's a relief! Scrounging parts for this rare F&T Overdrive would probably not be fun or cheap. The output shaft from the auxiliary seems loose. Hmmm, If I'm going to take a look at that all the guts will have to come out again. then I can undo the tie wire on those bolts and see if there are some shims between the Overdrive housing and the transmission case. That is how you adjust preload on a Sherman, but I don't know if this one is done the same way.
Also of concern is the amount of leakage in the front of this compartment. The oil appears to be coming from the engine rear main seal. The flywheel has a bad spot with ground off teeth at least 6 inches long. That means the starter ring gear needs to be replaced and the pressure plate looks very rusty. I'm sure I have a brand new starter ring gear hanging on the wall. Not sure if I have a decent clutch disc and pressure plate. Gotta go rummage in the used parts pile.
PARTS! That reminded me, I had a bunch of them cooking in the electrolysis tank. Here they are. Looks like the headlight buckets will need to be scraped and put back in for a while.
This was my twisted idea of some quality Husband/Wife time. We got up Sunday morning and started cooking the new ring gear for my flywheel. The FO-4 manual says 350 degrees and has a caution about using too much heat and changing the temper on the teeth or warping the gear. Sharon was a little hesitant about having tractor parts in her oven (imagine that). But once she saw the nice brand new clean ring gear, she opened the oven and set it to preheat. I don't know what she did, it's one of those new electronic control panels. she whacked a few buttons and it went "BEEP".
After preheat, we stuck the gear in and cooked it for 15 minutes, then decided it must be "done". The flywheel spent the night out on the deck, so it was COLD! I grabbed two potholders and quickly took the gear from the oven and dropped it on the flywheel right outside the kitchen door. CLANGGG! Nope, it was not even close to fitting. I couldn't tell that the gear had expanded at all. We tried it 3 times with higher temps and longer cook times with no success.
I think Sharon was more upset than I was. Time to fire up a computer, go on the NTractorClub N-board and see what crucial step I missed.
The votes are in, and all the experts agree, the manual is wrong. We need at least twice as much heat as we can get out of a conventional residential oven.
This one was ONLY 14 inches. But a major storm for Virginia is 4 inches. The 52 has been running great. This snow was a very light powder, easy to move even with just air in the tires and no chains. I am seriously considering a front blade. All the back blade plowing is putting a permanent kink in my neck.
I fired the wood stove on Sunday after plowing snow. I had set aside some firewood where it would dry out. It got nice and toasty in the shop so I was able to paint some small parts. Looks like I am going with a "red belly" paint scheme on the 46-2N. I hadn't made that decision yet, but when it came time to start painting, just naturally grabbed the red color for these parts. The parts look orange in this photo on my computer. The color is really a RustOleum - Sunrise Red.
These parts are powder-coated. I'm still attempting to duplicate a zinc-plated "new hardware" look.
The flywheel and ring gear are hanging on the wall in disgrace. They are being punished for not cooperating. Maybe when I get back to that project those parts will be ready to cooperate.
OK, this is getting old. Only a week since the last one. Snow is piling up around here. This one included ice, sleet, and lots of heavy-wet snow. We lost power several times but not for much more than two hours. There were at least 14 trees down across the driveway Saturday morning. I had to cut those and clear the drive before I could plow snow. Trees and branches were still falling and snapping during the day Sunday. Thank the Lord, none hit the house other buildings.
Must be wearing the tractor out. The 52 coughed, sputtered and died right in the middle of the driveway. Obviously out of gas, except I know the tank is well over half full. Traced the problem to a clogged valve assembly and ended up having to drain the tank and change that out in the worst part of the snowstorm. Good thing I keep a few spare parts. Got it running again.
This is one knot of trees I had to cut up and move.
Here are some of the bent trees that were still coming down on Sunday.
Dillon is part Husky (a small part, he's mostly mutt) but he likes snow even when it sticks to his face.
Finally got the 52 put away on Sunday. Already had a fire going in the shop wood stove. It had cooked down to coals, so I decided to chuck that ring gear in there, tossed a few small pieces of wood on top, and let it cook a while. Checked it and urned it around once, the coals were hotter in the back. When I pulled it out it was glowing with just a hint of dull red most of the way around (probably 600-700 degrees). It dropped right on the flywheel with one tap where it landed a bit crooked. I quickly doused it with water until it stopped sizzling. It made a "screech" sound when it suddenly shrunk and got a grip on the flywheel. Perfect! Put a DONE stamp on that job!
