Restoring a 1940 Allis Chalmers Model B

Sorry, forgot to report on that. I haven't pulled the valve cover yet, but I did pull the plugs and give it a few gentle spins to see how everything felt. In neutral, with the clutch locked open, it felt good and rotated very well. I'm thinking I'll slap the carb back on, and change at least the engine oil, then after checking the valves I'll try to start her up and see what happens.

Well this weekend was a bust. I cleaned and rebuilt the carb during the week, and planned on returning to the tractor and attempting a start today. But due to my bad memory, I managed to forget the carb, right in the garage! Which is no small drive away...

I decided to pull the rear wheel and attempt to replace the inner tube. I must say, it's the hardest tire I've ever tried to work on! After 2 hours and a few beers, I decided that it might be easier to take it to a garage and have them break the bead on the wheel/rim. But after a few calls, I can't seem to find anyone with a big enough machine!

Do you guys have any advice for doing this myself, or where I could possibly take it?

There's a tool made for breaking them down called a bead breaker. It's basically a slide hammer on steroids. It's about four feet long, has a real slick spoon. that you place against the tire at the bead area. Wait just a minute and I'll look them up and get back to you.

Here's one

Just click the continue to amazon button.

The slide hammer type bead breaker works good on tires that the tires have not been on for 30 years. It all depends on the condition of the tire, bead and rim.
A tractor tire service would have a clamp type that works quick. When I was farming I had the tire service truck come out in the field and repair tires with fluid. They don't ever work up a sweat.

If you have a 2 foot long piece of a 2"X 6" or 8" and a block or blocks about 6" high you can lay the 2" by on the tire against the rim with the blocks at the outer end of the 2"by. Set a bottle jack on the 2" by next to the rim with something heavy over the jack like a trailer hitch, drawbar of a large tractor. Something hard to lift.
I have seen some use a chain wrapped under the tire over the jack. When the jack goes up the 2" goes down against the tire and blocks. As more pressure is placed with the jack the tire breaks away from the rim. You don't want the block as quite high as the tire so you flatten the tire some as the 2"by goes down.

Ther is a gap at the ends of pins on the inside. You can break it out to use a punch to drive the pins out. After the pins are out I drill all the way thru the hole. I bought an air hammer that will get the pin out a lot faster than a punch and hammer. Make sure you remove the hair pin clips first.









Edited by Dick L - 09 Nov 2018 at 5:12pm

You can fight getting the old bands out with a wire if you like. I found it after doing a couple tractors that it saves time and swear words if you remove the final drive from the transmission. You can get at and clean crap that is sure to be there and make the removal of the old band easy and even easier to put the new one back in.

Strangely enough, the pin holes are already clearanced all the way through both walls, so maybe the previous owner drilled them out already. I was trying to avoid taking the final drive off, but if that's the best way, then I'll give it some serious thought. Like I said, the problem is getting the pins OUT. They don't want to budge! Looks like heat is going to be my best friend

It looks like the muffler is just a piece of perforated pipe held in place with one screw. No baffles, no screens. "muffling" isn't in its job description.

I didn't attempt to fully start her yet, because once I do, I'll of course be trying to take her for a ride. And I would like brakes before I do that!(plus I still need to clean the rust out of the tank) But I cranked it a few times with just a small spray of ether, and she popped merrily. I'm sure once I clean the tank and put it back on, she'll start up eagerly. I checked the valves, magneto, spark plugs, etc, and all seems to be in running order. I'm hoping after the holidays I'll have a chance to get back to working on it.



Edited by PickyPotatoPosse - 16 Nov 2018 at 9:19am

PickyPotatoPosse wrote: It is not in my plans to get money out of this; I plan on keeping it for the span of its' or my life, which ever ends first(Probably mine, knowing how they built things back then) Unfortunately it's being kept away from my house, so I haven't pulled the plugs yet or started tinkering. I would have to agree that wrenching on things is more my style, but this is a great opportunity to learn a new skill. Seeing as this is tractor is 88 years old, I assumed I would have to dive all the way in, replacing shims, bearings, bushings, etc. I guess that's why I am a bit confused as to why everyone says to get it running first, then decide how deep to go. But I won't argue with experience, if that's the route that everyone suggests, then that is the route I will follow. But if I decide to rebuild the whole engine(which seems like a good idea), does it pay to get it running first? At any rate, I think the easiest thing to start with is slapping a new tube on the rear tire, that will make moving it around a whole lot easier. Now, just have to figure out the tube size... Thanks for the great advice so far, this Forum is more help than I could have imagined!

Dick L wrote: The slide hammer type bead breaker works good on tires that the tires have not been on for 30 years. It all depends on the condition of the tire, bead and rim. A tractor tire service would have a clamp type that works quick. When I was farming I had the tire service truck come out in the field and repair tires with fluid. They don't ever work up a sweat.