1952 Ferguson TO30

[n8in8or]

Ok, snow plow question time from the desert guy...
I’ve worked on and operated tons of loaders, dozers, backhoes,etc. but not a snowplow - surprising I know! Haha

In the first pics of the blade attached to the machine it has the concave working side facing almost straight down. Pins for this pivot are in the center junction and at the actuator that controls side discharging. So the two springs that have the wide range of tension adjustment going from lower solid attathment to the top of the blade- the hold the up and down pivoting action in place.??

Is this some kind of passive energy absorbing thing incase you attempt to move too much material?

If so, is that so you dont spin the wheels and get stuck or incase you hit a rock imbedded in a dirt road you are clearing and keep from bending the blade? My understanding is snow blades are much lighter built than an earth moving blade.

It seems the actuator you started with at the angle and now is linear to tractor frame would be at risk for bending if the blade pivots foreword too much. I see the rear pin is to allow upward motion- do you remove the springs and test there is enough movement of actuator to never be damaged if the springs are extended or damaged?

If you ever have questions about how dry dirt can be, and how to make it drier, lmk! Haha. I keep wondering what things I take for granted knowledge here that most dont get- other than everytime I rescue a broke down traveler they never have water for some reason...

Good questions Will. AK answered the question of why the springs exist. There are a lot of hidden things under snow that you can't see and you have a lot more ground speed when snow plowing than you do when moving dirt, so if you do find a hidden obstacle it can be quite a shock to everything. When I told my dad about this project, he told me about a friend of his with an Oliver 55 that did the same thing....only he didn't have the spring loaded blade. He hit something with the blade and ended up cracking the belly frame casting in half!

The actuator attaches to the frame pivot bracket. In that first picture you referenced, it's the black-ish part that the yellow blade is pivoting on. So even when the blade does trip and pivot, it stays in the same plane of relatively parallel to the ground. There is a little inherent movement because of the clearance for allowing the blade to pivot, but the connections are sloppy enough that they allow for any of that deflection.

Does that help?

 

[Will L.]

Ok yeah- that all adds up. I thought about hitting something but didn’t factor in speed. I was just thinking 5 mph.

Sounds like I want to watch some snowplow failures of a blade tripping. And ok, maybe one of it not tripping- for umm, educational purposes of corse! I image wanting some
French fries to go with the steering wheel, followed by a dentist visit.

 

[Jaryd]

You are very good at thinking about a project and engineering whatever you need to get the job done. Looks good.

I see all the intakes laying to the side. You must be like me and take all the goodies off of a 6.5 when you go to the junkyard.

 

[n8in8or]

You are very good at thinking about a project and engineering whatever you need to get the job done. Looks good.

I see all the intakes laying to the side. You must be like me and take all the goodies off of a 6.5 when you go to the junkyard.

SHHHHHH!! You weren’t supposed to notice those!! Ha. All of the parts off of the Tahoe are blocking the shelves where those should be. The junkyard had a 50% off sale a couple months back and I made out like a bandit.

Oh and thank you!

 

[BIGR]

Good questions Will. AK answered the question of why the springs exist. There are a lot of hidden things under snow that you can't see and you have a lot more ground speed when snow plowing than you do when moving dirt, so if you do find a hidden obstacle it can be quite a shock to everything. When I told my dad about this project, he told me about a friend of his with an Oliver 55 that did the same thing....only he didn't have the spring loaded blade. He hit something with the blade and ended up cracking the belly frame casting in half!

The actuator attaches to the frame pivot bracket. In that first picture you referenced, it's the black-ish part that the yellow blade is pivoting on. So even when the blade does trip and pivot, it stays in the same plane of relatively parallel to the ground. There is a little inherent movement because of the clearance for allowing the blade to pivot, but the connections are sloppy enough that they allow for any of that deflection.

Does that help?

Great engineering and work there on your equipment. I have seen firsthand about hitting objects and tripping blades. I have tripped the blade on my ATV more than once, had it not tripped, no telling what would have happened.

Looks like your set to clear some of that heavy snow in the cold frozen North, do you get any of that lake effect snow in your area?

 

[n8in8or]

Great engineering and work there on your equipment. I have seen firsthand about hitting objects and tripping blades. I have tripped the blade on my ATV more than once, had it not tripped, no telling what would have happened.

Looks like your set to clear some of that heavy snow in the cold frozen North, do you get any of that lake effect snow in your area?

Thanks! Yeah we get lake effect, but I’m about 15 miles from the band that gets the worst of the Lake Michigan stuff. And they are nowhere near what places like Buffalo get. I just looked it up and we get about 78” of snowfall a year, which is pretty managable.

 

[n8in8or]

Just used the plow for the first time. We got about 5” of snow last night. It took me 22 minutes start to finish (that time would be better with more familiarity). This would have normally been a 1 hour job with the garden tractor. That means more project time!!!

 

[DieselSlug]

Just used the plow for the first time. We got about 5” of snow last night. It took me 22 minutes start to finish (that time would be better with more familiarity). This would have normally been a 1 hour job with the garden tractor. That means more project time!!!

We are just on the brink of this storm. Currently slated 10-18 inches tonight and more Sunday/Monday from lake effect. These storms make me miss my plow truck, downgraded to a snowblower now that I have a 4 car driveway.

 

[n8in8or]

We are just on the brink of this storm. Currently slated 10-18 inches tonight and more Sunday/Monday from lake effect. These storms make me miss my plow truck, downgraded to a snowblower now that I have a 4 car driveway.

Yeah your area is supposed to get it a lot worse than we have! I love the maneuverability of a well-equipped garden tractor, but the volume of snow you can move with a full size plow is awesome. This is the first time I’ve had a plow this big and it would be really hard to go back even after just this one use.

