1949 Allis Chalmers Model B - New Headlights, Oil Change, and Working Hydraulics

When I bought the Massey Harris Pony in December of 2024 (since sold), the guy gave me a couple headlights that he said came on the Pony. They seemed to be generic headlights so when I sold the tractor, I kept the headlights. Well wouldn't you know, my new B had headlight brackets and wiring but no headlights. So I dug out the little red headlights and proceeded to figure out if they'd work.

I grabbed one of the headlights and took it to a 6 volt battery. I touched the terminals to the battery and...... nothing. Hmm, is the bulb burned out or is it a ground issue? I decided to try the other headlight and much to my surprise, it did work. So that probably means the first headlight I tried just needs a ground cleaned up. Problem was, I had no idea how to disassemble the thing. It appeared as though the headlight ring/bezel was crimped in place with no way to disassemble. That's a bummer....

But wait. I grabbed a magnet and touched it to the headlight ring. It was a very weak attraction. So the ring is not steel. As I'm sure most people reading this have figured out long before I did, the ring is actually rubber and not stamped steel. So that's how it comes apart. I grabbed a screwdriver, started prying, and managed to get the assembly into three pieces without breaking anything. Mmm, rust. Everywhere. That's why this one didn't work.

First things first, I cleaned up the buckets, scuffed them with sandpaper, and shot some orange paint I had in the garage.

These bolts in the photo below hold the headlight brackets to the sides of the radiator shroud. The hole in the middle is to run a power wire to the headlights. The wires barely fit through the holes so I drilled them out one size up. It's not easy drilling through a Grade 5 bolt with a 9/64" drill bit. I was so afraid I'd snap it off in the hole, but fortunately that didn't happen.

And how is this mess supposed to conduct electricity through all that rust? That's the downside to these old tractor lights. They get their ground connection through the body of the headlight bucket/bracket, through the bracket bolted to the tractor, and through the bolt holding the bracket to the tractor.

This next photo below shows the bracketry. The rusty bracket bolts to the tractor. As you can see, the headlight bracket is narrower than the tractor bracket. I had the grandiose idea of turning some fancy stainless steel spacers on the lathe to take up the gap, but when I went to look for some stainless stock, I ran across a tube (top of photo below) that would probably work just as well, and would take a whole lot less time to make work. Four quick cuts on the metal band saw and they were done except for grinding off the rough edges.

I'd need two small spacers per light, so four in all.

This next photo below shows the layout. I'll need to paint the short spacers. I was able to scrape the paint off the galvanized center long spacer. As you can see, I popped out the little rubber grommets so they wouldn't get painted.

Things are all back together, the lights are mounted, and they actually work! Nice.

One minor detail, I need to tidy up the wiring.

That's much better (see below). Also I've got to point out, notice the black rubber rings. You'll remember they used to be painted red. It literally took me hours to get the red paint off them. But now they really are sharp looking. I could have painted the rubber rings orange but I think the natural black is much better.

And here are a couple of beauty shots of  the new acquisition.

On to changing the oil. When I cracked open the drain plug, several tablespoons of water drained out first, but that is to be expected when a tractor sits for a long period of time. At least it wasn't gallons, like with other tractors I've worked on.

The leaky filter on the tractor was the wrong part number (Napa 1106) according to the vast internet. I bought a new proper filter (Wix 57011). The two filters look suspiciously alike....

Some tractors in the 40s and 50s had what was called a bypass filtration system (this B being one of them). Only part of the oil being pumped through the engine would go through the filter. All of the oil would get filtered eventually, but it wasn't as good as other systems that filtered all the oil that was circulated through the engine.

The below photo shows an infamous tube that stuck into the filter. Oil would be pumped up through this tube and out some holes, then the oil would be forced through the filter media, and finally it would drain back to the oil pan. Many times this tube would come out of the filter base and stay with the filter, then the filter would get thrown away, along with the tube. I'm happy the tube is still present. The tube has a hole through each side (you can see it if you look near the top) and also there's a hole out the top.

Once the headlights and oil change were done, I parked the tractor by the garage. While it was still running, I thought I'd try the hydraulic control, just to see if it happened to start working (so far it hadn't worked). I pulled on the handle, still nothing. Then a lightbulb went off in my head. The PTO needs to be engaged for the hydraulics to work. Duh, silly me. I engaged the PTO and wonder of wonders, the hydraulics worked!

This little tractor has one surprise after another. In a good way.