The only logical place to start is from the rear, working forward.  When it came time to attach the transmission to the rear, hydraulic and differential, housing I discovered that I was lacking the gasket that goes between these two major parts.  Since this was a weekend with the New Holland dealer closed, a quick trip to one of the local auto parts stores produced a sheet of gasket material that was quickly pressed to the transmission case, traced with a pencil, and cut to fit.  Bolt holes were punched in place using a ball peen hammer to cut the holes.  Somehow, in the process of lining up the transmission case with the rear case our new gasket was torn.  What to do?  Finally, with all parts lining up, we torqued the bolts and considered it finished.

Attaching the flywheel to the driveshaft was the next task.  I was very thankful to have Carl helping me with this item.  That baby is heavy!  As stated, the bolt holes only line up one way.  Since I had not taken the flywheel off – it was off when I bought the tractor – I was only able to guess which bolts were the proper ones for this task.  Six holes for cap screws and only three bolts.  Again, off to Lowe’s Hardware for bolts.  Fortunately, they had three of the right size – 7/16-20 x 2” in the right strength – no. 8).  We torqued these to specs. and proceeded to attach the clutch plate and disc using a new pilot bearing and clutch release bearing.  There is a special tool used to center the clutch disc during this process.  Lacking this tool, I formed one from a 1” wooden dowel pin, shaving down one end using my table saw until it just fit into the pilot bearing.  Fortunately, I did have the correct cap screws to attach the clutch plate housing to the flywheel.

With the flywheel and clutch in place, we proceeded to bolt the engine to the transmission housing.  Using a wrench to turn the crankshaft on the front of the engine, I proceeded to test the drive train.  Everything was turning, but why am I unable to get the clutch to release?  After checking all the adjustments possible without any luck, we pulled the engine off again to have a closer look at the clutch.  Could the clutch disc be in backwards?  Off came the clutch plate housing, the clutch disc is reversed, and the processes of assembly is repeated.  Now does the drive train work as specified?  We all breathe a sigh of relief as the clutch does its proper job when the pedal is depressed.

With that done, Carl had to head back to Austin, leaving me with the remainder of the reassembly.  Working mostly evenings over the next couple of weeks, an hour here and a couple of hours there, the assembly continued.  All parts lined up and fit (mostly).  The generator had been converted to 12 volts and was in a housing that fit the bracket designed for this tractor, but did not quite clear the sediment bowel on the carburetor and needed an extension to the adjusting bracket and a slightly larger belt in order to fit. 

It was time to see if this tractor could be brought back to life.