4 replies to this topic

[porl]

Last year I bought a 1954 Fordson E1a Major tractor as (what I thought) a rolling project. I bought it off ebay in the spring of last year. The day I got it I drove it round the yard at my friends farm where I was going to keep it and assessed what it needed. I thought it was just a bit noisey in the back end and the gear box which was to be expected on a tractor of this age. So I serviced it and decided to give it a quick repaint on the nose cone. Im a member of a steam engine and vintage preservation club and id arranged to store it there. This is about 30 miles from my friends farm so one saurday I decided to drive it the 5 miles home in a view to drive down there. I got within 100 yards from my house and the head gasket went. This wasn't going to be a problem to change as my dad is a retired agricultural engineer, so we set to and got the cylinder head stripped down and did a quick rebuild on that. It was at this point we discovered that someone had snapped what we thought was a cylinder head stud off in the block so we had a go at trying to remove it only to find that it was actually a stud extractor. We found this impossible to remove so we cobbled the head back on and tried to limp it down to the traction engine club. I got about 2 miles from my house and it boiled and blew a head gasket again. It was at this point we gave up and towed it home and decided the only fix was going to be a replacement engine. Luckily a friend of mine has got a low loader and for the cost of diesel he transported it for me. I managed to get an engine off ebay and have started to strip it down and rebuild it. I'll update it on here as I progress with the rebuild. The day that I got it.

[a_woolhouse]

Looking good :) my dad wants a little fergie tractor for some reason he thinks there cute

[porl]

A few of my mates have got fergies, there alright but I prefer bigger things like my Major

[brum,brum,mike]

I-spy Series one landy?

Looks nice, nice project too

[porl]

Yeh the series one's great. Its a real work horse