Hello all!

This is a Model L we found in our property. It took a whole day of moving branches and other stuff that covered it before I was even able to find out what it is.

The engine doesn't look too promising:

It's so heavy that I will have to work on site. Not convenient on the slope the crawler is stuck in.

You can see the radiator is broken, the whole thing has been ripped off the tractor (still wondering how they did that!) and was found a few yards below:

I will post more!

And will ask A LOT of questions and hope to find help in this forum :)

It seems like it hit a tree (the property was an apricot orchard long time ago) as the trunk of the tree seems stuck under the engine.

My guess is a moron hit the tree, bending radiator, backed-up finishing the radiator that partially stayed stuck on the tree, moved forward again for some reasons (radiator is bent and I found a piece of the side cast under the crawler) and died there. It probably stayed like this for 15 to 30 years, hard to tell.

Some of the work that has been done on the engine and other things such as the tape used to wrapped handles cannot be older than 25 years IMO. For instance note the magneto and decently new ignition cables for two of the cylinders. They look better than when I found them yesterday as I sprayed some oil here and there to prep the work that will take place these next weeks.

  

Am I right to believe that it's been simplified to crank and start manually? 

I cannot find any battery fitment, cable nor alternator. There seems to be a starter motor (and would be small though) on the left hand side but nothing connected to it.

I believe the Fairbanks-Morse magneto is autonomous and doesn't need supply to generate sparks. This last point is encouraging as it will minimize the parts needed to restore the old guy!

So first questions:

- Where would a battery be located?

- Do Model M normally have an alternator? I'm guessing yes, as some accessories seem missing on the right hand side of the engine. Also how would these gauges be fed? There's a bunch of wires going to the engine compartment.

- The magneto has a wire out. What can this be for? It's the blue-gray wire bolted right under the ignition outputs.

- Throttle. It goes to a mechanism on the front right hand of the engine. Seems to be managing ignition advance?? I would expect the throttle to manage the carburetor however there is nothing but a cable looking like starter choke that goes to the carb. Can someone points me to some technical docs about the throttling system?

Thanks a lot for any help!

Luke

Either way, you CAN fix it!! 

Like the others said, I highly suggest getting it out of the trees and close to home. Trust me. I've tried doing the whole "fix it where it's at to save time and money" thing. It didn't work. Only difference was my project was a All-Crop harvester, and yours is a crawler. 

I've moved mine around the yard that way before.  

When my dozer died on the pipe line (Not a good place for the gass company to see you with a dozer)  We hooked up a Ford 4000 to tow it somewhere i could work on it. It pulled it in a straight line fine but trying to work the dozer around a corner with the steering clutches really made that Ford notice something was back there. Its an International T5 a machine about the same size as the one above

Really makes a guy appreciate how much torque theose old things are putting out just to turn themselves.