3 replies to this topic

[Badbmwbrad]

Hi.  I'm new to this site.  It seems to have the most DB activity compared to other forums.

 

I received a David Bradley 917.5751 recently.  It was built in the late forties and has the old-style T hitch coupler beneath the frame.

 I spent a couple hours yesterday to  get it running (no luck).  It has a Briggs & Stratton model N engine and 6.00-16 Agricultural bar tread tires.  One of the tire's tread casing has ruptured and the inner tube is bulging through.  As an interim measure, I deflated it and sandwiched a few pieces of leather beneath the tread to protect the inner tube for the time being.

 

  The engine has no ignition spark.  I'll have to remove the blower shroud, flywheel and take a look at the points and condenser.  The Flo-Jet carb probably needs an overhaul too.

 

PS Thanks to Dan O'Connor (DanO) for posting a lot of helpful DB technical info at Youtube.   

[Badbmwbrad]

Today I restored enginet ignition spark by setting the contact breaker points gap to 0.020".  The B&S model N engine started up.  I cleaned the Flo Jet carburetor and adjusted its low-speed and high-speed needle valves. The engine periodically surges and sputters.  There is no implement attached to the tractor and I'm thinking it will run more steadily when under a load.

 

I have a DB sickle bar mower to work on so perhaps it will run steadily when that implement is attached.

 

I have a sort of "tow bar" and I'm not sure what it is for.  It's about 2.5 feet long flat stock.  One end has a through hole with a bolt/castellated nut inserted.  The opposite end seems to attach to the transmission because it is forked.  

 

[Lauber1]

not sure how I missed this the first times around, but welcome to the site. There are several people here with Db tractors ,both walking and riding. Good to see yo got it up and working. Post some pictures of it and the odd tow bar and maybe we can figure what it is.

[Badbmwbrad]

I determined the "tow bar" is actually the lower brace arm for a snow plow attachment (which I don't have).  The brace arm bolts onto the bottom-center of the snow plow blade.  The rear end of the brace arm attaches to the transmission.  Has anyone ever used one of these for a tow bar connected to the rear of the transmission?

 

The engine surging was corrected.  The governor linkage had a loose screw at the spring shackle.

 

The ignition spark went away again.  I gapped the points a little smaller and cleaned all the grass chaff out of the blower housing area.  The magneto armature was cleaned again.  Spark restored (again).

 

The cultivator attachment has crank adjust wheels.  I set the wheels for maximum cultivator height, removed all the sweeps from the frame and layed a piece of plywood across the cultivator frame to form a cargo deck.  I then inverted the two longest sweeps and mounted them at the rear-most part of the frame; projecting upwards.  The two inverted sweeps will prevent firewood logs from rolling off the back of the deck.

 

When the tractor is on the side of a steep hill in my back yard and pointed up the hill, the tractor engine and cultivator cargo deck will become horizontal.  We're going back the tractor down the long hill, load the deck with firewood then the tractor will haul the wood up the 150' long hill.  I'm thinking I can engage the clutch to brake the tractor as it rolls backwards down the hill.  

 

  If this idea proves successful then we're going to get a lot of firewood which previously could not be easily brought up the hill.