Looks Super Joe,  Hopefully it will make the Show Rounds this year !!!!!! I was wondering who the lucky person is who purchased the Wallis Bear Brochure @ Jerry's Literature Auction by Girards' Auction yesterday?  The price went very well, but I think that is an extremely uncommon Item.     Concerning the comment about getting our Cub Jr going, did not go unnoticed, Joe.  I think we need to move forward on this project as well.  Happy Trails...  Tim

Today the 101 year old Cub Jr finally got it's first little exercise trying to bring a little life back into the 83 year old Model 25. I pulled the plugs out and just ran it on the belt for about a 1/2 hour just to get oil pumping and things lubed up. The magneto seems to have good spark and it seems to have about 15-20 psi oil pressure just spinning it with the belt. As you can see in the pictures the gas tank is off the 25 as I power washed it out yesterday, it is back on now and if I get time tomorrow it should run.

The man I got this 25 from said the water pump leaked when it last ran 10 years ago so I am sure it hasn't gotten any better by sitting.

Joe

Both tractors looking very well Joe,

I expect a bit of a "work out" for the Cub Jnr was a good thing just to get everything all settled in following its major surgery and revival.

Do I notice an "official Wallis modification" on the drawbar? don't think its 101 years old, but I can see why you've done it to make life a little easier!! One day I think I will have to do the same, otherwise I might not get to sit on the seat!!

The oily rag look has greatly improved the patina which has taken all those years to achieve, don't destroy it now.

Malcolm.

Malcolm,

It is once again "Bear Hunting Season" here and from the looks of it Tom has placed his Bear bait station in the right place this year!! From the looks of it he has bagged another great little Cub Jr...He should have enough for a Three Bears story now....

I figured by just posting this it would inspire you to go out in the cold shed and do some more work on yours.. How are they shaping up??

Had to go down the thread quite a ways to find a reply button.. Seams they are as rare as finding a Bear Cub...

Joe

All.
    Nothing to do with any previous posts, but when I bought my Wallis 20/30 several years ago, allegedly in running order, one of the problems I encountered was that three of the pushrods had hammered their way through the bottom of the cam followers and were bearing on the cams, no doubt a result of not keeping an eye on the tappet clearances. I eventually discovered that cam followers from the Allis Chalmers models U and M were the same diameter and fitted without too much difficulty through the Handholes, they are taller than the Wallis followers but still fitted,  I believe that later engines had pushrods with feet on the bottom.

                                                                               Jack.

Just to report that I have had a remarkable stroke of luck on my Wallis 15-27.  It's the only tractor that I have never had running as I couldn't tow start it because it would not go into 2nd gear.  Anyway finally got round to looking seriously at the problem rather than speculating.

It is a very very clean tractor out of Nebraska.  There was some movement in the gear stick and selector indicating/suggesting that it was a problem in the gearbox.  However last night I got a serious investigation going with my very able young local mechanic.  It was a foul night with a 70 mph storm outside - the roof was flexing!

To cut a long story short we dicovered that the spring which retains the ball in the selector cross shaft was seriously rotted and the whole port where it sits full of hard compacted soil - this despite the original cork seal on the top still being intact - and also the two other gears were perfectly free and functional.  These ports are about 2 inches deep with a split pin across the top to hold the spring down.  Needless to say that was rusted in and took 10 minutes of wriggling to free without breaking.

Anyway we soaked it all repeatedly in WD40 and were slowly able to dig out fragments of the spring which had rusted to the walls of the port and get down to the base.  But still no significant movement of the selector.  So we continued to douse the port with WD40 and kept twitching the gear lever back and forth.  Suddenly it all moved and engaged gear and we could see the ball down below. Great luck which one always needs.

But I remain mystified as to why only one of the three ports was full of compacted soil and rust when it was as perfectly sealed as the others.

To make life easy I had jacked the tractor up off both rear wheels so that we could easily rotate them to get in gear and test if the gears were actually driving.  This avoided the need for rocking the tractor back and forth on its cleats. 

At the local garage today I found a spring to fit so when the storm abates back to the shed.

John

Jack.
I was interested in what you had to say about the 20-30 pushrods. I have looked at the parts books and supplements and it seems that the pushrods with the foot appeared around at the time of the plain block 20-30.
Although my new 12-20 is one with Wallis cast on the block it has pushrods with feet.
The first rod pictured below is from a model K witch is the same as an earlier 20-30 the second one is from a later 20-30, the third is from 25 and the fourth one is from the 12-20.

Graham.

John,

I'm glad you are finally making time for the 15-27 I think you will be very pleased with that tractor when you hear it make music and get to finally take it for a ride.

Don't know the reason for the dirt under the cork plug in the shift rod but with a tractor of this age you can expect the unexpected.. Maybe years ago some young kid was curious as to what was under the cork and decided to pull it out to see and decided it needed a little dirt shoved in the hole before replacing the cork??

Why don't you just belt the tractor up? I find this is the safest way to get them going and also the easiest when doing it by yourself. You can pull the plugs out and run it on the belt for a while to make sure it is pumping oil and get things lubed up and shaken back into place before firing it up.

I talked with Steve on the phone last night and he said you were very excited about finally getting to this tractor. I think you will be pleased with the results as this particular tractor is in pretty good shape from what I remember of seeing it in person.

Just don't get into too big of a hurry on this project that you forget to stop for a coffee and cake break....

Joe

Joe,

A belt would be no harm but maybe suprisingly I haven't got one!  I really like them to start on the handle but this one is a bit short of compression despite a lot of work being done on the head,  I do find that occasionally after a head being done up the compression doesn't come up immediately - then a quick and often short tow does the job of bringing them to life.

I have just had the head serviced on my orchard GP and that had full compression immediately.

All the luck of the draw I suppose.  But I have often wondered why some heads just don't build up immediate compression - any ideas??  The 15-27 can now wait till spring and my son coming over when we will put the MF 134C crawler on for definitive traction!

John

Graham.
         Thanks for the info and photo's, obviously they had trouble with the early pushrods and soon altered the design of the rod and did away with the ball bearing at the top end at the same time.
                                    Jack.