I reinstalled the flywheel/clutch assembly and may be getting a bit ahead of myself. Still need to change out the engine main seals and oil pan gaskets. But I want to start getting the tractor back in one piece.
There can be a lot of time in the small parts. I have spent more than a few hours knocking dents out of headlight housings, cleaning, and finishing various small parts. Most go in the electrolysis tank for a few hours to get rid of rust and paint, some get primed and painted, others get powder-coated. NO, in this case, "electrolysis" is not hair removal. If you have a container that will hold water, and a battery or battery charger, it is a piece of cake to set up and it is by far the best way I have found to deal with rusty, dirty parts. Here is a link to my Electrolysis page.
Rusty springs are hard to deal with. Some just get replaced, but I have successfully cleaned and powder-coated a few. If the coils are tight together, I have to stretch the spring on a rack before cleaning and powder-coating, so the powder can get between the coils. I like restoring old parts rather than buying new ones, even when that is not the most practical approach.
This was a great find. While cleaning layers of paint off the Overdrive shifter, started seeing GOLD! The shift lever is solid brass! I couldn't resist the temptation to shine it up. I ground the rough edges, then sanded, buffed, and polished it. The final step was clear powder coat to keep it shiny.
The other side. Look close and you will see a bit of throttle linkage perched on one of the spark plugs. It needed another coat of paint and this was a convenient drying rack. The plugs will be changed before I crank it up. These old ones are just keeping trash and paint out of the engine.
It might not look like much progress in two weeks, but I do have a day job and spring cleaning is taking a lot of extra time this year. this is the small parts stage where we learn just how much slower it can be to put something together vs taking it apart. There are LOTS of small parts that all seem to need a little work or refinishing. If we were not careful labeling and storing bolts, this is where we search through containers for the right fasteners. I replace a lot of hardware at this point. Anything that is a little rounded-off or corroded does not go back on the tractor. The running boards are protected with plastic so they don't get dirty footprints before the project is finished.
Funny how the paint in this last picture suddenly turned orange. It may not look that way on your computer, but this illustrates why we can't depend on colors rendered on our computer screens. This is Rustoleum Sunrise Red color that I have found to be a perfect match for the red belly red. Trust me, it only looks orange in the occasional photo for some reason only camera geeks understand.
Finally got the dash on and started sorting out the alternator brackets and wiring harness. How do you like them knobs? The new "Ignition" light is also visible just to the left of the steering column. This will be wired to turn on when the key is ON, because sometimes I need all the help I can get. GRIN.
The finish on the dash is OK. I tried hard to get this part perfect, but missed again. There are some ripples and dings in the metal that I didn't quite get out. Bummer, but still better than Ok for a working tractor. I went ahead and put clearcoat on it for added protection and shine.
It was a beautiful weekend, so my only other tractor work was rebuilding two 6-volt generators for my 52. The generator on that one started making bearing noise, so I wanted to make sure I had at least one working spare ready to go. I ended up rebuilding two, just for grins.
It is SPRING! Time to get out in the yard, soak up some sun, and work on things like flower beds and gardens!
A package showed up from Eastwood. This is a zinc electroplating kit. Now I can go through that bin of rusty bolts and find the special ones that can be refinished and made like new again. This process is a little over my usual limit on dangerous chemicals and waste products that have to be disposed of in special ways. I'm about to find out if small-scale electroplating is worth the trouble.
My apologies to anyone following this project. Progress has been stalled while other projects moved to the front burner. Moving this web site to a new address created a whole new class of aggravation. There was a laundry room remodeling project. My car needed another clutch and we ended up replacing the entire car. For most folks that would mean simply trading the old one in and driving away in a car that hopefully won't need work for a few months. But I'm not that smart. We bought a car, I spent a couple of weeks repairing and selling the old one, then spent a few weeks customizing the new car until it conformed to my redneck specifications.
In spite of all that, the 46-2N is rolling again. The engine has not been started but the major reassembly work is complete, it's on the wheels and able to be rolled around. The steering works great. Sheetmetal is next. I found a set of plain 2N fenders that will be refinished. The raised Ford logo 8N fenders on the 2N now will be refinished for my 52 at the same time. Also need to refinish the 2N hood, grill, and wheels.
Alternator brackets needed work. The ones I took off look like they were cut from a piece of sheet metal with tin snips. Not exactly sturdy, if you know what I mean. My new top adjustment bracket will of course have to be curved and chromed to match the alternator case. The brackets have been cut and bent, ready for welding, grinding, and finishing.
