We used to go to auctions to buy paddock bashers and do the same thing, swap a couple of leads over, buy it real cheap with a few days rego on it, put the leads abck in place and go for it.
If this saga was to be put on paper the bloody greenies would kill me for knocking down a forrest. When the tractor was stripped to do the last bits and pieces then start on the tinware, it ran like a clock. For one reason or another that was 12 months before I got it painted and back together and after so many things being checked, replaced even borrowing a carby twice off a mate to see where the problem was took all of my patience and the neighbours learnt some new words in me doing so. I still appologise to them each time I see them.
In the end, it was not just one thing but a combination of nearly everything. I think I still hold the record for dropping the carby off, stripping it, inspecting it and fitting it back on a Cropmaster, I still have nightmares over the carby, better have another Panadol.