Getting down to a plan of attack on this old beast. It is a Fiat Allis HD7GB, 6 cylinder, with powershift transmission. She's been sitting for about 15 years, but not a total basket case yet.
But a friend and I went up today and poured a couple of gallons of diesel over the track links to try to help the pins free up. The machine was parked next to a little barn, and has a muffler cover on it, but no batteries. It was repainted at one time, probably about twenty years ago, and doesn't look like a high priced shine. But it's not as deep in the dirt as I thought it was, but the bottom tracks may still be a challange. Biggest problem is that freezing weather is here, and any diesel in good shape can be a challange to start now. This one has been sitting almost half the time since it was built. To add to where it is sitting, the stream down the hill is prone to flooding, and you can see where water has come up to the top of the tracks at one time or another, although the lady where it is says that happened a few years ago when we had local flooding from a hurricane. If it had been parked about fifty feet further toward the house, it wouldn't have any water that high. The only other trouble with where it's sitting is that a groundhog (d@mn things) drilled a hotel under the tractor, and we can get to the crankcase with out going to West Virginia and hiring a couple of miners. So I'm going to have to pull it forward some to get underneath of it to get to the drain plug.
I don't want to turn the engine over until after I make sure the crankcase is waterfree. I'm going to take my tractor up this weekend and try to raise the bucket and block it up. Then we'll see if we can tow it forward so we can drain the bottom of the crankcase. I have some concern there may be some water in it because the fill cap on the engine is missing and some may have come through it and entered the engine via the valve cover. The oil on the stick looks OK but is about an inch high. May not be anything, but no use in spinning a bearing on 15W-40 water.
There is a shed with electric about fifty feet away, so I think we can put a lamp under the crankcase to heat the oil up before we try to start it, also. But I doubt seriously if we get that far this weekend.
The next trick will be to get it on a trailer and out to a road. The lane is narrow and has a narrow bridge, so a semi is out. I started thinking I have a 10 ton tag along, so I'm going to rig up a pintle hitch for my 6400 and use it to tow it out. If we can't get the Allis started, we may be able to use a block and tackle setup to tow it up onto the trailer. No matter what we do, it ought to be an interesting Mac and Myer mechanical misadventure.
Still need some advice from a guru. Is there any transmission release on this tractor? I don't have a book, and it might mae things a bit easier if we know beforehand. Thanks.
