Need help with a Case DC

I am 16 and was recently offered a Case DC for free. Naturally, I jumped on the offer and now have a third tractor. The serial number on the tag under the battery tray is 608016 DC which I believe makes the transmission a 1954? The number on the block does not match and has DC 49 as the first few characters, I can't read the rest of it through all of the layers of old paint. My question is, does this tractor have live pto and live hydraulics, and if it is in fact a 1954 transmission, should it have a foot clutch instead of a hand clutch? What would the original top link bracket have looked like and is the current bracket someone's attempt to raise an implement closer to the pto?

Looks like an eagle hitch with a "shop
built" connections link to use the eagle
hitch as a 3-point. It will work OK as a
3-point, but has limits. It looks like a
good job on the connection, you could buy
something similar from Case, but it
eliminated the ability to use the PTO on
an SC. I've seen similar shop built
connections for both S & D series.

Your DC does have live PTO and live hydraulics. The lever on the left side of the seat engages the PTO. It should take about 50lbs of pull to engage the PTO. If not you will need to tighten the PTO clutch. One thing to remember is to never try hooking an implement. PTO shaft while the tractor is running. The clutch plates most likely are warped a little creating a drag on the components. It will be just enough drag to twist your arms off if you attempt to hook an implements PTO shaft to the tractor PTO while the engine is running. The original top link had a casting that fit over the PTO on the tractor. It is attached to the tractor with the 4 bolts that are around the PTO shaft plate. You won't be able to use the PTO with this casting on the tractor. That might be why someone rigged up the one on your tractor.

Yours will be a 1952 model, they drilled the screw hole through the "5" I can see the top of it when I blow the pic up, built before foot clutch but like said you have live pto and hyd
cnt

Is foot clutch preferable to hand clutch? The way the hand clutch seems to operate is all the way forward engages the belt pulley, pull it back to disengage it, and pull it back all the way to engage the transmission.

Thank you for the information on the amount of force needed to engage the PTO. When I first tried pulling the lever I thought something was broken due to the amount of force needed to engage it.

(quoted from post at 01:43:20 05/30/20) Is foot clutch preferable to hand clutch? The way the hand clutch seems to operate is all the way forward engages the belt pulley, pull it back to disengage it, and pull it back all the way to engage the transmission.

Click to expand...

I had one of each at one time. The 52 model had the hand clutch and the 53 had a foot clutch. I preferred the hand clutch. The foot clutch was kind of fiddly getting it adjusted correctly. The main problem was the brake on the belt pulley stub. You had to adjust it so that when you pushed in the clutch peddle the brake needed to slow the transmission enough so it could be shifted. Too tight and you had to ease up on the peddle to allow enough slack in the transmission in order to get it into gear without grinding the gears. It takes a lot of seat time to be able to shift the transmission without grinding gears.

Is this the correct drawbar setup for this year? What should I do about the wear in it? The roller has a very large flat spot on it and the plate it rolls on is almost worn through in the middle.

Sorry for attaching the photos to my original post. My phone did not attach them for some reason.

1952 build year.. The best model yr of the DC in My opinion .
Better off with hand clutch over foot clutch by far. ALL DC CASES
are built with a manly attitude that must be at the very least
matched, But Better, mastered by a MAN that was once a boy .. LOL
.. THey Are One Pulling Son Of a GUN . , And The more You run
them, The more You will LOVE Them . do NOT put a lot of knuckle
action against the very top link with a SubSoiler or similar
implement .. Yuo COULD pry the entire top cap off the rearend ,.
Guess How I know??

Would you take a DC over a Farmall M then? I have both and need to sell one to pay for my various other projects.

if you are good with a welder , You might build that up and plane
that off nice and level ,,. then , do some work on the roller too
,,. If You do Real GOOD ,,. Come do mine I have 3 that are worn
like that ,,. been that way for years
no big deal

I was thinking that I would have to build it up with a welder. I have a welder but I need to put in some time practicing with it.

Due to the amount of draw bar wear, should I be concerned about the tension of the chains in the transmission? The axles appear to have never been adjusted.

Congrats on the new tractor! Your can weld uplease the drawbar support and drill new holes. It would be good to practice on since it will need to be ground down once it's welded up.

Good luck!

