[sixball]

I've been working on my road for a few weeks. Over working my Kubota and I've broken some parts and tried to upgrade as I replace stuff. A week or so ago I tore the valve stem out of a front tube and lost almost a week waiting fora new tube, Last week I poked a hole in a back tire and ruined the tube. I fixed the front one myself but the back one though small (9.5x24) was too much for me. I got it off and loaded in the pickup because all the blast had leaked out. Les Schwab had to use a forklift the load it with the new tube & 30 gallons of Calcium  Chloride.  Probably over 450 pounds. So when I got home I had to unload & put it on the tractor by myself.

The hub uses bolts and not studs. I had a hard time lining up the holes on the front wheel so I knew the back one would be worse. So I made a little tool. I cut the head off of a 16 mm bolt and made the end pointy so it would help line up one of  the holes in the wheel. I screwed it into the hub. Then I used a come-along to pull the wheel out to the balance point and slid it to the ground. I was able to roll it to the tractor and play with the jack until my guide tool went into one of the holes. Then jacked it up a little and wiggled it around till I could start the other bolts. It went really well. I don't think I could have aligned the bolt holes otherwise. Still have about 1/2 mile of road to do one the first round. Bit that should get the propane trick in.

[EDNY]

That'll work,,,should be able to remove it and install the correct bolt.

[sammons]

Back in the 70s when wide mag wheels were popular, i use to fight getting the lugs centered to get nuts on. I found a small heavy wall copper tube and i ran a 7/16" tap down it. Screw it on the upper stud like you did. Side the wheel on that and slide wheel till i lined up the lower nuts. Worked great.

My buddy Toms old, (mid '30s) Ford 9n needs rear tires. He says that they quit making that tire size he has, and the wheels are getting mighty rusty from the many decades of calcium seeping out over the years. He has his eye out for newer ford wheels of a similar size that tires are readily availible.

[sixball]

ED, I did take it out and put the bolt in. I though of using studs but think it would be harder to get them lined up. I was a happy old man when it worked is well.
Sammons, This is a 9.5x24 the same size as the little Farmall/International Cub uses. I grew up on Ford 9 & 8 Ns, literally.  Attacking the Texas Panhandle with a 3' oneway is a big task. Dawn to dusk with a tuna sandwich & 5 gallons of gas at noon. They ate like Model As now and you can get anything for them. They have clubs & websites dedicated to them.

 I have an 800 that has been teetering on the hill behind the house for a few years. I think I found some guys they recover stuck off road vehicles for fun that will get it back to the house for me. When I first got the Kubota my son and I tried to use it to get the Ford back on the road. I came closer to rolling it down the hill than I ever want to come again. We had them chained together and the Ford being much heavier would have dragged my son and the Kubota down as well. I had nowhere to jump. When I got off it was teetering and just held from going over by the blade on the rear. We shoved a few rocks under one back wheel to steady it and there it sits. I'll take pictures of the rescue. It would be a great help in the road work I am doing now. It has more weight and twice the power of the Kubota. I'll have to do some hydraulic upgrades to work the box scraper like the Orange one does, but it needs that anyway and I already have the parts.

[sammons]

Tom's little Ford is one working little dude. Cut/moved a lot of dirt/snow, bush hog and post hole driller duties. Tom's dad bought it at a farm sale back in the 70s to clear the snow from the new bank building parking. Had the engine rebuilt in the early 80s, i repainted it in the mid 80s after i used it for couple weeks landscaping the ground here. Tom got the Ford when the bank sold.

Couple years ago he found new front wheels/tires/tubes at a farm store.

[sixball]

The 9N (1939) 2N 1942 & 8N 1948 all had the same 24 horse 4 cylinder flathead. The big selling point was the 3 point hydraulic lift hitch. It was invented by Harry Ferguson from Ireland. He and Henry Ford had a "handshake" deal. It worked well until Henry died and the Ford company reneged on the deal. Ferguson sewed and won what was at the time the biggest settlement in the world. Harry not satisfied started building Ferguson tractors in 1946 that looked almost identical tothe Ford 8N but very few parts interchanged . I think wheels were about it. Ford was banned from using the 3 point system they had been using. They made enough changes to get around Ferguson's patient and came out with the 8n but that didn't work The very different Jubilee series with better overhead engine and much different hitch hydraulics did the trick. My 800 is based in that one. 

[Essex_29]

I recently found a tool like that in my wife's Mercedes original tool kit. Mercedes uses bolts instead
of nuts too, and I've always been annoyed with how hard it can be to get the front wheel
bolts in, as the hub turns with the wheel when you're trying to aling it with the holes in
the rim. We have owned Mercedeses for about 25 years, and it took me till this summer
to get what that pin with a thread even is!
I never claimed to be smart, but geez...

[sixball]

I thought about it when I was wrestling the front wheel after replacing the tube. With the back wheel full of ballast it was a necessity. I don't know if I would have figured out what one was if it had been in the tool box. When I inherited my dad's tools. many in his WWII Douglas Aircraft machinist box, there were many modified & homemade tools. Some I figured out when the need arose, some I didn't.