The Farmall H Restoration, February Update

With the weather starting to warm up in Nebraska, I’ve had a chance to start coming to terms with the Farmall H restoration project. I’m starting up a new series on this, and you can follow along in the restoration category.

In my test drives I’ve done since getting it home and some closer inspections across the tractor, I’ve come to find a few things to look into. Here’s a brief rundown:

• Second gear of the transmission, or perhaps the final drive, whines a bit. This isn’t particularly surprising—second gear was typically the heavy “working” gear for pulling plows or other equipment, so having worn down teeth on a gear is to be expected. However, International Harvester didn’t make this the easiest thing to get in to (it’ll involve removing the gas tank, seat, steering tree, and of course popping the cover off the housing).
• I want to re-wire everything. A previous owner started this with new headlights, but didn’t finish it. I’ll likely pick up a new wiring kit and replace everything. Relatedly, I need a new battery box.
• The manifold is in pretty rough shape. Not only is it pretty well worn and pockmarked, but there’s a smattering of old welding along the exhaust outlet that must’ve come from a prior owner trying to weld on a straight pipe. I’ve already picked up a restoration quality muffler, so this project is partially done already. The manifold itself, however, will take some saving up to buy new unless I can find a good one at a swap meet or new old stock.
• The sediment bowl and fuel shutoff leak. And, unfortunately, I discovered the sediment bowl is cracked. Luckily, these things are cheap to replace and I already have one on the way.
• The tires need replacing. The seller I bought the tractor from had a spare set of rear tires, so I’m halfway to having this fixed. I’ll likely hire a mobile tire repair crew for this work—I lack the equipment to break and set tire beads, and they’ll be able to get it done more quickly and safely than I can.
• A previous owner re-routed the choke rod and installed the on/off switch and a light switch onto the steering tree. I’d like to reroute all of this to its original 1946 positions.
• Regarding the driver’s area, I need a new steering wheel, new shifter, replace the seat shock, and replace the seat.

Certainly this list will continue to grow.

My first step in the past week has been to drain everything: gasoline, oil, transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid, and coolant. The oil was quite dark, leading me to suspect it’s been quite a while since it’s been changed. Same goes for the transmission fluid: it shouldn’t be sludgy and rust colored, as you might see in the pictures. All the more reason I want to open up the transmission casing, both to check the gears closely but also get all the sludge and grime out of there.

Speaking of which, there are layers of grime, grease, and dirt on this machine that have likely been there for decades. I’ve just started the work of trying to clean this up. Even shop-quality de-greaser is struggling to cut through the thick of it. A lot of it will come off as I start stripping off old paint, since one of my plans is to repaint the whole tractor. The good news is I suspect most of the work on the whole tractor is largely cosmetic. I intend to dig into the engine a bit just to check everything over, but the tractor runs great otherwise.