fatjay
Veteran Member
My father bought his New Holland S14 new in 1968 with plow, belly mower, and tiller. 15 years later I was born. He was the exclusive operator. My (much) older sisters's husbands, neighbors, friends of the family would ask to borrow this machine. Every time he said no. Growing up I would always ask to use it, or borrow it. And always it was no. He'd come around to anywhere and operate it for people, till gardens, plow snow, etc. He always said it was to fragile and easy to brake to an inexperienced operator. I bought my house 12 years ago at 24, and shortly there-after I found a new holland s14 on craiglist because I always wanted one because my father had one. And I always wanted to drive it and he would never let me. It was the one thing that was his, and his alone, for 52 years.
Last week I asked him to bring it over and till the new driveway I was putting in. He told me it wasn't running and he couldn't figure it out, but if I came over and got it running I could have it. Thursday night I went over and started working on it, mice had gotten into everything and built nests in every spot they could. Starter relay was dead, coil was toast, all wiring needed to be replaced. Went back over friday and worked on it a bit more and after about 8 hours of wiring and testing and troubleshooting, it fired up. And I got on and drove it for the first time in my life, backed it up to the tiller and hooked it up, and drove it on to the trailer. Drove home and put it in my garage, it still needed a few things before it was ready for work. Replaced the throttle cable and cleaned up the wires, replaced the double belts on the tiller. Then it was time for work.
It's a bit sentimental for me, my father's aging and seems to be trying to give me stuff out of his garage to "prepare". He's had a stroke which results in TIA's and seizures. Last Saturday he dint' know where he was or who anyone was. It was the worst yet, we're thinking dementia or Alzheimer. Come Sunday he had no recollection of the previous day at all. It hasn't happened since, but I don't think harder times for everyone are that far off. I never thought he'd give me the new holland, though. There's pictures of me as an infant sitting on his lap on that tractor. He's always been a hero to me because he stood for one thing all his life. Work hard. Lazy people will get what's coming to them. He didn't always make the best decisions, he made mistakes, but he worked for everything he had.
Last week I asked him to bring it over and till the new driveway I was putting in. He told me it wasn't running and he couldn't figure it out, but if I came over and got it running I could have it. Thursday night I went over and started working on it, mice had gotten into everything and built nests in every spot they could. Starter relay was dead, coil was toast, all wiring needed to be replaced. Went back over friday and worked on it a bit more and after about 8 hours of wiring and testing and troubleshooting, it fired up. And I got on and drove it for the first time in my life, backed it up to the tiller and hooked it up, and drove it on to the trailer. Drove home and put it in my garage, it still needed a few things before it was ready for work. Replaced the throttle cable and cleaned up the wires, replaced the double belts on the tiller. Then it was time for work.
It's a bit sentimental for me, my father's aging and seems to be trying to give me stuff out of his garage to "prepare". He's had a stroke which results in TIA's and seizures. Last Saturday he dint' know where he was or who anyone was. It was the worst yet, we're thinking dementia or Alzheimer. Come Sunday he had no recollection of the previous day at all. It hasn't happened since, but I don't think harder times for everyone are that far off. I never thought he'd give me the new holland, though. There's pictures of me as an infant sitting on his lap on that tractor. He's always been a hero to me because he stood for one thing all his life. Work hard. Lazy people will get what's coming to them. He didn't always make the best decisions, he made mistakes, but he worked for everything he had.
