I may have inferred that my brother’s modified 49 DC was the first “junker” that I rescued. Actually, it was the first DC that I finished refurbishing. Carl’s old “D” was actually the 4th DC that I rescued from the junk man.
During the winter of 2002, an ad offering used DC parts for sale led me to this old barn with a dirt floor. There was no electricity and the only light came thru a people door. The night vision feature on my video camera was stretched to its limit.
Fitting words to describe the inside of this barn include “clutter everywhere”. The biggest piece of clutter was the rear half of a 52 DC detached from its engine. Parts of its busted engine lay in the dirt.
This 52 DC’s engine had broken its crankshaft. The owner said he had done some tractor pulling. Buried in a pile of parts was a ruined D-series block with domed pistons from some tractor. That indicated he had been a serious puller. There were also two high compression head assemblies in that pile of parts.
I rescued this sad looking 52 DC along with the two high compression heads: maybe cracked? Both heads turned out to be in good enough condition to rebuild. The ruined block had been junked. The owner attached another sparse one in his “inventory” to help make the tractor moveable.
I had another engine in mind. I knew that my older brother, “packrat Dean”, had a D series combine engine—supposedly low hours on an overhaul. Eventually his engine got bolted to this DC’s rear half. The engine turned out to be in good condition. The only downside it had standard bore CAST IRON pistons and standard compression head
I decided to put a single front wheel on this DC. I found an assembly in PA. I converted it to 12v. The front pulley on the crank was bigger diameter that the tractor engine pulley. I had to find a longer fan belt. I lucked out and had just enough pulley clearance with the frame to squeeze the belt thru the clearance gap.
It was started up in late July 2004. It started like it had ran yesterday. It was kept sealed up, cylinders oiled, and the crank case was clean. It was loose but It had not been run for around 20 years
This DC helped plow 80 acres in Oct 2004. See the IRL.
I found a good home for it in 2016. 4 of my 5 DC’s rescued went to the same good home having barns, sheds and 3 generation of family interested in old tractors. The junk man is not happy.
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