D14 Finished

YTSupport

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Well, not really, may never be to my liking, but it runs like a top and the probably the closest I'll get to restoring a tractor to "new". It's not the cosmetics, they are only good at 10 yards away, I don't use any bondo and I haven't even rubbed it out yet, it is a working tractor, but the way it's running actually amazes me, it purrs like a kitten. I put a lot of new parts in it so I have some confidence that it will finally be as reliable as my Kubota.

One thing I was happy about is that for the first time, I replaced everything that was not right, and took my time, without just having dreams of a pretty tractor and hoping that the internals were going to hold up. I will have to say, the greatest satisfaction was punching the starter and having it kick off within 3 cranks. All I had to do was tweak the timing and now it runs better than it ever did in the old days. It wants a little choke and I'll have to figure that out. The oil pressure isn't perfect, it sit on the left edge of N of Normal, acceptable but a little lower than I expected. No leaks though it took a new water pump and retightening the new gaskets on the PD case to pull that off.

It's new crank, bearings, pistons, sleeves, governor, distributor, clutch, pressure plate, release bearings, water pump, hoses, clamps, battery, gauges, electronic ignition, completely refurbed, cam, valves, oil pump, relief valve, carb and block. All new wiring throughout with very good quality wire, and more seals than I can remember. It should run as good as my Kubota, because it probably cost more. That doesn't trouble me in the least because as I said before, this cost far less than most peoples vacations, furniture, new trucks etc, and I don't do those things, this is what I enjoy ;).

Here are some shots, I picked the best "before" I had, it was a tired restoration from the 90s when I started restoring tractors, "AC orange" and nearly dark red by last year. I blew the engine in about 2006 and started rebuilding about 2009 and then lost interest because I have other machines. Kim gave me a rebuild kit for my birthday last May, and that got me going. Then I used it as a learning tool for our son, so he'd have first hand experience rebuilding an engine himself. I'm working on other tractors, so it's been slow, but now it's ready to bush hog again (my main use of this tractor).

I will also try to post a video that has the engine running if I can get the size down enough. Can't believe how good this engine sounds with just a ear timing.

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You did a very nice job - Congratulations on finishing it!! I know just how good you feel every time you walk by it and turn your head to get a glance even though you just looked
at it some moments earlier :) I'm sure it's going to last you a long time. Did you do anything to the transmission or was all good? Seems that the transmissions act out before
anything else in the drive-train on the D-14's, I have two of them myself.
 
Thanks all. It's not supposed to be a show tractor, but hopefully will inhibit the rust.

On the transmission, I've heard the stories, but none of my Allis' pop out of gear. All I did there was take off the shift fork plate and seal against seepage, over the years it had build up scum around it. Also went into PD case and replaced the PTO o-ring.

I forgot to mention all the front end refurb. Lots of new and new-used parts up front. The steering gear case was particularly hard because the types of seals needed, they weren't available and for years, it had no gear oil in there. I was able to seal it up well with normal timken seals of the right size. Used a heavy oil and it hasn't leaked since I put it back together.
 
Don't know if this will work, I never post videos on here, but here is how the tractor sounds. Sorry it is so short, but I had to get it down to a size that wouldn't take forever to load. This is without having the right manifold on it, the muffler is just pushed into the exhaust port. If you have a really slow connection, don't click on it. it's 1.3 mb or so.


[video play=false:650f6b1184]http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/videos/mvvideo17127.mov[/video:650f6b1184]
 
Good point about pride, but I'd say more "relieved" after taking 15 or more years off from rebuilding. I have had a rebuild shutdown and freeze up within a couple of minutes, talk about having a bad day. The other rebuilds I've done, took me forever to get them running right, which isn't that much fun.

I suppose if I can take any credit, it may be for refusing to accept any marginal parts going back into it this time, but of course I'm aware that that's really a factor of how much you want to spend on a machine, not skill. I didn't care this time. I wanted it to be reliable and start first time every time, and not leave puddles on the floor of the barn. I've been spoiled by having a modern tractor, and I want my old tractors to be every bit as good and useful.

It was a good first rebuild experience for my son, and he's very proud of it. I let him take it for the first spin. At his age, he's driven tractors since he was a kid (he even has his own Oliver Detroit), but never rebuilt one, just like most of his peers. That's an experience no father should miss and there is pride in that for both of us.
 
Looks good. Sounds good. Now get it dirty! That's what it's made for!
Thanks for hosting the site and helping others.
Karl f
 
Yep, will get all scratched up too, but I'm still going to touch up all the scratches from assembly before I set the underbrush loose on it. It's not usually that bad though, the wheel weights take most of the damage. Have to put those on before use.

Thanks for the thanks on the site. It's the community that makes it though, not us.
 
Hey - From the looks of it and what you stated you all done to it, I believe you qualify for bragging rights. That is one nice looking D-14. You
should feel proud!
 
Thanks Gary. I'd have to say I do in some ways, but I'm still looking at it with careful eye. I found a little drip of oil which turned out to be half the oil pan bolts not fully tightened. That wasn't the first thing we found where we'd put something on and forgot to torque it down. Lotta small mistakes we are finding. We were driving it around and we heard a loud "Ting" and new something went wrong. The son stopped and we started looking at the ground behind it, and there was the generator pulley bolt, then found it's washer sitting below the radiator. Didn't tighten it down. Yes, still proud of it and enjoy staring at it, but there are also a few humble moments where you feel like slapping your forehead ;-). We're checking every nut and bolt tonight.
 
That's so neat to see one which looks like the brochures, 60 years later! Seems like someone put a picture up here recently of a nice restoration, but the "oval", or "football" decal was flat, not at that original angle.
 
Yeah, I was troubled over that, it's what sent me down to the warehouse library of brochures. I left off almost all the other decals, I couldn't see where they appeared in video or printed photos of the period. I figured they must have been started using them on the later ones after the PD became a liability issue and the lawyers got involved. Maybe 59?

This was original when I got it, and it had very sparse decals, not even the PTO decal. My recollection is the ovals, the hood decals and the air cleaner decal. No "warnings" whatsoever. Thing is, in those days, I bought the tractor just to use, didn't give a second thought to checking over it's details, and the first time it was painted (AC Orange, very wrong), it was just to get rid of the rust and make it easier to work on.
 
Nice job, I painted mine back in the day,

I had a nice selection of AC equipment for mine, snap couple 2x14? plow, double disc plow, 8 ft pickup disc, subsoiler, two row front mount
cultivators, two row corn planter,
Good quality 3 pt adapter,

Very nice old tractor,
 
Nice collection of implements. I have an 80R, the 8 foot disk (which I'm repairing the adjustment arm right now, threads stripped on it when I loaned it out last year, looks like a WD-109 but I don't know the model number), and the plow that came with it. It's the type with a rounded single piece cast beam for each plow, very different than the normal style where the beam is made up of multiple bar stock pieces. I also have one of those from a WD-45 that works on it. I have a Freeman trip bucket loader, but I've never mounted it and probably never will, the rams are rusted solid. This tractor had an AC hay rake which I didn't pick up at the time, and unfortunately the property it was on has changed hands. It disappeared 20 years ago, probably scrapped.
 
Thanks. It looks good, but it pales next to a lot of show tractors I've seen. A pro-clear coat job is very impressive to me, and this isn't pro (this is the first machine I've clear coated and much of it was done with temperatures and humidity below allowable). If I spent 2 or 3 days sanding and rubbing out, I could get in the ballpark, but it would still show all the prep imperfections I intentionally didn't fix for time. The focus of the project was engine rebuild / reliability, and there is where I think it's going to shine.
 

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