Re: old tractor pic (John Deere)
You might be interested in knowing that the clutch was a multi-disk dry clutch mounted inside the pulley. When the clutch started slipping due to wear, it was really easy to pop the cover plate off of the pulley, remove the cotter pins and tighten the nuts on the three bolts that held the disks in place. This was a really nice feature. My uncle had a late '30s unstyled B, my dad's first tractor was a D, then he had a 1941 B and his last tractor was a 1950 50. When my Dad was out plowing South Dakota sod, that old B would lug down until all you heard was pop........pop........pop..........
I should mention, too, that driving tractors with the tricyle wheels was really adventuresome with a front-end-loader. Naturally, you couldn't turn the steering wheel unless the tractor was moving. Even then, it took muscle. I remember literally hanging on the steering wheel trying to turn it and even then I sometimes had to stop, back up a bit and try again because I couldn't get the darn thing turned in time. Also, you sure didn't want to turn too sharp with the bucket raised. That tractor was gosh-awful tippy. I'm talking REALLY tippy. Even when you were trying to be careful, if those two front wheels would go into a rut while making a gentle turn, the inside back wheel would come off the ground FAST. The older John Deeres also had another interesting feature. If you stuck your foot out waaaay up under the instrument panel, you could put your toes under the governor spring and pull it back and really make that tractor smoke. My young cousin used to do that when hauling wagon loads of grain and that old tractor would really move! I must confess that this scared the crap out of me and I tried never to ride with him. Memories...memories... The cultivator for the older John Deeres was lifted out of the ground by a long lever mounted on top of the right axle next to the seat. As a skinny kid, I had to stop the tractor, grab that sucker with both hands, hang from it and push with both legs to left the implement. My dad had to really exert himself to raise it too. Boy was he glad to get a power lift on his new tractor!