1966 John Deere 60 Lawn Tractor

Transcription

1 1966 John Deere 60 Lawn Tractor By Jason Muller Formatted: Centered Our John Deere Model 60 garden tractor was originally bought new from the Greenway Implement, John Deere dealership in Paullina, Iowa in 1966 by Northern Natural Gas company. They bought this tractor to both cut grass on their large acreage at the gas plant and push snow in the winter. It came with the 34 rotary mower deck and the 32 snow thrower attachment. After a couple of seasons, it was traded back in to Greenway Implement for a larger unit. Dudley Hinz, one of the employees at Greenway, bought it in 1968 and used around his farm for many years cutting grass and blowing snow. In 1977, John Muller (my father) bought the tractor for the same purposes, to cut grass and blow snow. It was used to blow the snow off the sidewalks at Dad and Mom s furniture store in downtown Paullina. We used to cut the grass at our home in town and my brother Jared and I used it to cut grass for various neighbors around town for extra spending money. It was also used at my Grandparent s farm in Remsen to help cut the grass on the acreage. It sure helped save time from using the push mower at the farm! And when not using for cutting grass in the summer, we use to tie up the wagon to it and gave each other rides with the tractor. Essentially, was really the first thing that both my brother and I learned to drive around until we could drive the larger tractors at the farm.

2 It is unclear why we eventually stopped using it but I would have to assume it needed some major work and my father decided to get another riding tractor rather than fixing it. It sat outside at the farm in Remsen next to the garage for about 25 years in the Iowa weather. Not sure why we never rolled it inside the several buildings it could have gone in. In 2016 my son, Sam, and I were looking for a project to work on together and we decided we would take on the restoration of the John Deere 60 tractor. Dad had passed away in January 2014 so that spring we cleaned up the farm of his farming equipment and moved everything including the lawn tractor back up to Paullina where it sat in a shed with Dad s other farm implements. We loaded it up in the summer of 2016 and brought it back to Phoenix to begin the restoration process. After the initial inspection it was concluded that it needed to be torn down completely and all missing, damaged/non-functioning parts were inventoried. After sitting out in the elements for about 25 years, the tractor was in decent shape but far from working. It took several of months of tearing it down to the complete frame. From there we were able to start to source parts from all over the country. Hapco Parts was very helpful in locating the parts required to put the tractor back together. They also put me in touch with collectors that provided important information on the tractor. One of our first purchases were the parts and service manuals. Without them, there would have been no way to find the part numbers that we needed.

3 The engine was discovered to be the Tecumseh VH70 and not the original VH60 that came with the tractor. After talking to Dudley about the tractor, he commented that he remembered swapping out a handful of engines on it when he had it. He said the VH60 just wasn t enough to keep up blowing the wet snow and that it burned up quite a few of the engines so the VH70 was eventually was placed in there. I don t remember Dad ever swapping out the engine in it when we had it. Also, the transmission was leaking and the axle seals needed to be replaced so the entire transaxle was taken apart for inspection. The axle had some minor rust on the gears from water exposure but overall, just needed a good flush and cleaning and was then reassembled. While everything was broken down on the tractor, it got completely sandblasted and painted. And the reassembly process was started. The reassembly took several months putting it all back together and getting everything to fit in the right spot and final adjustments. We finally got it running using its own power just in time for the Arizona Early Day Gas Engine & Tractor Association s spring show in Apache Junction, Arizona in March 2018.

4 This project overall was a larger undertaking than what my son and I had expected it would be and presented many learning opportunities along the way. Thanks to my neighbor Mike, who is an auto mechanic, as he provided a lot of advice and help with the tractor. Also, BIG thanks to my wife, Theresa for letting me turn one bay of our garage into a tractor repair shop for almost 2 years with parts everywhere and the countless hours I spent out in the garage working on it.

5 In the end, spending time with my son working on a tractor that I used to drive around is priceless. Not only did we get to spend valuable time together, it also helped teach him some skills that he will have for the rest of his life.