McQuade, RR #2, Carlyle, Illinois 62231
I have received and enjoyed GEM for many years, especially the
restoration stories.
As I haven’t seen many Allis Chalmers stories, I decided to
send some pictures and information on mine.
My pride and joy is the 1935 WK I recently restored. This
tractor sat around outside for many years, and, according to the
wear on the tracks, it appears to be low in use. It was an old
township tractor used to pull a grader. It was sunk in the ground
and took a lot of work to pull it out and free it.
I completely dismantled it, honed the cylinders, installed new
rings, did a valve job and added a new radiator core. As the
steering clutches were frozen up and rusted together, I installed
new ones (same as HD-7). Then I cleaned, primed and painted it.
This tractor is of the hand crank variety. It has four forward
gears and reverse, also forward and reverse P.T.O. It has levers
for steering. (I think some 1935’s had a steering wheel.)
I took it to the Threshermans Show at Highland, Illinois and
hitched it to the six-bottom steam engine plow and handled it
nicely in second gear. The temperature that day was 104° but the
tractor ran cool.
I am also sending pictures of my 1937 WC, that Dad bought new,
1929 ‘U’ with UM engine, 1940 UC and my 1935 ‘E’.
This ‘E’ came out on factory rubber and has the 5? pistons
(also known as the Thresherman Special or 30-60). Just for fun I
hitched to the 6-14′ plow, the engine handled it, but as you
can imagine, the 8,000 lb. tractor picked up a lot of slippage.
I also have D-19, WD-45, styled 1939 WC, they’re all Allis
Chalmers, and 1932 ‘L’ Case and 1956 Massey Harris
‘555’ (retired after thirty years on a sawmill.) These
tractors are all in good running condition.
