A couple of years ago, my 5 yr old, Josh, kept bugging me about a little tractor that I had sitting in the fencerow. I finally caved and told Josh, "Ok. We'll fix it up, but on one condition. I'm not going to touch it unless you're working on it, too." And that's how it began...
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The engine was stuck hard, so it was the first thing to tear down. Josh got a few baptisms by grease during this phase of the project.
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Josh got to do lots of scraping and cleaning.
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We ended up purchasing another complete engine for parts since the pistons, sleeves and crankshaft in ours was shot. We also found a radiator with a good core. We used the guts from the parts engine and the original block from our tractor and started putting everything together. allis didn't offer 3.25" rings for these anymore, so we matched a set of Wisconsin rings to our pistons and they worked great. Joshua's big brother, Jake, helped us a bunch. Here he is installing the oil pan:
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Here's Josh installing the oil pump:
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When we were done with the short block, we mounted it to the tractor so the tractor could be in basically 1 piece again. I was tired of tripping over the front axle all the time! Here's Jake bolting the block up:
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We used the cylinder head from the parts engine because it was in much better shape than the original. The machine shop performed a valve job and we installed the head. We had to pull start it the first several times. it loosened up more each time it started. The old water pump lost a bearing, so we bought a rebuilt one and everything was fine. Josh wanted to give this tractor a camouflage paint job, and the boys had a lot of fun with that part.
All in all, this was a fun, rewarding project for the boys and I. I took the little B to a local tractor pull last weekend. Josh was thrilled to see his tractor in action! It didn't pull the sled very far, but it did pull one fantastic wheelie! Jake, my 10 yr old, now wants to start on his Grandpa's Farmall M tractor this winter. I wouln't let him start on it until his brother's Allis was finished. I'll try to post the progress when we get rolling on it.