McCormick 10/20 trivia

I was at a tractor show over the weekend and a guy had a nice 1928 10/20 running there. I have my grandfather's 1928 10/20 so I struck up a conversation and asked some questions. He asked me if I knew what the domed cover was on top of the transmission? I said no, I never thought about it. He said that it's a pulley delete cover. Underneath the cover is a spacer, when you remove the pulley, the spacer takes the place of the hub of the pulley, the nut goes back on, and the cover covers the shaft. The cover has 2 bolt patterns, one on top of the tranny, and one on the side rail or frame. Now the trivia part. He said the spacer was always wrapped in newspaper of the day the tractor was assembled, so the spacer didn't rattle inside the cover. He said he found a newspaper from '28 inside his cover. I must have looked skeptical and he said look under yours and see what you find. Got home from work tonight and figured what the heck? I took the cover off and sure enough there was the spacer wrapped in what looks like a Chicago newspaper. No date, but from the pictures of the clothes and women's fashions, it looked like it was from the twenties. Just thinking that cover has never been off in 82 or so years. My uncle told me the pulley was on it when they bought the tractor in early '29. Just thought this little item was pretty neat. Sorry about the long rant.

RANT?!?!?!?! That is some very cool information. Thank you for sharing it.

makes ya wonder how many more are out there. I would frame that if you could and display it when you take the tractor to shows.......

If the cover is under the seat it covers where the PTO could be fitted. If it is in front of the gear-box it is the belt pulley delete. The PTO shaft was attached to the rear of the belt-pulley shaft which also drove the oiler gear