About 7 years ago I bought this old D4 2T that was parked under a fallen down lean too awning on a farm out in the Aussie bush and it was obvious she'd had a hard life, closer inspection of casting stamps on her suggested a build date around Nov 1944 so she is a genuine WW2 Cat, unfortunately there were no other identifying marks on her to suggest if she used by the armed forces in the Pacific region but under her flaking old Cat Highway Yellow paint I could see the odd small patch of Olive Drab paint in hard to reach areas so anything is possible regarding her history, what I could see clearly though was this was a tractor that needed saving even though she had been flogged literally to death, her pilot motor was completely shot, as was her undercarriage, the final drive bellows were busted and held no oil in the final drives and the main motor wouldn't start, just my sort of Cat project and not being very bright as everyone knows, it was a no brainer to bring her back to life where smarter folks would have scrapped her in a heartbeat , so for me, slowly stripping her down and acquiring parts over the past 7 years in between saving other old Cat basket cases was the only way forward.
A major step forward was made a year ago when our Aussie ACMOC Expert Eddie Bedwell visited and over 10 days we rebuilt the pilot motor and got it fitted to the tractor which allowed us to fire up the main motor for the first ever time, the diesel was very hard to start though once running I was pleased to see we had good oil pressure so I could be fairly confident the crankshaft bearings were possibly OK, however it was obvious the top end was tired and after later removing the head I could see the liners were badly worn and the head needed reconditioning so that process began late last year. The new piston rings came from Florin Tractor Parts and looked like Army Surplus, the packing date on the packets showed they were packed in 1952 in the UK and they were as fresh looking as the day they were packed being wrapped in heavy wax paper, though it was time consuming getting them unwrapped and the wax coating removed, still those rings were not available elsewhere so I had no choice, while the new cylinder liners came from my local Cat Dealer William Adams, and were the last ones available.
Eddie Bedwell normally visits me around middle of June each year so he can attend a local vintage Steam Rally however that got cancelled due to family commitments I had so it was finally just in these past 2 weeks that saw Eddie visit and we set to fitting the new liners, rings and reconditioned head to the D4 2T, we were working in between showers of rain it being the middle of winter here in Oz and by necessity we were working outside there being no room in my cluttered old workshop for pulling tracks and track frames off old Cats. The rebuild of the diesel motor went well, we had some technical challenges due to a few poor quality parts being supplied by a aftermarket company here in Oz, silly little things like the 1" freeze plugs being 25mm metric in diameter and not the actual 25.4mm needed, and the new copper gaskets for the cylinder liners supplied by the same company turned out to be a mixture of used and new gaskets, plus one not even close to being the right size, luckily I'd bought 2 extra's gaskets just in case but these were curve balls I hadn't expected and created extra delays as we went, plus we were prepping the pistons and head from my 1939 built D4 7J that is getting the exact same rebuild in the next few weeks with new liners, rings and reconditioned head.
When I first brought this D4 2T home back in 2009 and noticed the old Olive Drab paint under the Highway Yellow I started thinking about repainting it in the original WW2 colour and a conversation I had at the time with a fellow ACMOC / ACME buddy over in the USA in New York State called Joe Brooks, or "Farmer3" as he is more commonly known on these Forums, cemented my decision when he mentioned how his Dad had fought in Europe during WW2 but came home thinking he really hadn't done much, unlike the many American heroes he saw and heard about post war and I sensed listening to Joe back then that his Dad felt his wartime contribution would and should possibly be best forgotten, and I knew that was wrong so I decided to paint this tractor Olive Drab in honour of Joe Brooks Dad, a simple tribute from a Aussie whose own family fought in WW1 and WW2 to a man who was one of many Americans, men and women, who sacrificed much to help protect us here in Australia during the darkest days of WW2.
So as Eddie and I were prepping the parts, new and used, cleaning and scrubbing and measuring and testing I was busy throwing primer and the Olive Drab top coat on everything in reach which was a real challenge working in winter outside, still, it was worth the extra effort because I would never get such good access to all the nooks and crannies again, for example the injection pump and governor were off the tractor getting new seals fitted, plus I had made a new external oil manifold pipe for the main bearings as the old one had been almost crushed, closed off by a flying rock or stick by the tracks, as had the oil filter tower been badly clobbered so that was off for some panel beating, so we were working around sticky green paint on many days but the slight delay was worth it when we finally fired her up for the first run, she sounded great.
After an initial warm up run the head studs were re-torqued and valves re-adjusted and she sounded even better again, during these runs Eddie was busy setting the low and high idle speeds and she idles as sweet as a new engine should so I think this tractor will be a beauty once she is finished, there's a long ways to go yet, I still have to pull the transmission cover off to replace the input shaft seal and investigate the pilot pinion latch not working properly, plus excessive wear in the main clutch bearing and check over the gearbox, new fenders are being made and the old fender fuel tank is at the Panel Beating Shop getting a large dent attended to, I have 8 new aftermarket bottom rollers to fit and all new bearings for the final drives, while the bellow seals I'll recork, the hydraulic pump needs repair as does the blade frame so still a bit to do, but a major hurdle has been passed getting the main motor squared away and I'd like to thank Eddie Bedwell for once again generously helping me save another old Cat, the last photo I posted was taken last year when we first got the reconditioned pilot motor fitted and the main motor running.
Mike
