Oliver 500

How many Oliver 500 were built?



How many were diesel?





Are parts hard to find?

Would a diesel make a good restoration project?



TIA

About 2000 were made. 2 generations. No idea the percentage of gas to Diesel. I've only needed a few things for mine in the 30+ years I've owned it. Fuel lift pump, water pump, etc. Easy to get from Case or online sources. I've never needed major parts so no idea what that's like.

Would you be scared of one that had sat outside for 10 plus years with no cover over the exhaust?

2048 built, but if my theory is correct, it was 2046. A number of them were exported. I have one of the ones sent here in 59 for demonstration, it has a prototype tag from the experimental department, but it's serial number 3. Only 2 were sent. I think two were sent to the west coast to demonstrate to two other companies that were interested in selling them and that they were numbers 1 and 2.

That said, it's thought that around a quarter of them were gas. There was an A series that ran through number 1550 I believe it was, after that they were the C series. None of the C series were gas. My serial number 3 is diesel. I have a gas too, number 537. CaseIH dealers have some mechanical parts. Nelson LaCount has a fair number of parts, Elmer Landman has several crates of NOS parts for them too. I've had to get some parts sent here from David Brown Parts LTD in the UK. I need to order some soon for my 600. Those are even more rare. Only about 500 of those built, all diesel. If you scroll down a few posts, you'll see the new grill badges that Kevin makes for them. He also makes some beautiful grills for them.

Nelson keeps a serial number registry for them. There are around 125 500s on the registry, 26 600s. If you didn't know, the 500s are a David Brown 850, the 600s are a DB 990. Some Oliver guys want to forget that Oliver ever sold them, some of us are hooked on them because they're so different and so few and far between. We had a get together for them at a show in LaGrange Indiana in August of 21. There were 13 500s there and two 600s.

Thank you for your reply

Thank you for the info. Would you be scared of one that had sat for 10 plus years?

I'd be afraid of it, yes. If they'll let you take it home and pull the head to see what kind of mess you're dealing with first, maybe, or if all the sheet metal is excellent front to back and it's super cheap, I'd be interested, but otherwise, I'd leave it where it is. They seem to come along now and then, running.

(quoted from post at 17:38:04 03/20/23) Would you be scared of one that had sat outside for 10 plus years with no cover over the exhaust?

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Depends on what all is bad. Location? If it is in a rainy area, it's almost certain to have gotten water in cylinders and rusted valves into the head. If a cold area, very likely to have cracked due to freezing.

In addition to water getting in the engine through the uncovered exhaust, these will get rain into the transmission if the boots around the shift levers are bad or missing.

Total crapshoot. Is it free or near free?? Would not pay much without a thorough check over

If you get it, you'd want to get scrap price plus hauling it, for it if it's all junk and no parts could be sold off it.