My 1927 Allis 20-35

Awesome video! Whenever I watch this old iron, I somehow contrast it to a 620 horsepower quad track!
I'll try to get my son to post pictures of the broken magneto links.
Thanks
Darrel

Thanks, Jacob!!
Only thing I've done so far is get all of the steel lugs off the wheels, hoping to get some tire treads put on so it can't be moved around more easily. Did try to see if it had any life in it (engine had been running six years ago), and got it to fire just a bit, but then a couple of little links, not sure what they are all about in front of the magneto broke.
I guess that you could call that a step backwards, but I'm not down and out about that at all. Sometimes you have to back up and take a run at something to make progress!! Hopefully I'll have something good to report in the "not to distant" futures. Only obstacles in my way are shortage of time and money!lol!
Darrel

I acquired a 1928 20-35 about a year and a half ago
Not sure when progress will start on it, but hopefully soon. Guess I'll have to read through this entire thread to gain a little knowledge on it.
Darrel

Northern Aged Iron, Highbridge, WI 2021.  Ran several wagon loads through the threshing machine with my 20-35 and the only issue I had was I had to tighten up the clutch a bit as it was starting to slip.  Feels good to have most of the bugs worked out of this tractor, ran like a top!  Maybe next year we will get the lugs on it so we can do some plowing, didn't get that done in time for this year, only got the turning bands on.

Hi all, I was back home earlier this month for a Fourth of July vacation, and got some nice tractor wrenching time in with Dad.  Got one more little project done on the 20-35, then took it on a little ride.  

I looked through the entire gallery. Well done !


Edited by JeremyShaw - 09 Oct 2019 at 4:12am

AirFox photography takes some nice videos, and drone videos for the club. Be sure to check them out if you like this kind of stuff. Here is the parade on Sunday. Dad taking my 20-35 through is about the 16:50 mark.

Was good to visit with you at Hutch,, happy the mag problems were sloved easily..hope the cam issues are fixed as well.

So things were going pretty good, no major new problems were coming up, sure little ones, like chasing oil leaks etc... but that was minor in the big picture. We make the final decision that we would be bringing the tractor to Hutch, and I went back to ND.

Then things went downhill fast.

A week or so after I was back home Dad texts me that we have a major problem and probably shouldn't run the tractor any more. My heart sank to the pit of my stomach.
He sent these pics.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XA1rpk1k8esDknXd7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VbJrnVGYYjPo6nJ28

It is kind of hard to see, but the bottom edge of three of the lifters were chipping off. He was getting ready to give it an oil change and had pulled the side covers off to see how things looked and check for anything that may be wrong. It is a good thing he did!

So to make a long story shorter, what happened again ties back to professionals not doing their job right, and us not knowing any better at the time. Very very frustrating.

So go back 4 years or so, back to when we had initially broke down the engine and brought the parts to the machine shop to be re machined. They were to bore out the original sleeves to accept the new(old) 5" pistons, and assemble the rotating assembly of the block. All the bearings, etc... the short block as they say, and we would take it from there.
Which is what happened.
Back when we brought it to them we asked what should be done with the cam and lifters. They told us they would POLISH the cam and RESURFACE the lifters and we would be good to go. We said OK, that sounds good, as we didn't know any better and trusted them that they knew what they were talking about.

Well it turns out that was a HUGE mistake. Everyone I talk to now says you always grind a cam and the lifters to match on this kind of a rebuild. If it was a running engine and just doing a freshening up might be a different story. But the machine shop knew this was not the case.

So what was happening is the cam is BADLY worn (unbeknownst to us) and putting all the strain on the edge of the lifters, and possibly with failing lifters due to quality issues of the lifters themselves, everything started chipping.

