By
Jrblanke
Hey guys,
I logged on yesterday for the first time in several months and was inspired by Dells68 and Crazywheelhorseman to post my find from last summer.
Short story:
I bought an 876 off of craigslist a couple weeks after coming home from the WHCC show last year. My 1st child came a little early, so I stuck the tractor in the shed and haven’t touched it since. Don’t have plans to touch it for now, but I’m glad I bought it!
Long story:
I went to the wheel horse show in PA last year and managed to hold off on buying a short frame that I was really jonesing for. There were several there, but Richard’s 857 with the dual wheels was really calling my name. Anyways, I held off because my wife was about 7.5 months pregnant and it wasn’t the responsible thing to do. After all, this was going to be my last WHCC show for a little bit, and I had already sold my other 3 short frames and a gravely walk behind in the spirit “growing up”. Well folks, It only took 2 weeks. While surfing craigslist on my lunch break an ad popped up for an 876 in Richmond, VA. There were no pictures, but it said that it had original paint and ran when it was last parked in the storage shed 10 years ago. The only implement it came with was a disc set. Not sure what brand it was. The price was $225 for everything, so I figured that was good enough to take the gamble.
I checked the oil and tightened the alternator belt on the ol’ horse hauler (1984 toyota pickup) and headed north…well started to head north….I didn’t get but about 2 miles down the road and noticed the truck was running a little hot. What? How could this be? It’s a Toyota, that’s not supposed to happen. I thought, eh, “It’s all highway, I’m sure it will be fine.” Stupid. This is what happens when you have your mind set on a wheel horse. I mean, I’ve built a couple different chevy motors for my project vehicles. I work at a transmission manufacturer. I’m not new when it comes to motors/cars/maintenance. And when it comes to overheating, I knew with all of my being that it should be addressed very soon. bad bad things might result if an over heating problem is not addressed SOON. Clearly, I was not thinking rationally. So anyways, like I said, I headed north.
It was an uneventful 2.5 hour trip up there until I got off on the exit where the WH was located. The temperature needle creeped closer and closer to the red line and as soon as I pulled into the guys neighborhood I cut the engine and coasted to his driveway. I thought, no big deal, I’ll get this thing and head home.
I was there for literally 30 seconds and the guy starts wheeling the tractor to my truck…whoa whoa whoa…wait a second, let me at least pop the hood before we load it up. It definitely was not what I imagined. The seat was torn, the choke and throttle cables were frozen, it didn't run (which I knew going up there), fluid was leaking from the axles, and to top it all off, one of the sidewalls on the rear tire blew as he was rolling it towards my truck. After talking for a few minutes, it was clear that he wasn’t coming much off the price. More worried about actually making it home, I decided to just pay him and get the heck out of there.
The truck started fine, and I was able to get on the highway before it got into the red. I plugged in my address (well, what I thought was my address) and headed….north… Fortunately, because I’m so smart, I realized that I was driving north. Now I’m not the brightest cookie in the jar, but I know that if I had just driven 2.5 hours north, I needed to at least go 2.5 hours south. After realizing the GPS was going to my exact address, just in a different state, I corrected the issue and turned towards home. About the time I got the truck turned around, the battery light came on…. Great…
OK, no big deal. I knew the belt was on the fritz when I started this trip, so I came prepared with the tools. By this time it was about 8:45pm and I knew time was running out if I wanted to make it to the auto parts store before they closed. So I picked the closest parts store to the highway and headed that direction. I arrived at autozone around 9:00 (they close at 9:30) and I popped the hood. Much to my dismay, the alternator belt was intact. Awesome. Who’s Idea was it to drive this truck, knowing it needed maintenance, on a 6 hour round trip during the work week? Oh yeah… mine. Genius.
Anyways, I head inside with my fingers crossed that they have an alternator. Of course they didn’t. The only alternator in town is 30 minutes in the other direction. There was no way I was going to make it there before it closed. No problem, I have a plan B. My truck is carbureted and doesn’t have too many things that run off of electricity, so I’ll try to make it home on batteries. So I bought 2 batteries, a new belt (just in case), some coolant, a new thermostat, gasket sealer, and a bottle of water and headed out the door.
I started the truck and got back on the highway. Only 140 miles to go. I called my wife and told her that I was going to turn my phone off because of course I didn’t bring a phone charger. At this point, I was so mad at myself, that she just told me to get home as safely and quickly as possible and she would see me when I got there. The truck battery that was in the truck lasted all the way to the house! I was amazed. The headlights didn’t dim but just a little bit, but by the end of the trip the electronic ignition was acting funny and the horn was really weak. I rolled in at about 12:15am and went straight to bed.
So the moral of this story is: Don’t do stupid things.
I am looking forward to getting it running and preserving the great patina! I have since sold the disc set for 75 bucks, so ended up having 145 in it (not counting gas, of course). Anyways, here are the pictures I took last summer.
By admin-(Admin)
By Jrblanke