[AT] Allis Chalmers

[Grant Brians]

Sorry, one error on the posting, I rechecked the elevation of the pass 
and we only climbed 1550 feet with the tractors on the trailer. Still a 
bit of a climb. I must say thought that every time we go to the high 
elevation ranch, the pass there is 2235 feet and so getting there we go 
up 2075 feet in elevation and the ranch is at 1260 feet so the climb is 
less....
                   Grant Brians
On 6/10/2016 6:38 AM, Grant Brians wrote:
> 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
>