Speaking before researching I state incorrectly that the tractor was originally negative ground. That is incorrect, it originally was positive ground.
After sitting in a barn for 24 years this old tractor is brought back to life. There is a lot of detail concerning the typical troubleshooting that usually must be gone through to get one back up and running after so long of a time sitting unused.
My best friends father, also a friend of mine, passed away unexpectedly in 1996 at an extremely young age. This John Deere 50 was his pride and joy. Professionally he was a local elementary school Superintendent, but he was a gentleman farmer at heart. Renting a farm just south of me about 8 miles, he could be found there spending any spare minute he could eke out of his busy schedule. Summers were heaven for him with school duties, though still there, being a bit more relaxed. Many times our paths would cross at my friends business and we would stand and talk about tractors, balers, cattle, planting and many other farm related topics. It was a shock to all who knew him as we learned of his untimely passing.
Fast forward twenty plus years and I'm retired and helping out my buddy with a little sheet metal project and the meandering topic list got around to his Dad's old John Deere. Ben suggested that he was never going to do anything with it and he knew his Dad would really like knowing it would eventually come to live with me. It took a few months but we eventually got our schedules coordinated to where we could take a 40 mile trip with the gooseneck to the barn on his sisters property where the 50 had been since their fathers passing. Backed into the southwest corner of a nice pole barn and partially surrounded by bales of hay sat the tractor.
After backing the gooseneck trailer in line with the barn door, I hooked a snatch block to an opposing post to easily peel the tractor out of the tight corner she called home for so long. Sitting tall on the seat and steering the non-running John Deere up the ramps and to a stop, my friend Ben informed me that's the first time he ever had the opportunity to 'drive' the tractor.
So after sitting here under a tarp for another year, it's time to get the old gal fired up and back to work and that, my friends, will NOT be the end of this ones story !!