Still bothered by the Foose 4020

First off I am not going to put a picture of the Foose tractor here because a) most of those pictures are copyrighted and b) it's tacky, well maybe not tacky, just too busy for my taste.  He has too many things going on with the tractor distracting you from the overall image.  The New Generation line of Deere's tractors, of which the 4020 is the prime example, were quite often noted for their simplistic design beauty.  These were the first tractors to look like they were completed at design.  There are no extra bumps in the hood for hiding a starter, no brackets sticking out the sides, no 4 or 5 color paint scheme. 
  I saw the videos Chip Foose made while designing and building the tractor.  In his original drawing he had a couple of neat ideas.  Turning the side vents 90 degrees gives the tractor a streamlined look.  The height drop and smooth belly pan add even more streamlining.  I am not sure about the black streak down the side or the extension up front where the weights belong.  Those might actually look ok if you remove the garish vertical yellow stripe from the middle of the tractor.  The chrome exhaust is not bad but it makes mounting the tractor a hot prospect unless you crawl over the back.  The right side looks better without the exhaust so it makes me want to find a better routing of those pipes. Here is one sketch Chip came up with.

 

I like the exhaust in this one.  The narrow black stripes on the yellow middle make me think that stripe could stay, or not.  He also has the side vents green in this sketch.   Yeah, love the green side vents over the silver ones. 

Love to have the money to do one my way.

The Firing Order for John Deere A: 1 - 2

How is that for informational?  A two-cylinder engine has a firing order of the number 1 cylinder first and then the number two cylinder.  How complicated is that?

I mention this because I pulled the fuel tanks (the A has a 14 gallon main tank and a 1 gallon auxiliary tank that piggy backs on the big tank) last week and was looking up repair tips.  It never occurred to me to ask about the firing order but in all dead pan honesty a blogger/poster pointed it out: 1 - 2. Makes me want to roll on the floor with laughter.

As for the tanks - when I drained the fuel for the winter globs of rust came out of the fuel line.  So I pulled the fuel lines off of both tanks and tried to blow air through them.  Nothing except that heavy headed feeling you get from an industrial strength balloon.  The fuel lines are copper so the rust had to come from the tanks.  There are methods of sealing old tanks to prevent rust-thru.  I am going to be exploring those methods in the next few weeks.

1 - 2.

Update on the A

    I drained the water on the A.  It came out a nice orange color but surprisingly still had the consistency of water. Next I drained the fuel.  It also came out orange. With lumps.

    For those of you new to the mechanical and chemical side of anything with an engine - orange is bad, lumps are worse. Orange means there is rust in your fluid. The darker the orange the worse it is. If you hit brown you need to look at options.
    Lumps are groupings of rust. These form when your fluid has been sitting and the rust settles into a nice low place, say the hole in the bottom of the tank where your fuel line begins transporting fuel to the engine. Lumps are capable of plugging up things like carburetors and fuel injectors which have small openings to meter out the fuel going into the engine. Picture a hairball in your bathroom sink. Equally gross and annoying. Both stop things from flowing.
    I removed the carburetor from the tractor and brought it home to work on it this winter. I have no real experience with carbs so I have begun my research. Even better, I have experts to guide me through it. My friends at antiquetractorsforum are always eager with advice, experience, pictures, diagrams and videos. Locally I have found my ace-in-the-hole, Dick Engler. No, not acehole. Brian and I take turns at being the acehole. Dick and his neighbors south of Lafayette do a lot of nice restorations. (At least from the pictures I have seen. I'll need to attend one of their shows to be sure ;)). When I told him what I was working on Dick was able to explain in detail the problems and quirks I would run into and how to handle them.
    Cleaning up the carb and putting new gaskets and o-rings will make the tractor run smoother and stronger but the real key will be preventing it from happening again. Virgil, my father-in-law, has used a product that rust-proofs fuel tanks. Performing that process on the A will not be an easy task.  I'll go into detail on another post.
    Before this turns into a full on ramble I will say: End Chapter.

More Power

Here is the dashboard of Big Blue. Yep 2 keys - 1 for each engine.

A view of the hood of the dual engine 8850 by Kinze.

Heritage Iron had a display of "Muscle Tractors" that was really a neat sight.

Zane wanted his picture taken with this Versatile.  He thought it looked cool.  I tend to agree.

Ha! It LIVES!!!

Special thanks to Tom Bonnell.  Mom had called Tom for a phone number of someone who had offered to help me.  Not knowing the phone number we desired, Tom offered his help instead.

I am not sure when Tom left the farm for the business world, but the way he zipped around that tractor it must have been yesterday.  He went straight to the fuel system with a can of carb cleaner and had the valves loosened in minutes, all the while pointing out the little tips and tricks an experienced tractor owner takes for granted and a novice like me repeats over and over hoping it sticks.  We then hooked a tow strap up to his Subaru and pulled started the A.  That little all-wheel drive 4-banger went right down the field, no slippage.

