Ferguson TO-20 Restoration Project

[JenniferBX]

Hi Flusher, I checked out your thread, ..I sure do remember MMs from my childhood summers in Wisconsin farm country, don't see too many of them these days out here in Oregon...A few show up the annual tractor event that is part of the big 'steam-up' at Antique Powerland. I see you had a problem with corrosion holding the bearing into the water pump casting...If you ever run into this issue again, or other rust bonded parts, there is a way to address the problem besides penetrating oil, the torch, or a lot of press pressure. Immersing the rusted parts in a water solution, made with some Arm and Hammer cleaning soda, and then than applying electricity between the parts and an iron target also in the solution, will result in the rust being eaten away, even from down inside the tiny little places between parts. Eventually all the rust will move over to the iron target, leaving a simple black oxide finish on the once-rusty part. You can use a battery charger from your shop...the minus goes to your rusty part, the plus to your target iron. I saw car restoration guys using this method back in the 50s and 60s when I was young, and it has remained popular even today among the fine antique auto restoring guys, and even some tractor guys whose web sites I have visited . When I get the parts of the throttle linkage off the Fergy, they will get this treatment to clear our corrosion from inside the joints. The remaining black oxide is easy to wire brush, bead blast, or just leave and lube. I have seen guys working on VERY precious and rare irreplaceable parts on really old antique cars use this method to free up corroded press fit parts without damage. It is kinda slow, but it it allows you to reduce the risk of cracking a casting trying to push out a corroded part, it might be worth the trouble. I did a 'Google' search and found a lot of pages describing the method..this one is clear and easy to follow...Tech Tips -- Electrolytic Rust Removal For more, just search "Electrolytic Rust Removal"
Cheers! Jennifer

 

[flusher]

Hi Flusher, I checked out your thread, ..I sure do remember MMs from my childhood summers in Wisconsin farm country, don't see too many of them these days out here in Oregon...A few show up the annual tractor event that is part of the big 'steam-up' at Antique Powerland. I see you had a problem with corrosion holding the bearing into the water pump casting...If you ever run into this issue again, or other rust bonded parts, there is a way to address the problem besides penetrating oil, the torch, or a lot of press pressure. Immersing the rusted parts in a water solution, made with some Arm and Hammer cleaning soda, and then than applying electricity between the parts and an iron target also in the solution, will result in the rust being eaten away, even from down inside the tiny little places between parts. Eventually all the rust will move over to the iron target, leaving a simple black oxide finish on the once-rusty part. You can use a battery charger from your shop...the minus goes to your rusty part, the plus to your target iron. I saw car restoration guys using this method back in the 50s and 60s when I was young, and it has remained popular even today among the fine antique auto restoring guys, and even some tractor guys whose web sites I have visited . When I get the parts of the throttle linkage off the Fergy, they will get this treatment to clear our corrosion from inside the joints. The remaining black oxide is easy to wire brush, bead blast, or just leave and lube. I have seen guys working on VERY precious and rare irreplaceable parts on really old antique cars use this method to free up corroded press fit parts without damage. It is kinda slow, but it it allows you to reduce the risk of cracking a casting trying to push out a corroded part, it might be worth the trouble. I did a 'Google' search and found a lot of pages describing the method..this one is clear and easy to follow...Tech Tips -- Electrolytic Rust Removal For more, just search "Electrolytic Rust Removal"
Cheers! Jennifer

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try next time I run into that type of problem.

Like you, as a kid I spent summers in central WI at my grandparent's place in Auburndale. Grandpa was an old time country blacksmith.

 

[duke7595]

Hey looks great and can be a lot of fun and rewards of a job well done, hope to see the finished product.

I completed a Ford 2000 here are some pictures.

