I've never claimed to be very bright, so it will come as no surprise to anyone on here that I've dragged home some more Cat boat anchors, tractors that most folks would of happily shipped off to China as scrap.

Saving Australian history, in particular Caterpillar history, is a passion of mine, some, including my long suffering wife "Anna the Saint" suggest it's possibly not a passion, but an affliction, or illness, luckily for me she always says it with a smile on her face.

Rax200 was offered these tractors last year but sensibly kept walking past, but he knew I was trying to find good cylinders and pistons for my other 2 basket case Thirty's so he mentioned them to me the other day, and I bought them and dragged them home, this time it was a short trip, only about 300 miles.

There are no serial numbers to be found anywhere sadly, though I do know they were sold originally into my old home State of South Australia, as you will see, 2 are "earlier" type machines with the smaller recoil springs.

I'm hoping I can get 2 of them running again one day, I will need a lot of parts from folks like you reading this, things like manifolds, carbs, aircleaners and fuel tanks are the obvious one's, but there will be a heap of smaller bits and pieces needed as I get into them, and I realize most of those parts will have to come from either good folks in the USA, or from the Heals in England if they have spares.

Wish me luck, the Thirty is in my opinion one of the nicest looking Cats made, and with a 3 year old grandson I need a Cat I can safely carry him on, so the wide seat on a Thirty is where I hope to maybe pass on the passion I enjoy for saving old Cats.
Mike

Get Bruce on a wire brush and a lick of paint you will be half way done. Seriously good projects I doubt our USA friends realise how hard it is to find those things here, there were not many Cats in Aus before WW2 and those that were here were worked to death long ago. cheers Colin

"wimmera wrote:

Get Bruce on a wire brush and a lick of paint you will be half way done. Seriously good projects I doubt our USA friends realise how hard it is to find those things here, there were not many Cats in Aus before WW2 and those that were here were worked to death long ago. cheers Colin

Ha ha, you are right Colin, though now that Bruce has retired he's not interested in getting his hands dirty helping friends save old Cats, interferes with coffee and cake eating......

Yes, sadly good parts are almost impossible to find here in Oz, still, if it was easy everyone would want to do it wouldn't they!! I would love to know the history of these old girls, one apparently sat on a dirt pile out the front of a scrap yard in Port Augusta for many years, teasing everyone who drove past.
All the best
Mike

I'm not very familiar with the thirty but it looks like a good score to me. I can see lots of good parts there and as we all know they ain't making them anymore
Good luck with your project

That looks like a challenging project! Looking forward to your progress

"Neil" wrote:

You're a top man Mike! Don't listen to what those other guys say ; )
What can you tell us about those grousers on the tractor closest to the shed? They look like spindly little things. Also, that brazing job looks special. Any interesting provenance on them?

Hello Neil, the tracks closest to the shed are off rice harvesters, they are Berco D4D size chain, I dragged them home last week and hope to use them on the D4 2T restoration, but I thought they would be handy to drop a Thirty onto temporarily as they were craned off the truck.

Sadly I have no historical information on these tractors at all, but that is typical for the rubbish I drag home, other guys drag barn fresh tractors home with the original Bill of Sale and the full set of tools sitting in the tool box, all I know is they all came from the State of South Australia about 5 years ago when they were bought by a retired Vet.

I'd suggest they have done a million hours, and been thoroughly abused by a whole congo line of ratbags and hooligans, as you noticed, 2 of the poor old girls have thrown #4 conrod at some stage and been repaired, so it will be interesting to see what the internals are like under those man hole side covers........
All the best
Mike

I think Anna might be right. I have been told that the affliction can be cured by taping a rusty washer to your shoulder, but I haven't tried it as of yet myself.

I've been busy squirting loose juice everywhere, trying to get a better idea of what I have ahead of me, on one of the girls, many of the head stud nuts are badly rotted away, as were the old spark plugs, I've never seen that before.

Also found a interesting spark plug, looks like someone repaired one to get another 10,000 hours, truth be known, sparks plugs, like used oil, when money was tight, probably went from the house car to the truck to the old Cat.

No broken cranks or conrods found yet, the old girl missing her head has only 7 blades on the fan, and the missing blade was cut off right down by the base, so I can only assume they kept driving the poor old thing.

Russell Turner, that's a funny one, better not let Anna the Saint hear that, she will start stitching rusty washers into all my shirts.......