[AT] Allis Chalmers

[Grant Brians]

Last week, my sprayer tractor started making a clatter noise from the 
clutch area. It was a very bad noise! This is a 1974 Allis-Chalmers 185 
(rated at 78HP pto using an AC 6 cylinder diesel). It was pretty obvious 
that we had a clutch disc problem. So, I ordered up a new disc and it 
got here on Tuesday from the East. The mechanic then split the tractor, 
which is a bit of a task on this unit as the booms are 35 feet wide and 
the pair of stainless steel 150 gallon tanks do get in the way. So far 
so good as, yes, the clutch disc was worn out in the normal way (springs 
done for and nothing much left on the pads.)
      Then the complication struck. There was excessive end play on the 
crankshaft to the tune of 4 times maximum. Hmm. We pulled the oil pan 
off of the motor and found the strangest thing. Despite the motor 
running and driving from the shop to the yard, the number 5 cylinder 
journal of the crankshaft was broken and the rod bearing insert and rod 
were all that were holding the crankshaft "together"! This was very bad 
as we need to spray. The mechanic and I immediately contacted a number 
of people looking for a parts tractor or a replacement motor as it made 
no sense time-wise or cost-wise to buy a new crank and install it in the 
motor right now.
      So, Wednesday night one of my buddies let me know that he had a 
client that had two of these AC185 tractors and would sell me one of 
them for $1500. The tractor had a trashed ring gear but otherwise was 
good and the motor was "running when parked." So yesterday morning I 
drove down through the hills to go get this tractor with my Ford pickup 
and 30 foot gooseneck trailer accompanied by my 13 year old son. My 
buddy told me that oh by the way he has two of these tractors and I 
could choose which I wanted for the price. Then the seller said, hey how 
about you just buy them both for some more money. I thought about that 
for about 5 seconds and said sure lets do it as long as they both look 
decent. So I ended up loading on to the trailer the two tractors. With 
the weights each tractor had on them, the load weight of the trailer 
came to 14,000# and we towed them back through the pass (we climbed 
almost 2000') and on the curvy back road. So when I got back in the 
afternoon, I unloaded the two tractors (one driven off and the other 
pulled off), got the unit with the flywheel issue under the mechanic's 
crane and the "new motor" is nearly installed into the sprayer tractor. 
Completion should be in a few hours this morning. Hopefully we have not 
lost too much with the delayed spraying.
      I really did not have time to do this trip, but had I sent my 
employee, number one it would not have resulted in the two units coming 
back to the ranch (76 miles away), number two I would not have had that 
good day with my son and number three I don't think I would have gotten 
the great deal. So, what did I pay? $2000 for the two 1970s AC185's . I 
needed another tractor for pumping and trailers and got it. As is usual 
here they are Row Crop units with narrow tires and these two even had 
the ROPS with steel roof setups that are useful. I might be able to find 
a crank used now and get another working tractor, who knows!
      Did I have the money spare, no. But I had to get this fixed and 
getting a motor from wrecking yard here in California would have been 
more lengthy and have cost nearly as much as the two tractors did  so I 
am happy about the result of yesterday's work.

                    Grant Brians - Hollister,California farmer 
(impoverished) of vegetables, edible flowers, herbs, nuts and fruit