Saving a Farmall M

[JPrattico]

This old Farmall has quite a story behind it. It currently resides in a crumbling abandoned barn on an old farm. I am making it my goal to save it, as it's a cool tractor with a cool story.

This tractor was apparently purchased from the world's fair and it originally wore a white paint job. It was not a demonstrator unit as the larger tractors did not have them, but there are supposed records of dealers painting them white. The farmer repainted it red later, but the white paint still shows through in some places. As I was told the radiator on it leaked, and there are a bunch of gallon jugs off to the side that the farmer filled with water, and would take with him to keep the cooling system filled up. Alongside the tractor is also the pipe wrench used to check if the engine spun over.

The roof of the barn has caved in where the tractor sits. It is not laying on the tractor but rather a wood door leaning against the tractor. Going to have to just yank the tractor out and hope for the best. I found the correct seat for it in the barn, we also have the hood. The front tires are flat but the rears have good tread and are holding air. I don't know if the engine is stuck or not, I was unable to check.

It's a little rough, and a little modified, but complete. I'm looking forward to pulling it out of here.

One last thing, The tractor has this interesting clutch thing on the left brake chamber. I am unsure of what it does. Curious if any of you might know?

 

[-CӞ]

Looks like a belt pulley, like to power a thresher or other machine (akin to a pto).

 

[jstewart]

M & W clutch, on the left side, an early effort to give you live pto. They were moderately effective, Of all M&W's accessories, they were the most controversial, some like them, others not so much.

 

[Beltrack]

Dunno. I know some M&W kits gave them 9 speeds, but I have never personally seen one, so I can’t say.

Some complained that the IH (Ms & Hs) were too slow to rake hay with in 4th and too fast in 5th. The M&W kit solved that.

 

[gary noblit]

Well JP ,looks like another adventure !!There is no cure for this but best of luck my friend.I know where an m and h sits .The guy won't part with them so their just building up rust,driving me nuts.He parked them when he quit farming ,still have gas and antifreeze in them.Dead limbs and briars everywhere .Point is I know that urge too well...

 

[Doug Rusk]

M&W hand clutch to give live power as some one already said. Not the same thing as the m&w 9 speed transmission kit. M&W made a wide range of add ons for farmall and other tractors. That hand clutch would be desirable to some who collect such things. Personally I would leave it and any other add on or mods to the tractor as part of its history. Unless it was something really ill conceived or cobbled, then I might consider either doing a better job of the original mod or remove. But these things give a tractor character to me. Seen way too many examples of the tractor being put back "just like it came from farmall" many never made it from the dealer to the farm with out a dealer option or accessory being added. Looks like a fun project. Take your time and be careful removing it from the barn. No sense ruining it when better results may be had by taking a little more time and effort.

 

[JPrattico]

M&W hand clutch to give live power as some one already said. Not the same thing as the m&w 9 speed transmission kit. M&W made a wide range of add ons for farmall and other tractors. That hand clutch would be desirable to some who collect such things. Personally I would leave it and any other add on or mods to the tractor as part of its history. Unless it was something really ill conceived or cobbled, then I might consider either doing a better job of the original mod or remove. But these things give a tractor character to me. Seen way too many examples of the tractor being put back "just like it came from farmall" many never made it from the dealer to the farm with out a dealer option or accessory being added. Looks like a fun project. Take your time and be careful removing it from the barn. No sense ruining it when better results may be had by taking a little more time and effort.

I definitely planned to keep all the mods it has. Something that would definitely be fixed is the cooling system leak though. Yanking the thing out was not my idea and I definitely believe it would be possible to remove the section of barn roof beforehand. That is what I would really like to do.

 

[JPrattico]

Well JP ,looks like another adventure !!There is no cure for this but best of luck my friend.I know where an m and h sits .The guy won't part with them so their just building up rust,driving me nuts.He parked them when he quit farming ,still have gas and antifreeze in them.Dead limbs and briars everywhere .Point is I know that urge too well...

Gary, this is a lucky situation of knowing the right people. The son of the late farm owner just wanted to bulldoze everything because of the condition of the barns. There's other equipment and stuff there that we will be saving. A haybine, 3 square balers, a hay rake, and 4 or 5 hay wagons, as well as a Farmall 460 that was already moved off the old farm. I will probably be in charge of getting that one functional as well. I am very glad this opportunity has been presented, this M has a really cool story and it would've been a shame if that story wasn't saved.

 

[JPrattico]

Oh and, because of the farmer's hay operation, the fact that it has an M&W live PTO hand clutch makes sense. It was probably quite helpful for him when he baled hay.

 

[PACub100]

Gold-freakin-mine!!!

 

[jstewart]

I bought a Louisville Super M at auction that was nothing but a pile of parts. It had an M&W clutch on it that they auctioned off separate, kinda griped me, but I bought it anyway. It is back together now.

I'm a sucker for a project.

