My Daddy had an old 8N Ford tractor. He went to heaven a few years ago singing Amazing Grace, filled with joy! It took a mechanic, baling wire to tie the choke open, and strong legs to press the clutch and brake pedals to operate it. The right brake is all that worked. When you were plowing a field you had to make all right turns because you had to use the brake to turn fast enough to stay out of the woods. The clutch didn’t release all the way so you usually had to run it into a tree to stop it. I loved my daddy greatly but he knew very little about prosperity until the very end of his life.
The lift on back of the old 8N quit working. Daddy decided the hydraulic pump had gone bad and set out to fix it. He asked me to help him because I had a few days off from ministry travel. Junior Edwards, who owned a tractor repair company in the country, told him he would repair it for $75.00. Daddy said that was too much and he would fix it himself. My daddy was an excellent mechanic and I learned a lot from him. We rebuilt car motors and transmissions when I was younger.
We put the tractor in the barn and daddy told me to drain all the hydraulic fluid out. We had to go into the transmission area to get the pump out to repair it. I said to daddy, “Do you have a repair manual on this tractor?” He said, “Yes, but we don’t need it. Get that fluid out of that tractor. We can fix it.” I protested and told him we should read the manual, but I did what I was told.
Where I was from, you didn’t talk back to mama or daddy or you may wake up in the next county two weeks later, it didn’t matter how old you were. I believe that would solve many problems today. Granny believed in beating the devil out of you. Is that possible? It seemed to work with all the boys I grew up with. Ha! Flying cast iron frying pans were common if you ran from grannies wrath. That may be where flying saucers came from.
It took Daddy and me all day long to take the tractor apart. The next day we got the pump out and took it apart. We replaced all the seals and O-rings and daddy said it would work now. We began to install the rebuilt pump but had many problems trying to get it back into place because there were many parts it had to fit around. It got stuck. I was on one side of the tractor and daddy was on the other trying to get it installed. Daddy said move your hand I am going to whop it with a hammer. I yelled, “NO!” He whopped it and cracked the hydraulic pump like I thought it would.
We took it out and daddy took it to Junior Edwards and wanted him to weld it. Junior said, “Mr. Grier I thought this may happen, you need a special tool to put this back in the tractor. Junior welded it for daddy for $80.00. Parts cost $60.00, so we had spent $140.00 at this point. We finally got the pump in the tractor. We had worked on it for four days. Every day I would ask daddy about the repair manual but he would say we didn’t need it.
Finally, on day five we were ready for the big test. We took the tractor out of the barn. Daddy started it up and finally it started hitting on all the cylinders. He pulled the lift handle, grinning, and nothing happened. He was shocked and I didn’t know what to think. He told me to stand on the lift and maybe that would make it work. It didn’t.
I got highly upset because we had worked five days on this tractor to get the lift to work. I hollered, because the tractor engine was still roaring, and said, “Daddy, where is the manual at!” Daddy said, “On my truck dash.”
I went to his truck, got the manual, and in in less than 3 minutes I knew how to make the lift work. The manual said there were four bolts by the lift handle that you needed to loosen and slide the cover forward 1/8 inch. I grabbed a wrench and told daddy to turn the tractor off. He said, “What are you doing?’ I told him I was fixing the lift where it would work. He said, “Boy, you better not fix this “thang” after I worked on it for five days!”
I adjusted it in less than ten minutes, got on the tractor, started it and pulled the lift. The lift raised up and down, like it was brand new. My daddy hollered and yelled at me because he was mad I had fixed it so quickly, but he was happy to have it working.
The pump did not need rebuilding, it needed a small adjustment. Daddy never knew what to do because he never read the manual.
You and I can waste much time guessing what to do in our Christian walk, but if you will read and obey the instruction manual (Bible) we can accomplish much more. Bible study and prayer are the keys to success. I am going to quit guessing what to do and pray and meditate on the Bible until I am positive that is God’s plan for me. Take time to hear from the Lord before you take any action. Why not join me in this?
