You can make a contribution to support
Simple
trACtors online, safely and
securely, using our PayPal account.
A couple of years ago, I bought a Big Ten with attachments,
largely because I wanted the tiller, rear PTO and tine extensions that were a
part of the package. It had been spray-painted green, without masking, and
the engine had not run in several years. But, the complete set of
attachments (snowblower, 42" deck and tiller), the hydraulic lift, and the price
convinced me to drive almost 5 hours, one way, to pick it up. I put
the attachments into use, and the tractor was parked, waiting ... The next
summer, Dave Christensen posted an ad to sell the Big Ten (shown just below), minus engine, with
an incomplete, rare Hi/Lo pulley setup. The Hi/Lo convinced me to drive
about 3 hours over to Dave's house and pick it up -- and of course I had to make
it worth my while -- so also I picked up a B-112 parts tractor (to complement my
B-210) and a bunch of smaller stuff....
Click for a closer view Before -- chassis with Hi/Lo (missing the correct shift linkage) and no
engine
NOTE: I don't have pictures of the ENTIRE process, because
I bought my digital camera after I'd begun the project.
Click for a closer view Before -- manual lift was also replaced with hydraulic, as
were some of the sheet metal and other pieces
Before I could find time to
start combining the two, I stumbled across another "deal." This time I
bought another running Big Ten, less the transmission/rear end, but also with the
desirable hydraulic lift. Included in the lot was a B-1 in SAD shape,
several non-running engines, and several attachments. All of a sudden,
I had lots of parts, and no room.... Rather than fooling with the first,
complete Big Ten that had sat for so long, I decided to quickly combine the
second and third ones, and get a good tractor in operation. (I still
have the complete, original one with its horrid green paint job.)
This
is a story of that project, crammed into my busy schedule. My goal was to
produce a good, working tractor -- not a show tractor -- that I'd still be
proud of... and get it done and ready for winter use. It is not a
"restoration" but more a "resurrection." This is a story of that project, though not a step-by-step.
I'm sure others would do things very differently -- I have a farmer's
heritage, after all ...
I had already
removed the High-Low pulley, disassembled it, checked it out. By
placing an ad looking for parts on the site, I happened
to "connect" with a club member who'd bought a similar pulley, minus the
mounting bracket, but otherwise complete. I had the bracket, but
no shift lever. So, I loaned him my bracket for him to fabricate a
matching one, and in return, he made a shift lever for me -- what a deal!
I began by removing the front of the tractor above, down to
the frame. Then I rolled it out of the barn, soaked it well with Gunk
degreaser, and cleaned it as good as I could. After it dried, I rolled
it back in, drained the gear oil out of the transmission, and stood the
tractor up on its rear 3-point hitch. (Note that it had no engine!) This allowed me to remove the
front axle, reinforcing plate and all supports, the footrests, and the
steering gear. I scraped and then used mineral spirits to remove all
grease and oil, then sanded the frame as needed. I primed all areas
where bare metal was showing using Rustoleum's gray automotive primer, and
spray painted it with American Accents (made by Rustoleum). The color
is Brilliant Yellow.
I prepped and painted the "bulkhead" separately.
There was quite a bit of surface rust and pitting around the battery, so
after sanding it, I prepped it with Naval Jelly Rust Conversion spray, then
primed it with Rustoleum brown Rusty Metal (zinc oxide) primer. Note
that I am NOT a fan of this primer for two reasons: 1) it is hard to cover
if you're spraying a light colored paint, and 2) it does not seem to
adhere nearly as well as to the automotive-type primer. I've had it peel off
down to bare metal on a couple of occasions. In this case, I thought
the extra rust prevention was worth it.
