[AT] Allis Chalmers

[Recentjester at aol.com]

I like Orange stories 
 
 
In a message dated 6/10/2016 9:52:54 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
yostsw at atis.net writes:

I love  the "going and getting" stories.  BTW I drive one of those once. - 
a heck  of a tractor.  You got a deal!

Spencer Yost

> On Jun 10,  2016, at 9:38 AM, Grant Brians <sales at heirloom-organic.com>  
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
> 
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