HG42 Anderson Dozer project

[Oildrum]

Hi Everyone, I am new to this forum, I bought one of these machines (1950 HG42 Anderson dozer) to do some ground leveling around my home. I like this machine and it is becoming an all out hobby. I found your forum and have been reading all your extremely helpful posts. I recall a few posts wanting to see the hydraulic hookups of on the Anderson over hood dozer, so I took some close pictures of mine  to share. I don't know how original all the  fittings are on the hydraulics but it works very well. With exception of the hydraulics I replaced  a lot of parts already, including all the fluids. I still have a long , long way to go to make it look nice.  The crawler works great. It did it's job but after 20 to 30 minutes it would overheat while pushing rocky dirt. The radiator was in very bad shape and I am in the process of replacing it with a new recoiled one.  

When I first saw the dozer I thought I would have to remove the hydraulic system over the hood to access the engine and radiator. But upon removal of the air filter and muffler from the manifold, The hood slipped out forward with some light wiggling. This required the removal of the two bolts to the gas tank and the two bolts forward of the hood. Also I knocked out the cotter pin for the bladed raising rod.

The fan belt is another story, Its old segmented link type with the rivets that is adjustable and connects like a belt, I see the practicality of this belt since I didn't have to remove the Hydraulic rod below which would have been another headache. The belt still  has  life in it, But I am thinking were I am going to find a similar one in case when this one goes, I looked all over the internet , I found some similar costly plastic belts but nothing like this one since its also V shaped. I vaguely recall seeing something similar on a WWII vehicle at a military show, but didn't take much notice of it then. If anyone knows the belt's manufacturer or were it can be found it would be very helpful. Thank you Mario

[lsamuels]

The fan belt is a belt that a lot of places sell as a universal replacement belt. It is adjustable to fit many different lenghts by removeing segments. I have seen them in the past and they work for a short time.

[Oildrum]

Thank you for information on the Belt, I guess I have to keep an eye for them to keep on hand.  
I have been busy on my Machine; I installed a new radiator and solved my heating issue. I should have mentioned in the above text that to remove the hood with the overhead hydraulic apparatus the radiator has to be in its position loose so it can be tilted forward allowing the hood to clear the radiator spout. The past history of my machine the hood hole for the radiator spout was enlarged by someone and was very roughly cut with torn jagged edges. This was most likely done to allow the hood to slide in and out to clear the spout more easily. I trimmed the hole to a much neater circle, one thing encountered was that the new radiator had a longer spout then the original but it still cleared ok, thanks to the larger hole.

I stripped down the machine of the yellow paint, primed and painted it overall via a spray gun with Case dealer heavy duty construction paint. I am pretty pleased the outcome.

[Jethrow]

Oildrum,

Looks sharp!

I'm using a link belt from Harbour Freight for now, planning to add an alternator later.

Glad your overheating problems are over, I have the same issue.  Just received a plate with petcock to replace the frost plug next to the hose pipe elbow.  Zimmermans recommended removing the frost plug, cleaning out any sediment and replacing it with the plate.

That's planned for this weekend.

Jethrow

[Oildrum]

Hi Jethro , Thank you, I was looking at those belts like your using, I wasn't sure about them but have been reading that they are reliable,I was also worried about ordering the wrong width size to give good traction in Hercules pulleys. I notice your belt sinks deep into the pulley, Do have any size recommendation as to the wideness of the those particular belts to give a good enough traction?   I searched at a Military vehicle show today for the belt like mine but negative results. The Alternator came with my machine, but it is a very nice thing to have.

[Jack in NB]

Hello, Oildrum -

Beautiful paint job.

Dad's first crawler - '46 HG - had that Anderson blade setup. He moved it to the replacement '52 OC-3. I notice some improvements - your lift connecting rod is tubular, while the older one was fabricated from strap into a wide flange I-beam section, and the bell crank was built up from plate and strap, instead of the formed box on yours. Your blade has an adaptor plate allowing it to angle; his did not.

I didn't like that overhead setup - it's a real bugger to get at spark plugs. My current OC-3 has the side-mounted lift cyls.

He had a problem with oil boiling out the filler cap on the dozer reservoir. Caused by the pump feed on one side and the return into the other side of the tank, with the recess for the cylinder blocking crossflow in the tank. The cure was a loop of 1/2" copper tubing from the top of the tank on one side across the top of the cylinder into the top of the other side. Compression fittings, with pipe threads, and the holes in the top of the tank tapped to take the pipe thread. I don't know how they kept chips out of the tank when they drilled and tapped, but the dealer did it, so they must have had some process to do that. Maybe they just left the chips to fall in!