Category: Farmall Cub

Little Red now has a new home. Yeah for better protection from the weather and a way to work no matter the weather!

I was able to make some progress, although it does not look like much. The main goal was to get the radiator off so I could get better access to the belts.

Removing the front bolts was not bad, but it took some creative work to get some of the back ones off.

Turning a bolt an eighth of a turn at a time was really slow going.

After getting the radiator off, I drained out some additional coolant, leaving behind a nasty sludge.

I was hoping to be able to get better access to where the hand crank connects. I now have the access, but we still cannot find the old crank. I’ll have to order one. I just wish I could get the motor to turn over. I do still have the cylinders soaking. I’ll order a crank and then hopefully I’ll get it to turn over next time.

While at the camp, I did get to spend a bit of time working on Little Red.  Not as much as I would have liked, but still made a bit of progress.

I spent some time taking the hood off.  I figured it would be necessary so that I could more easily get to everything.

Since the engine itself is still seized up, I figured it would be worthwhile to take the head off.  I was in for a surprise when I took some of the bolts off.  A strange colored liquid started coming out.

I did get all of them out.  Here is what it looks like:

I was expecting some liquid as I had poured a bunch of Kroil down the spark plugs, but Kroil is not green.

No idea what this stuff is.  One of my friends suggested that it might be anti-freeze?

I’m hoping that I will have more time to work on her during my next trip.  I had to leave with her all covered back up.  Thankfully, I did gain an additional gear-head friend that said he’d help 🙂

I was finally able to see the tractor I inherited. She’s a 1948 Farmall Cub. So far, I’ve come up with the name of “Little Red”.

I was hoping for a little warmer weather for the first uncovering, but I was happy to see that she’s in pretty good shape.

Although the pictures do not show the muffler, we do have it and it is in good condition.

The main issue with it is that the engine is frozen, and not just from the cold. I did pull the plugs and put some Kroil in, but no luck after a week. Hopefully warmer weather will help.

We did notice the the rear tires were slightly low. They are in surprisingly good shape, which confused me. My brother and I quickly found out that they were filled with water. We put the back end up on blocks and then started the purge process. I’m know that they were likely filled with water on purpose, but they do need to be at the correct pressure. 

Besides the frozen engine, I am concerned with where the muffler connects (which it won’t right now).

I’m looking for ideas on what to do.

Another puzzle we encountered was some blue paint under the red coat. I wish we knew the history on why it was blue?

The next trip to the camp will be warmer, so we’ll continue work on getting the engine to turn over and do a lot more cleaning. I’m going back and forth on if I should paint it or just clean it up. We’ll also be moving it to a shed this summer, so that will help protect her.

Mystery yellow paint here as well…