09 AUG 2010 - A good tractor day
Finished welding, grinding, and test-fit my alternator brackets. The top bracket bolts to the original top adjuster bracket. I have a set of generator brackets and a rebuilt "C" generator, just in case I end up eventually going back to 6 volts with this tractor. I don't want to change anything that isn't a simple bolt-on part to put it back the way it was. The designation "C" generator refers to the final digit in teh model designation. The 9N tractors had "A" or "B" generators. Both of those are rare. The "C" generator is correct for this tractor and also not too hard to find.
The wiring harness is done. It was fitted, finished, and then removed so it wouldn't be trashed while other work was being finished.
17 OCT 2010 - After a rough couple of months
My father in-law has been living with heart problems for almost 10-years. Medication gradually became less-effective. He has been in the hospital for most of the last two months. Tractor Repairs of course had to take a back seat. He is home again and doing well with a new LVAD heart pump that helps do some of the work his heart has become too weak to do.
Sheet Metal work is my least-favorite repair work. I have been spending some time sanding and banging-out the worst of the dents.br>
The grill and hood were bashed-in pretty bad but came out looking pretty good after being straightened. But it's not the correct grill for this tractor, it does not have the holes for the "Ferguson System" emblem. I could drill it, but found some deals on ebay and ended up with two additional 9N and two 8N grills. Didn't expect to win ALL of the auctions, but now I can pick the best one.
The fenders, hood, and skirts have been sanded down to reveal high and low spots. Those were worked on with hammer and dolly in an attempt to straighten them. Then the parts were primed and sanded again to reveal how good or bad my efforts were. Some issues have disappeared, but some needed more work. That's about normal for me, GRIN.
24 OCT 2010 - A perfect fall weekend for painting outside
I started out by painting the house. Not the whole thing, just some new siding on one end that really needed to be finished before winter. Put a DONE stamp on that and some other chores on Saturday.
Pulled all of the large sheet metal parts out and set them up on saw horses for final sanding and painting. Did I mention this is not my favorite type of tractor repair work? Some of my previous repairs on these parts were less than perfect, so I took another whack at them. I'm trying a new paint mix for the gray on this tractor. Still using Rust-Oleum (R) but decided to try mixing their 7786 Smoke Gray with 7770 Almond instead of the white. This mix is slightly darker gray than what I used on the 52. That has held up very well and still looks good after four years. I thought it was a little too light though. These photos were taken today. I also managed to do a little backhoe and blade work while the painted parts were drying.
PS: I do wear at least a filter mask when spray-painting outside. The cheap filters don't stop all solvents or fumes, but they do keep me from breathing overspray.
The 2N hood looks OK. The back left corner is where the rust-through was and the nose was pushed-in pretty bad. This is a lot closer to right. As you can see, my sheetmetal work is far from perfect. Ok for me, this is not a show tractor.
The dog legs for my hood look bad. Someone cut the bottoms off with a torch and drilled holes to bolt the bottom of the grill in place. These look like 8N parts that were modified to work with a 2N hood/grill. That seems to be a common theme with this tractor.
I didn't spend any time working on these dog legs. The plan was to find some 9N parts to replace them. Here we are, ready to assemble the tractor and all I have is these. Oh well, after a quick sanding and primer they looked a little better. These will be on my list to repair or replace later I'm sure.
My wife is buying me a sheet-metal repair bible for a Christmas stocking-stuffer. This is supposed to be the first book every body repair man should read. Maybe that will give me a clue how to properly remove some of the dents and ripples these old tractors collect over the years.
Then again, it has not bothered me much that my tractors have a few warts. Battle-scars add character.
30 OCT 2010 - More Painting
This may be a bit over-the-top for one of my tractors. I clear-coated the hood. Looks like I'm going to have to clear-coat the other gray sheet metal parts to match. This is SHINY!
I used the Rust-Oleum Clear Enamel as a top coat over the color I mixed. Based on the labeling this appears to be OK. Clear-coating these less-than-perfectly-restored panels may not be the smartest use of time or resources, but it's a good test to see if the products will work. I wouldn't want to be experimenting on perfect sheetmetal.
One Lesson-Learned = The base coat needs to be thoroughly dry. Parts like the hood that were painted last week turned out great. A small part I tried that was just dry to the touch failed miserably. The clear coat acts like a solvent and crinkles the uncured base coat. Maybe a cool effect, if that was what I wanted to happen. This part will go straight into the electrolysis tank.
