

After I paid her for it I brought a battery over and low and behold the engine turn over, now we're talkin.



The night we went over to pick it up my mother called my grandfather to tell him what we were up to. You see grandpa and I spent alot of time together over the past several years draging home stuff like this. Just a couple of months earier he was diagnosed with colon cancer so he wasnt in any shape to be helping out on this project, but he still wanted to be there to see it when I got it home.
I started on the engine first, I normally dont like to have more than one project going on at once but for some reason it felt real important that I get this one in and get the engine job done. I got it running the day of my fathers retierment party, that day was the last time I saw grandpa before he passed away on september 5. When I started the engine for him I dont know who was prouder me or him, he tought me everything I know and he's the reason I choose to be a mechanic. Sadly he never got to work her due to the stuck steering clutch but I know he was happy to here it run after I did the rebuild.
This was the last pic of the 2 of us and a tractor at this point everyone expected him to pull through, I'm glad I had the time that I did and that I didnt waste it. I spent every weekend home from colege working with him on one tractor or another, the only thing that mattered to us was that we were having a good time. I'll remember those days for the rest of my life

After grandpa passed away it was tough to go out to the shop let alone work on the crawler. We spent so much time together out there that I was (and still am) always finding somthing that reminds me of a job we did together.
In mid december I finally was back to normal enough to spend a lot of time on the crawler and got the final drive and steering clutch re built and reinstalled. Working on tracks again brought back alot of good memories I have from my days at a JD dealership, I always did enjoy a good UC job.

Someday I may paint it all up and I am going to need to do the other clutch. For the moment I have a few jobs on the proporty where I plan to build my house that this little guy along with my 310D will still earn there keep. Now I just have to wait for spring