I already have a Farmall M (runs after probably 40 hours of my time and $550), a Co-op e3 (seized engine, ATF and acetone mix soaking in it), an original paint Sears Suburban 725 garden tractor that runs but needs an engine rebuild, a John Deere KBA disc with 2 seized gangs, a JD no.5 sickle mower that I am rebuilding the bar on, Westendorf running gear with seized steering and no bed, and a Mccormick ground drive manure spreader that needs new wood sides and bed.

I really did not need another project tractor, but it was free so I couldn't turn it down. My understanding is that it was parked about a decade ago due to wiring issues. Surprisingly, the engine and valves weren't seized.

So far all that I have done is replace the battery cables and starter switch, clean the ant's nest out of the magneto, clean the magneto as best as I could, and drain the old oil and scrape the sludge out of the oil pan. I am still waiting on a new oil filter for it. I also need to replace the points, the current ones are worn so badly that they barely open, but after clean the magneto it started producing a spark so I put the old points back in since it seems that no one sells points for this magneto.

The starter works but the gear that moves forward to engage the ring gear often gets stuck and won't go forward. Is there a cheap fix to this or am I going to have to rebuild the starter? I have a spare one on my Co-op since I am planning on getting a parts tractor for that restoration.

Is it a Case mag or Wico or some other brand? Some research on this site may give some answers. Many distributors also fit.

If it's a Case mag, parts are as
prevalent as hens teeth, especially caps.
An upright Delco battery ignition set-up
will bolt right up. Parts are readily
available, as they were used on both IH &
AC tractors that I am aware of, maybe
others too.

It is a Case mag. After looking at other posts on this forum I saw someone post that someone on ebay sells the points. I could not find points on ebay that looked like what was in the magneto though. I have some new IH points lying around that I was given and the points fit in the magneto but they are too wide and rub against the frame grounding it. After cleaning the ants and rust out of it and not finding points on ebay I put the old ones back in it and it threw a spark so I figured I would use it as is and keep my eye out for a cheap used distributor.

I'd sell the seized tractor and keep the M and DC, both good tractors, the M has more support if you are going to use them, you have a modestly rare DC that sounds like it should run, and will be something you don't see every day, most seized engines will be
a great place to burn more money than you care to think about, in my experience any way.

I was born in 39 and at your age I had racked up many hours running dad’s well used 38 C Case which stayed in the family for about 6 decades because I rescued it from the junk man. Back then in the late 40s and 50s, I dreamed of dad and us having a DC but that never happened. The DC became a sentimental favorite of mine because the C was a good tractor and quite similar to the DC.

So for sentimental reasons in the 80s and 90s, I rescued a total of six 49-53 DCs from the junk man and put them back into good running condition. My goal (hobby at the time) was to preserve sentimental DCs. There is no money to be made persevering DCs. Hobbies are good for various reasons but many hobbies are money pits. What are your goals toward your free DC and the other two?


Your DC is a hodge-podge of model years which is not good for complete restorations and good resale. Your engine is apparently a 45 model. (subtract 4 from the first two serial # digits to get the model year so 49-4 is 45. ) The fenders are pre-52 because they do not have ribs on the inside. A good news is your fenders are in good condition. The ribbed fenders had a very serious rust problem down low at their seam and are very difficult to fix.


The left side of the oil pan shows a filter screen for the oil pump inlet. I doubt if there is an oil filter so just clean the suction screen. The 52 engine had an oil filter on the right side behind the mag. Sludge collecting in the bottom of the oil pan was natural for the DCs. No doubt you have found out that the 4 side plates on the oil pan are a nice feature for bottom-end work.


The starter gear mechanism apparently works part of the time so a good cleaning will probably fix that problem. Check the armature and brushes while it is apart. New brushes and sandpapering the armature might help a lot.


If you are wishing to sell either the DC or the M to raise some money to fix the other, the M will probably net you 2-4 times the money as the DC. Your DC free is a clue about a DC’s resale value.


You may be lucky and find your DC is in pretty good shape. It seems that step one would be to get the engine running and see how much or little it smokes----- and how much blow-by there might be.


The condition of the cooling system was a challenge on four of my 6 DCs. If yours came to you with antifreeze in it, that is a good sign that internal rust may not be a serious problem to remove. Internally plugged radiators and a freeze crack behind the intake manifold were significant problems for me. Fixing the method for tightening the fan belt was a challenge on several tractors. Just replacing the generator belt is a big challenge on the DC. Most of mine needed rebuilt water pumps and were a challenge to get off.


