Challenging restoration or junk??

[Taylortractornut]

Dont be an iron monger Restore that beautiful little AC D. We have one at work, My brother has had 2 in his business wich we bought the second one and had a cab made for it. Lots of them just got parked as they got older like the 2 we had from Carb problems. What happens is the tanks get trash inside and the carb gives alittle trouble also the proper tires are hard to find. They are the old 8 - 20 tires but we got a set of elcheap china tires for now. 8-20 grader has an R4 style and better side walls.


The D also used a Clark transmission. some parts are still available. We grade over 2 miles of gravel roads at work. And all the dirt haul roads for the trucks. We also precision fine grade building pads and parking lots. ANd maintain all the parking lots for the plants we service.

My brothers first one was the older D with the manual angle blade, It had holes in the turn circle that had a neat linkage with a pin and puller that had a little string on it you worked from the Cab with ease. Just pull the blade up and pull the string. Then drop one blade side down to the ground and eas forward and release the pin near the angle you want. That let the pin drop into the right hole.

It works great but folks now dont like it. I ran it abunch windrowing material. He used it for 5 years many hours a week in the 90's building sale lots and subdivision roads.

THe last one we bought from him has a bearing rattle in first we will have to adress and a few leaks but other than that we run it every other rain to resurface our road. The first grader sold for 10 000 We bought the second for 4500 as my brother was downsizing his fleet. He is now looking at another one. Both machines he got were discarded for minor reasons by the original owners. THe first one a neighbor had and he and his dad built a nice rops for it, and then built a small driving range with it. My brother saw it and the motor was free but it wouldnt crank. Turns out some one had over filled the oil bath filter and it soaked the pistons with oil and it was left to rot. I road home down the highway on the back while holding a boat gas can feeding the carb.
We came home fixed a few leaks tightened the blade, and slapped an Earl Shive paint job on it and worked it out. Made 10 000 dollars the fiist job.

That machine you pictured has a hard to find scarifier attachment. that was frame mounted. I wished ours had it as it makes a great deal of work easier as it takes work off the blade. If your not interested in restoring it be fore scrapping it I would be interested in it. I hadte to see old iron go make a Jinma

I saw one that the transmission was bad and one couldnt be obtained the man took a hydrostat from an IH 750 combine and a truck axle and made a 4x2 grader. That configuration doesnt doenst fine grade pads as well but it does great on roads.

 

[HCJtractor]

THanks for all the feedback! After deer season, I will talk to the landowner and see what his thoughts are and make sure he is willing to part with it.

 

[MacLawn]

HCJ, I would take it! With 6 miles of road, you must have storage space until you can work on it. And, Taylortractornut above, gave excellent advice - sounds like the boy knows what he is talking about.

 

[Taylortractornut]

I saw the second pic just now and yours has the manual angle. Look to the left side of the nose and you will see it. Yours even has the ariginal rod linkage to the turn circle lock. thats rare. Most of them after time was changed to a rope. to work the parallel linkage to the lock as most of the time parts vibrated off after many years of service. Whats more rare was some one ordered the scarifier attacment but not the hydraulic turn circle.

If you do get the grader, and one of the chain boxes needs a chain dont order them from a machinery dealer, any good chain and bearing supply can provide them. Also the hydraulic pump is frame mouned and belt driven. Its a simple set up, THe pumps MF and IHC used on their older combines to the 80's are a perfect match. Also you can very easily put power steering on them and the one we have now we added power steering to from combine and fork lift parts.

Maclawn thanks for the compliment Im just glad to see one interested in being saved. Overall they are a great grader to maintain roads and build pads. Whats so good about them is its easy to make a nice finish on ground with them.

 

[MidGaOutdoor]

nice. id do it. if u dont want it give it here we'll take it lol.id snatch it up in a heartbeat if hes giving it to u.

 

[6011Artist]

I'm going to chime in with Taylortractornut. Restore it to use, don't scrap it. I live about 4 miles from a shredder/scrapyard and it hurts my feelings to see some of the old vintage iron in good restorable shape headed to the shredder. When the price of scrap went up everybody cleaned out the woods and behind their shop, hard to find parts for anything old now.

If you can get it, drag it home, check it out, see what it will take to get it running. If you aren't interested SOMEBODY will be. If it has a frame mounted pump and that one is bad it would be easy to adapt some other kind up to it if necessary. And if that old gas engine isn't stuck, chances are you can crank it. Even if you want to rebuild it anyway, I always like to start one to determine it's problems.

A man with 6 miles of dirt roads definately has a use for it. It won't be like a new modern day one, but it definately is worth investing a lil time and money into it to see what ya got. If it seems to be too much for you, pass it on to someone else that needs parts or has a desire to rebuild it.

For the sake of us old iron lovers, don't scrap it.

Also, not sure if they got a motorgrader section but for old iron I find yesterdays tractor forum to be very helpful. Owning a Yanmar brought me here, I like the build-it-yourself section also. This forum is for people that use their equipment daily where yesterdays is mainly a restoration site.

 

[harpoonalt]

If you decide to restore it, start a thread here and you'll get a lot of help. I love old equipment and that one would be beautiful all restored. At least rescue it and get it to someone who would. Looking forward to it!