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55allis 
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 Topic: Later d17 saved from fence row
Posted: 23 Sep 2025 at 11:49pm |
I did it again, bought another tractor out of a fence row… Looks to be a series 3 d17 gas with a serial number of 66169, correct me if I’m wrong because I have been before. Haven’t picked it up yet to mess with it but hoping to get it this week before harvest stuff get crazy but I figured I’d post it now to start from the beginning. The front end is only sitting on it due to some one swapping the original narrow front to a wide front and not taking the time to do it properly. 
Edited by 55allis - 24 Sep 2025 at 8:51am
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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Hubert (Ga)engine7
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Location: Jackson Cnty,GA
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 5:06am |
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Congratulations, nice find. Looks like a good winter project.
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Just an old country boy saved by the grace of God.
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ACinSC
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Location: South Carolina
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 5:38am |
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D series are my favorite. Please post pics of the process if you can. Good luck!
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55allis
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 9:02am |
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The guy who owed it is a John Deere guy so he was really excited to have this one gone, he has another one that’s in better shape he’s trying to get rid of too but it’s a series 1 I think.
Don’t think this one will be a throw a battery in and go type….
What size of front tires are the series 3 supposed to have?
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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DrAllis
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 9:53am |
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6:00 or 6:50 x 16's. Some later ones may have had 7:50's but on a wider rim.
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Alberta Phil
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 9:57am |
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Standard size was 6.00 X 16
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Dan Hauter
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Joined: 06 Feb 2011
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 11:32am |
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Good luck with the restoration! I love to see AC's saved.
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AC7060IL
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 12:12pm |
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55allis, Congrats on rescuing it. Serial number 66169 would make it a 1963. So its got the dry engine air filter. Assuming since its muffler is busted over, engine may be frozen?? One good thing, is that you won't have to remove old tires from rims.... :)
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wjohn
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 10:50pm |
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Good save. Yes we are all curious if there is any chance the engine isn't stuck.
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1939 B, 1940 B, 1941 WC, 1951 WD, 1952 CA, 1956 WD-45
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55allis
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Posted: 24 Sep 2025 at 11:04pm |
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Not sure yet, previous owner was thinking it wasn’t stuck when he got it… but he wasn’t sure how long he had it…
Was told the muffler got broke off in the year before storms…
Not sure how good the muffler kept the moisture out but it does look like it has a good rain cap. Really hoping it didn’t fill with water and freeze…. I know from experience what that could do…
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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Phil48ACWC
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Joined: 17 Jan 2013
Location: Vermont
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Posted: 25 Sep 2025 at 5:58am |
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Good fixable tractor. Go slow and easy on the bent up sheet metal.
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Sugarmaker
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Posted: 25 Sep 2025 at 6:30am |
55allis, That is a project for sure. Looking forward to seeing your progress. I like our early D17! Regards, Chris and Cheryl
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D17 1958 (NFE), WD45 1954 (NFE), WD 1952 (NFE), WD 1950 (WFE), Allis F-40 forklift, Allis CA, Allis D14, Ford Jubilee, Many IH Cub Cadets, 32 Ford Dump, 65 Comet.
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55allis
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Posted: 27 Sep 2025 at 11:51am |
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I got it to its new home!!
It’s missing the starter, waterpump and both snap coupler latches.
The engine is stuck but I got all the controls to move freely. The gear shifter is stiff but it will shift in all the gears. The gas tank is mostly shiny in the bottom as I can see.
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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55allis
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Posted: 27 Sep 2025 at 1:53pm |
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Ok so the front end is off an early d17 and so the bolts are 1/2” instead of 5/8”…
Would it be save to drill the bolster holes out to 5/8”? It looks like there’s enough cast there to handle it but I wanted to make sure…
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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dfwallis
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Posted: 27 Sep 2025 at 3:15pm |
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Good save. There's a WD45 near me sitting along the road almost like a lawn ornament. Doesn't look to be in bad shape. Wish I could afford another one :(
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1952 CA13092
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55allis
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Posted: 27 Sep 2025 at 11:13pm |
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Well I came to the conclusion that I possibly could do some modifications to the front end to make it work…
So I could cut the rear pin mount off the axle and weld it on the front side of and drill the 1/2” holes on the bolster to 5/8”…
For the engine, it’s still stuck but looking through the spark plug holes it doesn’t seem to look too bad. I think I’m going to pull the head just to check things out to be safe.
It’s going to need a water pump and starter due to them missing.
What other machines have the same starter?
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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DrAllis
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Posted: 28 Sep 2025 at 3:06am |
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That is a legit series 3 tractor. That front axle is from the first gen D-17 series and it ain't quite the same at that rear pivot pin area.
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55allis
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Posted: 28 Sep 2025 at 10:56am |
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Wonder if anyone would want to trade?
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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DrAllis
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Posted: 28 Sep 2025 at 12:48pm |
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I'm not saying you can't salvage the axle you have with some welding, torching, and fabrication. You should seek out a tractor with the correct axle and make a plan. Any D-17 from 1960 and up and a first generation One-Seventy are good to look at. This must be the missing info to the story. They bought a D-17 WF axle and it cannot work as-is. So, the tractor was abandoned.
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55allis
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Posted: 28 Sep 2025 at 2:12pm |
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It was swap because someone bought this tractor for the narrow front to put on their picker d17, apparently an earlier d17. So they must had figured out that the original 5/8” bolts wouldn’t go back in due to it having 1/2” and just left it.
