John Deere 70 - By Clint Rau

Chapter I

I have a story that is hard to make up, let's call it memories. In 1954 Dad bought a 70 John Deere row crop wide front which replaced the 1949 AW that just didn't have enough horse power to pull 3 - 14's packer and pony drill up and down the rolling plains of south central North Dakota. I was 14 years old at the time and I loved that AW but that 70 was tops. Spring time was crunch time to get the crops planted and I couldn't get home soon enough from school to take my turn in doing a little plowing. I so well remember that smell of a freshly plowed field and the hundreds of seagulls that would follow the plow to feed on the bugs and worms. Sometimes I was sure they were going to land on my head but they never did. Sometimes it got very close, and I never got pooped on either. I guess they didn't want to bite the hand that fed them. The other thing I remember is taking the muffler off after sunset which was only held on with two bolts instead of four so I could take it off in about five minutes. It seemed to run so much better and go up those hills a little easier and it had a nice blue flame about 8 or 10 inches high. If I wasn't home by midnight, Dad would come looking for me. He didn't have to look very hard because he could hear exactly where I was. Those are some memories a farm boy can never forget. Now for some of the accidents we had with the 70. Dad did some custom silage cutting and on Saturday we had some work to do on the silage wagons. Some boards to replace and slings to repair. We finished up midafternoon, hooked the cutter up and greased it, sharpened the knives on the cutter bar. It was early enough to move to my Uncle's farm which was about 14 miles away. Hooked up the two wagons behind the silage cutter and my Dad started on the 14 miles. I stayed behind to clean up the tools and the shop. The plan was to move the equipment to my Uncle's farm so Dad could get an early start Monday morning. In those days, we still believed Sunday was a day of rest and to spend the morning in Church and visit with family and friends. I got about half way to my Uncle's farm and I see the wagons parked along the side of the road and a lot of people around. I parked behind the wagons and a couple of other cars. I walked up to see what happened and Dad met me as I got passed the wagons and he couldn’t even tell me what happened. As I looked at the 70 completely upside down in the ditch. With the tongue of the cutter on top of the tractor tire and the P.T.O shaft still hooked up but oil coming out of the broken casting of the P.T.O. housing. Dad told me later a car passed him and he stood up to look over the wagons to make sure there wasn't any other traffic so he could get off the shoulder and back on to the road. But the car that had just passed him, for some reason, slowed down and Dad ran into the back of the car. The left front wheel hit the bumper of the car and spun the steering wheel to the right and out of his hand. It was a pretty steep ditch, even though he wasn't going very fast it was enough that the right wheel fell into a wash out and over it went. Dad had enough time to pull the clutch but that was about all. He ended up between the wheel and the seat but his left foot was pinned under the steering wheel. The tractor was still running upside down at an idle but because he was pinned he couldn't reach the switch to turn it off. The accident happened right by a farmer. The farmer saw it happen. He came running over and not being a John Deere man, he didn't know where the switch was. By the time Dad explained where it was as soon as he turned it off, something ignited the fuel that had run out of the fuel tank. Now they also had a fire. By this time there were several people around and there was enough loose gravel and dirt and they were able to put the fire out. The farmer brought his tractor and front-end loader and lifted the 70 up to get Dad out from under it. That was about the time I got there. We called the local dealer in town and they came out with a tow truck to lift it back on its wheels and hauled it to town to the dealer. Damaged muffler and grill were destroyed, bent steering wheel, P.T.O. shaft and housing busted. The good thing was Dad walked away with only a sprained ankle. How fortunate he was to not be crushed by the seat or the wheel. The angels were with him that day. Got the tractor back a couple days later without a grill, had to order parts, but the tractor was too old so there weren't any parts available. We got the 70 back and used it the rest of the season without a grill. Took it back to the dealer after the silage harvest was finished. Got the tractor back from the dealer with a new grill and painted, it looked good. It was already October by this time, so we put the comfort cab on and hooked the one way to the drawbar, topped off the fuel tank and went out to the field which was about a mile and half from home. It was a chilly Saturday. The first round was along a lake and it was on a pretty steep hill. Got to the top of the hill and it leveled out and maybe even a little to the other side. All of a sudden there were flames coming out from under the comfort cab. I stopped the tractor but flames were coming out at me in full force. I reached into the fire to turn the engine off and by this time the whole comfort cab is on fire. I knew this was a major fire and there wasn't enough loose dirt to put the fire out. What to do....l'm almost two miles from home but I'm a quarter mile from a neighbor. I ran as fast as I could over two fences, almost broke the door down to let them know to call the fire department. By the time I got back to the tractor, both rear tires and the left front tire had exploded. The only reason the right tire didn't explode is because the tractor was facing west, and the wind was from the northwest. By the time fire department got there, it was still burning. Because of the heat the fuel was boiling out of the tank and feeding the fire. The tank should have exploded but because it was full of fuel no oxygen got inside the tank. Or it would have exploded. In fact, the fire department's main concern was the possibility of an explosion. But as soon as they sprayed down the fire and cooled down the tank, everything was under control. So back to the dealer it went. Got three new tires, had to be rewired, new steering wheel, new seat cushion, new battery, new paint job. By this time you would think Dad would have said, that's enough...just give me a new tractor. But he didn't and no more mishaps after that. I joined the Navy in March of 1963 and was gone for four years. Came back in March of 1967 and it was one of those springs where it was cold and wet. Snow storm in the middle of April, so by the time we could get into the field it was the middle of May. We kept the 70 running 24/7 for about three weeks. One night I was fueling with 5 gallon cans and I broke the spout off the funnel. Now I had to be very careful not to spill fuel on the comfort cab which was the last thing I needed to do was to start another fire. To finish my story, it stopped raining and I mean it was hot and dry all summer. And guess what, no crops to harvest that year. That about convinced me to pursue another career. Went back to school that fall and never came back to the farm except to visit. In 1971, Dad traded the 70 in for a 4020 diesel with cab, air conditioner and heater. No more baking in the sun or freezing in the cold.

