fired up the old 4000

[firemanpat2910]

Saturday was supposed to be corn planting day, rain had other ideas. So we did a little maintenace on the JD 5205. put in a new battery, washed it, greased it, and lubed all the 3 point connections. Then we hooked it to the old ford 4000 that hasnt moved in 3 or 4 years. Tried jumping it off, absolutly nothing no clicks or anything. shined a flashlight up under the hood, on top of fuel tank, towards the back of dash looking for evidence of rats eating the wires and was face to face with a 5 ft long rat snake!!!!!
We quickly abandoned the jump start idea and moved on to pull start. tires were a little soft, might have been a wheel or two sticking but my F250 finally pulled her from under the shed one lap around to check brakes, then popped the clutch and........ fired right up and ran smooth

 

[firemanpat2910]

pulled it up close to the shop, aired the tires, found a freeze plug MISSING right behind the starter. walked back to the tractor shed, there it was on the ground!! tapped it back in filled with water, pulled it with a polaris ranger and she fired right back up. after a few minutes running, we took it for a lap around the driveway, and just as my buddy was pulling back up at the shop I saw the snake make his exit into a stand of pines. Let the tractor run for a good half hour, sounded great but electrical never did even try and work. either the battery is so dead, or more than likely the mice have eaten the wires. but the 3 point worked fine, the clutch felt good, and the brakes both worked.

 

[lhfarm]

Had a '64 4000 for several years. A great utility tractor. Unlike today's tractors, the wiring is simple and once you get rid of the snake (who probably got rid of the rodents) should be an easy fix. I'd like to have kept that tractor, but needed to sell it to help finance the new one.

 

[firemanpat2910]

yes I might have a question or two for soundguy :thumbsup:
but the electrical is very straight forward. I know the battery was bad whan we parked it 4 years ago. I am pretty sure it didnt heal itself!! LOL Gonna have to pressure wash about 4 pounds of pollen out of dash area just to see whats going on.

 

[Soundguy]

that's why the jump failed for one thing.. that big 4DLT battery is a huge power sink.. not to mention if wires are gone behind the dash, you may not begetting power to the key, fromt he key to the NS switch.. or from there to the solenoid.

mind you it would be easy to temp wire all that up to check her out, including a wire to the oil sender and dash so you had oil and charge indicator lamps.. that is once you replace that spendy battery.

4000's a real nice machine..

soundguy