1936 Farmall F20
adoption restoration project

Jeff and Becky Hansen
Lake Wilson MN

This 1936 Farmall F20 has sat in the junk row of Prairie Village for at least 20 (if not 25) years. We decided to restore this tractor because of the 4 row mounted planter that it had. The planter units were originally two row horse planters. Farmall made a factory kit to attach two of these units to an F20.

When we went to pick the F20 up from PV curiosity struck to see if the motor was stuck. We were pulling it to the trailer and I let out the clutch, yes the wheels slid for a second, then to my surprise they started to turn! The motor was not stuck!! We did have to remove the planter units in order to haul it home. Both of the planter units seem to be in good mechanical condition and will not need much more than a few new nuts and bolts before it is able to be painted.

Once we had it home the first thing we did was find the proper front rims and proper tires for them. Then we went to work on getting the motor to run. We did have to pull the heads off because it had stuck lifters and valves. We did have to get a new radiator, manifold, clutch and pressure plate, and a carburetor. We checked the magneto and went threw it. Boy did that thing still have good spark after that! It did take a little try to get the motor to fire. There were numerous trips around the yard being pulled, we were about ready to give up and put it back in the shop when it decided it was going to fire. It made one heck of a pop and blew chunks of rust and carbon out the exhaust. After that it was just some fine tuning. Now it it can easily be started with the had crank. By this time of the project we put the F20 in the barn to wait out the winter weather. We are currently waiting for warmer weather so we can give it a shiny new coat of paint.

We have different rear rims for it, as we are going to put rubber tires on it. Most of the lugs on the steal wheels are totally shot. We do hope to be able to use this to plant a few acres in the future and the rubber tires provide a more comfortable ride for the person driving.

Once all our crops were in late May we got the F20 out of the shed to continue the restoration. We spent most of the tim scrapping old grease, pounding out dents and washing. Seemed like a never ending process. We did realize the trator has been repainted before since we found lts of old grease that had been painted over. We got the rubber tires mounted on the rims and decided to start painting, but then the HOT humid weather came and changed our plans. I have been able to get everything in primer as of July 13, 2012. We have just over 120 man hours into this project at this time.