1941 B project... PICTURES added finally!

I've been putting this off/procrastinating for a while as I know from the other side that it's going to be a bear (tires are 235/75 15 car ones so way too wide & this last one is a winter one with some real meat to the thing).  As incorrect tires go, it went pretty well in the end. Was a real PITA to mount the second bead as I expected but once on it pushed itself against the rim such that it's sealed well enough to stay tubeless for the moment which was a worry I'd had considering the wheels were intended for tube only. So that's 3 out of 4 aired up and happy.

Hellacious wind last night and most of today, fence panels & wheelie bins flying past the window and all so not likely to do much on the old girl today. At least my old oil jug has stayed on the exhaust so far.

Don't British tractors have to be registered?  Most I've ever seen have number plate or equivalent on them.  Do they have to pass an MOT inspection to be registered?  Just curious!

She came with a V5 (title) & her plate which she will proudly wear again one day is CKG 281   No MoT for agricultural tractors thankfully, and even if there were this would be exempted by being over 40 years old (there's a good one for you, car lasts someone 40 years and they no longer have to pass an MoT every year because it's obviously going to be just dandy condition from that point forward right? At least the tax is free then as well though...)

The only silly walks here are adequately provided for by government shaftings of taxation on damn near everything, they don't call the national TV station the BBC for nothing  

Close Steve, but not quite close enough to be able to keep air in the rear tire with chewing gum and a paper clip. Seems I'm gonna have to go "old skool" and actually use a patch on the tube 

Ah well, can't complain if that's the only thing I have to do up "right" I suppose. Speaking of which I need to buy a new pack of feeler gauges still from when I butchered those to shim the big ends at the start of this project!

On looking over the tractor this morning it's a little bit more than that... The entire inner lip/bead portion of the rim has disintegrated and crumbled to nothing when I moved the tractor & the tire has simply swelled outward by about 4". Tube still holds air to it's credit, just chucked a stand under the drawbar & taken the valve out now to take strain off it.

I knew I needed to do some work on this rim, not quite that much though! Honestly, considering how good she's been to me I might even consider springing for a replacement if I can find one cheap enough.

Will get photos anyway as it's quite impressive to me that the tube still held air on this one (maybe being flat & off the bead is what saved the other side come to think of it, that only has one bad spot where it sat on the ground). Having had a quick look round at prices/availability of used rims locally I think I'll be repairing the rotten one anyway. Nothing for less than £100 even just as a bare rim Vs. maybe £25 in material (it'll probably get something like 1 1/2" x 1/8" thick angle iron, pie cut and formed using the good rim as a pattern & maybe some patches if the band is too thin. Good thing I have no objections at all to using my new cheapie inverter welder, it's great!) 

Either way I'll likely break the wheel down and make sure it's structurally sound, at the very least give it a good going over with the "finding rot" hammer with the tire off as I don't much fancy 2000Lb of iron deciding to roll over and play dead on top of me!

Cheers, Dan.

EDIT-: looking at the rim I don't think that's an option, it needs the whole bead rebuilding on both sides but the actual band doesn't look too bad initially so angle iron likely the way it'll go 

This has created some more food for thought though... As folk may be aware, the engine number & rear housing numbers are close enough to say they likely left the factory together BUT whilst cleaning things up I noticed the torque tube & remains of the toolbox tin have bright yellow paint underneath the orange. The rear housing shows no evidence of yellow just orange & rust.

Would this suggest that I have a torque tube from an IB in this melting pot of bastardry, or did Allis use a yellow primer on some parts & not others?

Not going to lose any sleep over it, might be I find more yellow the more I clean the back housing up.

Had a play round with electrics today (I'm procrastinating on the wheel situation hoping something comes up, but still probably weld it up). Got the original water pump pulley bolted onto an old Bosch alternator & made a bracket to mount that, gave it a test run with an old bike inner tube as a temporary belt to confirm the alternator still works & now just on a hold waiting for a belt to drive it for real.

Dug out an old electric fan & zip tied it to the front of the tractor, ran it off a battery charger and confirmed it keeps the temperature in check decently & finally managed to run long enough to get the oil up to temperature. Once the charging system & fan are squared away properly I might even add in an electric water pump & some lights.

Yes the hub is 5 bolt & the rim attaches with the 4 wedges.  Managed to break the wheel down earlier, surprisingly the 5/8" nuts broke loose with only minimal cheater pipe-age but the eccentric bolts were more or less welded to the wedges & hub casting so required a lot of sweat and swinging of the BFH before they relented.

All but 1 of the eccentric bolts survived with no damage, did nick the threads on one but it'll clean up OK. Will be using lots of copper grease when they're cleaned up and reassembled! 

I think this tractor was originally built in West Allis & used for a few years over there before being sold abroad, probably imported here some time in the 50s judging from the paperwork. My V5, (title equivalent) gives the year as a 1952 so likely imported then & the importer cheekily declared it as a new machine when it arrived! 

Either that or it sat unsold for 11 years after it was built, & then was shipped to the UK to sell, which doesn't seem likely to me???