My 1927 Allis 20-35

A few little updates on the 20-35.  Dad dropped off the new set of valves, new sleeve seals, flywheel, used lifters, and new crank seals at the machine shop on Saturday.  Things are coming along nicely with the engine work.

They have all the old sleeves bored out.  The crank has been turned down and the original babbitt bearings are being fit to it now.  I plan on making a quick trip home to WI the end of this week, so HOPEFULLY the short block will be ready to pick up by then.  The heads might not be quite done, but that is ok.  They still need to machine the valve guides and new valve seats to the new valves.  But the heads both checked out ok, so that was great news!  Thanks again Phil for selling me the '27 head I was needing for this project!

I finished disassembling the Carb and got it all cleaned up.

Unfortunately I broke the Venturi removing it.

So the venturi and the wore out throttle shaft are at the local machine shop being looked at.  They think they can make some new parts for me, I should hear more next week.

Matt Scott has my mag and is rebuilding it for me

Unfortunately he discovered that the main housing was damaged beyond repair, so he is locating another housing for me.  Those are the little surprises you encounter with a machine this old. He'll get it good as new though!

I have some of the broken cast parts with a friend in welding school.  She is going to try her best to fix them up.  Cross your fingers.

All in all progress has been slow but steady.  

I keep joking that by spring all we'll have to do is bolt it together and start it up.  Easy as that right?

As usual, a bunch more pics added to my Google Photo account.

I have a couple little updates to add.

I ordered up some brake lining material from McMaster-Carr

And shortly after it was delivered back home, Dad text me some pics showing me he had it installed on the original brake band.  That was a nice surprise!

Meanwhile, here in the prairie, I got around to assembling the carb with its new parts.  I'm 99% done with it now.  I just have to order up that brass tube that was cracked.  A bunch of people suggested soldering it up, but with so many cracks and it being so small, I decided to just replace it with a new piece.  Again, I found it on McMaster, those people have EVERYTHING!

Things are coming right along,

I'll have to go start on another part now...

This afternoon I tackled the radiator cap.

I ended up drilling the old screws out and cleaning up the threads, because of course the old screws snapped off, why wouldn't they?

Made a new gasket, and metal plate, a couple new screws and bingo, we have a finished radiator cap!

It's worth noting that the '27 radiator cap is different than the '28 and '29 20-35's.  It has two screws, where the later ones have one rivet in the center to hold the metal plate.

What next?

A little trick, a piece of 1 1/2 PVC is the perfect size to drive the sleeve back into the hub

And done!

Thank you Dan!  It is good to hear others appreciate these posts.  I know I like to read them, and see how others solved problems.  Especially with pictures, hence why I try to take a ton of them.

The trick is to take it piece by piece.  Once I got the old boy all apart I made a point to take a few little pieces back home with me each trip.  I only focused on these few pieces until they were done, and then move on to the next.  It keeps a guy from getting overwhelmed!  

Another trick is to work on a tractor you REALLY want to be working on.  I have not been good about this in the past.  I have many unfinished projects in the barn, but the difference is I picked most of them up because the price was too go not to drag them home, and I bought them because of that and NOT because I HAD to have them.  This I can see now was a mistake.  But live and learn, I'll get to them someday. Or I might just sell them eventually if someone comes along and is willing to make me a good offer.

Now my 20-35 on the other hand is a tractor I have wanted for years!  There are many posts on this site that can prove that, were I have said over and over that "I will have one of them someday."  So once I got one, I pulled out all the stops and knew I would get this one done no matter what!

It helps that I have been tucking away some fun money for a project like this for a number of years as I looked for it.  Because we all know it does take $ even if we are doing most of the work our selves, LOL!

And for years I was in the no fun money boat, don't get me wrong.  I'm still on the borderline of being there, LOL!

I also consider this my third life (not old enough for mid life yet) crisis of sorts. I'm going to be 31 on the 29th and I kinda had to prove to myself that I can finish a big project like this, because I have started many, but finished none in years.

I'll end this by saying, if I can do this, so can most anyone else.  Just takes a LOT of time, and a LOT of patience.  And a huge attention to detail, which I have to a fault most days....  That and set realistic goals. Lots of little realistic goals, to reach the big goals you set in life.  

Like having a 20-35 all mechanically restored at Hutch before the year 2022, huh Kyle?  (inside bet me and Kyle have going that we set back in 2012)  You better get after your 20-35 Kyle, times a ticking, and your WC will look really good in my barn if you don't get 'er done by then....

BAhahaha!

Hi all!

The other end I was more lucky, just got the old mashed up grease zerk out and the threads were ok, just chased them with a tap and good to go.

So that part of the project is done.

The clutch collar and shifter are rather worn.  There is about a 1/4" of play front to back, where I assume there should be almost none?

good side of shifter.

bad side.

showing the amount of wear between the two parts.

Most of the wear appears to be on the shifter.  The bronze should be worn more than the steel though.  I'm assuming the collar has been replaced in the past?  What is the best fix?  weld up the shifter and have it turned down to size again?  Turn true and install a spacer?

Anyone tackled this issue?  Thanks for any advice.