The fenders are on.
Tomorrow should be fun, there's a yard full of leaves to deal with, and a small pile of 2N parts like gas tank, air cleaner, lights, brackets, grill, etc.
31 OCT 2010 - More Painting and Assembly
It was warmer Sunday and almost too windy to paint, but the large parts are done and wind isn't as much of an issue with small parts. Most of the parts needed to be light gray, so I loaded my spray gun for those. There were a few red parts and the gas tank that I was going to paint with rattle cans. Everything has been prime-painted for a while. A few items still needed a little body work or sanding. If sanding exposes mare metal, prime the part again and set it in the sun to bake dry.
Shot at least two coats on everything. The only problem was making sure my overspray was not swirling around in the wind and getting on parts of a different color.
The tank was originally unpainted. It had a galvanized/zinc-plated finish of some kind. I've never seen an original, but I guess it was similar to the rear rims and lug nuts. I bought some rattle-can Rust-Oleum Hammered Silver finish that looks good on rims, so I painted my gas tank with the same stuff for a "fake plated" look.
Went out to the shop after dinner and the new paint on the gas tank was dry enough to assemble that and put the hood on.
The front rims and rear centers are painted. I opted to paint the rear hub centers to match the 8N look. I still need to paint the rear hat rims with Rust-Oleum Hammered Silver. That will have to wait until I can drain and de-mount the tires. One rim has a rotten spot. I got a repair piece from a friend on ntractorclub.com. The tire needs to be removed so I can cut out the bad and weld in the good piece.
I have ulterior motives. I don't want these filled tires rims to be out of commission until we get past snow removal season. Plenty of time to work on them this summer. I'm still doing comparison tests with the two tractors. I'm not sure if filled tires help that much when plowing snow or grading with a rear blade. Filled tires certainly leave bigger ruts when the ground is wet.
09 NOV 2010 - Finishing Touches
I'm determined to take the 2N for a drive this coming weekend. The engine is full of oil, tranny and differential are full. I made a temporary gasket for the oil cup on the air cleaner until I can get the correct part. Headlight wiring is done and the buckets are on. 12-Volt Bulbs have been ordered.
This may be a mistake. Instead of ordering sealed beam headlights, I am trying to fit H1 halogen conversions to the headlight buckets. Enclosing the heat of halogen bulbs in a sealed housing may prove to be a mistake. Stay Tuned, GRIN.
11 NOV 2010 - Tail Lights
At this point funding for a project like this is already way over any original estimates. You may also not see the sense in buying "just like original" tail lights for a working tractor. They are not cheap. If you want tail lights, but don't want to spend much, these el-cheapo trailer lights are an option.
These come in several versions with plastic or metal housings, they bolt directly to the N-Tractor tail light brackets, and they all have dual-filament bulbs for running lights and signals. I'm going to hook up the running lights and ignore the extra wire for now. The brake light elements could be wired to a flasher for extra safety if you take your tractor down the road on a regular basis.
If you don't like the factory black finish, they can be painted.
I didn't like the bolts sticking out the back of mine. They are special carriage bolts press-fit into the housings. I pressed them out, turned them around and pressed them back in through the Ford tail light bracket. The nuts now go on the inside of the housing.
If you plan to use the ground path through these bolts, make sure you clean the paint off where the carriage bolt heads hit the bracket. This also applies to any other attachment points. the ground path must make metal to metal contact everywhere
This is another reason I run ground wires to all of my lights. I don't like scraping paint off new parts. These lights do not have a convenient place to attach a ground wire, but with the bolts turned around it was a simple matter to attach a ring terminal under one of the nuts on the inside. Slipping that wire into the socket and out the back of the housing with the other wires was the difficult part.
The reward for that effort is a slightly cleaner installation that nobody but me is ever going to notice.
13 NOV 2010 - Went for a ride Today!
The 2N fired right up today and went for a ride. There's plenty of oil pressure and the shop-repaired radiator seems to be a good one. The conversion headlights look good and work better. I had to cut a gasket to go between the headlight ring and the lens. They were a little loose. Plenty of room in the housings for the bulb, but not for a connector. The wires in teh headlight housing have ring terminals to bolt to the sealed beam bulb, so I simply bolted them to the H4 bulb terminals with #4 nuts, bolts, and washers. Yes, #4 is tiny hardware, nearly too small for my fingers, but that's the largest size that fit through the hole in the lugs on the bulb.
