My Old Tractor
Since I mentioned my 68 year old tractor in the last tale, I thought it would be fitting if I told you more about this mean machine in this follow-up post. The Farmall Model M tractor was quite popular for many years and there are still many of these tractors around and running. Years ago I used to mow mesquite brush on the upland area of our property. I spent hours, days and weeks mowing brush every year. All the wheels on the tractor are iron, so I never had flats, but the tractor continually had breakdowns due to other reasons. The reason for the breakdowns was primarily due to the enormous task I was forcing the machine to tackle. This tractor had a heavy duty mower deck on back and a push bar in front. It would literally cut up anything the tractor would push down. In all the years mowing, I only ran into one tree that I intended cutting down that the tractor would not push over.
The day came when I no longer needed the tractor and it sat parked for about six years and was never touched. One day, however, I decided I wanted the try to get the tractor running again. I got a friend to help me tow the tractor to my house two miles away. This was quite an ordeal. We first broke the pistons free in the engine which were froze up at this point due to years of sitting idle. My friend pulled the tractor and I let out the clutch with the tractor in gear to turn the engine over. It took a few tries but I got the engine to turn. We then towed the tractor to my home with my truck.
When I got the tractor to the house, I took the head off the engine and cleaned it up and ground the valves, changed all the ignition parts, reworked the starter and repaired a few oil, water, and propane leaks. The tractor ran on propane as it was converted from gasoline to propane many years before. I bought an old tractor of the same model for parts and the next thing I knew it was time to give it a try. The tractor started up after only a few attempts, but new problems developed. I worked on the tractor off and on another couple weeks and eventually got it to where I could use the mean machine once again.
I used the old tractor to clean up the property near my home. Once I got the land mowed, the load on the tractor was significantly less than what it had been for so many years. I used the tractor to mow about seven acres around my home. It was a sad day last year when I had to retire the old Farmall. There were too many problems with the old machine and it was no longer possible to keep it in good enough condition to mow the pasture. I now have a new Farmall tractor to mow the pasture, if you can call a 50 plus year old tractor new. My old machine is now a yard ornament. I just can’t seem to force myself to dispose of this once great machine.
