Leaking axle seal and brake rebuild on a Ford 8N Tractor

In July while visiting Elizabeth's parents in Pennsylvania ,Beth's dad asked us to fix the brakes on his old Ford 8N tractor. The left one no longer worked well, resulting in some difficulty maneuvering around his hilly farm. We suspected a leaking seal as the culprit. Parts were ordered from Amazon, and shortly after they arrived we did the repair. This video shows our repair. Neither of us had ever changed brakes on a tractor so there was a bit of a learning curve. With some helpful resources we were able to fix it and get the tractor back out into the fields.
This is a link to the videos from Claremont Classic Garage we watched to help us understand the repair:
• 1948 Ford 8N Parts Tra...
• 1948 Ford 8N Rebuild p...
Parts were ordered from Amazon , part numbers are in the video.
Music in Video:
Angelina the baker by Nat Keefe with the Bow Ties
#ford8n
#tractorvideo
#tractor

[@benjamincresswell3713]

Hi guys, Nice video. Good attention to detail. Good closeups and nice editing. You brought back some memories. I've had a 1948 8N my whole life. My grandfather got it off the Dearborn proving ground as partial payment for helping settle the hydraulic lift lawsuit between Ferguson and Ford in late 1947. On my very street 2 of my neighbors owned very similar 8Ns with the distributer in the front. That's how popular it was. I did the axle seal replacement when I was about 15. In my case there was too much axle endplay. If I remember right, I filed one hub down until the play was just gone when the axle nut was fully tightened. It was amazing to have brakes that actually worked I remember that real good. My Dad grew up in a farming community in the very fertile Saginaw valley area of St. Louis, Michigan so he always had a big garden. Dad set up a single bottom 16" Dearborn plow set to cut 20". Once he got the plow tuned correctly we could pull it thru heavy clay down 8-10" deep in 3rd gear at less than 1/2 throttle. We used a tow around disc and 2 drags and a float to finish our garden. One drag was a spring tooth and one was a spike tooth. The spike tooth had like railroad spikes welded onto shafts that spanned the drag. They were adjustable for depth. Dad liked sweet corn, so he got an old horse drawn 2 row corn planter and adapted it to the draw bar. We had a 2 row cultivator with an anti sway bar that went to the pin under the left fender like you have. Dad got us a Mott 72" flail mower to mow about 10 acres and that Mott mower did a super great job of mowing. It mulched the grass so fine and with the roller, it made our mowing job look professional. That Mott was no slouch though, with fresh knives it would take down 4' tall weeds easily and leave them mulched up real fine. We made a 300 yard long ditch across the low part of ours and 2 neighbors properties using only a grader blade and 3 pt hitch scoop bucket. In the winter we plowed snow with chains on it and pulled neighbors out of the ditch. I even made a hand crank for it when I got into Highschool because somebody always left the lights on and ran the battery down. *(6volt) If there was anything in the battery, it would start right up. That tractor was a very useful learning tool for me growing up with, in a rural neighborhood during the 50's 60's and 70's, where I lived about 20 miles north of Detroit. I'm 71 and still have it and most of the tools. Thanks for a very meticulous, well done video. Oh, I almost plumb forgot, one more thing: I've known 3 people who killed themselves flipping 8Ns over backwards. When you get hooked up to something that's too big, the front wheels rise up so fast you can't believe it. So please tell your father-in-law to keep something on the back that can keep it from going all the way over. ben/ michigan

[@flightofthecrowswing]

Thanks Ben. Glad we brought back some memories for you. You've got some great stories there! We really enjoyed reading about your 8N adventures. Your tractor has some great history behind it. And thank you for the advice on the light front end!

[@ryanelmiger176]

Thank you for making this video. I followed you step by step out in my garage as I did the same.

[@flightofthecrowswing]

Thank you! Hopefully you made fewer mistakes than we did. We are glad we could help!

[@markcollins6027]

Well done! Your work here is much appreciated.

[@flightofthecrowswing]

Thank you! We were glad to help!

[@BigBoxDodge2020]

It would have been better if you adjusted the brake shoes up to where they were rubbing when you put the drum on it. Makes it a lot easier for fine tuning The final brake adjustment.

[@flightofthecrowswing]

That's good advice. I just don't work on drum brakes a lot, so I didn't even think about doing that. Thanks

[@BigBoxDodge2020]

@flightofthecrowswing No problem, I have 2 9N's and 1 8N and a 640 Ford tractors. There is always something to fix.

[@redneckmukk8749]

Reinstalling springs that go into a hole i use a phillips screwdriver. I actually use it installing all brake springs.

[@flightofthecrowswing]

I never said I was a smart man. At least it worked. Tractor stops now so that's good

[@SCfanIam100]

Maybe you should have repacked that wheel bearing with grease before you re-assembled it. It didn't seem to have any grease on it.

[@flightofthecrowswing]

In this application, the bearing is lubricated by the differential oil.

[@SCfanIam100]

@@flightofthecrowswing Oh ok - my bad -sorry.

[@knuckle47]

Great video … I have a ‘47 8N and this needs to be done. Thank you for the insight…. About how long do you think this took ?

[@flightofthecrowswing]

It took 3 hours but that was with filming involved. Without filming I could've done it in about half an hour each side I think.

[@knuckle47]

@@flightofthecrowswing Thank you for the information…. Nowadays I have the strength of a 6 yr old so I’ll allow the 3 hours..😂

[@flightofthecrowswing]

You can do it!