Had some help working ground today. I/we should have went to the San Martin tractor show but I needed to work some ground. Just happens that my friend Bill rebuilt his D4 and needed to break it in. OM showed up to supervise but I put him to work:D I wish these guys would show up every weekend:D Thanks guys
Don

Hi Don,
That is a sweet running D8.....enjoyed the outing:D
The D4 ran like a Swiss watch.....great to see that kind of meticulous work going into these old machines......a tribute to Bill and his commitment.

Don, forgot to mention......according to my daughter the parts D8 out on the Hollister bad lands is gone and the site is now a soccer field.

You two are just having too much fun out there.....

Alan

Who's that ugly guy in the white coveralls LoL. Looks like fun:D

Yes guys it was a fun day. Glad you had fun on the 8 Pete. Kind of a bummer I/we missed Rods show. Even though this was fun, it was a work day, just happened to be fun:D
This was Bill's break in of his freshly rebuilt D4 He did a 1st class job as OM mentioned:cool:
MikeMc, don't tell my girlfriend that, she thinks I'm a handsome guy:D

Old Magnet and Tractor Don,
Thanks for the kind words about the work on the D4. While my past tractor mechanic experience has been rebuilding Farmall’s back on my parents farm in Tennessee, when it came right down to the basic engine, I found there was not allot of difference between rebuilding a Cat engine and an IHC engine (with the exception of the fuel injection on the Cat engine; and the forklift required to lift the bigger items). One thing I’ve learned over the years, and would like to share with my fellow Cat enthusiast, is that you’ve got to use the best quality parts that you can find if you want a first class job. If you’re not buying Cat parts, you’re just not getting the best quality parts. I admit buying Cat parts is real tough on the checking account, but in the end you’ll have a better tractor and a tractor you’ll have confidence in (and you will not be wondering in those bargain basement priced Chinese made parts are going to fly apart when you’re pulling a disk at full throttle).

I would also like to give credit to James Budiao at the Peterson Tractor Store in San Martin. James is a top notch Cat parts man and even when I gave him the old part numbers from my parts book, he always seemed to figure out what I needed and sent the right parts the first time. Chris who is the machinist at Davis Auto Parts in Watsonville did a first call job on the head and the price for the work was very reasonable. Tractor Don has been working with Chris for a few years now and Chris really knows D2 and D4 engine heads and the pony motors.

Of course, none of this would not have been possible without those countless hours on the phone with Old Magnet and hanging out chewing the fat with Tractor Don at his place. I also received some extremely valuable insights from a retired 60 year Cat mechanic named Gene. Whenever I received advice or guidance from Gene, I took it as Gospel and his advice was always “spot-on”.

Thanks to all of you for your help.

Best Wishes,
Bill Austin

Bill, at the Cat dealers they have an NPR system that up dates old or changed numbers to new ones esp. if there has been improvement to a part and when I was at the dealer yet it was in an NPR book but today everything is in the computer but should cover every part as the NPR books did.Old parts book numbers aren,t lost with this setup so no worry there.