Again, Thanks Tom!

Here is Mom taking it for a spin.

My son Zane getting his first drive...

 

and my daughter Audrey on her first turn.

Much to their mother and grandmother's disapproval both kids took a solo drive too.
Remember to look for it at the Northern Indiana Power from the Past show in Winamac starting this Thursday July 14.

More work on the A

I am going back to work on it today.  I called Gilsingers this morning and found they had 19 oil filters in stock for the A.  According to Don in the parts dept. these filters were used up through the 4020s.  The 7 gallons(US gal) of 90w transmission looks to be a little expensive, I guess that is why it looked like I drained the original fluid last week. A quick check over at Rural King though shows a more reasonable price.  Gotta run.  I'll try to put something up tomorrow.

The Winamac Power Show and Dad's 1937 Model A John Deere

The Winamac or Northern Indiana Power from the Past show is celebrating 34 years this year.  For most of those 34 years Dad has had a 1937 John Deere A.  My 2 brothers and I always wanted to put the tractor in the show, but many years we were on vacation that week.  Dad was always reluctant.  I never have figured out why.  He passed in '04 so unless he said something to mom...
My younger brother, Kole, and I put up the shed in the background in the fall of 2003.  Older brother, Kirk, was there for the tear down and clean up of the old shed.  I think we got the new one up before he was able to get back down here to help.  (Kole says that is why it went up so fast and square.) I think we finished late October, so Dad had 3 months to enjoy it.  I was planning on pushing him on the A that following year because now he had no excuses.  That sucker showed me.  Anyway, and I think I speak for Kirk and Kole here, those events increased my determination to get that tractor running and into the show.
I pulled the tractor out of the shed on Saturday night and went back yesterday (Sunday) to drain all of the fluids.  Here is the transmission fluid.

For added effect - here is the video:

Right now I am researching the best way to clean out that sludge.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

No Southern Indiana pictures. How about these?

The pictures I took in southern Indiana did not turn out very well.  I was using my phone camera from a moving car.  What could go wrong?  Blurred, too high, too late, too low, too soon, and finger on the lens.  Yep.  When I do it - I do it right.  So I have two other pictures I thought I would toss up here.  The first is my daughter and me heading down the road, wide open on the previously mentioned 4020.  1964 Synchro-Range.  Diesel.  1 family owned.

The next picture is from the Annual Tippecanoe Steam & Gas Power Show in Battleground, IN.  (Battleground is right next to Lafayette and Purdue university.)

I took picture (with the phone camera) because it reminded me of a build-it-yourself from Popular Mechanics magazine in the 1950's.   Yes it is a Gibson tractor, but it does look homemade.

the John Deere 4020

I was cruising youtube whlie waiting on an after hours meeting and came across this link:4020 pulling wheelies.  At first I thought - Wow! How cool!  Then I remembered.
When I was 6 or 7, I saw dad pull a wheelie while pulling a 24' field cultivator.  Not just any wheelie.  The cultivator was on the 3 point hitch which means all of it's weight was being supported by the tractor.  Our 4020 did not have duals or weights on at that time which made the tractor VERY light.  So light that when he lifted the cultivator the front wheels came off the ground about 1-1/2 feet.  Dad calmly drove out of the back yard, turned down the road for about a tenth of a mile and then turned into the field and stopped.  His hands were not on the steering wheel, only the throttle and the left side of the seat.
The show did not end there.  He then unfolded and put the cultivator into the ground.  As he took off across the field the front wheels came up again and did not touch ground until he hit the other end of the field. A good 1/4 mile wheelie. He made six or seven rounds that way because he was re-tilling the part of the field that had not been planted due to a rain out.  (the duals and weights were off because this was also his planter tractor.) Poke around on youtube for more tractor videos.  or better yet post some of your own on there and tell me about it. I'll post their links here.  We need to preserve our tractor history almost as much as our soil.

LOW hours John Deere 4430 for sale. Not Cheap.

1976 2,662 hrs.  Grandpa bought it in 1977, Dad ran it.  My brothers and I grew up in it. We have only put 15 hours on it since September 2007. 

I remember riding to the right of the steering wheel standing by the little door for hours.  At night the glow of the orange light reflecting off the white decals making it easy to read the instruments and lever positions while giving a comforting warm hue to the darkness (Pontiac owners will understand).  We would take turns sleeping behind the seat, standing up, or best of all sitting on top of the arm rest next to Dad.  We would wax it at least twice a year.  Dad (our local Ag teacher) had the FFA kids help paint the hood, fenders, front and side panels once.  Years later one of those kids told me they used a high quality automotive paint that he was able to procure for Dad.  Pretty sure that hot looking paint job was hot paint.

$25,000 is the price.

Period.

Unless you try to talk me down, then it is $26,000.
If I just don't like you - $27,000.
If you start talking about how much better red tractors are - $29,000.
Trades can be negotiated - I always wanted an extra arm and leg.