Here's a picture of what I have to look forward to. It's dark so it's not a great picture, but you can see the remains of the tire and all the wire nesting around the axle. 

looks like a drive shaft I once saw with a fence wrapped around it, or the other one in a western star truck that had most of the harness and air lines around it also, I hope you have something good to cut it off? the machine looks good, a bit of a clean and will tidy up nicely

I've hit a fence with my brush hog, that's not a pretty sight either.
Getting in there is going to be the hard part!
I have some good uses for the machine, I hope I can get it working without too much trouble, When I jacked up the blade one of the cylinders started leaking. If it does run ok, I'll put new hydraulic hoses on it, fix both cylinders, and put new cable on the winch drum. There was a large hook sitting on top of the winch, so I have that already, might be original, I'll take a picture tomorrow to see if anyone knows if it is. There is no cable on the drum now. I wonder what size cable it came with? It did have a grease gun laying below the Pony's gas tank. I hope it was used often back in the day, but all of the zerks look very dry now.

Here is a picture of the hook that was on top of the winch. Upon thinking about it, it looks like a logging hook to me. Suited for logging, but maybe less so for the cable that was probably on the winch assuming there was a standard size that came with it. The hook reminds me the guy I bought the tractor from told me that his property was logged about 20 years ago by the owner. That was what he was told, and judging by the growing trees that was likely true. That also explains all the old firewood piled around the dozer.  

 

Trailer Axle - wire from the tire did not help your brake wires, hope nothing else was damaged.
Be sure to check for wear into the axle tube

Cat - wood piled around it does not look bad from here, it was all under roof and sides. You could be very lucky, change the oil in starting engine, ensure main has no water in oil and see if it will turn over. Have some one with you and ready to plug the intaike if it wants to run away.

Glad to see you have it at home, keep us posted.

CTS

Yeah, I'm crossing my fingers.
It has a couple-three inches of wood debris on the floorboards, and the seat is useable as is, but torn. I think the arm rests are still good. The engine does turn over. It did sit without the hood on it, covered with wood. The hood was found out in the grass mostly buried except 1 corner. It might have a bad radiator if it was running hot. The wood might have crushed the hood too, if it was under the wood. Time will tell.
I read that the wide gauge tractors are not that common in the 4G series. I didn't measure the tracks.

I think your father gave you correct information about sludge being loosened by detergent oil. But it is very likely that this tractor has been run on a diesel engine oil of the day, which would be high detergent. Would a oil sample sent of to the lab tell that? I would think so.

By the 1970's many oils used in gas engines were rated for both gas and diesel engines. Of course all the engine clean burning addons from the catalytic converter to the DEF have changed that again.

Ray, your assessment is likely correct. I wonder if the high detergent diesel oil with all the additives really has much benefit to a low reving old diesel engine. I haven't heard of a non detergent diesel oil because what makes a diesel oil is all the detergents that are added like 2 or 3 times what is in gas engine oils.
If the oil lube system is pressurized, it seems like any sludge would accumulate in the pan or other places where oil could pool. If the filter system filtered all the oil as it was used, I would not question using detergent based oils. Most old engines that even had a filter only filter some oil. If the detergent is breaking up deposits much of it could go through the engine, before it may pass thru the filter. To be on the safe side, if I use non-detergent oil, I won't need to guess whether detergent oil was ever used or not. If it was used for a limited period, possibly continuing using detergent oil could become problematic? I will drop the oil before I start it to check for water, then change it again when it's hot, after an hour or less of run time.
If I could drop the pan, that would be a game changer, but I have no plans to do that now.

A quick check under the valve cover will tell you if it has been using detergent oil or not.
Easy to remove the hood and the valve cover to check If it is clean, it has been getting a diet of Detergent oil and if there is gunk around the valve springs it is non detergent.
Heck of a lot easier than dropping the heavy oil pan.

Thanks, That's a good idea. If I find a build up of sludge, continue with non-detergent. If it's clean use detergent oil. If there is only some, or a small amount of sludge what would you do?