By July I was ready to give Tracy the final payment and we set a date for delivery. That Saturday morning, I arrived early at Tracy’s shop. He arrived shortly after I did in his pickup with a trailer in tow. I climbed in and we headed for Granbury to first pick up the loader. The loader turned out to be a pipe frame model with a single cylinder controlling the bucket. The nameplate was too weatherworn to make out a manufacturer, but it looked like some of the early Ford loaders. It also looked like it had been repainted blue at some point, but the predominant color now was rust.
I had arranged with my sister-in-law, who lives just a few blocks from us, to store the loader in her garage until I was ready to begin work on it. By about noon, we had the loader safely tucked into its temporary home.
After lunch, we returned to Tracy’s shop and began the process of assembling the tractor, first extracting the rear section
from its resting place next to the fence and moving it into the shop, and then attaching the engine and front-end assembly. Tracy had begun to tear down the engine and had extracted the broken camshaft. It was twisted off right behind the gear that drives the camshaft from the crankshaft. It appeared that something must have jammed the gears that drive the hydraulic pump and stopped it dead. Several teeth in the camshaft gear were damaged which would necessitate replacement of this gear, too. The rocker arm assembly had also been removed. One of the rocker arm adjustment screws was broken – add that to the list. The valve tappets were all in place with the push rods in one of the parts boxes. Prior to attaching the engine to the clutch housing we slid the replacement camshaft into place to prevent the push rods from falling out.
Tracy pulled several boxes off his shelves labeled “Tractor parts” and I loaded them into my Tahoe. I recognized many parts, but some I had no clue. I figured their role would be revealed to me as I began the final assembly in my garage. At this point I was thinking - quick clean-up, re-paint, put in the replacement camshaft, re-assemble, and be ready to take it up to my Iowa farm by September, October at the latest. Oh, what foolish optimism. I should have known!
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