A friend of mine is writing a story set in the 1970's. He uses one of the nicknames for the two-cylinder tractor with that distinctive sound, which I was not what I had always heard, but says that's what he heard people say.
I googled and found both are common names, but I wonder if it is regional or whether both are used interchangeably.
Johnny Pop and Poppin John was what I heard.
The words I sometimes used to describe our 1951 A John Deere are not allowed on this site. Especially true on the day I went to hop down after shutting it off and I somehow managed to insert my left thumb between the pipe slightly above the seat back/pad and the seat back/pad bracket. My feet didn't quite hit the ground before I was momentarily suspended in midair by only my left thumb. Dislocating a thumb is quite the experience. I don't recommend it. The only good part was when it decided to return to its "fully upright and locked position" a few minutes later and I fainted. Those few seconds of bliss wandering around Heaven with Jesus and a herd of sheep near a peaceful stream was halted by the splashing of cold water from the yard hydrant on my face courtesy of my concerned father. After lunch I crawled back on and went back to work, steering primarily with my right hand.
My uncle had one that was eerily similar to this one:
Don't know what year it was but all the young'ns were to stay clear of it because of it's tricycle config. The other various Ford and MFs were fair game for us to use to mow and drag trailer loads of irrigation pipe from field to field.
If I remember right it was diesel powered and starting the beast included a compression release and manhandling a flywheel on the left side. My uncle and oldest cousin were the only ones checked out and authorized to operate that particular piece of equipment. We called it the johnny popper and it could pull my uncle's pickup out of an extremely muddy irrigation ditch after it had accidently rolled there nose first. If it was hard to start my uncle called it a lot of other things....
I have a 1939 Model B that my grandpops bought brand new right before WWII. It was the first year for the "early styled" version, meaning they added a grill in front of the radiator and used a styled sheet metal hood. No battery, no lights, no starter. It uses a magneto that will knock you on your azz for ignition. (Don't ask me how I know...) It has two cock valves, one for each cylinder. To start it when it was cold, you opened the cock valves, grab the flywheel on the left side and give it your best tug. Close the cock valves once started. Or if it was parked on a slight incline, let it roll down hill and pop the clutch. It has two fuel tanks. A smaller one was for gasoline, which you would use to get it started. Once it warmed up, you would switch it to the larger tank, which was for kerosene, or diesel. We always ran straight gasoline through it.
I overhauled it back in 1980 and my dad repainted it. The engine was froze up and I remember having to press the pistons out with a hydraulic press. It was then regulated mostly to parade duties. It still runs great.
I even have a power block for it, but it's not installed. TSC sold aftermarket blocks for these back in the '60s and '70s. They had a bigger bore, used aluminum pistons and had higher compression. Probably raised the horsepower from 18 to....20.. Ha!
Thanks for this thread. It reminds me that I need to get it out of storage and clean it up. I am thinking about repainting it again. The paint job is 37 years old and you can see the decals starting to wear off.
Here's a picture of it that I took last year sitting in the shed collecting dust. To the left is a unstyled 1936 brass tag John Deere B.
Beer Legs, post: 426083, member: 33 wrote: I have a 1939 Model B that my grandpops bought brand new right before WWII. It was the first year for the "early styled" version, meaning they added a grill in front of the radiator and used a styled sheet metal hood. No battery, no lights, no starter. It uses a magneto that will knock you on your azz for ignition. (Don't ask me how I know...) It has two cock valves, one for each cylinder. To start it when it was cold, you opened the cock valves, grab the flywheel on the left side and give it your best tug. Close the cock valves once started. Or if it was parked on a slight incline, let it roll down hill and pop the clutch. It has two fuel tanks. A smaller one was for gasoline, which you would use to get it started. Once it warmed up, you would switch it to the larger tank, which was for kerosene, or diesel. We always ran straight gasoline through it.
I overhauled it back in 1980 and my dad repainted it. The engine was froze up and I remember having to press the pistons out with a hydraulic press. It was then regulated mostly to parade duties. It still runs great.
I even have a power block for it, but it's not installed. TSC sold aftermarket blocks for these back in the '60s and '70s. They had a bigger bore, used aluminum pistons and had higher compression. Probably raised the horsepower from 18 to....20.. Ha!
Thanks for this thread. It reminds me that I need to get it out of storage and clean it up. I am thinking about repainting it again. The paint job is 37 years old and you can see the decals starting to wear off.Here's a picture of it that I took last year sitting in the shed collecting dust. To the left is a unstyled 1936 brass tag John Deere B.
Leave the paint as it is imho...everybody has a shiny Deere. Nobody lets them wear their age like they should.
This thread reminds me of a story my old man told me once. At one time we had two of these about the same age. I can barely remember it. The second one was bought used after the first one was purchased new. Apparently someone did a piss poor job boring out the block and the cylinders were tapered. Every time it was used hard in the field, such as using it for plowing duties, it would bust a piston ring or two. After replacing the rings for the forth time, pops loaded it up on a trailer and traded it in for an Oliver 88. And never looked back...
paden cash, post: 426088, member: 20 wrote: Leave the paint as it is imho...everybody has a shiny Deere. Nobody lets them wear their age like they should.
I might of, but that's not the original paint. I am thinking about having a pro paint it...to make it shinier than new....
And... a correction. To the left of it is a 1935 brass tag John Deere ÌÛ. I think the brass tags used for the serial numbers were only used for the first 1000 units made, making it a very early model. Something like that....
