$500 Road Grader Forgotten in a Field... Was it WORTH the RESCUE?!?

ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another episode here at Salvage Workshop today we found another old motor grader that's in need of a rescue so let's take a look at it and we'll get right into getting it out of here so what we have here is I think it's a 1940s or 50s Alice Chalmers motograder and it is in Fairly complete condition the cutting blade is there it has a ripper it's got all four or both Steer tires look decent all four rear tires look decent both seat pads are there looks like the battery box is underneath it and I don't know literally anything else about it so let's let's walk around I always thought this uh this big tube frame was really really cool really unique it's like the tilt cylinder there is got a hose broken off of it but see if we can find some more detail that's broken there's something so right there says a Model D printed in the U.S Alice Chalmers Model D serial number 13014 and then and I'm not sure what that's maybe the cab serial number was that one and then this is the serial number of d 5347 maybe Alice Chalmers so we have the blade is probably mostly down which is not a good thing but they've got a chain holding the Ripper up I don't know anything else about it other than somebody bashed the back of this radiator with a set of forks to move it at one point and so in doing that they broke the right there above my finger in the radiator and so that radiator is possibly fixable most likely going to be junk I don't know if the motor is stuck it does have a little flapper over the exhaust and the air intake is still covered which are both great signs we are literally sitting in mud and water um and there's just a muddy mess of a pit back here um I don't brought the service truck and the goal is not to get it started today literally the goal is to get it on a trailer and get it out of here so it's starting to get a little dark on me so we'll do a better walk around once we get it back to the shop right now I don't want to spend a lot of time on that I want to spend a little more time getting it out of here and we'll go from there I'm gonna try and get all this metal out of the way because I don't want to run it over with tires or anything so the blade is kind of in the dirt we got the the wheels sunk in so we're gonna try and dig this out some so that we can at least get the blade as far away from the ground as possible because I'll show you in a minute this is not going to be an easy recovery from this spot so we need to pull it that way hopefully but for now let's get that dug out we'll go from there [Music] [Music] so we're just trying to get the uh Wheels turned as far that way as we can so that we can kind of get it out that way [Music] right [Music] right there that's good [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] all right so our blade is digging in so we're trying to use a come along to lift the blade up and then we'll chain it [Music] always [Music] there you go [Music] good there we go get that side up here [Music] we're still digging into that far side [Music] yep yeah what kind of bottle jacks are in the bed on the side rail [Music] [Music] there we go [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] just like that keep coming keep going keep coming [Music] oh [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] you want to catch a little more meat and come under the main frame here what you can see on the other side pull it toward the front are you good are you good let's just get it a little tighter and then we'll get here it's fine I guess I'll be flying [Music] all right well we got it out there's a little bit more of a hassle than we initially thought but at the end of the day we were able to finagle it out with an out without another machine using just the service truck and a little bit of Ingenuity here so a little bit redneck engineering so let's get this thing home foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you all right [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] that's okay [Music] all right well this little beast definitely uh made for a good time getting it where it's at but I've got it sitting here right next to the other grater and at some point in the future we'll be jumping onto this but let's do a walk around when it's a little bright out and we'll kind of take a look at the machine the old Alice Chalmers put up a little bit of a fight getting it home and into this spot but it is here so let's do a quick walk around and just take a look at it one thing that I noticed is all the tires are still holding air all six and so that's great news doesn't mean that they are great but this is actually a pretty nice machine it's got a full scarf or attachment it's got a mold board that shifts hydraulic up and down obviously that's normal but it's all mechanical steering which was nice because we could use that to actually uh turn the machine with some of these machines and they're dead you just you can't do much with it but somebody welded an eyelet here and here and two on the other side specifically for raising that blade without being under hydraulic power and that was a big help so this old school version has the actual tube frame and I always thought that thing was so iconic in regards to graders and so I definitely thought it was awesome this one had it but if we jump in the machine I have to figure out what what the controls what do each lever controls but we've