[AT] AC wd-45 - - what to look for?

charlie hill chill8 at cox.net
Thu May 5 04:42:17 PDT 2005


Henry,

It isn't uncommon for AC tractors to grind when you engage the PTO.  The 
hand clutch on most of them creep a bit.   They were mostly designed so that 
you could stop (or slow) forward motion of the tractor while the PTO kept 
running such as in baling hay.  I wouldn't worry too much about that.  A 
good way to stop gear grinding in AC's is to use the brake and clutch to 
stop the tractor.  Then make your gear change and engage your PTO if 
necessary without ever releasing the clutch pedal.  That way your wheel 
brakes serve as a transmission brake.

The snap coupler is the part underneath.  You can sometimes find those lift 
arm clamps at a good tractor flea market.  Three point hitch kits are 
available but are not real cheap.  AC made a 3 pt adapter that is a lot 
simpler design than the aftermarket units you see now.  If you buy the 
tractor let me know and I will e-mail you a picture of one.  With the 
picture you can look for one at a flea market or sale or posibly fabricate 
you own.

The stock tires for WD-45 are 28 inch.  That is a fairly common tire size. 
You can probably find some decent used ones somewhere.  If it happens by 
some chance to have 26 inch rears they are much harder to come by.

About the only thing I know that typically goes wrong with AC tractors of 
that vintage is that they jump out of gear.  That is usually a worn shift 
fork or shift lever and can be fixed.  The hand clutch on WD-45's will get 
to the point that they jump out.  A friend of mine used to talk about 
running his dad's WD-45 all day with his foot on the hand clutch lever to 
keep it in gear.  I think that can be adjusted with shims but I'm more 
familiar with the 2 speed Power Director clutch on the D series tractors. 
If it can be shimmed it's not that bad a job and the tractor doesn't need to 
be split to do it I think.  It sounds like your engine clutch is ok but just 
needs adjusting.  Test it under load like you said.  As for splitting the 
tractor,  I saw a fairly new Case IH in the 100 hp range split in the middle 
of a field on Monday.  The rear of the tractor and the planters were sitting 
in a freshly planted corn field and the entire front end was gone.  If you 
need to split your WD-45 you can do it under a good shade tree with a 
chainfall, a jack and some big wood blocks.

If it has a skip at high idle it probably has some carbon build up on the 
valves and valve guides and needs the devil run out of it for about 2 hours 
with a 3 bottom plow or something.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henry Miller" <hank at millerfarm.com>
To: <AT at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 9:13 PM
Subject: [AT] AC wd-45 - - what to look for?


>A neighbor is selling a Alils Chalmers WD-45 for someone a few miles down 
>the
> road.  (the owner has had a couple heart attacks and can no longer handle 
> a
> tractor)  The seller knows nothing about tractors, but seems honest enough
> otherwise.  (As if I would know)    Make an offer.
>
> So far I have noted the following:
>
> Oil was a little low, but didn't look too bad.
>
> Starts right up and runs good (for about 10 seconds because we forgot to 
> turn
> the gas on).   A little rough at high RPMs, but doesn't seem like anything
> abnormal.  It was nearly out of gas so I only drove it 20 feet in low 
> gear.
>
> Tires are bad.   All are worn have have cracks.
>
> Paint is bad, but the iron is in good shape, so this is a trivial fix.
>
> No obvious oil leaks, though I think it was washed the day before.
>
> Was converted to 12 volts (by a local dealer).   I doubt I can get the 6 
> volt
> parts back.
>
> Breaks are good.
>
> The hand clutch isn't fully releasing. From a dead start with it released
> there is a slight grinding when I engaged the PTO.   Is this easily
> adjustable?   A sign of something bad?
>
> The foot clutch either lags or doesn't engage until the very top of the 
> throw.
> Thus there was a little jerking when I tried to move.   (my cars are all
> sticks so I know how to use a clutch in general, though it might just be a
> case of not being used to the quirks of this one)   I should have tried 
> the
> breaks on, release the clutch, stall the engine test, but I didn't.  (Will
> try that next time unless warned not to)
>
> The hydrolic fluid was well below the add mark, though the rams were
> partically extended so I'm not sure how bad this is (clearly it is low
> though, the rams cannot take as much fluid as it was low).   I could not
> figure out how to operate the rams, so I'm not sure.
>
> One of the snap couplers is missing.  (No 3 point, and no attachments. 
> This
> is a downside, though I'm not a farmer so I don't need most of the
> attachments I could get anyway)   Here I got the first useful information:
> the owner often hooked a chain to the arm and used that to pull fence 
> posts.
> I didn't see evidence of damage on that arm, so appearently it didn't 
> cause
> harm.
>
> My next task is to get some gas and a compression guage.  Check 
> compression,
> and then a test drive where I can get into road gear for a short time.
>
> I'm most concerned about the clutches.   I'm comfortable replacing them, 
> but I
> don't have a good place to split a tractor.   Anyone have advice on how to
> check these?   Anything else I should be looking at on this model?  Any 
> other
> advice for a young fool looking at old iron?
>
> If there is no problems I'm thinking about making a low offer and see if 
> they
> take it.   I'd prefer an older model, but this is a good first tractor, 
> and
> overall more useful.
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