I posted a trade in the classified in hopes of maybe correcting it.
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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DrAllis
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Posted: 28 Sep 2025 at 5:34pm |
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Well, not too hard to drill out the four 1/2" bolts to 5/8" on that bathtub piece. The difficult part is shortening the wishbone 3 inches and making the pivot plate to bolt to the bellhousing adapter.
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55allis
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Posted: 28 Sep 2025 at 10:54pm |
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I got the head off and as I figured the 2 middle pistons are stuck and sleeves are rusted badly, no cracks visible yet and the valves all are free. One valve was a bit sticky but came loose pretty quickly.
The two outside pistons and sleeves look fairly good.. would it be worth looking into getting good used sleeves for the two middles? Or is that just a cheap thought…
I’d put new rings at least and maybe O-rings on the sleeve.
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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55allis
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Posted: Yesterday at 8:19am |
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After doing some research I'm wondering about doing a rebuild kit on the engine..
The hour meter reads right close to 2900 hours. The 2 good cylinders don't look to bad but the other two have rust pits.
I kinda would like to make it mechanically in perfect working order but on a budget.
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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WF owner
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Posted: 14 hours 38 minutes ago at 6:05pm |
A lot depends on what you are planning to do with the tractor. None of these old tractors are going to be expected to do what they were expected to do when they were new.
A lot of us have cobbled engines together with used sleeves and pistons. If I was going to do something like that (again!), I would hone all the sleeves, pull all the sleeves and install new O rings, make sure all the pistons are identical, weigh all the pistons on a mail scale and get them all as close to the same weight, install all new piston rings (make sure to check the end gap), install all new rod and main bearings and new seals. By the time you buy bearings, gaskets, seals, rings, O rings, etc., you don't really save a lot over buying a rebuild kit with new sleeves and pistons.
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55allis
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Posted: 13 hours 24 minutes ago at 7:19pm |
What will I be doing with the tractor? It probably won’t be much due to me having way too many of them..  It’s not that I needed it, I just couldn’t see it be a goner. That’s what I was thinking about cost.. Maybe I’ll wait a bit for the hobby fund to build up a bit and fully redo the engine. What are some common problems/ weaknesses past the engine? If I go that route, what should I be looking for and or replace in the back end? I know to replace the throw out bearing, and the one in the flywheel. I’m still new with the d series…
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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DrAllis
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Posted: 10 hours 19 minutes ago at 10:24pm |
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I always assume the engine will need a complete overhaul. After that, if the gearshift boot is junk, you can surely assume the transmission/differential has rain water in it. Draining the oil out (and a new boot first) can determine how much water, which (if enough) can ruin the countershaft bearings. The same could be said for the hydraulic dipstick and the power steering. Final drives are usually always OK but need an oil change anyway after 60 years.
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55allis
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Posted: 9 hours 41 minutes ago at 11:02pm |
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The shifter boot is junk but long long time ago someone patched it with some kind of tape..
It still has oil in all the compartments, and they are low but I’m changing everything just because. Will also put plugs on the bottoms of the final drive pans, found that a lot easier.
Does the power steering supposed to have its own oil tank?
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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55allis
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Posted: 9 hours 11 minutes ago at 11:32pm |
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Looking more closely at the overhaul kits and most are 4 1/8” over bore, is that a good upgrade?
And what should a standard crank bearings and rod bearings measure?
Was thinking maybe I should measure those before ordering anything.
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1955 AC WD45 diesel with D262 repower, 1949 AC WD45
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WF owner
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Posted: 3 hours 6 minutes ago at 5:37am |
 55allis wrote:
The shifter boot is junk but long long time ago someone patched it with some kind of tape..
It still has oil in all the compartments, and they are low but I’m changing everything just because. Will also put plugs on the bottoms of the final drive pans, found that a lot easier.
Does the power steering supposed to have its own oil tank?
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I (probably wrongly) figure that if the original gear oil in the final drives lasted this long, after changing to new gear oil, it will probably outlast anyone on this forum. When these tractors were new, they were the workhorse. Now, most have a pretty easy life. I change the gear oil and check it periodically (not as often as I should) and don't go to the hassle of adding drain plugs.
The power steering on the older D-17's fills in front of the radiator, after you remove the grill.
Edited by WF owner - 3 hours 4 minutes ago at 5:39am
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WF owner
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Posted: 2 hours 51 minutes ago at 5:52am |
55allis wrote:
Looking more closely at the overhaul kits and most are 4 1/8” over bore, is that a good upgrade?
And what should a standard crank bearings and rod bearings measure?
Was thinking maybe I should measure those before ordering anything.
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I doubt that you will be able to find a rebuild kit that is not 4.125. Good? it gives you more cubic inches, but you have to be real careful what the compression ration of the pistons. If I'm not mistaken, compression ratios ranged from 5.5/1 to 8.25/1 for the 226 engines.
Main and rod journals need to be measured before ordering a rebuild kit. When you disassemble, the old bearings should have a number. If they have .010, .020, .030 or .040, the bearings have been changed at some point and replaced with undersized bearings. This usually happens when the crankshaft has been reground. When the engine runs, the crankshaft journals tend to get (VERY SLIGHTLY) egg shaped. (The only way to determine this is by measuring in several different locations with a micrometer). Regrinding or "turning" the crankshaft machines these journals back to perfectly round.
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