Introduction

Since I bought my first Matchless (a 1955 G80CS) in 1968, I have had a love/hate relationship with wheeled products from England; which have included a 1937 Velocette KTS, more Matchless and AJS singles than I can even remember, Triumph tiger cubs, spring hub twins, BSA Bantam to Gold Star, and the last one, a '53 Vincent Rapide knicknamed the "the sagebrush harvester" after an unfortunate tumble off the road. Cars? Midget, Morris Minor, Austin America (ugh), and the Austin Healey 3000 ended that run (the healey burnt out the electric system on the way home from the dealership (only 20k miles on it).

I'd thought I'd bought my last British iron when I traded in the garage for a wife and family, but what an interesting surprise when I bought a '49 Ferguson TO-20 to run a bush hog and keep the roads open; surprise to discover that I was back to British engineering again! Well, I like old stuff, and I like stuff that is easy to repair. Unfortunately, the block cracked on the Ferguson, and the weeds have grown tall, waiting for no man.



The Ferguson engine is off to Farmland Tractor in Oregon for a rebuild; they repair blocks with furnace brazing and offer a service. However, the little Ferguson is really underpowered for the job I wanted it for, and without live hydraulics or a low range gearbox, I wanted something that was more suitable. So along comes a friend who left the land for town, and had a tractor to get rid of... So now I seem to have this beast in the paddock; and wonder of wonders... another Brit!




The purpose for which I've created this blog is to document the progress of more than one project to breath life into the odd bits of machinery which seem to cling to me. The first out will be the David Brown 990 pictured above. One thing I'd like to be clear about, is that I have a form of Muscular Dystrophy so I will not be doing the work myself; I am still good with computers and the camera; Bill is good with machinery (if you drink Bigelow Tea in the US, his machine folds the bags) but not computers; he's my hands with the tractors. Eric, my son-in-law, is gung-ho to make one motorcycle out of the hundreds of bits that once were a complete Vincent. Since I was once pretty handy with Matchless and Vincent, I won't be begging much help there, but as I know nothing about diesel engines or the David Brown tractor, I hope that this blog will be found by those who can provide answers.

All the best,
Mark