With all these pieces out of the way, I also washed the
all the accessible areas of the rear end and transmission with mineral
spirits (using a parts cleaning brush and wiping it off with rags) to
completely degrease them, and lightly sanded what parts I could get to
easily. Then I washed it again with mineral spirits to remove any
dust, and spray-painted the underside. Then, I turned my attention to the
front axle. I removed and checked the spindles for wear. Though
slightly worn, there were no pits nor burrs, and they seemed fairly tight in
the bushings. But, there was considerable "slop" up and down in each
side. I added an extra thin washer to the top of the right spindle
below the circlip, and tightened the left one by placing a large socket over
the top of the spindle and driving the short steering arm farther down on
the shaft. This tightened them considerably. I didn't bother
servicing the wheel bearings at that time, because I was planning on
replacing the front wheels and tires later anyway.
I found that the bracket that holds the rear end of the
front axle's "wishbone" was worn very badly, with the hole elongated into a
oval. It had even worn a groove in the wishbone itself. Luckily, I
had (among my many pieces/parts) a bracket that had a thick steel bushing
welded to the back of it (don't know if it was original, or someone else's
repair), so that the wishbone rode in this bushing and not just the angle-iron bracket itself. Since the wear in the wishbone was where it
passed through the bracket, the area at the very rear tip that rode inside
this bushing was not worn at all -- that tightened it up as good as new and it
should be MUCH more durable. I cleaned, sanded, primered and painted all these
pieces individually. Then I reattached the axle to the tractor,
complete with a new washer on the large axle pivot bolt. I selected
the least-worn of the steering gears from the two tractors, painted it and
installed it. I masked off the treads on the footrests, prepped and
painted them, then reinstalled them. Finally, I reinstalled the
bulkhead loosely (only a couple of bolts -- just in case I needed to remove
it again), installed the steering shaft with a new bushing without the
collar (in case I needed to remove the bulkhead), and adjusted the backlash
on the steering gear as best as I could. This is MUCH easier to do
with the tractor standing on its rear end! Once that was done, I
lowered the tractor back down on four wheels, jammed an old steering wheel
on the steering shaft (I'd been using a pair of vice grips on the steering
shaft while making adjustments), and rolled it out to take the pictures
below. I also refilled the tranny and topped off the bevel gear box
with gear oil.
Click each picture for a closer view
NOTES:
1. I had also painted the driveshaft
black, using Rustoleum spray paint, and reattached it to the bevel gear box.
2. The Ho/Lo pulley is shown installed only
as a "test fit" prior to painting it black also. I was trying to
determine where the bracket that holds the shift lever attaches to the
frame.
Meanwhile, as all
this paint and primer was drying, I had begun disassembling the other
"donor" tractor. I removed the engine and hydraulic lift, in addition
to all the sheet metal, stripping it down to a frame held together by the
bevel gear box. I pulled the sheet metal off the engine and found a
coffee can full of mouse nests! I then pulled the head to check for
damage or wear in the cylinder. There were no significant ridges, nor
scoring of the cylinder walls, so I simply cleaned all the carbon out and
reinstalled a new head gasket. These old Briggs are tough -- the
cooling air flow must have been reduced to a small fraction of what it
should be! Once I reinstalled the head, I carefully washed the engine
block down with mineral spirits, prepped it and painted it yellow. It
took considerable sanding to get the sheet metal smooth, before washing it
with mineral spirits, spraying grey automotive primer, then painting it
yellow. (NOTE: Big Tens were the last of the yellow engines and
transmissions -- B-12s and late-model 10HP B-10s had a black engine and
transmission.) It will be interesting to see how this general purpose
paint holds up to engine heat over time, but since I had no source for
high-temperature paint in the same shade of yellow, I went ahead and used
it.
Click for a closer view
At the same time, I
was prepping and painting the hydraulic lift off the donor tractor.
Note that one of the very positive things about this hydraulic lift is that
it is totally self-contained, and you do not need to "break any seal" and
risk introducing air, dirt or any other contaminant into the system.