got our throttle here and that's actually free and this is our shifter which guessing that's the pattern and that is just Rock Solid let's have to figure that out oil amps I'm guessing water temp that one doesn't look good oh yeah start switch and then one of these will be clutch the other one's going to be brakes don't know what's what on it but it does steer so that's that's a good good sign and most of the glass is so this is plexiglass somebody basically just put a new one that's glass glass so is that oh look at that we got a heater well that's a little cab heater for it and that's an actual glass glass window just look at the paint guarantee that's probably lead based so that's exciting so one of the biggest problems with this machine is that somebody smashed the radiator with a set of forks and I knew that because I saw this machine quite a while ago and the person who owned it at the time basically told me that one of their employees was pushing it around in the yard set of forks right here terrible idea shouldn't have done it completely smashed and broke the radiator and oh oh man dang I didn't see that before that is the water pump and it is cracked right there I wonder how bad that is you know what this hood and radiator are literally just sitting there let's get those off and look at that water pump but man if I can't find parts for it that's going to be a different situation if we look at the radiator here that is where it completely cracked off the core itself is probably great so I don't know if that's fixable or if it's even worth it because it kind of snapped pretty much right where it would have been soldered on because here's the other end so maybe I could solder That Elbow back into the lower housing fan is all banged up barely turning that fin that fin are pretty bad belt's off this alternator got banged and then it makes the belt's coming off all the way let's look at this water neck oh yeah it's it's in multiple pieces so just just slightly moving it like that I can see the separation crack there expand so my guess is this ear it's broke completely off and actually it might go down it might be these two hmm so this is our throttle I'm just from the cab here goes into the governor through that and then at least that's free here's our carburetor it's our choke that's off okay so that's our air intake we got air coming in that pipe going through this tube into the carburetor I don't see any cracks in the manifolds the exhaust pipe kind of just sits right down into here and then this would be the upper radiator hose and let's look at that check the points out well that doesn't look too bad actually oh wow that actually looks fairly clean those points might be new that uh condenser looks new whole point card looks new coil no not new so we'll close that up so that's actually a good sign I mean at the end of the day that doesn't tell us much um let's see if we can finally the dipstick so we can check the oil and there it is and this will tell us hopefully if there's water in it well it's right about halfway up to full smells normal yeah well that's a good sign that means there's not a ton of water or coolant or fuel down in the crank case and I don't know if the engine is free or not I haven't messed with it so that's our gas tank but man I right now assuming the engine's not locked up the next problem will be either finding a water pump or fixing that one and that's cast iron I guess before anything we really should get a wrench on the crank and figure out if the engine is locked up and if it is maybe we get some stuff in the cylinders and see if we can break that loose or let that sit and break itself loose um I don't know I've got hopes that it's good but let's find out it doesn't want to go that way okay it's going a little bit that way and then then I'm hearing something up front yeah almost like maybe something is in the flywheel housing I'm definitely hitting the shoulder and I don't know if it's engine or if it's up there in the front well that's not good what I'm hearing is something kind of in that area and maybe there's something seized up in there I don't know there's a plate there with a grease circle on it the starter is right there which I think is under the seat you know I think I'm going to take off this water pump and we're just gonna see what we see because I can probably get the engine free but I definitely want to figure out what part that is I think there's a part number on it says JM uh one eight Maybe and then the engine block number says am 3858-14 and then there's a four down there below it if you got any information on that motor that'd be great looks like there's some more numbers here you get a scraper or a wire brush to see them though I don't see any tags anywhere it's uh let's get that water pump off foreign broke right off I think it's in three pieces there's one of them here's our two pieces small ones so there's that it goes like that [Music] and then let me get this cobweb out of there so then that big piece goes right there small piece goes right there there's what it looked like it would look Unbroken but literally every single bolt hole is separated so and this is cast iron I've welded cast iron before and had success doing it but I'm gonna see if I can find this part before I go down that path it's it's a lot of work and you don't always get it right and it's just a porous metal it's hard to you gotta heat it preheat it and then you gotta post heat it you gotta cool it slowly you got to use