 

[n8in8or]

The bendix drive in that starter has been flakey ever since I’ve owned this tractor, but it recently got worse. It used to be only every once in a while that it would disengage the starter before the engine actually fired, but in the last couple weeks it’s been cranking for only a second and then it would kick off....this made starting the tractor very challenging. So I got a new bendix drive for it. I should have taken a picture of the new piece but forgot.

Here is the starter disassembled. The old bendix is the part that has the vice grips clamped on it.



While it was apart I gave it a good cleaning and inspection. I found that all of the screws holding the brushes on were loose. I oiled the bushings and reassembled it. Then I installed it. The first time I cranked it I thought it wasn’t engaging the flywheel because it was cranking so fast! I had to do it again and watch the fan blade moving to know the engine was cranking. It cranks so much faster!! I’m very pleased. FYI, this is still just a 6 volt system, that’s why I’m so impressed with the cranking speed. I also have 1/0 battery cables on it so that helps. Here’s a quick video of it cranking. I love it when a plan comes together.....

 

[n8in8or]

This year I’ve been struggling with keeping the Turd Ferguson running right. I was using it to pull a rolling chassis out and ran out of gas. The only gas I had was the 6 month old gas I drained out of the Envoy, but hey, it’s just an old tractor so it’ll burn it. I put that old gas in it and it was running like crap. Huh. So I topped it off with some fresh gas and it was better....but then as I was pushing the chassis onto a trailer it started running like crap again....so bad that it even started backfiring super loud out of the exhaust. Dammit! So I figured the carb was dirty. I ordered a carb kit and rebuilt the carb. It didn’t look bad, especially since it was just a couple years since the last rebuild, but I figured there must have been some small junk I couldn’t see in the jets or passages. I put it back together and it was running the same. Dammit!! So I thought maybe it was the condenser. I took it off and checked the capacitance. It checked good. Huh. I changed the Autolite 386 plugs out and put some D21 Champions in after reading some other peoples’ experiences. It ran good for a little while and then started acting up again. After letting it sit for a while this summer I went back to try to get it running right. After thinking about it I decided it must have been the coil going bad. So I bought a new one from Napa. I put that coil in as well as a new set of D21 plugs and it was running great. Yes!! I used it a few times and it was running pretty well. Then one day it started acting up again. Dammit!! So I guess maybe it’s the wires? The #4 plug kept fouling so I figured that wire was worse than the others, but maybe they all are going bad. So I got a new set of Belken wires from Napa and another set of D21s. Fired it up and it was running the best it ever had, but in less than 5 minutes it was acting up again. Dammit!! Ok, so now I think it’s the condenser - it’s ok when it’s cold, but as it warms up it must be failing (this was my same theory with the coil, too). But I didn’t want to install a new set of points and condenser just to have them fail again eventually so I decided to put one of the electronic ignition kits from Pertronix in it. They make one for my 6V positive ground system. I put that in a couple weeks ago and so far all is well. It starts up quickly, runs well cold and hasn’t acted up once. This was the last thing I could change so it better have fixed it! Oh and it has been smoking from burning oil for a while, but now with the electonic ignition it has very little smoke, so it must be getting a hot spark and burning the oil better. Today I used it to plow the driveway for 50 minutes and it worked great the whole time. I’m very happy now, it sucked this summer not knowing what it was going to do from one day to the next and it made me realize how handy a tool the tractor is. So far I give the Pertronix electronic ignition 2 thumbs up.

 

[Duvall]

.So far I give the Pertronix electronic ignition 2 thumbs up.

The whole time I am reading about you adding ignition parts I am thinking "it needs an electronic conversion!"

I've done a few of the electronic conversions in the past. I have used the Pertronix kit as well on a Corvair. 20 years later and its still going trouble free.

There are electronic conversion kits for almost everything now. No point to using points anymore!

 

[n8in8or]

The only other time I had tried Pertronix was a replacement module on a GM HEI distributor. I think I had two of them fail so that made me skeptical of their stuff. But that was over 20 years ago so they’ve probably gotten better since then. I read a lot of people upgrading their Fergusons to it while I was trying to figure out my problem. I didn’t want to spend the money (and I had those past failures in mind), so I tried to avoid it, but now I wish I hadn’t waited so long to just do it!

 

[Duvall]

GM HEI. The H stands for Headache.

It is a good ignition when its working. You end up chasing your tail when they have problems.

 

[btfarm]

What does this conversation entail? Perhaps my 1973 Ford 2000 could need one...

 

[n8in8or]

What does this conversation entail? Perhaps my 1973 Ford 2000 could need one...

I’ll see if I can find the installation guide and post a picture of it, but here’s a synopsys:

1. remove old points and condenser
2. remove stud in distributor body that the wire from the coil attached to
3. feed wires from Pertronix unit through the hole in the distributor with the supplied grommet
4. screw Pertronix unit to distributor using screw(s) that mounted the points before
5. slide trigger magnet over the distributor cam that used to move the points
6. wire one of the Pertronix leads to ground
7. wire the other Pertronix lead to the coil
8. reinstall cap and rotor
9. drive over removed points and condenser (this step is optional, but arguably the most satisfying)

 

[Will L.]

Full write up and pictures please- this is way cool!

 

[n8in8or]

I lied. 1 wire from the Pertronix goes to negative on the coil (this positive ground stuff messes with my mind so much!!). The other wire from the Pertronix goes to switched power (negative). Then the positive terminal on the coil goes to ground (positive).



It looks like I threw the destructions away, but saved the box....like a champ.

 

[Will L.]

Cool thanks! Sure glad there’s folks out there coming up with good stuff.
A while back I was worried about points for my 43 Willy’s, but found a source for all the parts. Good to know modern options are there incase.

 

[btfarm]

They're proud of that aren't they? Buck and a half...