27 Turkey Hill Road, Elysburg, Pennsylvania 17824
Having grown up around the farm, I always liked old tractors and
started collecting them about five years ago. I was showing some
pictures to a man I work with, and he said he knew of an old
tractor on his wife’s grandfather’s old farm. He said he
didn’t know what kind it was or if it was still there. Then he
told me how to get there. He said that his brother-in-law bought
the farm years ago, so one day I went to see him. In ten minutes I
arrived at the old farm and found the man in his garden. I
introduced myself and talked awhile, and told him his
brother-in-law told me about the tractor. I asked if he still had
the tractor and he said yes. Then I asked if I could see it and he
said sure. The man told me the barn burned down a few years ago, so
there in the fence row sat the old 10-20 McCormick Deering. My
heart was pounding when I saw it! Rusty metal does have that effect
on some people. I asked if he wanted to sell it, and he said
no.
He told me it was one of the first tractors in the valley, and
said he wanted to keep it for a while. The tractor looked like it
was all there, but rusty. It had been sitting there for 20 years,
and the trees grew up through the drawbar and around the clutch
rod. I tried to turn the crank but the engine was stuck real good.
I went home leaving the 10-20 to sit in that spot for another six
months. From time to time I would call to see if he had changed his
mind.
Then one day in March, I came home from work and my wife said
some man called about a McCormick tractor. So I called him and he
said he was ready to sell it and we came to an agreement on the
price. My dad and I went up to pay him and to look the old tractor
over again, and then I started thinking about moving the tractor.
We looked it over to see what I needed to move it. I told the man
it would be a week or two until I could move the tractor and he
said fine. One week went by and I couldn’t wait to get it home
to start working on it. Early Saturday morning I started loading my
pickup with oak planks, chain saw, shovel and a five ton jack. Off
I went. The first thing was to cut all the trees that grew into the
tractor. After an hour all the trees were cut. Next I put the jack
under the rear axle and jacked it up out of eight inches of dirt,
then put the oak planks under the wheels. All the wheels did turn
too. So, it was ready to haul. I had a buddy, with a roll back,
haul it home for me.
This tractor had factory round spokes on the front and the rear
had steel on it. The man gave me the round spokes for the rear too,
but they were in the fence row with trees grown up through them
also.
With the tractor home, I took the plugs out and filled the
cylinders with WD-40 and started removing the trees. First the one
from the clutch pedal rod-that was six hours of work. All that for
rusty iron! You have to love to work on rusty iron, and I do. Next,
I took the cylinder head off. It was not too bad, but the valves
and seats were shot, so I ordered new ones and then cleaned the
engine out. I used a little heat on that stuck piston and it came
unstuck. The radiator needed some fixing. I did some welding,
sandblasting, priming on all the parts, and painting. I took two
five gallon buckets of walnuts out of the clutch housing.
After a hundred hours or so she runs real nice. I like to see
old tractors and engines restored.