My 53, with a foot clutch, was a problem but none of the hand clutches were a problem. The clutch-brake at the pulley is usually a small challenge to fix.


The top of the transmission case comes off pretty easy and this allows a good look at all the gears and chains. Unless one is doing total restoration, liquid gasket sealer works fine especially for the “big” gaskets such as at the main split joint and also the top of the transmission case.


You might be lucky and not need to spend much money to get your DC into fair-to-good condition. Your tires look decent. As mentioned, the upper attach bracket is poorly cobbled and will break the case if much load is applied. Included is a pic of the two choices of correct upper bracket. Sadly, the strong one covers the PTO shaft so no mounted PTO-driven implements.


The swinging drawbar is rinky-dink on the DCs. All mine were worn in the center like that and the rollers were flat-spotted. Your drawbar support is not significantly weak. I choose to clamp all the drawbars tight to the support using the two worn side-holes for the clamp bolts to pass thru.



The final drive chains tend to be low-wear because they run in oil. For high hour tractors, the hole for the drawbar pin tends to be significantly egg-shaped. Also, the upper bearing supporting the steering wheel shaft is likely worn egg-shaped if used a lot.






Your DC looks very clean. Was it power washed sometime back? My DCs came to me with a lot of oily crud in a lot of places.




I hope your DC gets saved from the junk man. LOL Feel free to post any more questions you have along the way. Good luck.

When they added oil filters, did Case remove the suctuon screen? My DC does have an oil filter with a line going to what I understand is the opening for checking oil level. It has an elbow in the lower opening so I assume to check oil level I remove the plug and fill it till oil comes out the top.

The brake for the belt pulley has been welded at some point in the past. Was this casting breaking a common problem?

What does the original exhaust elbow look like? The one that was on the tractor when I got it was so loose there was a half inch gap between the elbow and the manifold. I am pretty sure that this is the reason the engine wasn't seized since the muffler didn't have a cap. I need to replace the manifold gaskets and the muffler. I also want to put the correct style of elbow on the tractor. The picture is of the elbow that came with the tractor just sitting on the studs, but the flange is bent and doesn't sit flush to the opening on the manifold.

Was the throttle originally controlled by a linkage from the carb to the operater's station? Or is this bracket for something different?

The person I got it from said they put a 12 volt regulator on it. Should I keep the generator or put an alternator on it? I have a cheap 1 wire alternator on my parts shelf.

This tractor does have one bad rear tire. The other rear looks like it was put on the tractor and then the tractor got parked. Is there a good way to get cheap tires other than hoping to get lucky on Craigslist? The rims look very similair to the rims on my Farmall. Will the rims on my M work on my Case? Is there an easy way to break the bead on the tire? I have a bad tire from my M that I have not been able to break the bead on despite using the loader on my dad's John Deere to push down on it.

I'm working on a DC4 that is in pretty good shape. I can take pics of it and you can see what kind of manifold setup and muffler elbow you would need for yours. If you need work done on your magneto or parts, I recommend Rudy Calin of www.rebuiltmags.com. He did a great job on rebuilding mine after another company wouldn't even touch the Case mag. You could also get in touch with John Saeli of external_link for parts as he deals in Case parts exclusively. I have a sentimental attachment to DC's as well since it was the first tractor I learned to drive. Good luck restoring/resurrecting yours and keep us updated on how it goes.

The picture of your oil filter reminded that I need to jog my old memory and look at pictures and parts book that I have. All my DCs have been gone for several years so no tractors to look at.

Apparently the DC has always had an oil filter. My 49 had a suction screen, held on by three bolts at the lower left side of the oil pan as your picture shows. My 49 also had an oil filter at the right rear of the block in the usual place. See the included pic of the 49 I had. Not clear at all but just in front of the starter shows the filter return line screwed into the block.





All my 52s had an internal floating screen rather than a removable bolt in screen. The floating screen attached to the oil pump and would pivot up and down as the oil level changed. With difficulty, the floating screen could be removed thru the left rear side plate by removing a cotter pin that held the floating screen and bent pipe assembly onto the oil pump inlet.

