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Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:38 am
by bobfaecullen
Hi All,

Thought I would share some photos of my newly acquired vineyard Dexta.

There was a post recently on the forum from someone trying to sell a Dexta Narrow on behalf of a friend in France. I now live in France so I enquired about the tractor and where it was, and would you believe it was about 3kms from where I now live. I arranged with the owner to go and have a look at the tractor and she told me it came with the house when they bought it about 5 years ago and the tractor has been sitting outside since then doing nothing and the previous owner hadn't used it either. I checked that the engine wasn't seized and made her an offer which was accepted, she later said that if no one was going to buy it she was going to turn it into a planter :shock: :shock: :shock:

Picked it up next day and trailered it home. The nameplate on the bonnet says "Narrow" so I assume this was a trade name of whoever converted it to a vineyard tractor. The tinwork is all good although very little paint remains on it, tyres not good but they are all holding air, underswept exhaust which is very common round here on all tractors, just about chokes you to death when you are trying to hook something up on the back.

I repaired the fuel pump and pipework, took the starter to pieces and cleaned up all the starter cabling as the starter was very lazy. Then disconnected all the wiring, which was more insulating tape and twisted joins than wiring and connected up just enough wiring to get it started. No manifold heater at the moment so a little squirt of easy start and it fired up very easily and runs well, no bottom end noises. Took it for a run round and everything working except right hand brake and TPL not raising.

Since then I have had the top cover off and found the hydraulic intake filter was lying horizontally within the rear axle and the oil level was low so I assume it was drawing air instead of oil - well I say oil but it was an emulsified gunge really. I have cleaned it all up and put every thing back and now waiting for a delivery of SAE30 oil so that I can try it out.

Once I get it to a stage where I can use it without spending any more time or money that will have to suffice for the meantime, the wife has a list of more pressing items that need doing :cry:

You can see in the pictures the difference between my original Dexta (set at 56") and the vineyard Dexta.

I will post more updates in the future as time allows.

Bob



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Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 7:28 pm
by blackbob
So you took your own Dexta fae Cullen to France? (AV = Aberdeenshire registration, in the 1950's/60's at least)

Our next-door neighbour here has 2, basically TEF20 Ferguson diesels, made in France I think after Banner Lane moved on to making 35's, painted red/light grey. He imported them from France, I'm not sure how he got them up here (although he has a big pick-up and flat trailer).

My sister had some sort of croft near Limoges (I never went there, it is now sold, I don't know what happened to the little Fiat tractor they had there) and my cousin from Kettering now has a house in that area - I gather there are a lot of Brits settled over there?

Interesting photos. My wife has a long list of jobs for me to do too - but I'm still hoping to get my Major painted one day.. :wink:

Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 8:32 pm
by henk
Saved another one :clap: :buddies: :beer: :D

I find the narrow Dexta a real nice tractor.

Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 10:25 am
by peter2
Hi Bob,

the description of the paint and the tires reminds me on the condition of my super major when I found her in the pyrenees. No color on the south side, rests of color on the north. http://predecke.auge.de/html/traktor1.html

How wide is the narrow Dexta? Newer wineyards must be wider than 2m for EU funding, but the older ones in my region (Rheinhessen, Germany) are around 1,40 - 1,70m. A friend bought a new Fendt last year but is not able to use it in all his wineyards because he wanted slightly bigger wheels on the back and so it's to wide.

Peter

Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 3:20 pm
by bobfaecullen
Hi Blackbob,

Yes I took my Dexta with me from Cullen - it's an old friend, I bought it at the 2006 January machinery sale at Thainstone and I wouldn't want to part with it now. It was registered in the Alford area so definitely Aberdeenshire registration. Took it over on my trailer which turned a few heads on the way but also caused me a bit of grief. I pulled into a motorway service station here in France to fill up, and as I got out of the car a man popped his head round from the other side of the fuel pump and started asking me questions, so while concentrating on replying in my best French I inadvertently picked up the wrong filler nozzle and filled the Kia to the neck with petrol :shock: :shock: . Didn't realise what I had done until I pulled out of the services and just about to join the motorway from the sliproad and it stopped. After much diagnosing under the bonnet as the air was getting bluer I checked the receipt and realised I had filled it with petrol, had to be recovered off the motorway.
There are loads of Brits around here, so much so in fact they call it Dordogneshire !! but it's a nice place to live and the climate is nice.

