Mogulman

I worked at the museum for 36 years, restorations and curatorial. Yes, I am retired and go back as a volunteer.

And…just like that, one fender repaired. The front of this fender was actually missing.

It seems things tick along quietly and then all of a sudden, final drives are assembled and the frame is attached and the sheet metal is being fit and made sure it is correct and straight. Fenders were bad as they had been chopped off. They will take some special care to rebuild.

Should be done for the summer of 2023 if all goes well.

We acquired the leather from a leather company. They provided us with some advice on what to use. We then cut the leather with a gasket cutter. The challenge of the rubber...well...we are glad we didn't have too. Not sure, but you may have to find a company that does rubber vulcanizing and see if they can help you out.

The new leathers are cut and fit for the sprocket and track frame pivot seals. The rubber components and springs are perfect. The leathers were rotten and shrunk.

Yes, glyptal was used as it was on the original. We have nice presses to put bearings on shafts.

Patent Number 2225202 is the design of the IH rear end and crawler final drive. Well, it is almost all together!

While little things progress, the last two decals we we seeking were completed today. Hopefully we will soon have a few more parts hanging on it soon. Right now, sub-assemblies are going together before installation.

They are demonstrated annually. Sometimes they go into the gallery for a stretch. Sometimes they get taken to events. Sometimes they take a break from operation for a season because they have been used quite a bit.

Transmission front plate is now in place!

With all the bearings and bushings in, some assembly can begin!

Dave, It does not seem any of ours have grease holes, original or otherwise. The slot is offset enough to feed into the bearing. The attached photo is the original bearing (has no holes) and the casting it goes in. Our new ones have no hole either.

The pivot for the track spring. It was badly worn and bent.

Source depends on the effort you are willing to go to to find what you need. For this project, time is on our side and we will dig and follow every lead until we have what we need. So far, so good. Finding the lamps was following each lead, finding the grill emblem same thing. We have tackled projects that are far more difficult to source parts, but won’t give in easily. I would have to check on the outboard bearing, but every bearing was sourced to match or cross reference to the original.