As promised in the other thread, I'm starting a new thread for the restoration of Dad's old '41 DC. I brought it home yesterday, finally. I removed the loader from it and took it to the scrapper, as it had seen it's day, and had quite a few repairs done to it over the years. I had no use for it, and would rather not hear from my wife about it taking up real estate in my yard. Got a whole $19 for it, scrapper is paying $50/ton for steel right now.
First thing I did was remove the front wheels, as they are downright wrong for the single wheel front end. The ends of the fork are tweaked out slightly, but I feel I can straighten them without much issue, since the fork appears to be forged steel. The fork has two holes on either side, and I can run a piece of allthread through the upper holes no problem. The lower holes, coming in from the right side I can thread into the left hole, but from the left, it doesn't go into the right hole, so the left side of the fork needs a slight tweak, along with the lower part where the axle goes through. I've reshaped old steering arms for drag links before with a torch, and as long as you let them cool without quenching them, they don't lose any strength. By all means, someone correct me if I'm wrong here, I don't cut corners when it comes to safety. As it stands, I'm still searching for a single wheel and axle, or even a narrow front end for now. Not much luck with either so far.
I noticed that this tractor does not have an oil filter installed. Looking at pictures, I see it should go over the starter. Did the '41 even have one? I see in pictures of later models, it appears to feed back into the block oil galley underneath the magneto, but my block doesn't have any plugs there. The oil pressure gauge line has been brazed shut too, but I have new gauges, and will take care of that when it goes back together. I did purchase an oil filter housing on Ebay, whether or not I can actually use it, or need to, we'll see. I'd like to plumb it up if I can, even if it's not 100% filtering, i.e. tap off the pressure gauge feed, and feed back into the engine with a restrictor fitting, at least it would filter some oil.
Also, I'm pretty sure that magneto mount probably has some broken bolts in the bottom.
Next question, what does this lever do? I have a reprint of the service manual, and it does not show this lever in it.
This is where it goes, up on top of the shifter plate in front of the steering gear.
The oil pan is leaking pretty good at both the front and rear block joints, so I'll probably split the tractor and go through everything with new gaskets. The head gasket is questionable on the right side too, I've got some oil on the block in the middle, so a project it is.
I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get deeper into it. I appreciate any comments and tips to help with this project.
Thanks,
Darren
First thing I did was remove the front wheels, as they are downright wrong for the single wheel front end. The ends of the fork are tweaked out slightly, but I feel I can straighten them without much issue, since the fork appears to be forged steel. The fork has two holes on either side, and I can run a piece of allthread through the upper holes no problem. The lower holes, coming in from the right side I can thread into the left hole, but from the left, it doesn't go into the right hole, so the left side of the fork needs a slight tweak, along with the lower part where the axle goes through. I've reshaped old steering arms for drag links before with a torch, and as long as you let them cool without quenching them, they don't lose any strength. By all means, someone correct me if I'm wrong here, I don't cut corners when it comes to safety. As it stands, I'm still searching for a single wheel and axle, or even a narrow front end for now. Not much luck with either so far.
I noticed that this tractor does not have an oil filter installed. Looking at pictures, I see it should go over the starter. Did the '41 even have one? I see in pictures of later models, it appears to feed back into the block oil galley underneath the magneto, but my block doesn't have any plugs there. The oil pressure gauge line has been brazed shut too, but I have new gauges, and will take care of that when it goes back together. I did purchase an oil filter housing on Ebay, whether or not I can actually use it, or need to, we'll see. I'd like to plumb it up if I can, even if it's not 100% filtering, i.e. tap off the pressure gauge feed, and feed back into the engine with a restrictor fitting, at least it would filter some oil.
Also, I'm pretty sure that magneto mount probably has some broken bolts in the bottom.
Next question, what does this lever do? I have a reprint of the service manual, and it does not show this lever in it.
This is where it goes, up on top of the shifter plate in front of the steering gear.
The oil pan is leaking pretty good at both the front and rear block joints, so I'll probably split the tractor and go through everything with new gaskets. The head gasket is questionable on the right side too, I've got some oil on the block in the middle, so a project it is.
I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get deeper into it. I appreciate any comments and tips to help with this project.
Thanks,
Darren