1968 Ford 5000 “Luanna”

I got the starter all repaired. I need to find the shim for it and it can go back together. Got a bit high on the solder and the zinc flux fumes but evidently I lived. Little sketchy as soldering with a propane torch can very easily ignite gaskets that allegedly may or may not be made of card stock. No senseless accusations now, I have my rights :p

Progress! Slowly but surely, we’re getting there.

Not to mention some of those old gaskets are made of asbestos too.

I suspect you’re right. The forbidden cotton candy.

Well the old gal runs again. Idles minty. Turns out the condenser went bad (even though I just replaced it! GRRRRR). Quick painless fix though. Still need to do a water pump and fuel pump, going to need to remove the loader for that but it’ll be fine

So after finding cracked wire insulation in a few places, damaged connectors, and generally just 56 years of mice and atmosphere I looked into a new wiring harness. Correct harnesses for something that has just one 8 pin connector, 500 dollars to start with, that ain’t even OEM. Think I’m going to spend 300 on new wire and stuff and just make an OEM- equivalent harness, matching terminals and colors to be OEM identical because I’m a near freak and I hate chasing wiring issues.

Or I may just solder new repairs on, but something about doing that on an expensive harness gives me the heebie jeebies.

Also a nice opportunity to convert to a higher amp alternator so I can run better lighting. 4 halogen sealed beams is probably taxing that little 20 amp genny good. Trying to keep the LEDs toned down in order to keep that “period correct” look.

@Rustbucket Garage I've made all new wiring harnesses for a few tractors. You should be able to keep the material cost under $50. I get all the free connectors and 16awg wire I need from work but small quantities of that stuff is pretty cheap. I like to print out a diagram of the terminals on the key switch so I'm sure I'm hooking everything up to it correctly. I also take inspiration from the OG wiring harness for mounting locations and wrapping.

Oh yeah, net material cost isn’t that bad, with the amount of different colors though it’s going to be a lot of upfront cost but I’ll have a ton for future projects.

Trying to decide now whether to pull the hodge-podged industrial loader off and sell it, and buy the proper one or sell the loader and buy a cheap backhoe I found to handle all the earthmoving chores. Dunno, it’s a really strong loader but it’s very inconvenient working around it being so close to the tractor body. Was designed for a 3 cylinder industrial, namely the 3500, 4400 and all the associated models. Mines a 4 cylinder so the frame is longer and the tractor rides higher, even though both are utility though.

Having grown up running compacts though, I will say having more tractor than loader is an enjoyable sentiment as opposed to something that doesn’t like moving stone and feels really worked with a load of soil.

Image fixed - MightyRaze

Little update. I cleaned and remanufactured (see also: spray painted) the radiator, installed a new thermostat, new coolant, fixed the steering slop, and also managed to find a good deal on a ROPS and canopy a couple towns over, so I wire wheeled the rust and brushed on a coat of paint (horrible idea BTW, I’m using a roller next time). Makes me wonder if I should brush paint my neighbors PT Cruiser, at least the paint will run :p

Managed to source a used upper grill which I polished and cleaned up a little. Adds a nice look to the tractor. Because the alternator is 22 amps I decided to pull off the front halogens and I’m mounting 4 LED pods on the canopy which should cut amperage draw down a bit. I also am going to call a local guy and see about getting the generator rebuilt because the bearings are going bad and the terminals aren’t the healthiest either. Charges fine, but needs some love.

Spent 70 dollars on the 8 bolts for the ROPS mount, 3/4-10 x 9. This thing is not going anywhere once it’s on.

Found a foot throttle kit for this tractor cheap online so that’s in the works, I saw a guy with one of these floating gears like on a big truck as they’re both sliding gear transmissions. I think that’s useful for accessing road gear when loaded with something so I intend to set that up. The rops came with some 3/16 wire mesh grating as a debris shield (the donor tractor was a highway mower) which I had no use for, so off it came. I will be welding some angle iron to it and making a brush guard to go on the bull bar on the loader so I don’t get a pokey stabby branch denying my nice new grill while I’m mowing with the old girl.

Update time! Got the ROPS mounted and its wiring roughed in. The halogens on there are coming off I decided in favor of some more LEDs. She’s still running great, it appears the resistor in the temperature gauge is messed up which causes a high reading. I’m thinking about buying an aftermarket instrument cluster and swapping in the OEM hour meter and faceplate as I don’t want to have the hour meter restarting from zero. I also can’t replace the individual gauge because the cheapest one I found was 120 dollars and the average was about 400. A cluster can be bought aftermarket for about 100 or so, so that’s an easy thing.

Decided that the wiring harness is good except for the couple bad spots on the front of the engine so my plan is to splice in some new wire with heat shrink solder connectors and there should be absolutely no issue there. Cheaper too.

Also on the docket is some new battery cables, a proper 4DLT battery, an alternator conversion, fresh hydraulic fluid in the loader and I’m also toying with the notion of limb risers/sweeps like on the dozers, but that remains to be seen.

It's looking great man! What kind of alternator swap you thinking, GM 1 wire?

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

Update time! Got the ROPS mounted and its wiring roughed in. The halogens on there are coming off I decided in favor of some more LEDs. She’s still running great, it appears the resistor in the temperature gauge is messed up which causes a high reading. I’m thinking about buying an aftermarket instrument cluster and swapping in the OEM hour meter and faceplate as I don’t want to have the hour meter restarting from zero. I also can’t replace the individual gauge because the cheapest one I found was 120 dollars and the average was about 400. A cluster can be bought aftermarket for about 100 or so, so that’s an easy thing.

Decided that the wiring harness is good except for the couple bad spots on the front of the engine so my plan is to splice in some new wire with heat shrink solder connectors and there should be absolutely no issue there. Cheaper too.

Also on the docket is some new battery cables, a proper 4DLT battery, an alternator conversion, fresh hydraulic fluid in the loader and I’m also toying with the notion of limb risers/sweeps like on the dozers, but that remains to be seen.

Ooh a 4dlt! Them things are HEAVY. I deal with them at work often. Never could figure out why they don't put handles on them. They weigh about 80lbs. Can you say BROKEN KNEE? Beautiful tractor BTW, I'm looking for an 8n myself.

Brianator wrote:

It's looking great man! What kind of alternator swap you thinking, GM 1 wire?

I believe so, I’ll be getting the steiner kit for it so I dont know any specifics but it looks exactly like a 1 wire clone with a rear tach drive. Not too bad of a job, 2 hours and a $240 kit. 55 amp alternator.

And thank you! Definitely come a long way from the day she came home.

Ifitaintbroke wrote:

Ooh a 4dlt! Them things are HEAVY. I deal with them at work often. Never could figure out why they don't put handles on them. They weigh about 80lbs. Can you say BROKEN KNEE? Beautiful tractor BTW, I'm looking for an 8n myself.

Definitely! I see myself enlisting a family member of younger blood than I to assist in lifting it in. My back is- shall we say- behind on maintenance lol.

8Ns are a personal favorite too, would love to completely restore one one someday. Grandad used to use one for his Syrup business, damned reliable tractor. And thank you, shes a working girl but I try to keep her looking good