The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

12 months of blood sweat and tears, and a few quid!
Before

After

john,

only the last picture is visible, but the result looks great!

Looks good finished, I can't see the first two pics either. I see the starter rod is inspired by Billy, as is the gear lever!
Sandy

Looking really good, quite a change from a year ago. Are the lights yet to be fitted or is this one going to stay without them? Now for the fun bit: ploughing away!
Sandy

This one is not having lights, they plan to use the pulley for an old cider mill and as there is no need for them they would just be in the way. It runs really well, i need to connect the pto to something to adjust the clutch (the pedal is a bit high) and as you say, give it a day of hard work to bed the rings in. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, the only new tinwork is the nosecone and seat pan, i welded up the mudguards and bonnet and ideally would have liked an original nose but i was running out of time to fix one up as i promised to have it ready for their show last weekend. It has a Super Major block and head with new liners but mk2 crank, pistons and camshaft, new oil pump and water pump and valve guides. The crank was good so just needed shells and one of the old pistons was a bit scored so i replaced it with a new one. The gearbox is nice and smooth, just had to flush it through and replace the pin on the gearstick. The hydraulics are good, took the top cover off and gave it a good clean out and spent a fortune on new oil right through. Adding in the price of tyres and paint i think my labour will work out at 10p an hour if i'm lucky!

Good work, and yes, lots of expensive oil there! Pity it isn't completely original, but most aren't anyway, it certainly looks good and great work on the bonnet and mudguards. Nice to know the belt pulley will be used, as most are ignored.
Sandy

Thanks Sandy. The block was badly cracked and it had no nose cone or seat when i got it and the wheels were wrong. I tried to keep it as original as possible and only used a Super block as I had one kicking around from an old JCB that had siezed many years ago. The steering track rod ends were badly worn as were the top arm holes, so I reamed them out and made bushes to tighten it all back up rather than just buying after market parts. Also made a new pin to hold the A frame to the sump as it had the wrong one in it spaced with old copper pipe. Also reamed out the holes in the swivels on the drop arms and re-bushed them as i don't think they had ever seen grease. Spent many hours with the wire wheel on the grinder cleaning up hundreds of nuts and bolts before cleaning the threads with taps and dies. Took me hours to line up the 'quality' nose cone, if you look at the pic you can see where I had to lift the front of it with washers where it sits on the tombstone to tip it backwards, it was the only way I could get the correct gap to the bonnet

I hadn't noticed but now that you say I do see the gap above the front casting. Great that you managed to keep so much of it (especially the tie rod ends as they're quite delicate, we were lucky to have some original spares for Super Billy), and as usual a pity that aftermarket suppliers can never get things right. I don't think the swivels tended to see much grease, Billy's ones will need a bit of assistance soon, but the bolt someone put in on the LH side is very stiff, and so it's just being left as I haven't yet found anything to shift it with. Always worth going through all threads, as otherwise you can't interchange them easily, we missed cleaning some on Super Billy (with taps and dies, they had lost their paint with the wire brush) and as they had all been mixed up spent hours trying to work out which was which to get the best fit for all of them!
Sandy

Looking very good. If you have some spare time I’ve some projects for you.

Looks great John!

Thanks guys

Well done; you've made a lovely job of that and set the bar high.

Where are you based, John?

Hi Chris, i'm in Hereford

Billy26F5 wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:27 pm

I see the starter rod is inspired by Billy, as is the gear lever!
Sandy

I’m curious, what’s different?

The bend in the starter rod normally sits below the straight line between the holes for the pins, but Billy has it the other way round, and the only reason for that is that it needs to clear the unusual throttle cross shaft.

The gear lever is the early kind, which was out of use by Power Major days, although it could be a stock one fitted.
Sandy

Hi Sandy, i turned the starter rod over as it was chewing through the starter boot (another quality aftermarket part!), the gear lever was on the tractor when i got it but what you say makes complete sense as it is very close to the seat when in 2nd and reverse with the seat pushed right back. I assume that stick was used with the earlier type seat and i think i'll replace it with the other type of lever as soon as i get one cleaned up and painted. Is this the correct stick? Ignore the position, the locating pin has broken and it twists around!

That is indeed the correct gear lever, the two tractors might have swapped them before from the appearance of the one that currently has the second type. There is a third type used at the very end with a shallow bend near the bottom. Billy's geal lever gets pretty close to the seat too, and he's in original condition in that sense.
You'll need to remove the starter rod whenever you want access to the air filter bowl, as it almost touches (that's what Billy's like, you might be lucky and not need that).
Sandy

The 2 Majors lived together with a builder for about 40 years so it's highly likely that parts got swapped over after the first one died, it would certainly explain alot of the wrong parts that were fitted. The Power Major had a loader and a forklift on the back and the last time it was serviced steam trains were probably still on the mainline! The top lift arms had been removed and turned 90° so the arms were locked in the raised position with the lift cylinder in the lowered position so the forklift could be used on the external feed without the link arms moving

That's a very long time without a service, interesting fork lift arrangement.
Sandy