The pump, reservoir and controls are one assembly, held in by three bolts in
the bulkhead. As shown at the left, the double-action cylinder mounts
to the same arms as the rear lift. The other end, not shown, connects
to a special bracket that mounts to the top two bolts in the front of the
bevel gear box, above the yoke for the driveshaft. By the way, these
systems use 30W motor oil instead of hydraulic fluid.
Once the hydraulic
lift was installed, I installed the engine and connected the driveshaft.
The hydraulic pump is driven by a small 4" cast iron pulley that mounts
between the driveshaft and the larger pulley that drives the
starter-generator. Note that there are complete Field Installation
Instructions for the hydraulic lift already posted on the site.
Once the tractor's engine and hydraulic lift were installed, and the pulleys
aligned correctly, I permanently installed the bolts that mount the bulkhead
to the frame, adjusted the pump's drive belt tension, and added the
top frame panel over the bevel gearbox, around the shifter.
NOTE: The tractors that came from the factory with
hydraulic lift use a shorter shaft on the lift mechanism, since no left lift
handle was needed. I did not "swap out" the long shaft for the shorter
one, and you can see it sticking out in the picture to the right.
Without the lift handle, it is much more noticeable. Field installations did not
replace this longer shaft, so I left it in. Looking back, I wish I had
transferred the shorter lift shaft from the donor tractor.
Click for a closer view
Click for a closer view
The picture at the
left shows the engine installed, and the front grille/hood frame also
installed. Note that I did not mask off the decals on the lift
controls and paint it. Instead, I used a small paintbrush later, and
painted the top, curved bar with the same black Rustoleum paint used
elsewhere. It may have been possible to mask off the unpainted parts,
but I couldn't figure out an easy way to do so -- and I didn't want to open up
any hydraulic lines and disassemble the controls. Similarly, I painted
the engine without the carburetor installed. The engine had no carb
when I bought it, and rather than have to mask it, I just waited to install
a used one. The center PTO controls shown on the left were also later "swapped out"
with ones that I painted black.
Next, I turned to
some of the "cosmetics" just so I could see the results, and keep motivated
to continue this time-consuming task. I selected the best of the two
grilles and cleaned it, using size "00" steel wool, then spray-painted with
"shiny silver" paint. There was a hole cut in the grille up high,
above the top cross-member o I
simply moved the Allis-Chalmers emblem up and installed it to cover the
hole. Similarly, I selected the nicest of the chrome side bars for the
grille, scrubbed the rust and pitting off using the "00" steel wool, and
then polished them with chrome polish.
You can also see the voltage regulator, with its cover
repainted black. Similarly, you can see the duct tape that I used to
mask off the front of the engine's main-shaft. This served two
purposes -- it kept me from losing the key that holds the pulley, and it
protected the shaft while I was using vice grips on it to turn the engine
over while I was painting it, and later while installing the tractor's
driveshaft and tightening down the bolts.
I later replaced the aftermarket muffler with an OEM-style
"coffee can" muffler, made by Nelson. These mufflers, shown in the
finished photographs, are still available from Simplicity dealers for about
$40.
Click for a closer view
Click for a closer view
Here's another view
of this status, with the repainted starter-generator and mount now visible.
I now wish that I had taken "before" pictures of the chrome strips so you
could see how well they cleaned up with the "00" steel wool. Note that
coarser steel wool will likely scratch the chrome, while "00" is about the
same abrasiveness as "Brillo" brand scouring-pads.
I
later took a small, artist-size paintbrush and painted all the bolt heads on
the tractor, including the rusty engine head bolts. I purchased new
stainless steel sheet metal screws for attaching the chrome grille strips
and the rear fenders, but I couldn't find either stainless or cadmium-plated
ones to replace the "common" steel ones that were on the tractor. Note
that one of Allis-Chalmers original sales points was the use of cadmium
bolts to assemble the tractor from individually-painted pieces, rather than
assembling the tractor, then painting it, including the bolts. Sadly,
over the years many of these cadmium-plated bolts had been replaced by
unpainted steel -- now rusty!