nickel Rod or or you got to braise it there's a lot to it um so it looks like this engine might be sleeved right in there I can see I can't show you right now but it looks like a sleeve for the cylinder wets surprising so I'm pretty sure that's our governor there is our throttle linkage goes into that and then it comes the actual one that goes to the carburetor comes out of that that mechanism but so I think for right this minute what I'm going to do I'm going to take that water pump with me we're going to plug holes um I'm gonna get something to cover that something cover that something to cover the air or the exhaust something to cover or this side of the carburetor just trying to make it as least likely to get worse while it sits because right now we're not going to start this We're not gonna mess with it um I just have too many other projects this popped up it was available at a very very reasonable price and so I couldn't say no so the point in kind of diving this deep was just to assess the damage so I'm going to either need to fix the radiator or get a new one the hood itself looks fine it's got a few dents and dings I think I can take the radiator out of this and bang out that Grill and still save and reuse that I'll have to weld the mounting tabs back on because they ripped off there's one there and then one right there and then I think we're going to need an alternator thing feels locked up well let's oh there we go that might come back to life looks like the fins got bent when the whole thing got got pushed in so I don't know we'll have to mess with it the Delco Remy it's like it's just a one wire alternator and then yeah I mean beyond that get some stuff soaking maybe in the cylinders and then I'm gonna try and figure out how to take a peek down into the the flywheel housing and see if we can figure out a a way to clean that out maybe there's a cover on the bottom I've seen Mouse Nest get get down in those and kind of cause just wreak havoc on that side of the engine when it could be that the inside of this engine is beautiful but it can't turn over because there's stuff binding around the flywheel you know in there somewhere so I don't know so let's get these ports plugged all right here's what I got so far I've got air intake line back on but I did put a piece of uh plastic tarp kind of over the carburetor in case water does get down there I did put a big plastic cover on that air intake we've got a bottle inside the exhaust and then a tarp over it plastic over the two radiator lines and then for this water pump I really couldn't think of much other than to make a plate that would Mount right here and then we're going to put a gasket in there that I made and basically just use the three holes to bolt that on there tight so nothing can get in there mainly concerned about a mouse Nest happening in there because that would be very bad so let's get that put on all right I'm gonna slather this Grease all over the gasket here try and take up some of the imperfections in the casting the metal the gasket itself and it'll last longer do it on both sides all right got that in there there's our plate I had to get some shallower bolts so I hung onto the longer ones but actually you know what let's put some grease on these bolts and actually there are not threads on that lower stud all the way so I'm gonna have to go get like a piece of pipe spacer and then we'll put the nut back on so I'm gonna go find something real quick all right got a little piece of pipe foreign there we go I actually peep out all the unwanted guests I got the spark plug hole opened up we're gonna stick a funnel in here and we're gonna add some penetrating oil down in there okay I'm gonna do that to the other three I'm going to close this thing up and let it sit I've got fluid in all four cylinders I popped the bolts or the nuts off the valve cover let's take a look oh wow yeah that looks good in there yeah sweet oh yeah it looks so good in there I mean there's a little surface rust inside the valve cover well I am pleasantly surprised at how clean that is I do think I'm gonna wipe this valve cover gasket and then coat it with some grease kind of try and coat the the rim of that with some grease and button it back up um I just wanted to see in there see how if you know if it looked all nasty it does not this is a great sign we know a lot more about this machine now as far as its potential the engine at least the top side looks good something is clearly binding the engine I think it's in the flywheel housing somewhere in that range it might be in gear I guess that might that shouldn't affect anything actually it could it wasn't gear and try and turn the engine over it's going to try and turn the transmission to so I think we gotta try and get it into neutral I wonder if that's the issue um because if it's not in neutral yeah the engine will be coupled with the transmission causing it to want to drive so yeah maybe that's the issue I don't know all right so there's another option we'll try and get into the you know the shifter there and see if we can get that thing in neutral because it's not quite it's supposed to be right in the middle and I think it's got to come back a little bit to get into neutral but um the engine as far as everything else looks great so far the only thing if you know where to get a water pump for this engine please let me know or you've got one laying around that you'd be willing to sell me I'd be absolutely great to have it I'd appreciate it a lot same