Your oil filter shows the inlet and outlet hooked up backwards. The inlet is the top port.

The weld on your clutch brake looked adequate. The two screws at the shaft allows the rotary position of the brake to be adjusted.

Getting rear tractor tires off the rim can be a challenge. Do you have calcium chloride rust to deal with? By looking at the contour of the M and DC rims, you can determine if the rims are interchangeable. Tractor companies tended to buy standard rims rather than use something special.

I have a special tractor tire bead-breaker that needs about an 1-1/8 wrench to use it after it is first hammered into place with a medium side hammer. I would check the internet.

The picture indicates the original exhaust elbow. You are extremely lucky if the two bolts or studs are reusable. Its tedious to drill out the rusted bolts and end up with reusable threads. Been there and done that!!!!!

I did a quick look on EBay for a bead breaker. The prices are a shocker. As I remember, I paid $30 about 40 years ago for the one I have. Before I had this tool, I resorted to a 5 LB hammer and wedge and some creativity, elbow grease, patience and perseverance to get the beads broken.

A common wedge that will work is a dull cold chisel about 3/4 inch square shank. I learned the hard way that holding it, with a pair of vice grips so you can hit it HARD without breaking a hand, is a good idea.

Pound the chisel in about parallel to the gap until the dull end contacts metal. You can hear that. Mover over about 2 inches and repeat the process. Do this for about 2 ft along the bead. You should have a gap started.



Then try holding the chisel about 30 degrees to parallel and repeat the process along the same 2 Ft. The gap should be a little wider. This is more progress!!! For a tube-type tire, little scuffing of the bead surface is not a problem. Now increase the angle and repeat the process as many time as needed to get the bead loose. Go beyond the first two feet as needed.

Now that I am older and the elbow grease is gone, LOL I usually find a way to lay the tire on the ground. With forks on my tractor loader that can go vertical, most any bead can be broken. The edge of a loader bucket might work but visibility is not good.

PS---I forgot to mention the bracket on the carb. The original choke control is a push-pull cable. This bracket is to hold the end of the push-pull cable.

The one-wire alternator, with built in regulator, seems a good idea. You will need a different bracket. If you need a different belt, that will likely be a challenge!!! You have to get the fan belt loose and then off!!!! Not simple on old DCs with rusty parts and damaged carriage bolts with rusted threads!!!! Been there done that---with fan pulley on the bench!!!! I used good quality A belts. I don"t remember the length. Need to get the Alt belt right before reinstalling the fan belt!!!!

I heard the thing fire for the first time today!!! The parts I was waiting on got here late this afternoon so I wasted no time putting them on my tractor. I replaced the spark plugs with Autolite 3116 and put in a new oil filter. After some carb cleaner in the intake, the tractor blew a little bit of smoke but that was all I could get from it. I pulled the magneto back off and did some more extensive testing on it than I did the first time I took it off. I couldn't get it to spark reliably so like any sensible person who doesn't have the money or parts to fix their Case mag I took the Delco distributor off my Farmall M which was naturally parked in the way of everything else and now won't move under its own power. I did some more rewiring on the Case and put the distributor on it. The tractor popped and backfired some more. I still have to adjust the distributor but at least I know that the tractor will start. It sounded like a rough running Johny Popper :lol:. I now have to buy another distributor for my M and make a bracket on my Case for the key switch I wired for the distributor.

I need to replace the fan belt anyway since it is starting to fray.

After closer inspection of the starter it appears that only half of the gear is engaging with the ring gear. It also appears that some teeth on the ring gear are chipped. I guess that at some point I will have to split the tractor. I think I will wait until the bad tire blows.

After playing with the timing on the distributor the tractor runs pretty good. I can't get it to shift out of nuetral though. The shifter goes forward and back but it won't go into any of the gears. Any suggestions?

I think I may have found my problem. I removed some bolts so I could pull off the side covers and I got a steady stream of water coming out of the transmission.

Here is what some of the inside of the transmission looks like. The gears slide on a spline to engage. Also the forks slide on shafts. You may have a rust problem and things won't slide.

I pulled the top cover for the transmission. Before I did that I managed to drop a gear inside the transmission. There was basically no oil in the transmission. Just 10 gallons of water. I can get the shift rail for 3 and 1 to move by gently prying on it. The other shift rail won't move.
Any advice for how to pull the gear out of the bottom of the transmission?