 

[JPrattico]

While the tractor won't come home right away, here's something else from the barn that did. A vintage General Electric dual voltage motor. This was sitting in the enclosed part of the barn, under old rolled up carpet right near a door into the barn. I first dismantled it and cleaned it up, then put it back together for a test. Amazingly it runs incredibly smooth. So then it came back apart and got painted. Was a fun little project, turned out alright in the end.

 

[gary noblit]

JP,you've always said,you like to leave 'em in their "work clothes" so what a change of heart?? Looks good tho..

 

[JPrattico]

JP,you've always said,you like to leave 'em in their "work clothes" so what a change of heart?? Looks good tho..

Gary, to me this motor was a little bit past that point of "work clothes" unfortunately. The picture doesn't show it but the rust was pretty bad particularly around the motor base. I do love the "work clothes" look, but that's only a good look until a certain point. Some pieces of equipment unfortunately end up past that point. I also just really like the look of these vintage electric motors when they are all done up nice for some reason. Guess it's just a personal preference.

 

[JPrattico]

The most tedious part by far of the project was this rear bearing oil cup. In the first 2 pictures you can see that the cup itself is squashed down into the brass cap, I knew it looked off and it turns out it was definitely not supposed to be squashed down. I did my best to flatten it back out and solder it back on all the way. It is far from perfect but it looks alright and definitely does its job a lot better than when it was squashed.

 

[JPrattico]

Put together a very simple wood stand for the motor tonight.

 

[gary noblit]

JP, I recognize a lot of those pieces/parts in the background...keep on saving the "old iron"..you do good work...

 

[JPrattico]

JP, I recognize a lot of those pieces/parts in the background...keep on saving the "old iron"..you do good work...

Gary, those are 3 projects "on hold". To the far right is the k241 from my 107 awaiting its time to be torn down and rebuilt. Next to it the k161 block out of my original, also awaiting rebuild because of the governor failure it had. The big pile of parts is a complete Tecumseh V70 I pulled out of the weeds. I have a new Connecting rod, piston rings, gaskets, seals, points and condenser, and a carb kit for it, but I am currently still trying to hunt for a replacement crankshaft because I don't like the condition of the one I have.

In terms of miscellaneous stuff, the 2 small paper pulleys were from the same abandoned farm property, as well as the little scale model Ferrari. The fuel tank at the very edge is off a Briggs 3hp go kart engine that I have. I also see a couple other parts off the original's k161 in the background.

 

[dfrisk]

JP - Dad told me the M&W hand clutch was, " The Best way to make an M a 2-bottom tractor." It forced all the horsepower to the drive wheels thru that clutch that was not large and it would slip. It did provide a live PTO for things like pto driven baler, corn pickers, pull type combine. But the introduction of the Super M-TA in 1954 with a true live pto plus the TA and live hyd ended the need for the M&W clutch.
The M&W live hyd pump and Char-Lynn power steering are probably the two most common add-on's, Dad's '51 M he bought brand new has both those things which really improves it's effectiveness as a loader tractor. Dad's M also has 4" M&W Add Power sleeves & pistons, it had it's 4th or 5th repaint in 2006, not a great paint job but Dad hired it done.
It did have an M&W Add Power Governor on it for years till the younger tractor restorers discovered them and drove the prices WAY above what they were worth so Dad sold his.
My M has almost brand new frt tires but really needs new rear tires, and on-line comments on new rear tractor tire prices is probably going to delay me getting new rear tires for quite some time. Tires are made from crude oil, BRANDON has screwed up the crude oil business so bad! I'm not going to pay today's prices.

 

[Allenpatterson]

JP - Dad told me the M&W hand clutch was, " The Best way to make an M a 2-bottom tractor." It forced all the horsepower to the drive wheels thru that clutch that was not large and it would slip. It did provide a live PTO for things like pto driven baler, corn pickers, pull type combine. But the introduction of the Super M-TA in 1954 with a true live pto plus the TA and live hyd ended the need for the M&W clutch.
The M&W live hyd pump and Char-Lynn power steering are probably the two most common add-on's, Dad's '51 M he bought brand new has both those things which really improves it's effectiveness as a loader tractor. Dad's M also has 4" M&W Add Power sleeves & pistons, it had it's 4th or 5th repaint in 2006, not a great paint job but Dad hired it done.
It did have an M&W Add Power Governor on it for years till the younger tractor restorers discovered them and drove the prices WAY above what they were worth so Dad sold his.
My M has almost brand new frt tires but really needs new rear tires, and on-line comments on new rear tractor tire prices is probably going to delay me getting new rear tires for quite some time. Tires are made from crude oil, BRANDON has screwed up the crude oil business so bad! I'm not going to pay today's prices.

What a coincidence you mentioning an "M" with the M&W Add Power sleeves and pistons. I just came across these decals hiding in the back of a small display case that I have.

I picked them up at toy tractor show quite a few years ago now and had forgotten all about them. Did your dad's tractor happen to have that decal in place of the factory Farmall M badge?