Next, I turned my attention to the rear of the tractor.
I spray-painted the top and sides of the transmission, bevel gear box,
linkages, etc. I removed and spray-painted the High-Low pulley black (which it was
originally) and re-installed it. Note that I was lucky enough to find two
new "pivots" -- the shiny aluminum connectors that connect the pulley's
shift linkage to the pulley itself. These parts are listed as NLA --
No Longer Available. I could only obtain one of the little hard-rubber
"buttons" (also NLA) that are used inside these pivots to dampen noise and
vibration. I had to make the other one, but at least I had a new
"pattern" to follow. I purchased a solid rubber test tube stopper and
carefully carved it down to fit, using an "X-acto knife." I also used
the knife to carefully cut the necessary groove down the center of this
button.
Click for a closer view
Click for a closer view
I had already disassembled the High/Low
pulley itself, checked it for wear, and replaced the grease. These
pulleys use several small, straight gears to perform the "gear reduction."
These gears wear on one end only, where they engage and disengage the larger
drive gear inside the pulley. According to Al Eden, you can simply turn these small
gears around on their shafts, so that the other end of the gear wears.
I turned these over, as a part of my servicing. Note that the kind
person who fabricated my shift rod also fabricated a new set of "shift
fingers." This is the U-shaped piece of black metal held on by the two
bolts in the top center. It pushes the pulley in toward the
transmission when you shift into High Range. When in High Range, the
visible outside hub does not turn, and the fingers help prevent that.
When in Low Range the entire pulley turns, and runs in the grooves in the
pivots and the buttons inside them. You can see the "brown circle"
where the flange on the puller rides in those grooves.
I've heard some people criticize these pulleys, and I can't
speak for this one's durability at this point. However, I'm VERY
pleased with this one so far. It gives three quite usable gear ratios
to work with: 1st-High, 2nd-Low, and 2nd-High. 3rd-Low is useful for
moving around the yard or hauling things in the yard. 3rd-High is a
true "road gear" that's almost too fast for my rough yard (at high
throttle, any way), while 1st-Low is a true "creeper gear," very useful for
tilling.
Having used both my B-210 and this Big Ten with my Johnny Bucket, I think this
pulley setup
transfers much more power to the ground than the Vari-Shift on my B-210. I
really like the Vari-Shift for mowing, but that's about it -- it doesn't
feel like it has the low-end torque and "brute force" that this one has.
(This is NOT an issue of traction -- I had my lug tires and extra
weight on each
tractor when using the bucket.) I'm anxious to play with this one this
winter, pushing snow with the heavy-duty dozer blade that I found this
summer.
While the paint on the rear of
the tractor was curing, I shifted my attention back to the front of the
tractor. This picture shows the carburetor and air cleaner installed,
along with a test fitting of the dash with an old hood. Note that I
originally painted the air cleaner yellow, like an early B-10, only to find
out that some Big Tens (and all late B-10s and B-12s) had black air
cleaners. I repainted it black later. What sent me looking was
the new white decals for the air cleaner....
Also
visible in this picture is the black PTO linkage, which it was originally,
according to the brochure on the site. Note, however, that this brochure also
shows (on the cover and scattered throughout) a Big Ten with a YELLOW dash
-- which is a BIG mystery to me, unless it was pictures of a test "mule."
Click for a closer view
The dash was painted with Dupli-Color Truck, Van and RV
spray paint, shade T-205W, Wimbleton White. This is slightly
off-white, but not nearly as dark and yellow as the original AC Cream.
It matches the nice sewn, pleated seats that I purchased from Sandy Lake Implement quite
well. You can see those seats best in the gallery photos, linked at
the end of this story.