Hi Peter 2,

The overall width of the tractor is 1.4m, I have no idea what the vine spacing is but must be very close to that. I had a look at your Major and strangely enough the colour is exactly the same as my Dexta :) I see your back tyres were mounted round the wrong way, in Scotland where I used to live they would turn the wheels round like that when they were using a rear mounted muck loader to get traction in reverse. Have you made any progress with your Major ?

Bob

Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 6:00 pm
by peter2
Hi Bob,

a little progress, yes: http://predecke.auge.de/html/traktor.html and mind the links on top and bottom of the page. :-)

I don't know what the previous owners did with the tractor. I think they pulled trees or something similar and therefore changed the direction of the wheels. If you have a close look at the bar in front of the tractor on my first page you can see that it's bent. Three of the four clamps were open or bent too. It needs a lot of force for that ...

Peter

Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:54 pm
by blackbob
Peter2,

Beautiful restoration! I know we're straying off-topic.. but how would you use, for example, a baler, with that type of drawbar hitch? Can it be positioned upwards or down, so it is clear of the pto shaft?

And Cullen Bob,

Good story, that is the kind of 'stupid' things I do when someone distracts me - although I haven't put the wrong fuel in my car (yet...) :) One of our neighbours did it, he is a member of the AA and assumed all he would have to do was to call them and they would sort it out.. wrong! They told him they are only there to help with breakdowns, not accidents, and they regarded this as an 'accident'. So he had to call a garage.. and didn't renew his AA membership... :x
Of course, other motoring organisations are available - I wonder if they all have the same policy? I have seen an ad for one company, which specialises in draining vehicle fuel tanks?

Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:21 pm
by bobfaecullen
Hi All,

SAE30 oil arrived the other day so duly filled up back end to the level plug, put the top cover back.......still no hydraulics. Took the top cover back off and searched through the forum for info, came up with a couple of possibilities,
1...oil pump
2...unload valve
3...check valve

Just to prove the oil pump was ok I turned the engine over on the starter with the top cover off and plenty oil came up through the port in the casing.
When I had the top cover off I didn't look at the unload valve or the check valve so set about taking them apart.

The check valve came out no problem and although the ball was a little marked I cleaned it up and put it back.

The unload valve is a little more complex, first you have to remove the plug before you get to the valve, the plug has a 3/8 UNF threaded hole in it for an extractor tool. If you don't have the proper extractor tool you need a 3/8 UNF threaded rod with suitable nut, a socket big enough to straddle the unload valve plug and a couple of washers. Screw the rod into the threaded portion of the unload valve plug, place the socket and washers over the rod, then use the nut to wind the plug out of the bore. This is where I found the unload valve was firmly stuck in the bore, the O ring had glued itself to the bore and left a deposit on it as well, so I tapped out the valve and cleaned up the bore with metal polish and a cloth. I read on the forum that the valve will work perfectly well without the O ring (Brian's advice) so I discarded it, probably less likely to stick without it.

Assembled the top cover and set the linkages as per Brian's guide on the wiki, replaced the top cover, started up the tractor with a little puff of easy start, still waiting for a manifold heater, and the lift works :clap :beer:

I must thank the collective genius of this board for all the information that allowed me to figure this one out.

Back to the decorating now :cry:

Bob

Re: Vineyard Dexta

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 7:47 pm
by peter2
Hi Bob,

I can mount my coupling in different positions, there are five holes, the mounting covers three. I can turn the part at 180° which is between tractor and coupling and get a few more inches. Actually I have a sprayer which uses pto to drive the transport and "mill". There is no problem to have both coupling and pto at the same time.

I only have a picture on twitter with the trailer (which is shown only half if using a img-link here): https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk-zoczW4AAHkeb.jpg:large

Peter