Click on any image to enlarge:
DC # 440257 was built on February 22, 1940. It was built with the
gas manifold, gas attachment and high compression pistons. It was
shipped to the Brasher Elevator Company in Brasher, Mo on March 7,
1940. Brasher was a town in the boot heel of Missouri about 5
miles from the Mississippi River.
1/16/06
I am restoring this 1940 DC Case for Mike Poehlman. It is stuck
on at least one cylinder. Right now, the cylinders are soaking in
ATF until I get space cleaned out to put it in my shop. Then we
will find out how bad it really is.
2/19/06 When I tried to unload the tractor from the trailer it was froze
up and wouldn't move. I put the entire trailer in my heated
shop. Once it thawed out, I drained over 10 gallons of water from
the transmission. There was only about 6 gallons of oil left in
the transmission. The rest had leaked out through the seals as
the water level increased through the years. After draining the
fluids, Jered Ruble, Brian Patterson, and Eric Bremer helped me unload
it from my trailer and we almost got it pushed into my shop. This
was all done in sub zero weather. Because of the snow on the
ground, the cold weather, and the flat tires not wanting to roll,
we were unable to push it into the shop with a pickup and
pushbar. I ended up winching it in the next day with a
come-a-long. I removed the radiator and head to see what kind of
work the engine was going to need. The exhaust valve on #2 was
stuck open, causing the cylinder to fill with water. I could not
get the engine to break free today, so it will soak for a bit
longer. I also found a bent push rod when removing the
head. The other 3 cylinders do not seem to be in bad shape.
The bottom end of the engine also seems to be in good shape.
2/25/06
The piston froze to the sleeve so badly that I finally pushed the
sleeve and piston out of the block. I had to use a hydraulic
press to push the piston out of the sleeve and the sleeve had a
lengthwise crack in it. I also took the valves out of the head on
the bad cylinder. The head can be repaired. Then everything
got buttoned back together for a trip to the sandblaster.
5/29/06
The tractor was so hard to move on the old tires that I have already
bought new ones. I got the rims sandblasted and painted before
the rest of the tractor so I could get the tires mounted. The
rims were in pretty good shape and only needed some minor welding to
fix the rusty spots. I installed the tires back on the tractor
before bringing it home from the sandblaster. We had a
major problem when trying to load the tractor onto my trailer.
The tractor wouldn't roll or steer. I ended up having to take the
transmission cover off right in the parking lot where I found the
steering worm had broken and pieces fell into the transmission
gears. After cleaning it all out, it rolled but steering it was
much harder since the only way was to grab hold of the steering rod and
force the wheels to turn. After getting it back into my garage it
will sit all summer while I am finishing the Rumely steam engine.
In fact, I won't touch it again until November.
