Saving Another AC Tractor/Picker

A few thoughts:

Figured I'd give an update on the tractor/corn picker salvation. Been an off/on project this winter as the Mrs. wants some remodeling work in the house done. Best time to work on the tractor is when she's at work I will try to get some photos up once the picker is 'alive' again. Many thanks to my neighbor for letting me take over his shop this winter!

For the tractor: Pulled the motor and clutch and replaced them with parts off of a donor tractor. Water pump was seized, radiator not the best. The "reverse" lockout on the shifter was seized, taking the shifter semi apart was a new learning experience to say the least, good thing for this Forum else I would have been lost! Tried to reuse as many parts/tin as I could to keep the original look. Motor is up and running. Just installed shifter last evening. Hoping to take a drive later this week

For the corn picker: think I used a gallon of both WD-40 and PB Blaster. Still had to heat/tourch/cut quite a few bolts. Made sure everything was semi loose and or moved by hand before using a pipe-wrench and bar to SLOWLY turn the input shaft. Long behold everything turns! By far the biggest pain was getting the pto shaft to telescope again. PB Blasted the shaft for a week; a chain,tree,tractor, and some heat was the key to finally getting it apart. Cleaned the shaft up and slides pretty good now. Plan is to run the picker slowly and oil/grease everything.

Keep up the good work. I had one of those 30 years ago. Werent worth anything then. Scrapped the picker and kept the tractor.Scrap was $30 a ton.The picker was sold out of my Uncle's dealership and had never been off the tractor! It was a very tight WD as all it had ever done in its life was pick corn.I started farming with that $200 tractor. 1982. Good luck. Thanks for the preservation!

I always thought those were so cool. I almost bought one a few years ago, but didn't really know what I'd use it for with the wide rows and all...

Yeah, that's a later WC.  There's no hand clutch on the WC, it's simply a traction disconnect.  As noted, you can bump it out, and thus disengage the drivetrain, but keep the PTO running, but you do have to push in the clutch to re-engage.  The hand clutch of the WD was a substantial feature by comparison.

The coil was applied to magneto to use the mag as a distributor.  it's a 'kludge' when someone doesn't know how to fix a magneto.

Good snag, and good work so far.  Swapping the engine with a waiting spare to make it a running machine is a good starting point for a project (always good when you can power test everything for operation).  That motor looks pretty bad inside, but knock out those sleeves, dip and bead-blast the block, and you'll swear it's brand new.  If there's still coolant in the block, that's a good thing- means it hasn't been frozen.

Take a shop-vac and cordless-drill with wire brush to it, don't try to roll it over with force, you'll just bend a connecting rod.  Keep track of the shims on the connecting rods... number-stamp the rods and caps before you take it apart, put each one, with it's fasteners, shims, etc., in a shoebox, and when you get around to cleaning up the parts and get a full rebuild kit on hand, it'll go fast and easy.

There were hand clutches for the WC as an after-market thing. It went in place of the differential disconnect, but not real common from what I've seen.
 That engine could be rebuilt, but if you have a donor, that will save time and money.
 We never had a 2 row mounted picker on the farm except when the neighbor came with his green and yellow one to open up fields for the one row Wood Brothers that Dad used. That rig could be made to pick corn for not a whole lot of money, if you can put the time into fixing things and freeing it up.
 Good luck with it, and keep us informed of your progress.

Thanks JayIN! Goal is to have the unit at the Tri State Gas Engine and Tractor show in Portland, IN this year. I believe "Allis Chalmers" is the feature this year.

Thanks for the recommendations DaveKamp. Hopefully I get the motor rebuild at some point. Would be a learning experience to say the least. With the wealth of knowledge individuals on this site I'm sure I could figure it out.

Wet hand clutch and gear reduction I'm sure would have been great when using these pickers Lon(MN)! Pulley disconnect maybe something I'll have to look into purchasing later down the road, especially if I'm driving it down the road a lot.

Would anyone happen to know the size and or belt number that I would need to replace the belt that goes from the v-belt pully to the picker fans? I have the old belt so I could probably measure it and get close. Was curious of anyone replaced there's recently.

Hey Jim. Yes I am looking to purchase a set of engine shields. Not sure how they mount in regards to needing any additional brackets. Also looking into a front cone if that would be something you'd have? You're welcome to pm some pictures else I can pm my cell number.

Wow you have taken on a big project! Your progress is good. You will find a lot of issues along the way too! You are lucky to have it in a nice shop!

Good Morning everyone! Hope you all had a great St. Patricks day Wanted to give an update with a couple of questions. Filled the transmission with oil on Friday, noticed a puddle of oil Saturday morning Found a crack in the pto housing. Pretty sure water leaked in there from all the years of setting outside and froze. Fortunately I had a spare pto gearbox off of a 'donor' tractor and I was able to replace it. Hoping to have some videos later this week. Now for the question: on the rear elevator, at the bottom sprocket, I'm curious if their's suppose to be a bearing on the end of the shaft? If not a "wood block"? The shaft kinda wobbles when you're running the machine

I would guess it was a bronze bushing. I think I would find a bushing that will slip fit on the shaft and press in the existing sleeve. Then drill and tap the new one for a grease zerk, and line the grease zerk up with the slot in the existing sleeve.

If I recall correctly, the elevator should come off the base unit for easier install and storage, pivoting where the shaft is circled in your picture.

Sounds great Jim! I will take a look in my manual tonight when I get home to see if I can see what I'm missing as well.

Was able to get the Corn Picker out and see if it actually worked. I had a pretty good size smile to say the least. Very small patch but no break downs and worked quite well. Hoping to pick a bigger patch next year and possible bring her to the Half Century of Progress

Success! Congratulations!!!

You have a rare bird! thanks so much for the pictures and taking us down the road to get the unit operational. Happy "Pickin and a grinning" !!!