As some of you may know, I acquired my great grandfather's Silver King model 41 about a year ago. The story: It had been sold in the late 1950's when my dad was about 8 years old. It changed hands a few times but remained local. After being used on the local paper route it had the pinion bearing fail and was completely torn apart to be repaired. The repair was never completed and chassis was hauled onto a rock pile at the edge of the yard where it sat for years before being bought by a neighbor down the road. He had it for years, never got around to fixing it, and in the meantime, the shed it was stored in along with the crates of parts fell into disrepair. The transmission parts were in a crate on an old shelf, which over time rotted and fell over, dumping all the trans parts onto the ground. Almost every transmission internal piece was ruined from rust. Many pieces were not found. The axle housings were standing upright in the corner of the shed, which filled with rain from the leaking roof and allowed the water to freeze and break both final drive housings. The previous owner knows my family very well and knew we have many antique tractors, and that I worked on many as well. As he is getting older he asked if I would like it back, and when I asked him "how much?", he said just load it up and take it home. He asked that I let him drive it when I get it done. No problem. He had a machine shop bore the engine and turn the crank, then he assembled it. At least that set in a heated shop. Well, I found all the transmission internals and bought them. I was still in need of a gas tank, seat spring, extension drawbar, final drive housings, and a good idea of how the trans went together as all I had was a box of parts. Anyway, I went to an auction a couple weekends ago in southern MI that had 17 complete SK tractors and piles of parts. I was able to buy this one for $275 and missed the last bid on one just like it, only it had the seat spring on it I need. That one also brought $275. But, now I have the final drive housings I need, a gas tank, a good idea of how to assemble my replacement transmission parts into my trans housing, which is where the SN tag is, and an extension draw bar. Have all the extra transmission parts I could ever need, an extra set of fenders, a hood, a grill, radiator, front end and wheel, and the rear wheel centers. I met JFred there, an occasional YT poster, who is about my age, a very nice guy willing to help anyone interested in SK tractors, and also VERY knowledgeable about SK tractors. Dad bought a decent set of rear wheels for his Silver King R38 for $250, a great deal. So here is my parts SK model 41, with my hard to obtain Silver King parts on it, and a picture of the rear wheels for dad's R38. Now I need the time to put it together....
Ross
Ross
