What did you have to do to your Cletrac to get her going?

[Relic]

Well as every1 knows I just got my first cletrac project. I am curious to know what had to be done to yours to get her going?
Did it sit idle for 5, 10, 15, 20 years or so?Inside a barn? Or out in the elements? How far along are you with your project? Any tips you can give the newbe restorer?
Does any1 have a checklist to go thru and what order did you do things? This could be a good reference page for future use and especially valuable for me:D Well I'm lovin this site thanks again.
Mike Purcell

[Relic]

Seems I have a tip for the newbe's (witch I am) If you dont have serial number tag and are gunna crawl underneath to get a casting number from bottom housing....USE SAFETY GLASSES!!!! Man I got a piece of rust in my eye and it hurt like hell! I was trying to get my fat fingers on it to pull it out but was unsuccessful. So I quickly ran to the frigarator tore off a magnet and proceded to the bathroom where I successfully removed the sliver from my eye. LOVE THOSE REFRIGERATOR MAGNETS.

[cletracboy]

I too found that out the hard way, also be carefull when using compressed air to clean it as thats how I got a piece of metal in my eye. I had it there for 4 weeks before my doctor sent me to the eye hospital and they had to firk it out with a needle as it had grown over, this is not something I would recommend so be careful.
I have a couple of cletrac and an oliver crawler, the oliver I've restored, it spent its working life in Australia and was then shipped to the UK about 15 years ago and had changed hands a couple of times before I got it three years ago. I have one cletrac which I'm breaking which sat out in the damp british  weather for over 30years.  The other 2 I have have pobably sat out for about 5 years I guess but were shelterd in an old quarry in a wood.  One tip I will give you is make sure you have a strong friend to help you as many of the parts are very heavy and get in touch with Zimmermans and get a manual and parts book as they're very usefull. Sam

[Relic]

I ordered a repair manual from Zimmermans didnt order a parts manual but will soon thanks for the tips. What part of restoration did you find the hardest to do? thanks,
Mike Purcell

[cletracboy]

The hardest part funnily was starting the engine after its rebuild, the Hercules diesel in the BD's is not the best starter on cold days, I was trying till midnight on a rainy day just above freezing and I couldn't get it to start, I got soaked very frustrated and went home feeling dejected, but then I found out that these old low compression diesels need plenty of heat on cold days and a couple of days later armed with a gas set I soon had it started.  One of the more difficult jobs was remushing the track frames and the front idler wheels, as I don't have a press big enough a freind had to take them to work to do, I also had to make a tool to pull the bushes into the track frames where it pivots on the main pivot shaft. The rear sprockets were also very tight, a hydraulic puller wouldn't touch them so we had to heat them cherry red with the gas bottles and quench them twice then for saftey we wrapped a large chain round them and used a large bottle jack in a special frame I made wich bolts to the sprocket to push them of.  The chain was because they fly off with a lot of force when they go! Sam

[Relic]

The bottle jack thing sounded like a good idea. Any ideas on things that I will probably have to do b4 she gets rolling. I will have to hook up a push/pull switch for the on/off for ignition. Looks like 1 was installedbut knob is broken off and its rusted so it doesnt move. There is only 1 wire thats not connected that I think goes to distributor somewhere, the other wire is a ground. Is that all ill need to hook up to get spark?

[Bob]

My 20C sat in a building for at least 20 years the last owner said. I pulled it out, hauled it home, cleaned carb, borrowed a good mag, and freed the valves up and gave it a pull and it started and runs good all in two days.