I guess I have lower standards than most, but we have had very, very good service from our 1086.  Yeah the stupid engineer that designed those doors should have been made to climb in and out of the cab 500 times a day for a couple weeks.  Especially when it is windy so the wind will slam it into your back when you are about halfway in.  

I think this one has had a clutch and TA once, but it has been so long ago I'm not sure when my granddad did it.  Starts WITHOUT ether when it is 10 degrees outside.  I am not kidding,  We don't even have the ether injector hooked up.  No block heater.  Try that with a JD from that era.  Burns about 1/4 less fuel doing the same job too.  

A little hard to shift, but you get the hang of it if you are patient.  It helps to have the range in N when you are changing 1-2-3-4, then put the range back in high or low or R.  

I had a sleeve cavitate last year, and decided to go ahead and spend the money and put an in-frame kit in it.  Took about 3 days, working 4-5hrs a day.  Didn't even take the radiator out.  Just pulled the head with the injectors in.  So far so good 50 hrs later.  Never used oil before, using a little now, but hoping it will slow as it breaks in.  

It had been overhauled once before when it got a leak in the rubber hose on the air cleaner.  Dusted it, and granddad had to do a 100% out of frame overhaul, new cam, ground crank, valve guides, so that stuff has been changed once, and I knew it was ok.

This tractor is just too reliable and efficient to scrap it.  It has just a hair under 10k hrs.  

No they ain't perfect, but this one has really earned it's keep on this farm.