allis chamlers

moose1 · Sep 14, 2011

1957 it is then .Got it running yesterday . points were gummed up , new oil in the air filter , cleaned carb , fix a few brittle wires and fired right up . now to get a tire tube and drive it home for some TLC . Once it started it ran like champ . Thanks for all the input . this is a great site :thumbsup:

Soundguy · Sep 14, 2011

them oldies.. if they have survived this long, are usually goodies.

soundguy

moose1 · Oct 1, 2011

Phat allis is perkulating perfectly . dug a pond in the feild and had lots of big clay chunks laying around the edge and needed to be landscaped better . Hooked up the disc's and pulled for 3 hours then used my harrows and it looks like a million bucks . Seems like she will pull anything with 2 ends . even the wife is impressed with the tractor and that's sayen something .

rankrank1 · Oct 1, 2011

Allis Chalmers made some of the best gas engines available in the 1950's and 1960's. If you are old enough to have been a kid even in the late 1970's to early 1980's era you may have noticed that lots of the traveling fairs, carnivels, etc. used Allis Chalmers engines to power the rides like ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, spin buckets etc.

I am not fan of the early letter series Allis Tractors due to the poor tractor ergonimics but albeit still a great engine for the time. That said, With a D17 like yours you get a great engine and some decent ergonimics too as the D series was an advancement ergonomically over the old WD ergonomics.

D17 was available as Series I, Series II, and Series III, and even a Series IV. Serial number location is on the torque tube on the left side. D17 are very powerful even the Series I had about 47 PTO horsepower. Later Series progressions typically added a little more hp as well as optional features.

moose1 · Oct 1, 2011

wondering if you could tell me a little about the hand clutch ? not really sure what purpose it serves?

rankrank1 · Oct 1, 2011

It was Allis way of providing a Live PTO. Push your foot clutch in and and both the tractor and the PTO shaft stop. Pull the hand clutch and the tractor motion stops, but PTO shaft keeps spinning (very helpful for applications like baling hay or any application where you want to stop the tractor but not the PTO)

Also, the hand clutch is a wet clutch that rides in oil. Many user's have used it to go even slower than 1st gear by purposely slipping the piss out of that hand clutch for short periods like when picking corn with a corn picker - since it rides in oil it can take quite a bit of abuse without damage

scrappy isb67 · Oct 1, 2011

LD1 said:
I believe what you have is a 1957 D17.:thumbsup:

I was doing some googling and getting a little conflicting info, but some places list the the D17 starting in 1958 @ SN 4300.

But others list them as starting in 1957 @ SN 1001. So I believe this is what you have got.

But whatever year it is, I believe it is definatally pre 1960's, because of the metal allis-chalmers logo. The later D17's had it painted on the hood. NOT a metal plate.

the latest ones had decals, my father's '65 series IV D17 has decals

being that it has the metal logos(and the year we are quessing it at) it is a series 1. IIRC, it has a round plate(or belt pulley) bolted to the right hand side of the torque tube and a fast hitch. Another reason for the hand clutch is to keep the hydraulics going, the hyd pump is transmission driven, so if you disengage the foot clutch you would also lose hydraulics. the Series 1 thru 3 were set up that way, the series 4 was the first to have live hydraulics and a factory 3 point hitch.

rankrank1 said:
Allis Chalmers made some of the best gas engines available in the 1950's and 1960's. If you are old enough to have been a kid even in the late 1970's to early 1980's era you may have noticed that lots of the traveling fairs, carnivels, etc. used Allis Chalmers engines to power the rides like ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, spin buckets etc.

I am not fan of the early letter series Allis Tractors due to the poor tractor ergonimics but albeit still a great engine for the time. That said, With a D17 like yours you get a great engine and some decent ergonimics too as the D series was an advancement ergonomically over the old WD ergonomics.

D17 was available as Series I, Series II, and Series III, and even a Series IV. Serial number location is on the torque tube on the left side. D17 are very powerful even the Series I had about 47 PTO horsepower. Later Series progressions typically added a little more hp as well as optional features.

I will agree that the ergonomics are not the best but I have put alot of seat time in on Dad's and for being what it is it is a hoss!

rankrank1 · Oct 1, 2011

scrappy isb67 said:
...I will agree that the ergonomics are not the best but I have put alot of seat time in on Dad's and for being what it is it is a hoss!...

