what to look for buying a wd45

there have been many wd's with the wd 45 badges. I think it's on the right hand side of the motor there will be a plate on the side of the engine block if it's a WD, the WD 45's didn't have a plate. ya want to look close at the front end of any tractor with a loader. the front end might be sprung, broke, welded, etc., make sure it don't look like the front end is sagging. find out were the hydro for the loader comes from, if it's off the 3pt tractor hydro ya can't use the loader when the clutch is pushed in. power steering is very nice with a loader. other than that, I don't know what to add. just listen to it run make sure it goes threw all the gears. alot of the older tractors the shifter wears out were it goes into the trans gears, then the shifter will just pop right out, then ya gotta fish the thing back in there. (I have to put my tractor into high gear very slowly or I'll pull the shifter out of the trans) see if they are 12 or 6volt. like any old machine look real close at the rear rims, if they had calcium in them and leaked they will rot away, if they are the spin out rims they are very pricey to replace. front tires aint to bad to replace but back ones will put a dent in any budget. I don't know of any problems with the wd 45's. I have had mine for 10-15 years, 1 coil and a battery. a couple of hydro hoses for the loader. it's had the snot hammered out of it and takes it in stride. I am not sure what your planning to use it for, but these are a larger size tractor and not really designed to work around a house on a small lot in the middle of town.  good luck hope it helps. dt

Cool thanks guys. I just read that thread the other day on the difference between a wd and a wd45, so I think I've git that. I seem to remember a post a while back about two different wf setups. I'm not getting it to restore, but hopefully one of them isn't too beat up. Thanks again

The wide front setups are three bolt, n four bolt. The three bolt did'nt work, so the four bolt was born. If you stand in front of the tractor, you will see three bolts or four on the very front. The plate it's holding conects to the wide front axle. Good Luck!!!!!!

ck the hand clutch and make sure it has a positive snap when it is engaged and disengaged.usually  a shim removal will fix that,but i have seen baked discs on them also.if the hand clutch is bad the tractor will have to be split to repair.also ck the pto operation real good..

The best advise is drive a WD45 a head of time so you can tell what is normal and how it should feel. Understand that it will cost a lot of money if you can not work on it yourself. When I looked at a WD45 last year I opened up the fill plugs on the torque tube, checked the oil, checked the hydro, the hand clutch, oil pressure, went trough the gears to see if it would pop out and checked the exhaust with a dollar bill to see if it had sticking valves. crawl around it's belly to to see what is going on under your tractor too. Tire and rims too.

Edited by dannyraddatz - 01 Sep 2012 at 6:41am

Ted in NE-OH wrote: Tell us what the dollar bill does to check the exhaust. Not familiar with that one.

dido,

Thanks a lot.  Can't wait to check things out - I'll post pics if I get anything.  

If you are going to buy an oarnge tractor, ware a red or green shirt and cap.

dannyraddatz wrote: I learned this from a buddy about 30 years ago, when I would try to buy old Jeeps that had 4 cylinder engines and I used it when I bought my  WD45 tractor with a 4 cylinder engine. You start the engine at idle or 1/4 throttle, with a firm grip, place a new 1 dollar bill  about 2" over the exhaust pipe, as the engine is running if it sucks the dollar bill into the exhaust, it will snap like you can't believe. I was told that this is a sign the  exhaust valve is  sticking or the seat is bad, it could also be bent, burnt or out of adjustment too. Here is a video from youtube that shows no problems with the valves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8LRhuHuerw sorry I could not find a video of it sucking in the dollar bill, my friend sold his ford tractor that did this last year. Here is another link  down and a shop tip will  talk about this test.     http://books.google.com/books?id=Yn9F0RhJ0EkC&pg=PA573&lpg=PA573&dq=dollar+bill+exhaust+valve+test&source=bl&ots=S9F4AHOCyc&sig=o6U4jNIctW4upR1VjJqCyqTAMEk&hl=en#v=onepage&q=dollar%20bill%20exhaust%20valve%20test&f=falsescroll

i didn't need a dollar bill to see if the valve was bad on my 8n it was burping and farting barley stayed running...lol, when I checked the cyclinders compression was alot lower on the #4 cyclinder. pulled the side covers and turned the engine over by hand.stuck valve. the dollar bill thing is a great idea, I don't think they'll let ya tear into the engine to see if everythings ok.lol don't know if it's common on the WD's or not, but when I got my WD there was a burnt valve in the tool box, glad it was in the tool box and not the tractor...lol