with a radiator if you've got a radiator laying around for one of these that would be amazing as well I may try and fix them if they are unobtainium if they're not an obtainium you know we'll see what they cost and try and find uh find one affordably but I think I'm gonna coat the rim of that with grease coat this with grease put some grease on each one of these and then we're gonna set that cover right back on it this is not a permanent fix this is just me trying to take care of the engine so that it doesn't get any worse between now and we actually get around to doing it and I think really you know I mean obviously that Plate's great these covers are going to make a big difference so I don't really need another motor grader we got the big old cat one here but man I have a soft spot for Alice Chalmers and when I saw this thing just rotten away and headed for the scrap yard I I couldn't resist unfortunate that somebody bashed the back but I mean that's how it goes with old machines well it got a little late last night when I was trying to kind of get the engine buttoned up I did find out that this is probably a an Alice Chalmers 226 um gasoline engine the water pumps are readily available I'm sure the radiators are too and we'll probably need a radiator fan um it's still going to be you know a chunk of change to get those things but you know if you've got one of those things laying around just let me know that'd be awesome but either way at least now I know that regardless that kind of uh part is available and I don't have to try and fix the other one it does have a powered tilt one of the one of the hoses broke off and I was able to get a an easy out in there and get the piece out so I just plugged it for now this hose is you know just broken still but I want to try and avoid any additional water that may be getting into that cylinder and get it stopped I kind of thinking pulling this cylinder out just to turn it upside down and drain any would be water in there so that nothing gets any worse than it is but at least now no new water can get in there and I did chub a bunch of grease in there and get this uh radiator cover put back on one thing I want to get into at some point soon is under all these three plates on both sides and take a look at the gears and the shafts inside of the um inside of there just to make sure we don't have any broken chains or broken shafts um same on the other side there's three more covers over there right there and another thing I'd like to look at Soon Is Right right there that's the shifter for the transmission and the boot that should be covering it looks pretty much garbage if not completely gone and so water can run down that down into the transmission and so I'd like to get there's a drain plug right there I want to open that drain plug out and see if there's any water in the bottom of the transmission but for now we got it home safe we've taken a walk around it seen what kind of machine it is it's in very very good shape for its age I didn't show you but the model is it's a D model snails Chalmers uh Model D model d and then the serial number is a d 5347 so this tag actually has a 1952 and a 1955 number on it so it can't be any older than that they started making these in 1949 from what I know and so because that tag says 55 it's at least a 55 if not newer we have exactly one hour on this unit and so it's definitely had been pretty dang low miles or somebody didn't wire it right and had no idea what they're doing and I don't even know why you would replace it and then not get it working but whatever this little unit is in pretty dang good shape for its age I am gonna need some new lights they're going a little bit Bluetooth on me that one is better but still broken I've been looking for cracks in the welds on this actual tube frame because apparently if they've been Road hard and put away wet you get some cracking in places and it has to be reinforced but I haven't seen anything so I'm really optimistic that this is a lower hour machine [Applause] [Applause] I hope you enjoy the rescue process of this old motor grater it was definitely a challenge getting it back and we've got our work cut out for us when it comes to getting it working right and operating properly as always I absolutely love doing this saving these machines they kind of built our country and built the world really is something I think a lot fewer people are doing and so I just challenge you to get out there and find something you can save today because once they're gone they're gone and I don't know I have a passion for this old stuff and if you don't know that by now I don't know how to explain it to you but thank you for watching the videos thank you for supporting the channel liking and commenting because without you this would not be possible lots more to come I guarantee you're going to want to stick around

Channel: Salvage Workshop

Views: 256,548

Keywords: restoration, Machine restoration, tools, old machinery, cat, heavy machinery, earthmover, earthmoving, heavy, Wheeled, farming, Barn Find, crawler, bulldozer, diesel, mechanic, Salvage Workshop, tractor, IH, Heavy Equipment, Machine Repair, Caterpillar, Rescue, Revival, abandoned, international, hydraulic, motor grader, road grader, Loading Macines, abandonded, vintage, resurrection, equipment, moving machines, deckover, trailer, tire repair, stuck, in the weeds, burried, off-road, Allis Chalmers, Model D

Id: 5x-YA89-KPU

Length: 52min 6sec (3126 seconds)

Published: Mon May 08 2023