Chapter II

In about 2000, I started to think about what I was going to do with my time when I retire. I already had quite a collection of John Deere tractor and implements but I was thinking the real thing maybe a "B" or an "A". Then one weekend, I was back home, my Dad passed away in 1992, but mom was in the retirement home and I would go home once a month or six weeks. One weekend, I noticed a farm action sale that pictured a 70 John Deere but it was painted like a 720 that was kind of weird but it said 70. I thought it would be worth checking out. I lived in Minneapolis at that time and I asked a friend of mine if he wanted to go along and see what a farm action is like. Being a city boy he had never been to one. The sale was on a Saturday at 9am. I got there about 10am, it was about 60 miles from my home town but I wasn't too concerned. They usually don't get to the machinery until last anyway. When we got there, I went right to the 70 to check the serial number 7013639. I have a book to look up tractor models and check serial numbers and it was a late model 70. It looked pretty though not much rubber on the rear tires, front looked like new, one rear had a couple of boots in it. Still had chloride in the tires and the rims were very badly rusted. It had a du-al loader on it and you know what happens to the grill when it has a loader on the tractor. I got the tractor for $1,000.00 and I could have had the loader with it but I didn't think I would ever need a loader. They sold it for $150.00 and the guy that bought it, he only wanted the pump. Now I had the tractor fever. I bought a 2nd tractor a couple of months later, a 1947 M with a homemade snow blade that I could use to clean my driveway. In 2003, I sold my business and moved to Cheyenne, WY and took them with to clean that drive way. In 2004, I found a 42 "B" that was on a golf course and they changed the rear wheels to 24" turf tires on flat spoke cutoffs and the front has aircraft tires. Now I really had the tractor fever. In 2006, I moved to Arvada, CO and built a beautiful shop to work on my retirement project. The first one I did was the 47 "M “. Had leaking head casket and broken axle shaft and I needed that to plow my driveway and several neighbors. Next was the "70" which was still up in North Dakota at my niece's farm. I brought it to Arvada in 2010. Started to work on it and the further I got into it, I began to realize this was my Dad's "70". First thing when I drained the oil, the bolt fell out that is held in place by a clip that holds the bolt, spring and bottom plate that the oil filter sets on. I remember breaking that C clip back on the farm and never replaced the clip thinking the only reason it was there is to hold the bolt spring and plate together when putting the filter and cover up in the oil housing. Once you had it in place and the bolt started into the threads, it was no longer needed. Someone else had the same idea that I did. Opened up the access cover to check the rod bearings and they looked like new. Put it back together and torqued the rods and mains to the proper specs. Replaced the value cover gasket that I remember always leaked on Dad's 70 also. Adjusted the valve lash to proper specs and called the engine good. Next I started on the sheet metal, took the grill off that was in bad shape. When I took the muffler off, there were only two bolts holding it on. OK, someone was too lazy to put the other two in. Took the steering shaft out and removed the main sheet metal and noticed that it was all full of shout underneath and the back of the instrument housing was also full of shout. You could see it had been rewired and not very professionally. That's when I started to look for more clues. Could this really be Dad's 70. Next a friend of mine, Les Parker, came over to help take the fuel tank off and there is something rolling around in the tank. I fished it out and here it is the spout of the funnel that I broke off back on the farm 40 years ago while filling the fueling out in the field with a 5 gallon fuel can. What are the chances of that! The next time I went back to the farm I looked for that funnel but I couldn't find it but I remember many times seeing that funnel by the tool table with the fuel cans and oil cans. That was all I needed to see that convinced me that was positively the 70 that my Dad bought in 1954. There were other things also like the P.T .O shaft and housing that were welded which were broken when the tractor ended upside down in the ditch. The 70 now is only used for show and tell. It has been in two parades and used for hayrides. It always attracts a lot of people and the most comments I get are "what a beautiful tractor. My Dad use to have one just like that or my uncle or grandpa". Lots of other comments like that. So the question still remains, was it a curse that I ended up with Dad's 70 or a blessing? My wife is not sure but you know what my answer is. I enjoy having it and I'm sure Dad is looking down from above proud!

The Loss of a Friend and Dad's "70" John Deere September 6, 2019

Because I just had hernia surgery, I didn't dare drive the 70. It does not have a very comfortable suspension. In fact, it doesn't have any except a seat cushion. Since I didn't want to take a chance of damaging my hernia repair, I asked a friend to drive it for me. He was more than willing to drive. He had driven it before and was confident that he could do it again. As he started the JD70 I asked for him to follow me, but he didn't wait. By the time I got into my car to catch up with him he was already going through the railroad underpass less than a quarter mile from my house. At first, I saw the trailer and it looked like it hit the cement wall on the left side of the underpass. By the time I got out of the car and ran to the tunnel, the tractor and trailer were upside down. The wheels were still turning so I killed the engine. My friend was on the other side lying face down on the ground. He later died. An autopsy determined that he had suffered a heart attack; explaining why he never tried to slow the tractor down.Do I want to restore the JD70 again? Maybe not. It would be very expensive. Besides that, I'll be 80 next year and I'm running out of time for another project like that. I don't have the energy, strength or money to do it again. Maybe my wife was right that the 70 is cursed (it has had 3 accidents). It will go on a donor list with lots of good parts that can be used to help someone else restore another "70" John Deere. May they both rest in peace.

P.S. Refer back to the July-August FRAPA newsletter: "Clint Rau - Memories", Chapters I and II.