igor

The most amazing thing about this tractor so far is that every bolt and/or nut we have attempted to unscrew has come off reasonably easily. This in direct contrast to my other tractor which has spent its entire sixty-seven year history within five miles of the coast.

Next thing was the petrol tap. Went to unscrew the connection for the pipe that goes from the tap to the fuel pump and found that prior to my ownership some person had managed to round off the hex. Called it quits for the night. Went back to it just now armed with a pair of vice grips and managed to unscrew the petrol pipe connection with relative ease. Took it off at the other end too. A visit to a real mechanic/engineer shop is required to obtain a hex nut that isn't fucked and get it fitted to the pipe. Unscrewed the dodgy old petrol tap from the tank with surprising ease (remember this thing is seventy years old). Then I thought while I'm at it I'll take the tank off and tip out the crap in the bottom. Off comes the steering wheel (the steering column passes through a sleeve in the tank) and I undo the four bolts holding the tank on. Three of them fit a 5/8 socket, the fourth one is 11/16. Genius. Can't get a socket on one of the 5/8 bolts due to it being obstructed by something I do not wish to remove and my 5/8 spanner has gone awol so I use a crescent. Turned the tank upside down and shook it with some vigour expecting a small amount of lead based sediment and perhaps the odd leaf. Large amounts of flaky rust fell out. This is definitely not a good thing. A look inside has revealed severe corrosion including several pinholes. Will attempt to obtain another tank.

Changed the wheels over Thursday evening. Went max wide for increased stability.

Well, a plug's a plug.

Replacement petrol tap obtained.

Also ordered a new petrol tap to replace the leaky original. Petrol is a very expensive grass killer.

Tyres and rims obtained. They even have water in them which, while not ideal for manual handling, will be a good thing once they are fitted to the tractor. The seller has very limited use of his legs (pretty sure none at all on the left) and uses a wheelchair to get around but does not allow this to prevent him from driving a full range of normal vehicles when required, including the tractor he used to load our trailer. As he says many seemingly impossible things become possible if one thinks about how for a while first. Any 'clutha boys reading this will probably guess the identity of this man quite quickly.

I suspect you may be rather younger than me J5. Our neighbours in Northland had an old Fordson which I have long believed was an E27N (but may in retrospect have been an earlier model given that the oldest E27N would have been only twenty years old then) with steel wheels all around on their runoff in, and before, my early childhood. I don't remember it but I have been told it was never garaged and would be left for months between haymaking season and feeding out season and it always started when required.

E27N?

It sure is. My other Major has the optional raised pto as mentioned above. Apparently this is about as rare as rocking horse shit. In other news I have found a pair of reasonably good rear tyres on Fordson rims locally. Collecting them Saturday morning. You still have a bunch of Majors?

And you can guarantee that if there is any possible way to fuck it up it will be found by someone somewhere.

Thanks Mark. I think I have some new blades somewhere that came with it. Would be keen to receive details of the tool for changing them as I do not have one. The main issue with this machine is that many of the bushings are flogged out resulting in several things that should be aligned not being so. This was evidenced most strongly by the fact that as soon as we started it up one of the drive belts began to walk off. The pto driveshaft is also questionable. It is in better condition than the rest of the mower but we are not convinced that it is the correct one for this machine.

Very true J5. Outside duals on the other one are the original tyres from 1957. The other two rear tyres are better than these ones but very probably over forty years old. I have found some more locally on FB marketplace but have not seen how good they are yet.

The seller described the condition of the tyres as "they hold air". I am not convinced that they will continue to do so much longer.

Will need to find some replacement tyres quite soon too. This is the worst one. It made a weird noise while we were playing with the mower.