Allis Chalmers WD -- Knoedler Seat Rebuild -- Pictures!!

I may have posted about some of this before, but I set about a few months ago to rebuild the Knoedler seat on my Allis Chalmers WD, and it has been quite an adventure. I've utilized a local machine shop, a local weld shop, several online vendors to source various bearings, fasteners and other odds and ends, and finally have it put back together!

Here's the "before" pictures where it comes off the tractor and I cut it apart with a dremel and an angle grinder and press out the old bearings.













And now here's where a local shop welds up the wallered out holes for me and redrills them, a machine shop pressed out my stuck pin and makes me two new sleeves and fixes the broken grease zerks, and then I press in the new bearings and mount everything back together again with various hardware until it feels decent when it swings up and down.









It's been quite an adventure to get to this point, but I am so happy with how it is turning out. Now just need to take it back apart, do some clean-up and painting on it before it goes back on the tractor. Nearly 70 years of wear and tear being taken back out of this seat; it's seen a lot of acres of usage, that's for sure (probably most of it from '53 to '83).

Looks good

"A man after my own heart" or is it a man who suffers from the same "need to fix it" disease? It is probably in your plan anyway, but I suggest priming before painting after all that work.

What shock are you using, have a seat on an H Farmall that needs a shock, was thinking of using a small air bag from a truck seat or cab suspension.

Good to see you fixed the seat. We recently had the funeral of a friend who spent the last 10 years of his life in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the neck down, due to a seat that broke loose and dumped him into the hay rake he was pulling. A loose seat can be more than just an aggravation. It can be deadly. It is good to see it fixed right.

Looks good! Need to do that to a Knoedler seat Dad had on a DC Case. Been laying around all these years because we could not find the
bearings. If I may ask, what was your source for the bearings??

Traditional Farmer -- Thanks!

showcrop -- Oh absolutely, it's getting stripped back down, primed and painted. I only primed and painted that little bit before I pressed in the bearings since part of the surface would be covered up when I was done.

matthies -- Well actually, my original shock is still in decent shape, so I haven't had to look around for a replacement yet. I know from reading another guy who rebuilt a Knoedler seat, he used a NAPA Monroe 5829 ST Sensa-Trac Shock to fix his. That's where I'll look first if I need to replace mine.

ADB-Ia -- Oh wow, that is scary. I have heard of a few incidents of people having seats break and that is truly scary. What model of tractor was it? That's terrible.

casecollectorsc -- Well, the only place I was able to source the bearing (since it wasn't available from this site, and I didn't see it many other places) was Steiner (ABC537).

Allis Chalmers WD wasn't listed in the models, but I measured the old bearings and they cross referenced per these dimensions, so I knew I had the right ones:

3/8" inside diameter (ID)
1" outside diameter (OD)
1-1/8" flange

Very nice rebuild job!

When I was a kid, I remember Saturday nights watching the old farmers walk down the street in our little town. I always wondered if their backs were out of place because of those old tractor seats, or if those old tractor seats were out of place because of the farmer's crooked backs. Kind of a chicken or egg question.

Will, He was raking with a Farmall 560 when the front suspension pin broke and threw him off the back. It was kind of a freak accident but it has made me more cautious about the seat linkages. When I rebuilt my SC Case, the front pin was worn more than half way through.

Phil Heisley on the Oliver/coop/cockshutt board has the bearings, shocks ect. I bought bearings from him. Great guy. Post the question there and he will answer.

Thank you!

PJH -- Grandpa told me he bought this seat for every WD (and maybe WC?) he ever owned because he knew how bad it was on his back with the stock seats. I can only imagine. My other WD has an original seat on it, and it leaves a lot to be desired lol.

ADB-Ia -- Wow, that's not the type of tractor I would have expected. I have heard tell of a guy that had a seat let go on him and dump him at a tractor pull (fortunately he was not moving at the time). The seat is definitely a critical restoration part.

Nice work.

(quoted from post at 19:44:57 05/07/21) PJH -- Grandpa told me he bought this seat for every WD (and maybe WC?) he ever owned because he knew how bad it was on his back with the stock seats. I can only imagine. My other WD has an original seat on it, and it leaves a lot to be desired lol.

ADB-Ia -- Wow, that's not the type of tractor I would have expected. I have heard tell of a guy that had a seat let go on him and dump him at a tractor pull (fortunately he was not moving at the time). The seat is definitely a critical restoration part.

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Will, ten years or so ago a puller at one of our fair pulls in Vermont had the seat support of his JD G break loose on him just as he backed up to the sled and threw the clutch. Fortunately he wasn't hurt.

4wdtom -- Thanks!

showcrop -- Yikes, talk about flirtin' with disaster.