Last night a friend from work let me borrow his Ford 9N tractor. We hooked up a tow strap and towed my late 1940's Allis-Chalmers WD tractor out of the field where it had quit running in 2005 when it cracked a connecting rod. I used the gasoline-powered air compressor to air up the tires and it pulled right out.

Back in 2005 I was mowing the fields when I heard a loud banging from the Allis engine. I shut it off and removed the oil pan and found that the #1 rod bearing had come off and the rod got loose and cracked. I found the rod bearing bolts and nuts in the bottom of the pan. Apparently no one had put cotter pins on the ends of the bolts or had not tightened them well or something as I could find no traces of cotter pins in the pan.

So, back to now, I need to fix the Allis tractor. I'm wondering if I can just replace the rod, rod cap and bearings as the engine only ran for about 5 seconds with the rod loose. I'm going to make a video of the engine problem soon. Ideally I would like to do a full engine rebuild but I don't think I can afford it right now.

We got the brush hog mower hooked up to the Ford 9N and I was able to mow the fields. I got about 1 acre's worth done so will try and do some more tomorrow and this weekend.

Here are some photos of the tractor back when it was running.

I've always really liked jukeboxes (You can see one in my user icon even!) On the rare occasion we got to go out to eat at an actual restaurant like Pizza Hut in the 80's when I was a kid, it was such a thrill to get some coins and play the jukebox with songs like "Party All The Time" by Eddie Murphy or "The Reflex" by Duran Duran, etc. So to actually be able to own jukeboxes and work on them is like a dream come true for me.

I got this Rockola 456 from 1974 several months ago at an auction. The mechanism worked OK but the sound was distorted and there was hum. I went to Mouser and got all new electrolytics and doubled the capacitance of the power supply filters and output caps for extra bass response. There were lots of caps to replace. This amp is full of different circuit board modules.

This Rockola looks like a console phonograph with a lid you can close. It now sounds great with super bass response especially on modern records...I just need to get a new electronic ballast to get all the fluorescent lamps working. Here is a video demonstration.

Here are some photos which my friend Travis took of me about 12-13 years ago. He sent then to me in an e-mail message and it brought back good memories to see them.
Kind of the sad thing is, is that none of the places in the photos exist anymore in their original form.



This is me playing the organ at Ohio University's Memorial Auditorium. This was right before the organ was removed to remodel the hall. Sadly, the organ was not re-installed after renovations.


Another view of the auditorium.


Here is me in my tuxedo, top hat and monocle. I still have this outfit but I don't think I can fit into it anymore except the top hat!


This is in the 1804 Lounge at Ohio University's Baker Center (student union building). This building is no longer the student union (a new student union building was built along the old Hocking River). Hopefully the piano still is in use somewhere.

Today I found a bunch of 78 rpm records at a thrift store. I was really excited to find these Presto discs from 1941 with a recording of a radio news broadcast from Dallas.
The announcer is Ken McClure and he is giving news about the war. There are also some commercials for Gebhardt's Chili Powder and Babcock Bros. Auto parts. The quality of the recording is really pretty good.

These discs were probably recorded and rarely played again. The Presto disc base also seems to be higher quality than what is usually used on home recording units. The album they came in says "Wilcox-Gay Recordio" so that may be the kind of recording device that was used.

I really like the Chili Powder commercial. It is a live commercial with some kind of electronic keyboard instrument accompaniment (Novachord? I think that was the only other such instrument at the time besides the Hammond Organ and this doesn't have the typical Hammond organ sound)
This segues into a live "man-on-the-street" interview from the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas which is still around.

Here is part 1:



Here is part 2:

On Sunday I was working at Retro Electronics and we went to a Baptist church where they had a 1972 Hammond B-3 problem. It turns out the amp had been removed from the Leslie 122 by some previous technician who had taken it away and it was nowhere to be found.
We're going to try and order them a new refurbished Leslie 122 amp.
They had a Hammond XK-3 there (single keyboard digital Hammond) so we hooked that up to the modern Leslie they had so they could at least have some organ capabilities till we got the original Leslie fixed.

Also worked on the Bally Flash Gordon Pinball machine, installed new capacitors. The BR1 bridge rectifier is dead on the power module so there is no playfield lights...will install a new bridge.

Last night the transmitter tower here lost power so there was no internet access at home. I really missed it! They have got it working today though.

Today I went to a conference at the Petroleum Museum where IHS Energy was demonstrating new software...they had really good food there, both breakfast and lunch. Sometime I will have to make videos of some of the equipment at the museum. They have a really great collection of antique oilfield equipment...drilling rigs, engines, pumping units etc.

Here are some videos I made recently:

Today I got a lot of stuff done at home.
I drove to Odessa to do some shopping (it is actually a little shorter to drive to Odessa from home than to Midland.)
Went to Harbor Freight tools and got 4 piano dollies (flat wooden type w/4 casters.)

Also went to Furr's Cafeteria there...even though I did not live here in 1980 the decor in there seems to have not changed...has an early '80s country kind of look to it.
The cafeterias where you get a tray and tell the serving ladies what you want like at a university cafeteria are becoming so rare...so many of them are converting to buffets which I think are kind of nasty. Then I went to H.E.B. & Target for grocery shopping.

