Tractor heritage, news and features

The wraps are off at last!

When I left the last article on Squires Garden Centres’ Allis-Chalmers ED-40, I was about to start the tractor up and make sure everything was OK. Unlike most Ferguson 23C engines this model had heater plugs fitted so some needed to be bought to fit the four holes on the cylinder head located under the injectors.

I had a sneaking suspicion that they were the same as on the diesel Land Rover, so I took a trip over to APB on Hartlebury Trading Estate with the old ones and sure enough I returned home with four new ones. These were 11 volt; so I ran them through a resistor, this in turn was wired to the ignition key switch, so half a turn engaged the heater plugs. The oil pressure gauge and ammeter were the only items in the dash at this point. I primed the fuel system and topped the engine up with new oil and we were ready to roll.

I turned the key half way and I could see the resistor glowing orange. I counted to 20 and thought I would try my luck so I turned the key fully and the engine turned. After a bit it sputtered into life, I held the key in the heat position for a few seconds until it ran better, this is quite normal when the diesel system has been completely drained and even though it was all bled through there is always a little air in the injectors.

It was a welcome sight to see the engine running and that all the hard work was worthwhile, also it's a nice thought that the fresh oil has circulated around the engine and lubricated all of the vital parts. I left it on about half throttle while I went around and checked for fuel and water leaks. Having found none I climbed aboard the tractor and selected second gear, I chose this one as that was the only forward gear I was able to select. When it arrived the gear lever was seized, probably due to the fact the rubber boot had disintegrated through old age and had let water in. Over the months it was stripped down I kept spraying WD40 around the lever and had managed to get second and reverse gear free so I knew moving it from my workshop wasn't going to be a problem.

Full complement

As with most Allis-Chalmers tractors you sit very high up on the ED-40, after a few journeys up and down our drive the rest of the gear lever positions freed up so the full complement of cogs were available. Now, being happy the Allis was running fine, I returned it to my workshop.

The tinwork was largely in good condition except for the wings which were rotten and had been crudely repaired by the old familiar trick of welding some heavy gauge steel over the rust. This had achieved nothing to strengthen them and cosmetically they looked awful. I had a search on the internet to see if any were available in America as the ED-40 used much of the same tinwork as the D14/D15 tractors. After a while I found some new ones for sale but even the bloke selling them said they were bad quality copies and they were the best part of $400 without shipping – so this wasn't going to happen.

Instead it was down to me and my angle grinder, welder and a new sheet of tin metal. The first job was to cut the rotten area at the bottom out completely then a template was made and a new section of tin was cut and seam welded in flush. Then the welds were ground back, a skimming of filler was then applied all over the wing, the last thing was for the metal mounting strip to be welded on in the correct place – this strengthened the whole lot up nicely.

With all that done I just needed a nice sunny day in which to spray everything in Persian Orange, in early autumn it's often easier to find a sunny day than you can in the summer months and sure enough a few days of good weather prevailed and I managed to paint the lot.

The wheels

Once the paint had hardened off the tinwork could now be added, as this was the original it was nice not to make any modifications with the angle grinder which happens all too often with the new stuff. The tractor was largely complete now, the wheels were the only items left, the front ones which were fitted with 4 x 19 tyres and which were the same size as a Ferguson T-20 had been done for some time as I bought the tyres off the internet and got a local tyre firm to mount them.

The tyres

When it came to the rears I called TNT Tyres of Ludlow to supply some 10 x 28 chevron pattern ones. I had already taken the old ones off to paint the inside of the rims; the TNT guy always likes coming to me as his job is not only easy but also clean as the wheels are like new. He can fit them with the minimal amount of damage. However I always give them a final coat of paint after, this just involves a lot of masking on the tyres. I had the Allis on four wheels again now which was nice to have some axle stands free as before I had three tractors in my workshop without a single wheel on any of them.

As with every tractor which is restored here, the final jobs are the best.

The stabiliser and check chains were added to the hydraulic arms, these were new zinc plated ones as the old ones were rusty and seized and if there is one item on a tractor that's hard to paint, it’s chain. The dash was made up of a mixture of old and new gauges the main 'tractormeter' was the original cream Allis-Chalmers one as was the weight transfer gauge, this measured the weight on the rear wheels. The glass was broken when it arrived and as a result had made the metal back plate rusty and largely illegible. With the only new orrefurbished one spotted on an American website and priced at $300 I decided I must tidy this one up! So I made a copy of the picture and then emailed it over to Dave 'Titch' Sanders at www.machinerydecals.co.uk (tel. 01785 284701) and he made me a new dial sticker which did the trick.

I then found some very thin clear plastic and cut it to the correct size and reassembled the gauge, the ammeter was the standard one from a Ferguson FE 35, so was the light and key switch which also happened to be fitted on the Allis when it was new so the dash was as near the original as I could have hoped for.

Dave Sanders also made me the metal gear plate to replace the old worn one and of course he made the Allis-Chalmers ED-40 decals, which when fitted finished this job off nicely.

Squires Garden Centres didn’t want its Allis back until around February 2011 when they had completed their new premises in Shepperton, Middlesex. So it got sheeted up and then was trapped in the corner of my workshop while I did other tractors, hence why this final article has taken so long to appear in the magazine. A lot of friends have come into my workshop and said to me what a shame this tractor won't be used, but I am more pleased that a large amount of the public will see this example and maybe get interested in vintage/classic tractors as a result.

Words & Pictures Ben Phillips