5 DCs rescued the oldest one

RonSa

Member

In 2003, Carl’s 54 year old 49 DC was setting in the weeds at his farm 30 miles SW of Topeka, Kansas. Carl is my younger brother. Carl was in no hurry to truck it to a salvage yard but he intended to get around to doing that. The 49 DC still ran. Because of not having a hydraulic system, a significant problem had developed over the years. Hydraulic lift cylinders on implements had become the norm.


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As viewed setting in the weeds, the low height of the rear tires is a clue that this DC had gotten modified to where it looks much like a D model. Notice the bar axle and the wide front in Carl’s “play-time” picture. Our family referred to this tractor as “Carl’s old D” so I will refer to it later as a D model.



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Around 1974, when this 49 DC was about 25 years old, another owner had allowed it to freeze up and crack the block behind the intake manifold. The obvious crack had been smeared over with a paste.

Carl found this damaged DC setting on the back lot of a Ford tractor dealer. Because we were poor growing up, dad had taught us how to fix up “junk” farm machinery. Carl was able to by this “junk” DC very cheap: engine cracked and without hydraulics. Carl’s steel plate with rubber gasket, bolted on with quarter inch bolts, was still not leaking many years later in 2003 when it got rescued from the junk man.

Carl’s “old D Case” spent three periods of time at his farm—about 29 years total. First period was doing tillage for about 10 years. Second period, it was dedicated to a PTO feed grinder for about 10 years. Third period, it was parked for about 9 years—first in a barn and then outside where weeds grow because the barn got torn down.

The first period ended mainly because it did not have hydraulics needed to raise and lower implements. The second period ended because there was no more need to grind hog feed. The third period ended when it was removed from the weeds and hauled to my farm.

Carl was about ready to haul off his old D when he decided to asked me if I want it. Yup, I wanted to rescue it. Instead of hauling it off to the junk man, Carl hauled it 450 miles to my place in April 2003. My older brother, Dean, rode along in order to have some family fun playing with old tractors.




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The next few days, the three of us played with old tractors, plows, and a spring tooth harrow. Carl’s old D still had a lot of spunk. The 35 B John Deere, that Carl had refurbished, came along for play time. The 35 B was the companion tractor to dad’s 38 C Case.



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The only significant part that needed to be replaced was the front connecting rod’s Babbitt was critically pitted. I replaced the 6V system with 12V. I replaced the mag with a distributor. I replaced the standard head with a 5505 high compression head. I added a muffler and a paper air filter assembly at the air inlet---- and other minor items. It already had big AL pistons---all parts still in good condition.

13 months after arriving with the old D, my two brothers showed up again-----this time to see if middle brother had learned how to fix things lol---and to play some more with old tractors. Surprise---the D started within 2 seconds on 5/20/04!!! It had not forgotten to start on the 3rd compression.




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It helped plow 80 acres in Oct 2004 and got used on many other occasions.



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Because I was getting old and wanted to have some input in its future, I found Carl’s old D a good future home in 2016---having a barn and 3 generations, all younger than me, interested in old tractors.

Hopefully, the oldest of the five DCs that I rescued will remain rescued for a long time.
 
Sorry the title did not read right. This was the oldest one of the 5 that I rescued. Four more to go at a later date. The forum limited me with two pictures left. I will include them here.
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The last pic shows it leaving my farm for a good home in 2016.
 
Ron,

Thanks for posting those old pics, and also for saving those old D series workhorses. I have never seen a DC made into a D before. Don
 
Hi Chuck, Hope you are doing fine. Old age has my wife and I surrounded on all sides. Stair lifts are coming Monday.

As far as how the two different fronts treats the seat of the pants, there is little difference. Another aspect of comfort is how the steering wheel treats the arms, there is a BIG difference.

For the tricycle when plowing across the field the steering wheel is a little aggravating. At the ends of the field the steering wheel can get really nasty.

When the tractor leans to the right because the right wheel is in the plow furrow, unlike the John Deere Roll-O-Matic, the right front tire of the DC tricycle carries much of the front weight. This tugs the steering wheel to the right. The operator has to keep tugging the steering wheel to the left. Over time the arms can get tired. Two hands on the steering wheel.

At the ends of the field, dropping the tricycle front into a plow furrow can make the steering wheel act very nasty.



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Neither of these two situations bother the wide axles very much. The AWF especially is a one-handed-drive-like-a-dream even when plowing.


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The steering situation, when plowing, is is one of the reasons my brother Carl converted his DC to look a D. None of my DCs rescued ended up even close to being original. Therefore, three the tricycles I rescued got converted to AWF. One got a standard wide axle.






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Don,

Carl's idea of modifying his DC (and the results was it looked much like a D) came from out dad. Dad's old C, as we called it, was actually a modified CC.

I explained our logic, to Chuck Machinist far below in a reply to him, for switching to a wide front axle. The reason was it made the steering wheel much more user-friendly. The C was not needed for ROW CROP cultivating etc. like the CC could be used for.


The other main reason was to have a tillage speed between the DC's 2nd and 3rd gears. Keeping the DC’s larger diameter axle chain sprockets and switching to smaller diameter tires, Carl’s “D” could now easily pull 3 bottoms in the slower 3rd gear but faster than the DC's 2nd gear.

Like father like son, Carl's D was not used for row crop operations like the DC was made to also do. Like dad, Carl also had a B John Deere as a companion tractor to his "D". Mowing, raking, etc. did not need brute horsepower. (Close your eyed and ears lol---The B john Deere was a nimble tractor with good brakes and easy steering and 6 speeds!!!!)

The D series with big AL pistons and 5505 high compression head had brute horsepower. Also, the AL pistons allowed the D series to smoothly run around 1500 rpm like the M Farmall/400 did. Carl did tillage for 10 years with the rpm jacked to around 1500 rpm!!! During refurbishing when I inspected the bottom end, I expected the Babbitt to be shot. Only the front con rod needed replacing.


The other DCs, that I refurbished could pulled 3 bottoms easy in 2nd gear but struggled a lot in 3rd gear. All had 4 or 4.06 bore AL pistons and the 5505 high compression.
 
Thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense. The D series should have had 5 speeds. I remember baling hay with our D and picking corn with our DC, 1st was too slow and second was too fast.
 
Yes Ron ,I vaguely remember the tricycle steering throwing me around at 10 years old with Dads DC-3 and a three bottom Centennial trip plow. I hope to make a stop on my way back from Iowa later this fall. A social distancing visit perhaps!. Blessings ,Chuck Machinist
 

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