I kinda know how NASCAR president Mike Helton must have felt back in 2001 when he had to come into the media center at Daytona and announced that Dale Earnhardt was dead.
It’s hard to type the words that the old-iron community has lost James Crane.
James, who lived in Meansville, was one of the founding members of the Pike County Old Tractor and Equipment Club but his reach expanded across the Southeast and into the Midwest.
(James working on one of our Doodlebug projects)
He loved his John Deeres and his Model A and AA Fords, and was an expert at working on them.
This spring and summer, even as he was battling cancer, he came to Inman numerous times to help us rebuild two Model A doodlebugs.
For me it was a time of great fellowship and a learning experience as he taught me the finer points of working on early Ford engines and transmissions.
He also taught me a lot about life, and I think I am a better person for having known him. We will miss him. Prayers to his family and friends.
I hope we can honor his memory by ensuring that his beloved hobby continues to thrive.
It’s less than a month out from the 27th annual Inman Farm Heritage Days on Sept. 20-22, and the days seem to be flying by.
Joanne and I spent a good bit of time on the mowers this past week – and with the weedeaters – as we work to get the show grounds and parking areas in top condition. The heavy rains in July have the grass growing so quickly we are on a five-day rotation.
I spent two mornings with the weedeater cleaning the road bank. The third morning, the Fayette County Road Dept. came by with their mowers, but there was nothing left for them to cut. Just my luck.
We made more progress on our various tractor projects. Finally, after some major frustration, Daniel Perkins has the McCormick Deering W6 cranking with an electric starter.
The late Hugh Jackson purchased this tractor new in the late 1940s, and it came without a starter. Since it can be a challenge for some to start with the hand crank, we decided a few years back to add a starter.
I bought one, but it didn’t work. Our friend David Smallman from Tennessee brought us one off one of his tractors to use during the show and it worked great.
I ordered another new one, and once again it didn’t work.
David brought another one the following year, but it didn’t work either.
When Daniel Perkins took over this project a few months back, he ordered yet another starter and it didn’t work, even though the seller assured him it was for a W6.
We determined that the starters we were buying were for later model tractors, which had the starter mounted on the engine side of the flywheel instead of on the transmission side, like the W6.
That meant the newer starters were turning the engine backwards on the W6.
So we located the Bendix we needed, put it in a starter from a Farmall H and used a three-bolt nose piece from a W6. (Sounds kind of like the cobbled-together car Johnny Cash sang about.)
Finally we have a starter that works, although we’ve spent more on starters than we did on the tractor initially.
Lesson learned.
Glen Roberts and I got the vintage gas station lights mounted on the pole, and they light the place nicely.
Daniel Perkins, along with Sam, Sammy and Austin Chason got our F30 Farmall to run for the first time in decades. It still needs some tuning, but it was amazing to see something that was abandoned for years making some noise again.
The John Deere G is coming along. Sammy Chason repaired the hood. Our friend Greg Butler at Pritchard’s Radiator Shop in Griffin cleaned the gas tanks for the G and the F30 as well as one for Sammy’s Farmall M. Greg does great work, and he’s a great guy. If you need radiator work, he’s the one to turn to.
Please help us spread the word about the show. See y’all in September.