Saw a couple of interesting things this weekend.


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Posted by Clint Dixon on Tuesday, September 03, 2002 at 10:54AM :

Labor Day Weekend is the big weekend for antique tractor shows, threshing bees, and swap meets around this part of the country.

This year I saw two interesting Dodge related tractors. The first was a Wards tractor. They used the 25-hp six cylinder 217-cubic-inch Chrysler industrial engine, a Dodge five-speed truck transmission, and a 2-1/2-ton Dodge truck rear axle. The Wards tractor was produced by the Custom Manufacturing Corp. of Shelbyville, Indiana, it was a version of that company's "Custom Model B", and was sold by Montgomery Ward. I believe the tractor that I saw was a 1949 model. This was a true row crop tractor designed to pull a 3-bottom plow. Some of these also used the Gyrol Fluid Drive.

The second tractor that caught my attention was an early 1950's Ford NAA. It was equipped with the Elanco four-wheel-drive conversion. I talked with the owner of the tractor but forgot to write down the information on this company (which has long since gone out of business) because I was focused on what the company used for a conversion axle. The early Elanco conversions used a narrowed WWII Dodge 3/4-ton front axle. It was flipped over, upside down, and was complete with the Dodge hubs and Budd 5.50 x 16 wheels. The wheels wore 7.50 x 16 tractor tread tires and looked to be WWII 1/2-ton, but I could find no date stamp on them. For the Elanco conversion, the axle was stripped of the drums, backing plates, and the rest of the brake parts. The 3rd member was inserted into the upside down housing so the pinion gear remained on the bottom of the case. A drive shaft with Detroit yokes and universals traveled rearward to a chain driven case attached to the inspection cover on the side of the tractors transmision/differential case under the driver's left foot. This chain case provided the needed gear reduction to match that of the tractor's rearend.

This tractor stayed in four-wheel-drive all of the time. The later Elancos used an axle of their own design and could be desengaged from four-wheel-drive at the chain case under the drivers foot.

The owner was suprised to hear that I could provide him with unlocking hubs to fit his Dodge axle and new ujoints for the drive shaft. He was also exited that I had a source for the rest of the Dodge axle parts. He, and other collectors, had been buying parts from a collection that had been stockpiled when the Elanco company went out of business, apparently quite costly. It never hurts to make new friends!

I wonder if Dave would let me bring one of these to the Vintage Power Wagon Rally?

Clint



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