Click for a closer view
Slightly visible above, and clearly shown at
the left is my reproduction front/rear ball hitch. I had not
tried fitting it to my B-210 since I had the mower deck on it, so I took
another "motivational timeout" to try installing it on the Big Ten.
Talk about a handy attachment -- it fits both
the front and rear, and mounts using only the normal two hitch pins on
either end. I learned the value of having a front, "spotting hitch"
this past weekend when I finally cleared enough old tractors out of my barn
(they're now stored underneath it) to put my fishing boat in for the first time.
Putting a 78" wide boat in an 84" garage door was a breeze....
Next, it was time to paint the
rest of body parts. In each case, I selected the best piece from
either of the two tractors, sanded, primed with automotive primer, and then
painted. I wet-sanded the top surface of these primered parts, and sprayed primer again,
filling the little pits, though I hadn't bothered doing that with the frame.
Then I spray-painted them with 4 or 5 light coats of yellow paint.
Knowing how it must endure (and also reflect) sunlight, I "color-sanded"
the hood, lightly wet-sanding the paint between coats. I didn't bother
wet-sanding the undersides of these parts. Finally, I
sprayed at least 2 light coats of American Accents (same brand as the yellow
paint) clearcoat. I hung all the body parts up to air-dry for at least
24 hours between coats.
Click for a closer view
Also barely visible under all the mess and paint cans at the
bottom of this shot of my overflowing barn are both the ugly green Big Ten
that started all this and a B-1, waiting their turns. My nine year
old son now wants me to build one of these for him -- I haven't decided which
one to tackle next -- but that's likely next summer's project in my unheated
barn. The best part is that now that it is a "father and son"
project, my hobby now has my wife's full endorsement!
Click for a closer view
This picture shows the first
test fitting of the hood and headlights, both freshly painted. The
headlights are new, taken off an unknown brand of imported (Chinese?) compact tractor
-- it was blue, is all I know. I bought them off eBay for about the same
price as a pair of NAPA (i.e. quality) rubber utility lights. (I have
a set of cheap WalMart rubber utility lights on my B-210 and am not very pleased
with them -- I can't keep them tight from my constantly rubbing into my
evergreen shrubs when mowing.
I really like the fluted
lenses, and the "bug-eyed" look that the larger size provides. These are
dual-beam, with high and low beams. I purchased an aftermarket
two-position pull switch, and wired it so that the first position is "low
beam" and fully out it is "high beam." One challenge, though,
was sufficient hood clearance because of their size.
After this trial
fitting, I had to remove the lights and light mounting bar, and bend the
tips of the light bar down for more clearance. Because the light bar
is made of 3/8" stamped steel, I had to put the bar in my vise and heat it
with a propane torch to get it to bend. Then, another trial fitting,
and then remove it again and repaint it where I'd just burned the paint off.
Throughout this entire project, I had several instances of this "one step
forward, three steps back..."
Once the sheet metal was
painted, it was time to add the decals that I purchased from Wells Implement. I
used a spray-bottle holding water with a couple drops of soap to wet each
area then installed the appropriate decal. This allows you to slide
the decal around slightly until it is located "just so!" Then, I
"chased" any water bubbles out from under the decal to the edges, using a
small "squeegee." Overall, this worked well, but some decals,
particularly the dash (shown at the right) were made of such thick material
that it was difficult to get ALL the water bubbles out. I'm still
using my thumb and chasing the bubbles out one at a time.
This picture shows the dash assembled (except for the new
light switch), ready for permanent installation on the tractor. Both
the dashes on these two donor tractors had the extra hole in the top of the
dash, but neither had anything mounted in it. I suspect that the hole
was for a toggle switch, for lights perhaps, but I used the large hole
that's barely visible (the decal covers it, and is not cut out yet) just below the leather key fob.
Click for a closer view
Click for a closer view
NOTE: The black steering wheel is NOT correct for a Big
Ten. It should be white, but I found a black one in fairly good shape
-- all my white ones were badly cracked and broken.
