One of my stabilizer bars has a safety chain I have never seen before. It’s the same light duty chain that the linch pins are clipped to the tractor with. The chain measures 36″ long total, and has an oval sheet metal placard in the middle. The placard reads: “WARNING To Avoid Damage to Pump Put Control Lever Fully Down and the Wedge Under Stopper”. I don’t remember this item on the new TO-30 I grew up on at our NW Pa. farm. If it was original equipment, it may have been discarded. Was this chain/placard/end clips standard original equipment? 04/24/14
What you have is a “Chain and Wedge Assembly.” These came with all Ferguson TO-30s as well as TE/TEA/TE0-20s and Ford Ferguson 9Ns and 2Ns. They also came with Ford tractors. The purpose of the chain and wedge assembly is to prevent the lift arms from being raised when the standard drawbar and upper stays were installed. This could happen if the PTO was operating. The lighter drawbar stays that came on the 9N and 2N were usually crushed when this happened. The chain is attached to the top bolt on the right drawbar stay. The only time you did not use the chain and wedge assembly is when the auxiliary hydraulic drop valve assembly was installed to operate the lift cylinder on the Belle City Corn Picker. I’ve enclosed a copy of the section of the TO-30 Operator’s Manual that explains the installation of the chain and wedge assembly.
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