 

[JenniferBX]

Hi Duke,
What a beautiful Ford! Love that blue and grey combination... Our little fergie has taken the back seat for a while, as we have had some big problems with vehicles we need to keep running, but slowly we are making progress. We have quite a bit of rust in the lower part of the front grill inserts. steel gone completely in patches. Mike and I are deciding right now about the solution, to just buy reproduction parts that are not very expesive, or bend up some sheet steel and do the old cut and trim and weld. We now have a wire feed welder, the kind that used shielding gas, not flux-core wire type. One of us will need to do some practicing and figure out how to use it for this sort of welding if we go that route. Part of me wants to repair the original pieces, for both the originality aspects, and the idea of learning a new skill..in the old days my Dad used oxyaceteline gas to patch-weld sheet steel and showed me a bunch of tricks on how to do it well...starting with a perfect fitting patch that has essentially no gaps. I have seen Stacy David on TVs "Gearz" weld a sheet steel patch with a wire feed welder, and how to do that with a less than perfect gaps....hence my interest in learning how. Next sprng we pull the wheels wet-sandblast them before new paint. We bought a sand siphon tip for our water pressure washer...works like a charm if the sand/media is dry and can easily flow up the suction tube. It mixes the sand with the high pressure water to cut fast, leaving no dust. Works to remove grafitti from concrete too. It will make stripping the big castings next year a real breeze. We found a shop that can take the engine that is seized, and do the magic to loosen it up and hone the cylinders in a real machine, not a hand-drill hone like we have in the tool-box. We are hoping that we don't need to bore, as that will mean new pistons...but it shall remain a mystery until spring-summer 2013 when we remove the engine to start that part of the process....Our goal is to start re-assembly to run in summer of 2014....taking our time, doing the project with spare-change, so to speak, but we are both having fun and enjoying the process, even if it taking much longer than we had initially hoped.
Congratulations on the Ford 2000.....I just love small tractors like these! Makes me want to do a 2 tone paint on our Fergie.....it was all grey, so plain....the later ones were 2-tone, and it sure is tempting to put a later period paint job on it..they really come to life with 2 colors like your Ford.
Cheers,
jennifer

 

[duke7595]

JenniferBX ,

Thank you very much for your kind words, I had a lot of enjoyment bringing the 2000 back, sort of a love hate thing when your working on a project, however, the end result is well worth your effort



Sounds like you guys are making a little Fergie look and run new again , looking forward to the end result. Good luck and remember take your time and work at a pace which is comfortable for you both. Good luck and God bless.

 

[red85]

Nice Fergie! I have a 48 TEA 20. (the UK/Canadian version of your tractor). You shouldn't have much trouble getting parts for that Continental engine. Love seeing those pictures!

Phil

PS- There are tonnes of those tractors out there and the parts are relatively cheap. Also, please don't 2 tone the paint - Fergies are meant to be grey!:thumbsup:

 

[MasseyWV]

You shouldn't have much trouble getting parts for that Continental engine.

From my own experience during the process of restoring my Massey 135 tractor with a Continental Z-145 gasoline engine, I learned that parts for Continental engines are readily available.

 

[The kid]

More pix
Here you can see the 'shadow' of there the headlight mounting hardware was, note the high and low tail one side VS the other side

I noticed the shadows left by the headlight light wings. They have a backing plate that helps bolt on the headlights. Here's a picture of mine before I installed them. They are common to early ford and ferguson tractors. One was mounted upside down. There is a right and left wing.

View attachment 306442

I've seen these for sale on ebay with the backing plates. If you buy some make sure you get the small bolt that screws into the back rear of the wing for each side. -robert

 

[The kid]

Ferguson TO-20 Restoration
This project will take a long time to get done, as it will be a "here and there" effort as time and funds are available. I thought I would start by sharing a few photos I took of the Ferg today. We have already removed some parts to start cleaning and painting, but the bulk of it is still all together.

This is a 1950, according the serial number sequence list that I have.

I have some more details that I'll post later, and also some questions , so if we have some Ferguson experts out there, please stay tuned to this thread!

Jennifer [ and Mike ]

How about an update Jennifer. How is that tractor coming along? -kid