I am not sure there's many tips I can pass on -- all you guys helped me so much -- I think you're the ones with all the tips.  But if I learned anything, its not to let to many people get their hands in there when your not looking.  I was called away for an hour or so during the removal of the steering wheel and cowling and gauges.  Thank God my father-in-law took pictures, because I couldn't for the life of me figure out the wiring.  But, after he was home he got out the magnifying glass and looked over the pictures, then made up a wiring diagram for me and emailed it down, it worked great.

Well on to the whole story, it was in 1990 . . . My wife and kids and I were visiting at my wife's uncle's farm.  He had a few riding lawn mowers and a bigger tractor or two, but out by the barn all covered in junk was this old beat up yard tractor.  My boys would pretend to ride it any time we went over. I 'd never see him us this old thing, but on one visit my eldest son, Cody, asked him if he could start it up and ride it.  He told Cody that if you and your dad could make it run you can take it home...

"I'll even bring it up to the house for you," he said. 

I said, "Whats up with the old thing?"  

He said he had bought it around 1985 for a couple hundred bucks. He then put a lot of money into new rubber, and he used it to mow the lawn.  He welded together some old 5 gallon barrels cut them in half and used them for a plow blade.  He soon expanded his farm and the little tractor was no longer big enough for all that he wanted to do. One day while cutting the lawn it died, so he pushed it back by the barn and that's where it sat.

So he said, "Well its been sitting for about five years -- same gas and oil."

He said, "If you can actually make it run you deserve to own it, so I grabbed some jumper cables and a can of quick start.  After a few minutes of cranking, away it went, it ran a little rough, but it was running.  I put it in gear and drove it out from where it was parked.  Uncle Bob couldn't believe his eyes.... But, he backed up his pickup and we loaded it up, and he brought it up to the house right away.

Since then,  I painted it once all bright yellow and black.  It looked not too bad. I used it for many years to mow the lawn and to plow my drive in the winter, even though we don't get much snow here. 

I never knew what I had -- I only knew it was an old Allis-Chalmers, he thought anyway.  Then I got on here and started looking -- that's when I found your great site!  I love this old tractor -- its powerful and will work all day with no trouble at all. I didn't do a complete restoration, because I think that would have included taking the rear end the motor all apart and rebuilding them. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find parts.  I've since found a few places where I can by seals and gaskets.  Maybe this winter I'll break it all down and do all that I missed the first time around.  But I wanted it to look as original as possible, and I had work planned for it -- patience is not my strong suit -- so this whole restoration only took me a week and a bit to complete.  I think the paint was even a little wet on some pieces when I put it back together.

The plow blade I have on it now was built for me by a friend, free of charge.  Its not original, but it works great. As soon as the paint was dry I put it to work in the bush behind my house plowing down black berry bushes and hauling logs. I've since cleared about half an acre.  Well, that's about it for now, Kent.

Here's the old girl all along the way to getting it finished.  Enjoy.  I hope you can make something of all this, I have to go work on my B10 now. I had a throttle cable break yesterday, and it would just have to be up under the cowling.  Oh well, I love taking it apart. I should be able to do it with my eyes closed now, Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!   Have a good day! 

Your tractor friend,
Mike Cross
Vancouver,  Canada

Thanks, Mike, for such a great story -- and the pics!  They show a lot of valuable detail, especially of the exposed drivetrain....