Oliver Tractor: Some Work Needed

My father and I bought a 1949 Oliver 70 Row Crop during covid shutdown. It was sold as running, but after getting it home we found out it did run, but very poorly. 

So I started to work on the motor only to find many years of poor work and neglect, the valves were set too tight and spark plug wires were put on in wrong firing order. Once I fixed these issues I managed to get it started, but there was no oil pressure. After pulling motor down we found a lot of cobbled work had been done, found crank out of round, and tape had been put behind the bearings to tighten up play and a timing gear nut on cam that was stripped. The hood was rough and had a hole cut for exhaust pipe that looked like an axe was used to make the hole.

The Oliver needed new crank and bearings and we had a hard time finding main bearings.  We finally found a set .020 under so we had to find a crank that could be turned to .020 under, this was a big challenge also. Had to pull camshaft and took to machinist to have new threads on cam and new nut made.

Once we got motor back together, my father and I got motor installed in frame and found motor was too tight for starter to turn. Hooked up to Ford pickup and tried to tow it but tires would slide and motor wouldn’t turn over. Come to find out starter was hung up in flywheel. After fixing this problem we got tractor running, but still poorly. We then discovered the motor had been timed from rear piston so motor ran but with no power. Once we fixed this issue we had the Oliver running and looking good. The great-grandchildren love Grampaw and great-Grampaw’s tractor.

John Stoaks
Wilmot, Ohio

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