When I got home I made the chicken spaghetti and green chile enchiladas which you can I was making the shopping list for in my IBM Selectric III typewriter Youtube video.
I lifted one end of a Camp and Company upright piano off the ground about 4 feet and slid a piano dolly under it. One of the dollies cracked unfortunately due to the way the piano set down on it. That's about 600 lbs! Tried another and it was OK as I got the alignment better.
I have been doing weight training/cardio workouts at the local YMCA and it has really paid off as I need all the strength I can get to lift and move heavy equipment. Plus I have not gained an ounce in months and have even lost a little weight.

I extracted a Remote Control RCA CTC-31 tube type color TV from the barn and after lifting that piano, man was that CTC-31 heavy! Had to carry it up off the ground.
It is just like one I had when I was in high school which had a flyback fire.
I'm going to take it to the West building and replace all the electrolytics and get some new 6GH8 tubes for it.

This evening I changed the oil in the 1989 Dodge van (B-350, 1 ton van, 360 CID Throttle body injection).
The oil in there was probably about 6 months old and the van really hasn't been driven but 1000 miles over that 6 months but I've heard that oil degrades through time too so I wanted to change it. It now sounds smoother and quieter.

I usually just drive the Dodge when I need to haul stuff as it gets such low gas mileage (10 MPG) but have been a little lazy the last few mornings not wanting to wait for the warm-up on the '78 Mercury. You usually have to partially depress the accelerator for a minute or two and run the Marquis at a high idle in park before it will drive well from a cold start. There is one good thing to be said for fuel injection, you can just turn the key and drive instantly no matter what the weather conditions or how long the vehicle has sat.

Changing the oil on this van is messy and dirty! The exhaust crossover pipe runs directly in front of the oil drain plug plus the oil filter is right above an exhaust pipe.
It's so much easier on the '78 Grand Marquis. On the Marquis you can change the oil filter standing up and just reaching into the hood. Also the drain plug is on the side so it's easier to get the drip pan underneath.

Also I cleaned the battery terminals on the '78 Marquis. I borrowed its battery to get the '90 Marquis started and was having trouble getting it started due to corroded battery terminals. Put new nuts on the terminals, starts up great now.

I was able to work on my 1947 Philco AM/FM radio again today. Someone removed the original 2nd IF transformer and replaced it with an AM-only unit...therefore, no FM!

I tried hooking up a ratio detector transformer salvaged from a Curtis Mathes console but could not get the signal through back past the last IF tube even when using a signal generator...so, I just decided to hook the AM IF back up and align it for best performance. The unusual thing is that this radio has 2 IF stages for AM, not just one like most do.

It's now working well on AM so I think I'll put it back together and work on something else like the Rockola jukebox amp.

Last night Organist1982 and I were watching a Star Trek: Voyager episode about macroviruses infesting the ship and I discovered a spider or scorpion had crawled up on me on the chair! It was really big and kind of a clear color. I smashed it with a shoe but that gave me the creeps especially watching that show. Luckily it didn't sting me. I need to check for any openings where insects might come in...one time I found a tarantula near the door (luckily on the outside though!)

Now I have got the KLH Model 20 radio-phono hooked up to my reel to reel at the West building and I dubbed some albums to reel and I now am encoding them at home to use in my computerized music system.

Last night I went out to the storage unit where we have a Hammond Concorde organ and a spinet piano.
A church said they'd give us these instruments if we could get them right then. So Organist1982 and I got them but there was no real good place to put them at home...so I had to put them in this storage unit. I really don't want to keep them there any longer than I have to so we will need to clean out more space in the barn.
I was disappointed that the organ was not a tonewheel unit and actually used integrated circuits...I knew it was transistorized but thought it was still mechanical.

I did crawl through the barn to get the bulk tape eraser as some of the tapes I had been recording at the West building reel-to-reel were having some interference from previous recordings on them. Today at lunch I recorded a few more 78 RPM records and they came out good. I then take these tapes home and encode them into .ogg files for my computer audio system. I tried to record directly into the computer at the West building and then FTP the files home but did not get as good results as the reel-to-reel. Also I then have a permanent analog copy on the reel by doing it that way.

Today I finally got my 1990 Grand Marquis started after years of sitting. Ever since I have started making youtube videos of my equipment it has really given me encouragement to not let things just sit around idle in my collection.
Even with three year old gas in the tank, after not having been driven for 3 years, it started right up! I still need to repair the headlight area for it to get its inspection and get back on the road.
That was about all I did today after playing the organ at church (2 churches). Only had about 4 hours sleep so that was about enough for me.
I did find an IBM Selectric III typewriter in the Dodge van though. This was something some people at church gave to me and it was wrapped up in a garbage bag so it was kind of like a surprise! It works perfectly but the type balls are not interchangeable w/the Selectric II balls of which I have a whole lot, even Olde English and Symbol.
I was going to install some public address speakers in the kitchen but just did not feel like it.
I had borrowed the battery out of the '78 Marquis so I had to put it back to drive to work tomorrow.
Here is the Youtube video of the '90 Marquis start up.