My ergonomic complaint was towards the older letter series like the WC,WD, or WD45 styles. As I stated D-17 has decent ergonomics and they are indeed a hoss.

moose1 · Oct 1, 2011

thanks for clutch info much appreciated , i will have to make sure not to slip the piss out of it . lol . What i like best about the tractor so far is the simplicity there don't seem to much you can't reach or get at and fix:thumbsup:

Soundguy · Oct 1, 2011

ford did something similar in the 8n and naa days with a clutch pack in the coupling tube aft of the trans in between the pinion.. it allowed you to keep the pto going and not step on the foot clutch, but throwing the hand clutch opened the tranny to pinion connection stopping forward motion. have seen a homeade version that broke the axle and allowed open diffy to stop motion..e tc.

soundguy

scrappy isb67 · Oct 2, 2011

moose1 said:
thanks for clutch info much appreciated , i will have to make sure not to slip the piss out of it . lol . What i like best about the tractor so far is the simplicity there don't seem to much you can't reach or get at and fix:thumbsup:

Do you know if it has power steering? That is a weakspot on dad's. with the loader on it won't steer if not moving.
What was said about slipping the PD is true BUT it is not something you would want to do regularly, the clutches in the PD will warp and then you will lose neutral and/or completely burn out one of the clutchpacks leaving you with one speed from the PD.

another oddity with the trans and PD is that the gear ratios between the 2 are funky. with the trans in 1 the PD gives you 1 and 2(the 2 slowest groundspeeds) But here is the funky part, 2nd low gives you 3rd(ground speed) and 2H is actually 5th. 3L is 4th and 3H is 6th. 4th is back to what you would expect with 4L being 7th and 4H being 8th. basically it what this means is thet the gear split between 2nd-3rd is less than the gear split that the PD gives you between L&H

moose1 · Oct 2, 2011

so when i'm using the tractor the hand clutch should be pushed all the way forward right . it does not have power steering it has armstrong steering .

moose1 · Oct 2, 2011

i going to put the bottom bars off another tractor on the Allis in order to use some other 3pt implements on her . now there is 2 places where the bars can attatch to the tractor . 1 is where the ears of the draw bar hook up and the other is where the pins go through to hold the draw bar in place . Will i need to post a pic or have any of you fellas done this already ?

scrappy isb67 · Oct 2, 2011

moose1 said:
so when i'm using the tractor the hand clutch should be pushed all the way forward right . it does not have power steering it has armstrong steering .

allt the way forward is high middle is neutral and aft is low. you can run it in either high or low depending on how fast you want to go.

moose1 said:
i going to put the bottom bars off another tractor on the Allis in order to use some other 3pt implements on her . now there is 2 places where the bars can attatch to the tractor . 1 is where the ears of the draw bar hook up and the other is where the pins go through to hold the draw bar in place . Will i need to post a pic or have any of you fellas done this already ?

the AC fast hitch is still a 3point but it is inverted compared to a conventional 3point. there are companies thet make a conversion kit to to give you a conventional 3 point. another option that might work is to get the factory 3pt off a d17 series IV or a 100 series and install it. I don't know if the series 1 and 4 share the same rearend housings though. if they do not then you will have to go aftermarket. I do know the series 4 and the 100 series do.

Soundguy · Oct 3, 2011

on that armstrong steering... make sure thrust bearing play is nill, and sector bushings are good, and backlash is good or nill. if you have nay otheose it adds slop and binding.

soundguy

dodger454 · Oct 5, 2011

Are you sure it doesn't have power steering? I have a 1958 D-14 and it has PS.The pump sits below the govenor and the fill plug is behind the grill.I had mine for a couple years till some one told me where to look,2 qts of oil later I had power steering.pre 1960's used 20wt motor oil instead of hydro fluid for ps and hitch lift

scrappy isb67 · Oct 5, 2011

dodger454 said:
Are you sure it doesn't have power steering? I have a 1958 D-14 and it has PS.The pump sits below the govenor and the fill plug is behind the grill.I had mine for a couple years till some one told me where to look,2 qts of oil later I had power steering.pre 1960's used 20wt motor oil instead of hydro fluid for ps and hitch lift

yeah, even with a fresh reseal/refresh on Dad's, it is still very weak. the fill plug is cylindrical with a hex on the base of it. and the pump is on the left side of the engine and is driven by the fan belt.

moose1 · Oct 15, 2011

no power steering on my Allis , Did some ploughing with it last week worked really well . It's seems hard on gas but i guess that to be expected .

Soundguy · Oct 17, 2011

the 4 cyl gas engine is 226ci and 63 hp.. that's in the neighborhood of an early ford 5000 and they drank gas like a nfl linebacker drinks gatorade!

so yeah.. I'd expect fuel usage to be horrible if your foot is in it..

soundguy