What are these drillings for?

[AdrianNPMajor]

Just wondering what these drillings are for? The four on the underside with the plastic bungs still in situ. What kind of attachments were they designed for?
Best, Adrian.

[URL=http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/ ... .jpg[/img][/url]

[Stu_Fletch]

Hi Adrian, How are you baring up in the snow? I thought they were for the pick up hitch but I've just looked and they're not quite made the way I had imagined them to be. I've just spent the morning refitting new injectors and adjusting the valves and refitting the injection pump on my tractor... my fingers are just starting to thaw out!!!

Cheers

[Stu_Fletch]

Curiosity has now lead me to this.... https://sadeik.files.wordpress.com/2014 ... =300&h=225

Cheers

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hello Stu
No snow in my neck of the woods yet (east Suffolk). Cold though. I can well imagine how chilly your fingers got. Engine up and running again?
Took my old girl for a quick run yesterday to move the oil around. The unloading valve on my tractor sometimes sticks if I leave it standing for too long, plus the little plunger on the inside of the drop control knob can stick in the fully in position if left to stand so I operated this in and out to get some oil in there too.
Re the four drillings, I had a Diesel Major with a pick-up hitch and it didn't use these fixing points. The back end of a Major was designed for many applications, I believe, so I wonder if these drillings weren't intended for standard tractor operations.
The water dripping off the underside of the tractor was the result of negotiating a wet field headland used for muck storage.
Best, Adrian.

[URL=http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/ ... .jpg[/img][/url]

[liam]

Its for the pick up hitch Adrian .The super hitch is slightly different than the earlier ones, I have one here on one of my supers .Liam.

[AdrianNPMajor]

Thanks Liam. I've never seen a Super pick-up hitch. Didn't know they attached in a different way.
Best, Adrian.

[Brian]

Liam is right, they are for the latch mechanism of the hitch which pivots from the same location as the normal drawbar. You will find that some of the really early Majors did not have any holes under there.

[AdrianNPMajor]

Thanks Brian. I am looking at this general area with a view to modifying and strengthening the existing drawbar brackets to accept elongated pins that would take the weight of the lift arms with a plough mounted. I'm mindful of your advice about traveling to and from the field and how the weight of the plough stresses the hydraulics.
The shock load of the plough bouncing on the existing bracket fixings may be excessive, so I am looking at how to spread the load by modifying the brackets to take in additional fixing points.
Any advice/thoughts?
Best, Adrian.

[fenhayman]

Adrian have you looked at the various strengthening bits attached to rear hydraulics on Triple D tractors.

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hello Fenhayman
No, I'm not familiar with the Triple D set-up. Thanks for the heads-up. I'll do a spot of googling. I've just found a photo of my Diesel Major (sold a few years back) with its pick-up hitch.
Best, Adrian.

[URL=http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/ ... .jpg[/img][/url]

[Stu_Fletch]

You could T into the lift ram line and fit an accumulator which is what i'm looking into... I just need to calculate the volume of the lift cylinder and assister ram and the pressure it will need to hold. These are what are incorporated in all linkages on current production tractors... only a thought... and then you could have an inline tap to isolate it when in work...


Cheers

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hello Stu
Thanks for your reply. I'm going to have to google your suggestion too as this is new to me! My thoughts were rather more low tech than yours!
Best, Adrian.

[Brian]

Something to consider in your calculations. A TS82 bouncing on the lift hits the ram cylinder with a force exceeding 10 tons.

That information comes from Ford at the time we were complaining about lift problems. (They destroyed the gauge whilst testing). Your bolts would be under quite a shear force or the threads in the casting may give way. When fitted with a loader the bolts in the bell housing used to shear and so did the ones holding the drawbar side plates when using loaded trailers. (Seen that, done that, drilled them all out with a "gut buster" hand drill in the middle of a field).

Your best plan would be to fit an assist ram. These spread the load and sorted out a lot of problems back in the day. Stu''s idea of accumulators would work but, from working on machines fitted with them, they tend to slow everything down as they have to re=charge before the hydraulics do anything.This delay would give problems when using depth control when ploughing.

[AdrianNPMajor]

Many thanks Brian. More head-scratching and chin-rubbing required! I was tempted to say 'back to the drawing board' but I haven't even got that far yet!
The ten ton shock load figure is key, isn't it? Transferring that shock through bolts to the walls of the rear axle housing suddenly sounds like an unwise idea.
Best, Adrian.

[ford5000y]

Hello Stu
No snow in my neck of the woods yet (east Suffolk). Cold though. I can well imagine how chilly your fingers got. Engine up and running again?
Took my old girl for a quick run yesterday to move the oil around. The unloading valve on my tractor sometimes sticks if I leave it standing for too long, plus the little plunger on the inside of the drop control knob can stick in the fully in position if left to stand so I operated this in and out to get some oil in there too.
Re the four drillings, I had a Diesel Major with a pick-up hitch and it didn't use these fixing points. The back end of a Major was designed for many applications, I believe, so I wonder if these drillings weren't intended for standard tractor operations.
The water dripping off the underside of the tractor was the result of negotiating a wet field headland used for muck storage.
Best, Adrian.

[URL=http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/ ... .jpg[/img][/url]

Adrian,

I'm just thinking, where did you use that disc harrow at the background?

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hello Fordy
The disc harrow/rib roller combination belongs to the farmer whose field I ploughed. He used it to level out the field after I finished ploughing. He did an amazing job. I finished the job off with a Krone power harrow, but to my inexperienced eye the field looked almost good enough for drilling after the farmer had gone over it with the disc harrow/rib roller. It doesn't look very modern but it's certainly effective. I'm wondering if a Major would pull it. I might ask if I can have a go this autumn.
Hope all is well with you in your beautiful part of the world.
Best, Adrian.