Thanks Juiceman, I knew you would have the info.

17AFarmer wrote:

Two of my Killefer projects still have two to finish I have several bins of parts no extra scrapers  17afarmer
*** I thought you were happily retired and living things up! Were you planning on fixing the two up? I know of a junky 1100-9 that I could buy for parting out, but don't want a wrecking yard here on the farm. I feel bad enough "robbing" 5 scraper arms off of the 1100-15 I own, which was fully intact when I bought it 4 years ago. The joys of owning old iron***JM
 

Killefer I believe was a stand alone company that made tillage equipment probably a California based company as well. At some point John Deere became the owner of the name and used it until WW2 if not a little longer. Very little that I could find with google last time I looked.

John Deere bought the Holt combine harvester from Caterpillar in the 1930's ( the exact date has been discussed on this board and is buried here some were). With this Caterpillar and John Deere had a very close relationship for 20 to 30 years. Many if not most Cat dealers also sold JD at least on the Pacific coast of the USA. So Killefer was a brand of tillage equipment sold at the same dealer you got your Cat tractor from. So in Calif. Killefer is very much associated with Caterpillar.

One of if not the last of the joint dealerships was Wallace Machinery Company in Paso Robles California. Wallace had expanded to at least 6 locations in central Calif. before they sold all the Cat business to Quin Company about 1983.


A bit of bearing history on disc harrows.
1 box wood bearings
2 cast iron box bearing
3 tube axles with bearings or bushings inside the tube
4 ball bearings

So as to trainkids comment this Killefer disc has the cast iron box bears. If well greased they work even when well warn. But I have seen newer JD ball bear parts used to update them if used for any amount of real work.

Ray is very much correct. Well written, may I add.
My latest is a 10'6' wheel disk which still had intact John Deere Killefer decals, which I hope to have copied. I am trying to research the years built, as they use the grease type ball bearing, same as a 1200 series drag disk. I hope to hook up and shine the blades when it eventually gets dry here.
As old as this brand is, I have to admit, the implements hold up and do a fantastic job. JM

I will never retire until I have too!! I went through the oil bath disk thing as a kid Never Again! I think. JD put Killefer out of business about 66 or 67 I have a 1500 that is a 65 was told it was near the end. Every poor farmer runs a wrecking yard especially when running antique disks tractors. It always paid to have WAR model Cat tractors because the government always had lots of surplus parts, the engine in my 17a is a Vietnam war surplus 75E D7E bought it new. 17afarmer

I’m surprised that this disc has generated so much interest! I will keep everyone informed on the status of the rebuild here. Would you be interested if I was to make a video log on my YouTube account of the process? The making of videos takes an absurd amount of time and then loading them takes even longer. The right turn bar is extremely stout I plan on figuring out why.

What can I say? Some of us "farmer" types have dirt in our veins (and lungs) still. I enjoy collecting JD-Killefer implements to compliment my farm tractors. I rent several of the larger 1200 series to some rental customers that use my Caterpillar crawlers as well. To me, they are period correct to follow the machine, and as others mentioned, JD-K were sold under the same roof as the CAT at one point. Having a crawler isn't just about dozing something over or digging a hole with a carry all scraper...(IMO).
Please keep us posted on your progress and the finished goods; YouTube videos are cool. I have uploaded a couple with a 17A and a 47A, it did not seem to take too long with a good internet connection.
I am half tempted to start a FB page for these implements, or if the Board sees fit, maybe they will allow us to have our own section of the BB here to just post implements.
Having Cats and green implements are like butter on your toast! JM

the bearings im talking about are a ball or roller type with metal shields held in a cast housing with circlips. and still quite common in my area particularly the bonel bros brand which became grizzly manufacturing. dad worked for bonel's in the 80's.

they still use the same basic cast iron washer and dumbells idea to mount the discs today.

Ok, here some photos AND prices!!!
 

Here are some JD/Killefer Rippers and Harrows.