I like the way the paint turned out. Painting the hub centers like the 8N gives it an updated look. They match the 8N paint scheme a little better than if I'd painted the entire rear hub red. Out in the sun there is not as much difference in the gray as I expected. Maybe I won't be repainting the 8N as soon as I thought.
The 2N hood emblems are the el-cheapo aluminum ones, I hand-painted the field blue and followed with a little bright silver paint on the letters. It looks a little rough up close, but photographs well.
Yes, it started right up and went for a drive, but I would be less than truthful if I let you believe that the hero rode off into the sunset, happily ever after, The End.
NO, It aint' done yet. Some folks would have you believe their tractors always work flawlessly after a major overhaul like this. I wish mine did. In most cases, there is probably a trial period where we discover things like loose bolts, seals that don't seal, or any number of other really weird problems. I hope I'm not the only one who finds that mice have nested in their muffler.
OK, Here's the list: The carb is not right. The engine wants to quit if the choke is allowed to open completely, even after it's warmed up. The wiring for the lights is incomplete. Something is seriously wrong with the start pushbutton. "Restore Rear Rims" is still on my list. My lower lift arms were replaced after I was through with the red paint, so they don't match. I cleverly concealed that fact in the photos, GRIN. Time will tell if the engine main seals were properly done. The jury is still out on that one.
14 NOV 2010
When I went to fire it up the third time yesterday, nothing. It wouldn't crank, GRRR. The battery and starter are fine. It turned over using a jumper cable between the battery and the starter. Yes, I double-checked neutral position before doing that (didn't want this saga to include a trip to the ER).
After some checking, my START switch wouldn't make contact, even after taking it off and working it with a BIG pair of pliers. Best I could get out of it was an intermittant connection. This switch looks brand new, so I didn't consider replacing it. There is no printing anywhere. They apparently weren't proud enough to put their name or country-of-origin on it. JUNK Parts again, a new one has been ordered. Here's what the inside of a burned-up switch looks like:
WIRING FOR LIGHTS With all of the fresh paint, there is no longer a good ground connection between any lights and the frame of the tractor. The last thing I want to do is scrape off new paint between panels or under bolts to create a good ground path. So, my wiring for all lights will need to include ground wires to the tractor frame. I am using ring terminals under 3/8" bolts that go into a major cast iron part near each light.
There is no way two #10 wires are going to fit through the bolt into each headlight housing. The problem with tail lights is similar. The bulbs were all grounded inside the fixture housings, the housings were intended to be grounded to the hood or fender, which in-turn would be grounded to a major casting. My wiring into each fixture housing will be the largest gauge wire I can fit, terminated with plug-ins to the #10 hot and ground wires close to each fixture.
My light switch has two positions. I'm connecting it so the first position turns on head and tail lights. The second position will turn the work light on. that's the way I want it to work. Might change my mind later. The 52 is wired like a car, first position is tail lights, second position adds the headlights. The work light is HOT and controlled by a switch on the light.
CARB I may go ahead and pull the carb for a good cleaning. It was working fine when I removed it. I thought it would be fine, but sitting for a year and drying out may have clogged some passages.
21 NOV 2010
The new Start switch from just8ns.com fixed the no crank problem. Now that it starts reliably, I tweaked the carb adjustments and it settled down and started running right. Fresh gas may have "cleaned" the carb some, but the biggest problem was the difference between a Zenith and the original Marvel/Schebler carb. My bench adjustments were way off. Here's another series of photos:
11 DEC 2010
The carb problems didn't go away. The tractor started and ran fine a few times but started running rough. Diagnosis was easy, fuel running out the botom of the carb = float stuck. I gave it a couple of whacks and it stopped, hmmmm. This carb may eventually sort itself out, but who wants to wait for a maybe? This is why I keep a few spares handy. Pulled a rebuilt M/S carb off the shelf and spent about 15 minutes swapping carbs. It fired right up and went for a ride. Wow! Big difference. I should have known better. The novelty factor of the Zenith carb got to me.
No, The carb isn't really that orange. It's just another example of a weird color showing up on digital photographs. The carb is the same color red as the rest of the red parts.
That should close this chapter. This page is more than long enough. I'm also posting a carb rebuild page that has been in the works for a while. Look in the index for it. Please forgive any typos until I get a chance to proof it.
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