Long sitting Allis

I'm about to bring home my grandfather's old WD-45 WC that has been sitting for at least 30 years due to an assumed crack block.  It has been kept outside, and I'm pulling it from a fence row this week.  Most of the external moving parts appear to still be moving, shifters pedal and brake bar and the steering are all still moving.  The hand crank is long gone, or I would have at least tried to see if it was frozen.

Edited by soundman502 - 10 Aug 2011 at 8:13pm

operator manual,believe vendors on here sell them.

Bill types faster than I do.Fat thick slow plumber fingers

Edited by Pat the Plumber CIL - 08 Aug 2011 at 10:30pm

Awesome guys, I'll check into Darin's manuals and keep reading here.  

Scott-  whatever you do, keep us updated on the step-by-step, and post pictures frequently.  Most of us are working on these buggers, but there's a few guys who, for some reason, can't... and we ALL live vicariously through our comrades challenges.

Oh, and if you post pictures soon enough, we'll tell 'ya what NOT to do, before you do something we wished we wouldn't'a done ourselves.

And give 'ya little tips like mixing up equal quantities of ATF, kerosene and acetone to make your own high-potency penetrating oil... and the fact that the pistons are usually 'dished' design, so it takes LOTS of penetrant, and if she's really stuck, you can bust the ceramic cores out of the spark plugs, weld on some 1/4" pipe, and thread on hoses to a regulator and put a little air pressure on the cylinders to help break her free.

Most common spot to get a visual of a broken block, is on the left side, below the carbeurator.  When they split, they'll typically SHOW it about 2" above the crank pan flange.  IF they're cracked, you COULD fix it... oftentimes guys did by a variety of methods... brazing... arc/flame welding, silver-soldering, or in the case of my '50 WD, they drilled and tapped about loozanteen holes around the outside of the crack, covered a piece of tin plate with roofing tar, and screwed that sucker down.  Of course, it would've worked, but when the block froze, it also cracked some of the internal webbing, so the cylinder sleeves wouldn't seal against the block, so it leaked internally...

But no fear... decent running engines aren't hard to find, not incredibly expensive, and they're easy to change.  These engines (and the tractors in which they lived and worked) were designed for in-frame rebuild... pop off the head and pan, break the rods loose, lift out the pistons and cylinder liners, drop in new stuff, new rod and main bearings, and button it up for another 40 years...

Most expensive part of a home remodel, is the kitchen and bathroom.  Likewise, most expensive part of a tractor revival is tires and engine.  First thing I always look for, is a way to ROLL IT AROUND.   If the rubber is good enough to hold air, then you've made it to the first step... working on flat-tired tractors SUCK, 'cause you can't jockey 'em in and out of the shop.  I bought a set of old steel wheels, unbolted the cleats, and put 'em on my current project, just so I could wheel it in-and-out.  Nice thing is, steel is really easy to work around- you can see through it, even get wrenches and arms around it.  When I'm done with everything else, then I'll make a rubber investment and get it burblin' down the road.  Then I'll move the steels to the next project, or clean 'em up and keep 'em on hand for someday when I wanna take an oldster to a show.

I need to put a bumper sticker on my car that says "The more I work on modern cars, the more I love my Old Tractors!"

The tires on this one are SHOT!  I think when it was rolled into its current resting place, they were flat, and they are shredded now, front and back.  But I don't have a shop to move it in and out of, so she'll sit in about the same spot for a while.

You've got my curiosity going. Why do you say assumed cracked block?

I was told that the block was cracked, but no one has been able to show me or tell me where, so until I see it, it's an unknown.  I'll be bringing it home tomorrow hopefully if the weather holds out here, and I'll have tons of pictures to post then.  

I have one of those, but the WD is for the stuff she won't do ;)

soundman502 wrote: I was told that the block was cracked, but no one has been able to show me or tell me where, so until I see it, it's an unknown.  I'll be bringing it home tomorrow hopefully if the weather holds out here, and I'll have tons of pictures to post then.   My family farmed with this one until it was parked, so it was maintained in it's operational times, but I know no one has ever tried to fix it since, so it's just a bag of unknowns.  I appreciate all the interest here, and the help so far!

Scott-  I don't know if there were any 'factory' steel wheels to fit the WD-45- it's standard wheels are spin-out rims with rubber tires, and the WD45 used a different bolt pattern (more bolts).  The prior models (WC) STARTED with steel, and in the late '30's went to rubber (kinda a landmark thing that Allis Chalmers did).  After rubber ag tires came out, many steel rims were torched off, and steel rims were welded on, then rubber tires and tubes mounted in their place.  During WW2, steel came back a bit because of war material rationing... but after the war, rubber went back on.  By the 45's time, everything was all rubber.  The way you'll FIND steel, is just by coming across the unique situation of someone having a set that they made... mebbie some steel from another model where they drilled new holes or made some sort of adapter plate.  Lemmie ponder that- mebbie I have enough materials and info here to make some adapters that'll put WC steel on a WD hub...

If your rims are shot, a better method might just be to saw the bad rubber off, and set it down on the rims, and when you get back to it, put on a set of better wheels/tires on it later.

Go gently with forcing a stuck engine to move by the crankshaft. That can take more force than the connecting rods can push and they will buckle and bend. That's not progress. Best to work with pan and head off and jack out piston and sleeve and maybe separate them with a hydraulic press pushing on the piston. You may save the rod that way, but once you have the head off you can see what the pistons have for crud above them to make them hard to move up. Its almost sure a couple valves have been open all the parking time and humidity as well as mouse urine has been able to circulate in those cylinders to leave significant rust. Stored inside there's a chance for much less rust.

Gerald J.

If I've decoded the SN correctly, it would appear that I have a 1945 A.C. WC  Can anyone confirm this based just on the SN?  I'll have pictures up very shortly.

You have a 1945 WC.  A decent block should not be hard to find. Depends where you are going with the tractor, you could buy a running engine and drop in it if you want it going to do some work or play. If you want to restore it later that might be the best choice, give you time to find other needs or wants for the finished product.

For those that have looked at the images, #7 shows the hole I'm referring to in the block.  Is that too much to fix?  I would love to hear it run soon, but the main focus is restoration, so if possible, I'd like to keep her all original :/

The planter is a 4 row with both arms.  We have a harvester sitting right next to it.  I figure if I can Red fired up, I might be able to pull those out too.  I don't have the land to use them, but it's a shame to watch them decay in the fence line.