[AT] tractor question

[Greg Hass]

My brother is interested in buying a Case LA. He has a line on two of 
them; a 1949 and a 1951, both with no hydraulics. Last Saturday, before 
looking at these two he went to a sale about 3 hours away that had one 
with hydraulics. Shortly after looking it over he determined it was 
pretty much a basket case but as the sale was going fast he decided to 
stay and see how it went. Well he ended up buying it for a few hundred 
just to get the hydraulics. Yesterday he went to see the other two which 
are about 20 miles from here. Both supposedly run but have not been 
started in six years; one had been fixed up as a pulling tractor. My 
brother said he has never seen so much difference in tractors. The junk 
one he bought appears to have hydraulic brakes although they would 
probably never work. One of the ones he looked at yesterday has no real 
brakes but just a lever attached to a brake band that goes around a 4 in 
pulley attached to the end of a pinion shaft. The last tractor has 
mechanical brakes, but one pedal on each side of the tractor. Because of 
these differences, his question is would the hydraulics from his junk 
tractor fit these other two tractors? It appears you take the pto and 
the rear plate off the plain tractors and put the whole back housing 
from the parts tractor which adds about 10 inches to the transmission 
length. Also, is the pto live or transmission driven. If its like a Case 
930 we had once the hydraulic pump runs with a roller chain from the pto 
shaft inside the housing. When we turned the pto it sounded and felt 
like a roller chain inside. On a side note, we sometimes complain about 
our lot in life; the guy who has these tractor mainly collects and sells 
Moline tractors but others do all the work if he can find help. This guy 
has been in a wheelchair for 46 years due to an accident that need not 
have happened. He was at an open intersection and knew he should stop 
but figured he could  slow down and see anyone coming. He told my 
brother he doesn't know how he missed the oncoming pick-up but he did 
and the pick-up didn't see him and the crash happened. He can operate 
the motorized wheelchair but cannot write or feed himself. I guess 
someone always has it worse. Another thought, it appears if you put on 
hydraulics you must use that PTO as it looks different from the plain 
tractor. Would be glad for any help.
            Greg Hass