So we did bring it to Hutch, but only ran it minimally with magnets in the pan and did not run it on the belt pulley dyno like originally we were planning to do. It was still worth the trip, as a previous owner got to see the tractor run, and he had never seen it run before, as it was a project way back when he got it! He dang near teared up when it started up. And on two quarter turns like it should, so that made us look really good. Getting to show him really made us happy, and like I said, made all the effort worth while!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/v7gSWnasrHoscHZ38
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vAZWwbqu68p9WaKh9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/agFKWJ3hJnPJDjx66
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xseEuGRXwSSX4KBb6


The good news is I got two umbrellas at the swap meet at Hutch, plan is to take the AC canvas and put it on the other stand, and with some repair and fab up a new holder have a nice vintage shade maker for the 20-35!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZGLUDbVrMmwmUGnT9

More bad news, we went to start it up for a friend Saturday afternoon, and it wouldn't start as the mag impulse quit working intermittently. It had never missed a click up until this point. So we got it running luckily, loaded it up on the trailer and pulled the mag off and gave it to my mag guy which happened to be at the show. He took it home and fixed it, and I just heard back today that it is ready to go again!

So we limped it home from Hutch and got it rolled into the garage in the rain of course. The day before I had to go back to ND we tore the tractor back down to have the cam and lifters reworked. Went smoothly, as we knew how everything goes together by this point, LOL! Less than three hours we had it apart. 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GNREtz2juX4MjqpA7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tA31PRkDESuPyxTG8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZuazaoqeZ7nr4q5f8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iQeUm2vZfR7gjLsa6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/quCXdXC5bkv1b7iNA


And as long as things are open and apart, I snapped a pic up to see if I could see any casting numbers in the pistons. I knew they were 5", but then people were asking what KIND of 5" were they? And I didn't know.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y86aYguyQQP8KzpRA
well, now I do. They all have number 209643 cast into them, and looking that number up in the parts book tells me they are the 5.2 ratio Gas Allis Chalmers pistons. Because there were other manufacturers of pistons aftermarket, for example "DeLux".


So once we got the cam out we took a good look at it, and boy was it worn bad! Can't believe the machine shop would have OK'd anything like this. Won't be going back to them again.

So the folks delivered the cam and another set of used lifters to Berry Cam in Lester Prairie MN. They went and picked them up today so things can start to go back together now.

The plan is to have it up and running for our local show Northern Aged Iron in Highbridge WI September 21, 22 2019.
http://www.northernagediron.com/
Where we can hopefully actually work it and see what it can do!
If you have nothing going on that weekend, we would love to see you there!

That was a big job! Kudos!

Thanks for updating us and posting the videos / pictures . Congratulations on all of your hard work and persistence. You deserve a lot of credit for keeping after this all this time. Keep up the good work and keep us in the loop . Any chance of you bringing it to hutch in the future?

Jacob,

Well ladies and gentlemen, four years of effort finally payed off this past weekend!

Edited by Jacob (WI,ND) - 23 May 2019 at 10:11pm

Hi all, 

So it's been a couple months now, I don't have a ton of progress, but a couple of small updates are better than nothing.

The good news is that Dad got his lathe up and running! He had one of his electrical buddies come check out the motor. Turns out it was shot, so that's why he wasn't having any luck getting it going. Kind of frustrating since it was sold to him as being in operational condition when brought to the auction. Not true. But he sourced a new motor locally for a fair price, and are now good to go. Still needs to locate it permanently in the shop and level it all up and everything, but getting it going was the big hurdle. 

One question for you all: What should the ends of the push rods look like where they sit in the lifters? I've talked to a couple guys and the consensus seems to be just a slight crown to the ends. Some of mine are rather worn and badly pitted. We want to polish them up, or try to save the poor ones. Might end up going through the hardened end? Not sure how deep that goes. We have nothing to loose I guess, they are no good as is. So any suggestions welcome.

Other good news is that the cleaning and repair of the fuel tank has begun. I knew we would find a use for that cement mixer we fixed up many years ago 

I even tried my hand at basic video editing, so don't laugh.
[TUBE]5sJkIHZ1lBo[/TUBE]

Then I wanted to get done the project I have been waiting to do.  One I hoped would be fairly easy and straight forward.  Take apart the radiator, clean and reassemble with new bolts and gaskets.

Edited by Jacob (WI,ND) - 18 Aug 2018 at 6:37pm