bought two 8n's

[Gantt]

took a look at two 8n's yesterday, one is compete but has not run since parked three years ago. it has water in the gearbox, i hate that..
the second is a mostly there parts tractor. overall they look pretty good. i will get them home and checked over. hoping i can get a good running engine from one of them and swap into my 2n. the parts tractor looks like it had water in the coolant over winter, a crack is on the left side of the block, and has been cold welded up, judging by the area it has been several years. my plan is to salvage an engine for my tractor, then combine the best parts from the two and get as much as a complete tractor as i can without buying a lot of new parts. one has a side mount distribute, the other is front mount. i think i will start buying parts tractors when i can get a fair price for them. just dag em home and put them in my fathers equipment shed at home to keep them out of the weather.

 

[Jim L WA]

What's wrong with the engine on your 2N? Just wondering.

 

[Gantt]

it has a bottom end knock on cyl 4. i drained the oil in preparation to put the pan and have a look.
in hind site, the tractor had this knock when i borrowed it last year to turn the fall garden over. we found a bad water pump and assumed this was the noise source. alas, it is not.
i am afraid it will have a spun bearing, and that means money spent at a machine shop and even then may not be able to save the crank, or block for that matter.

if the engine needs more than bearings, i will likely swap the engine out and keep rolling along.
i turned the garden last week for the spring grow, had to borrow my dads kabota. he has a leak and has let the hydraulic fluid get low a couple times and now its making some noise if you use the rear brakes to stop one axle. he says this is why he likes new stuff, but its just simple maintenance that has caused the problem. its a 2005 with 770 hours, no where near worn out. been telling him for years to fix or be ready to shell out a couple grand when it finally fails.
i could fix it, so its not a question of paying a shop. he just simply does not work on anything. changes the oil in his truck and thats about all the maintenance he does.
it really baffles me honestly.

 

[John in Mich]

Always fun to hear someone buying more than one at a time
About 20 years ago I bought 5 8Ns in a package. The seller delivered them from 100 miles included in the
price. 3 of them ran, one had a loader and one had a cracked block.
Like you, my goal was to build at least one very good tractor, maybe 2 if I could and sell the rest as
running/work tractors.
They were unloaded behind my barn at 11pm. Ooooo! Wife could not see what I was doing and when I told
her she was......!
I decided to keep 2 and sell three. Since then I have sold them all. Herd was getting too big, more
than 20, now I have um..teen, more than 10, less than 20.

 

[Jim L WA]

That reminds me of a book I read, Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them, by Roger Welsch. He collected old Allis Chalmers WC's. In one chapter he said, "never pull out all your tractors and line them up so your wife will know how many you have. Always keep a couple behind a shed, a couple more behind the shop, one or two in the shop", etc.

 

[soaked]

Congrats for your new purchase! Hope
they both only need simple fixes.

For me it's a fun challenge to buy the
non runners.

Paid $400 for a 52 8n a few years ago.
Add said stuck motor, owner bought at
action, knew no history. Drove hr and a
half to fetch it, about 5 days after the
add appeared. Guy had put atf in the
cylinders when he posted the add, to
free it up.It was un -stuck when i
bought it.

Power wash, took off the hood, and
rigged a temp gas tank. Cleaned the
carb, and got it started! Had 40 psi oil
pressure. Yippee!
Then it quit running. Tried many
things. Found it had intermittant spark.
Would run, then die. May start sometime
later, run a few min, then die.

Put a small screw driver on one of the
point plate hold down screws. ( not the
screws on the points themselves) It was
loose. So was the other one. Tighten
them up, fixed the issue. Was loosing
spark for lack of points grounding.
Ran perfectly after. Hot full throttle
over 40 psi.
Gave myself an A+ for that one.

John

 

[Gantt]

i love mechanical stuff, and have always played with old cars. the tractor bug bite me, and i have had fun with my first 2n. i was really bummed out using a newer kabota to work my garden though. all through the work on the 2n, i was looking forward to the day i got to work the spring garden with my new 74 year old work horse.
oh well, the day will come. patience young grasshopper!!!

 

[Gantt]

Brought them home today. One has a proof-meter and the
other wasn?t equipped with one. One was set to the widest
width tread. Had to flip a rear tire around to fit the trailer.
The old man in the picture is the fellow I bought them from.
I asked to take his picture with them and he heehawed around
and started brushing his pants clean. He was not happy to be
in the picture to say the least. I like to take pictures because
it is a snapshot of that particular timeframe. The moment the
picture is taken is forever saved. I enjoy looking through
them years later.

I?ll work on getting each one running and see which parts and
engine I?ll use on my 2N. Then I?ll combine the best into one
and get a start on a second tractor. I guess I?ll be building an
8n the next go round.