BEFORE AND AFTER

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RESTORATION OF THE MONTH

John Blake of Elwood, Ind., got to know his 8,200-pound Case LA 'from one end to the other' during the two and a half years it took him to restore the tractor. 'I found it in November 1999 at Morris Hersberger's, at Lapel, Ind.,' John says. 'It was complete but stuck.'

Before he even addressed the engine problems, though, he removed 90 gallons of fluid - weighting in at 11 pounds a gallon - from each of the rear wheels. The extra fluid had been added to improve the tractor's pulling power, John says, 'but that was a lot of weight on top of the 8,200 pounds, so we took the fluid out and put in new tubes.'

John unstuck the engine by pouring three gallons of brake fluid into it and leaving the fluid to soak for about four months. 'That loosened three of the four cylinders,' he says, 'and then I had to pull the head to get at the other one.'

John, who has restored several other tractors, said he knew the fluid was working when he could feel it through the side caps.

While he had the head off, he also completely replaced the rings and installed new sleeves and new bearings. Recently, he replaced the head - after searching for six months to find a good used one. 'I've had seven and they've all had cracks.'

The main challenge John faced in restoring the engine was finding parts. He notes that old Case parts are not being remanufactured, can't be ordered through the manufacturer like in the old days - and weren't all that common anyway, originally: 'There were probably 10 John Deeres for every one Case,' he estimates.

A good example of a troublesome Case part to replace is the sleeves. The new sleeves John bought had to be bored out because the LA engine needed larger ones than he could find. To get the right fit, John bought another old, junk engine the same size as the LA's, put the new sleeves in it and took it to have the sleeves properly bored out. Once the job was done, he brought the junk engine back home, removed the newly bored-out sleeves and moved them into the tractor's engine. 'It was a long process,' he says, adding he has invested close to $2,000 in parts in the engine alone, 'and I only paid $1,300 for the whole tractor.'

The clutch and transmission were in good shape, but the brakes presented other challenges. The LA has a hand clutch with hydraulic brakes on the rear wheels, each of which has a master cylinder. Both cylinders had to be over hauled, and to get to them, John had to remove a 1,200-pound hub on each wheel. After he gained access, he removed the cylinders and had them re-machined at an auto supply store.

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