8n Blue belly I ain't having it

[Frank Surber]

A few months ago I finally got myself a little 8n side distributor tractor with a brush hog the only problem was it hadn't ran in years and was painted blue, even though most of it had already pealed off i twas still there.
I'm no purest except when it suits me but BLUE just doesn't work for me on that vintage just as RED doesn't fit a newer vintage
I thought well if I get it running I'll run it until something needs repaired or replaced then off with the blue after all this was going to be just a work tractor for mowing the mesquite plantation First off I drained out 4 gallons of brown used to be gasoline cleaned out the tank the bowl and the carb cleaned and set the points checked the fluids decided all needed changing installed a battery and mashed the button. The stupid thing started right up. Well dang so much for getting rid of the blue bought 2 steer tires welded up the holes in the rims cleaned them up and painted them. Then mounted the tires tubeless aired up the rear tires then mowed 2 tank fulls of fuel.Only 1 gage worked which was the oil pressure Gage. Managed to thorn both front tires several times got tired of dismounting and patching so I got mad and slimed them another tank of gas and I managed to shove a mesquite branch in the radiator. Wonderful! and with only 10 more acres to get mowed.
Off with the hood and radiator Humm this thing sure is ugly and that steer axle looks like the center pin and bushing is worn out might as well pull it and have a look see. That fan belt look bad and the home made looking Alt bracket is out of alignment Think I'll fix that the timing cover looks like it is leaking oil might as well see what's wrong. Got to get all of the old grime oil and grease off while I am at it I might as well see if any red is under that pealing blue paint.
Before I knew it the only thing left on the tractor was the rear end the transmission and the engine plus a few leavers
I removed all traces of any blue paint and never found one speck of red under it

 

[Frank Surber]

more

 

[jaxs]

Sound's like a match made in heaven when you and the old N hooked up. With your help the old soldier live's to fight another 20 years and look good doing it. Nice work,I envy your ability to take it as far as you have. I spent some pleasurable times with my son and grandson in your neck of the woods following English pointers.

 

[Frank Surber]

I have always had a fondness for the 8ns my grandpa had several when I was a youngling 1 had an over drive Sherman (Totally usless) one had an underdrive ( more useful) but the one with the sherman combo and a Sherman traction disconnect giving it live PTO with an additional 4 sp super low geared transmission tucked in behind the tractor's main transmission was the best even though the tractor was about 8 inches longer due to the added in box. I used that little tractor with a rotavator or a box blade sometimes 16 hrs a day many months at a time

 

[Pete O]

Great work, I've got no idea what mesquite is but I reckon you'll be happier mowing it on that beautiful looking tractor.

 

[4get gto]

mesquite plantation . Town in Texas? Think that's what he's talking about. Heck I didn't know either!

O.P. You're doing a real nice job fixing that 8n up. Looks great.

No longer a blue belly.

 

[Frank Surber]

mesquite plantation . Town in Texas? Think that's what he's talking about. Heck I didn't know either!

O.P. You're doing a real nice job fixing that 8n up. Looks great.

No longer a blue belly.

I call it my mesquite plantation because for every mesquite tree I cut down pull up or kill with chemicals 10 more take its place.
I used my back hoe to root up about 300 trees ranging from 2" to 6" in diameter even went so far as to try and root as many of the larger roots out as possible 2 years ago but there were still hundreds of smaller trees still in the 10 acre area, this summer it seemed like half a million had sprouted back up and some of the others were up to about 8 feet tall so the heck with them I
ll just keep the ground scalped until I can turn the soil a few times then disk it then run a tooth harrow over it then seed it
There is a chemical called Remedy that will kill them but it runs close to $90.00 a gallon I've used it to kill large trees but don't like to indiscriminately spray the crap everywhere. A neighbor said it took him about 3 years to get one of his 100 acre fields cleared but it was 5 more years before much of anything would grow I he had his sprayed by a helicopter and spent lots of money. I don't have that kind of money and don't want it to be years and years before I can get a good stand of native grasses.
By the way mesquite makes great wood for out door cooking and not bad for fire wood either I have about a 5 acre wooded area where the trees are 20 to 40 feet tall that I can harvest all the wood I can ever use and then some just from the dead limbs and trees that die. the rest is just a nuisance

 

[gwstang]

Very nice work! I have a '52 8N that I "loosely" restored. Removed the old flathead and new sleeves/pistons etc. had the crank turned and a new oil pump and gears in it. New valves and lapped them. New distributor and it runs like a new machine. Turn on the fuel knob and just bump the starter with a little choke and it will crank right up, even after sitting for a month. I keep the 5' finishing mower attached to it all season for cutting the front fields/front yard. Nice for it to have the power again. :cool2:

 

[2458n]

Nice that the Red belly has parts available after 65 years.

 

[sixdogs]

Wow, that's beautiful.