Massey 44 Restored Twice In 40 Years By The Same Man

Massey 44 Restored Twice In 40 Years By The Same Man AG WORLD 29-1-22 In 1962, Ray Westermo, then a middle-aged tool and die maker, was looking for spare parts in a salvage yard near Green Isle, Minnesota, when he spotted a beaten up Massey Harris 44 tractor. "The first time I laid eyes on that faded piece of iron," says Ray, "I knew it deserved a better fate. Even though it didn't have an engine there was oil running out of the transmission. I decided to bring it back to life." Westermo, who in addition to his machining skills was a creative mechanic and engine rebuilder, had the tractor delivered to his small shop in Minneapolis. His big city neighbors thought Ray was a bit eccentric when it came to rebuilding projects, and this one just added more proof. Their thinking was further reinforced when Ray fitted the old Massey with a 1953 Ford Mercury motor and installed a four speed Ford truck transmission. A modified wide front end gave the machine extra stability, and 15.5-38 rear tires with weights on each wheel added ballast for the tractor's new use: in modified tractor pulling events. The old 44, sporting a new paint job, a V8 with more than 100 hp, and 20 speeds forward, turned a lot of heads throughout southern and southeastern Minnesota. "We'd fire up that old Merc with dual straight exhausts and people would stand up and take notice," Ray says with a smile. "I competed in the modified classes of many local pulling events and won a lot of trophies." Although he couldn't show the tractor's road speed capability to admiring fans, Ray says he drove it 50 mph, but wouldn't do so on a regular basis. Ray sold the tractor after a couple years to a local farmer who used it in pulls until the 1980's, when the engine gave out and he parked it. In 2002, a friend of Rays bought the tractor and asked Ray to help him restore it. Says Ray, "I was more than 80 years old, but I couldn't resist rebuilding that tractor for the second time in 40 years." When we first looked at it in the winter of 2002, we thought it would take about 500 hours to get her back into top shape," said Ray, "but as it turned out, that was just a dream." In the next year Ray, Mark Revland and Bruce Johnson put more than 1,050 man hours into the restoration. Chris Romness and Bob Flicke from Romness Machine Shop and Jeff Benson from Jeff's Welding also chipped in another 200 hours on the project. Ray started by rebuilding the engine, using a 1947 block. He straightened the exhaust ports and made adapter plates to mount the stainless steel headers, which took about 80 hours. Flicke did the valve seats and bored and honed the cylinder holes. The only parts used from the original engine were connecting rods, the intake manifold and the 4-in. stroke crankshaft. New pistons, which Ray said were $3 in 1962, cost $53 each in 2002. Edelbrock high compression stainless steel heads were a major upgrade, as was an MSD distributor and twin 3-in. dia. exhausts with stainless pipes. The V-8 now has a 9:1 compression and produces 175 hp at 5,000 rpm's. The original belt-driven fan was replaced by a 16-in. electric fan that gives the tractor seven extra horsepower. Ray says Mark Revland spent a couple hundred hours sandblasting the whole tractor, straightening the hood, the grill and gas tank, then priming and painting it with $300 a gallon clear-coat Massey-red paint. Rounding out the appearance package were $90 custom decals, custom lights, a new battery case, a new 12-volt electrical system and custom gauges. After eight months of work, Ray had the honor of pouring a pint of gas into the carburetor and turning the key for the inaugural start up. "That was the sweetest sound, hearing that engine come to life," says Ray. Revland and Johnson, the new owners, ran the tractor in a few vintage tractor pulls in the past year, and the gleaming 44 is also a favorite in local parades. "It makes me real proud to see this tractor gain a third life with the help of so many people," says Westermo. "The new owners have assured me it will always

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