[Flatland Fox]

In the meantime I went to the welders´ to get the six holes in the grille properly plugged and covered it all with a good coat of high rise primer filler as someone recommended me with the Massey Harris.

Looks like new. Segopi paint products, a local producer, are first class.
I am still waiting for the cooling pump coming from Britain. Before brexit, spare parts arrived in a couple of days. Now it takes them longer than coming from Japan. Not less than two weeks.
I will start painting all the subunits restored so far, but I cannot install some of them until the pump is here.

 

[Flatland Fox]

Well, here is the oil filter finished and installed.

And this the left battery bracket In its place.

Each battery bracket is fixed with six 5/16 UNC screws to the frame and a bigger one (1/2) to an arm attached to the rim of the clutch housing. The rearmost screws have no nut, the holes in the frame are threaded. In this case, the threads were ruined by rust and I had to ream them with a threading tool.

 

[Flatland Fox]

And this is the right battery bracket in its place.

By the way, installing the bracket arm that you can see in the pic, the nut fell down and went to the narrow slit between the starter and the block. No way to get it out and it was the only nut I had for that thread. So I had ro remove the starter...Then I discovered that two of the nuts fixing the starter were useless. I could replace one of the screws and fix it with a new nut. The other nut has to be screwed to a stud. So I need a replacement...

 

[Flatland Fox]

And this is how it looks with the radiator and its frame on. The grille also has to be attached to this frame. The tractor lacks the fan shroud, which should also be attached to the radiator frame. I will design a replacement and tell the local welder to do it.

 

[Flatland Fox]

As you can see, I am still waiting for the cooling pump...

In the meantime I have adjusted the steering bars which were colliding with the counterweights. Now they move without restrictions.
I would like to finish and install the grille, but I am afraid to damage the paintwork. I have to think about it.

 

[Jim in NC]

A really nice job on the grill, and it is coming together very well.

 

[Flatland Fox]

Thank you Jim!

This is the grille with the david brown emblem. It only lacks the fiber strips riveted to the side edges like I did with the tank.

 

[Flatland Fox]

The urethane paint yields fantastic results! And once dry it is really hard.

I also filled the motor block with six liters of oil as indicated in the specs. There was no visible leak. That left me somewhat disappointed. A friend of mine says that a british vehicle does not leak oil only when it has no oil in it! 😂.

I also installed the steel strap that ties the tank to its cradle.

 

[Flatland Fox]

Well, today was the day.
I picked up Pepe an his son early in the morning and came home.
The target for today was to start the engine.
Once in the shed, we started filling the tank and priming the fuel system. Then the fuel filters started to leak. We tightened the screws but they are still leaking. I will try to solve that for good tomorrow. Once we checked that the fuel had arrived to the pump, we connected the battery to the starter and the engine began to turn. But it did not start. Nothing.
Then we checked the timing, but it was ok. Just to be sure, we disconnected the fuel line to the first injector. Nothing came out of it. Knowing that fuel was arriving to the pump, that meant that the pump was not working. I had checked it months ago and seemed to be in order...! You know, I hate when these sort of things happen.
After some heavy cursing, we decided to take out the pump. That meant to take out the air filter. Away it went.
Once the pump was on the workshop table, we opened it. Three injectors and the control rack were stuck... I picked the penetrating oil spray and half an hour later everything was working properly. The pump was installed again and this time everything seemed to be in working order. We connected the starter and... Nothing.
There was some smoke coming out from the exhaust (and from the exhaust seal. I have to fix that), there was oil flowing properly in the camshaft chamber, so we decided to insist. We turned the engine with the starter until we depleted the battery. Not a single bang, but the noise of the engine was more promising. So we connected the battery to the charger and went to give good account of a bottle of excellent wine, some cheese and cured sirloin.
When we ran out of wine and felt quite more optimistic, we decided to give it a new try.
This time Pepe decided to apply an old trick. As the air admission was open without the filter, he soaked a rag with gas, lit it and put it close to the air inlet, so the air the admission aspired was hot. And then, after maybe 40 years, with a powerful roar and lots of smoke, the engine started. The run was stable, but we let it stop because the cooling pump is still on the table. We let it cool down and we connected the starter once again. This time the engine started immediately and without help.
The shed was totally full of smoke, the wooden frame of the roof was blackened by soot, we were poisoned by the fumes and the paint job of the tractor was marred by fuel, soot and oil. But it was a great day.
Lots of work lay ahead, but the day the engine of a restored tractor starts is always a turning point.

 

[Jim in NC]

Congrats and thanks for the update. Despite your pump trouble a little air trapped in the fuel system can be aggravating. I have had that prolong restarting when simply changing fuel filters.

 

[BigDaveinKY]

It's a great sound when that engine roars to life.
No matter how badly one's choking on exhaust fumes. 😷
Maybe I'm over cautious but, I would roll a tractor out of a low ceiling building for a first start.
Especially one with a vertical exhaust. I've seen good sized fire balls shoot out from a muffler at times.
It only takes one for it to be time to call the firemen.

 

[Flatland Fox]

Dave, I had rolled out the tractor if it had wheels! ha ha!
In the meantime, I have installed the battery, connecting the + pole to the battery cradle and the - pole to the starter motor.
I also painted the cooling pump and the steering column, as well as the left footplate.

 

[Flatland Fox]

I also replaced the heat resistant gasket of the exhaust manifold with the exhaust tube pedestal using a heat resistant silicone, because it leaked a lot of fumes. I also sealed the coupling of the pedestal with the exhaust tube with the same silicone to avoid more fumes leaking.

 

[Flatland Fox]

Then I removed the tyres and this is what appeared:

There was a band of sack cloth covering the inside of the rim. And this is the surface of the rim:

You can see that there was an reinforcing steel band welded to the inside Which is not on the other rim:

The banded rim has more corrosion. It might well be that the cloth was protecting the inner tube from punctures due to the corrosion scales. Go figure...
The rims are otherwise usable. I will clean and restore them. The question is... Shoul I cover the band again with something like fiberglass

 

[Flatland Fox]

Sorry, I posted the text without editing it:

The question is ...Should I cover the steel band again with something like fiberglass?

 

[BigDaveinKY]

It was actually too protect the tube from the uneven edges of the repair. I have had tubes puncture from repairs like that.
Here's what I would do, and have in the past. Once painted and let cure a couple of weeks. ( so the glue adheres well )
I would cut strips from the old tubes wide enough to cover the wheel center and glue it on with contact cement .
Not hard to do and adds an extra layer of protection. Never got a hole in another tube. Just a suggestion.

 

[Jim in NC]

I agree with Dave's suggestion. I have discovered rims that were repaired like that. I have also found rim interiors wrapped with duct tape, which is one of the necessities on a farm.