The most difficult decals for me
to install were the long thin Allis-Chalmers logos down each side of
the hood. It was a challenge for me to get them running perfectly
straight. I'm disappointed with one side of my hood, but "Oh, well!"
The decal kit came complete with the engine decals. The decals for the
optional hydraulic lift were an additional price, but Mark Wells "threw in"
the decal for the optional High-Low shift pattern. The new decals make
a huge difference in the way the tractor looks -- and the smiles it brings
to my face. I consider the price as money well spent.
At this point, I connected all the wiring, installed new
points, plug and condenser, and finally tried started
the tractor -- what a pleasure to hear it run! I had some temporary hassle with the
"kill switch" but finally discovered that I'd pinched the wire that grounds
out the points when I installed the dash and tightened down the bolts that
hold the sides to the bulkhead.
Next, I started to reassemble
the rear of the tractor, starting with the seat deck, fenders and the new
seat. I had found a old tractor tool box on eBay that
caught my eye because of the "angled" bottom on it. These angles
compliment the angles of the rear fenders. (I have no idea what it came
off, but it was red....) As a part of my "parts tractor buy," I had also
gotten a badly rusted old rear
tractor light. This one also intrigued me -- it too is dual element.
It has the normal utility rear light, but it also has a small, colored tail
light bulb that shines through a round hole in the reflective coating of the
utility light bulb. There's a small toggle switch on the top of the
light's housing that switches it from one mode to another -- a colored
taillight for the street, or a utility light for working. The
dash-mounted switch simply applies the power, while the toggle switch on the
light determines the mode.
I had to fabricate a mounting bracket for both the toolbox
and the light. I purchased a 48" piece of flat stock, 1/8" thick
and 1" wide, and cut it to
length. Then I put it in my vise, heated it with a propane torch and twisted one end 90 degrees
to provide a horizontal mounting surface for the light. After drilling
holes, primering and painting it yellow, I mounted it
and the toolbox to the bottom mounting bolts for the seat back. The
toolbox also mounts with the upper mounting bolts of the seat back.
I ran the electrical wire for the rear light through a
clear, flexible tube to protect it and "zip-tied" it to the bottom of
the bracket mounted on top of the tranny that supports the seat and rear
fenders. Each end of that clear tubing is clamped in place with a
rubber-coated clamp for electrical lines.
Click for a closer view
NOTES:
1. This picture also shows
the air cleaner, repainted to its correct black color, and the appropriate
decals installed.
2. While I was at it, I fixed a common problem with these
seats -- "drooping" armrests. Approximately 3" out from the end of the
toolbox on each side, I drilled a hole in the light mounting bar and a
corresponding hole in each tube (also now painted silver -- they were too
rusty to salvage the chrome) that holds up each armrest. Then I
bolted the light bar and the tube together on each side. These
armrests are now solidly upright!
Click for a closer view Finished!
The final steps were to replace
the old muffler with the new, original-style one, and to replace the tires
and wheels all around, replacing the worn wheel bearings. There are more pictures of the finished tractor in the gallery,
as I was preparing for the recent New England club gathering.
I'm quite pleased with the results. It think it is a
good-looking, hard-working tractor. I've already used it quite a bit
with my Johnny Bucket (in addition to other minor chores) to grade the old
horse stalls underneath by barn to make room for storing all my parts
tractors (out of the Missus' sight -- smile!). I'm now prepping it for
winter snow plowing and snowblowing.
I'd like to thank the many club members who contributed to
this project with their answers to questions, parts, and advice.
Without a resource like this club, this could never have happened! I
also hope this long story is of value to another club member -- it is not a
"how-to" article -- others know much better than I how to do this.
Instead, it is a "diary" that shows that this is a project that anyone with little
skills, but a bit of patience, can successfully complete. Hopefully it
will help encourage others to resurrect some of these tough old tractors!
I think you'll pleased with the result....