Hopefully the pictures will give you clues

Remove the belt pulley

The tractor has to be split to remove the transmission input shaft and the input bevel gear. See picture

The shaft with sliding gears has to be removed. See ;picture

The inner snap ring has to be removed that holds the gear closest to the pulley. See parts call out assembly (O7614AB)

Remove the bearing supports on both ends of the shaft.

Remove the lower shaft assembly. See picture.

Is the gear that dropped the one I labeled OIL SLINGER? Did the reverse idler also drop down? You might try fishing for them with a piece of heavy wire and an appropriate hook bent on the end.

The other picture is the hyd oil and pump compartment. You may be lucky and still have some oil in it because it is separate from the trans oil. This DC has live hydraulics so the pump runs when the engine runs. Hopefully no water here. I believe this compartment has to be removed in order to remove the PTO and hyd pump drive shaft that is in the way of getting other assemblies removed out the top.

Ways that water gets into the transmission include.---- Rain water runs down the exposed steering shaft and seeps thru the support bearing. 2. If the boot on the gear shift lever is damaged or gone, rain runs down the level and goes into the transmission,

I have had some success fishing for the gears with some hooks I bent of out some scrap. It looks like the gasket for the top cover failed in one spot. The problem with it not shifting is that there is some rust on the shifting rails rhat doesn't allow the forks to slide. Overall most of the gears look pretty good. A few of the gears have some chips in them so maybe someday I will do a proper transmission rebuild. When I had the engine running the cylinder for the eagle hitch went up and down. It did go down very slowly though. Are there any filters in the hydraulic system that need to be cleaned or replaced? The manual I have is for the earlier model years that don't have the agle hitch.

The person that arranged for me to get the tractor says he has the manuals, he just doesn't know where they are. So I have been reluctant to buy new manuals with money that I could spend on parts instead.

There is an inlet screen buried deep as shown. A filter on the side is accessible as shown.

If the top gasket only has a break or two, Just dab the breaks with Permatex or equivalent when you reassemble.

All this mechanical experience you are getting will look good on a Resume if you choose to look for a job where mechanical skills are useful.

After I went to Engineering school five years (long hours working my way through school) and ended up with only a B average, the person interviewing me on campus seemed BORED with the B average--- BUT he ask if I had any mechanical experience. I explained I had done a lot of tinkering, repairing, and building on dad's farm tractors and machinery. HE REALLY PERKED UP!! This was the key point that eventually caused Cat to hire me as an Engineer where I worked over 30 years.

The DCs were play toys on my 100 acre farm. I have bigger tractors for the serious field work.

Subtract 4 from the first two digits. If 60, then a 56. ＴAg could have been switched. Go by number stamped on block...right where it is bolted together...left side.

So far this transmission has been bad news with more bad news. After fishing the gear out and putting it back on it's post (I still haven't found the oil slinger) I put the top cover back on the tractor. In the process of fishing the gear out I stuck a magnet into the water still in the bottom of the transmission. It came out covered in metal filings. I ignored this problem and put the tractor back together and got new oil for the transmission. I then drove it around. I made it 7 feet before the back wheels locked up and stalled the engine. I jacked the tractor up, wiggled the wheels a little, and they came free. I figured the problem was that the oil slinger got caught in the drive chains. The tranny was also leaking oil out of both brakes and the end of one axle. I pulled the top cover back off and tried to pull the rear cover off the tractor. In the process I found that one of the bolt holes on the rear pto casting is broken, the hydraulic pump is filled with water, all of the hydraulic lines are shot, there are metal shavings in the hydraulic oil(water), the filter has a big hole in it and is coming apart, and the chain that drives the hydraulic pump is so loose that I can pull the sprocket off of the post it turns around without removing the chain. I have also been unable to remove the snap ring in the clutch housing for the pto shaft. I have also found that just about every gasket farther back than the engine leaks.

When I removed the top cover the second time I found that water was leaking in from around the steering shaft. Since I need to take the steering shaft apart to fix this leak I am thinking about putting a Char-Lynn or Behlen power steering unit from a Farmall on it. Would I be able to power one off of the rear hydraulic pump or would I need to find some way to add another hydraulic pump to the tractor?