This is an account of three young friends who resuscitated an old bulldozer and brought it back to play another day.

Three of us pooled our money and bought an old bulldozer on a whim see (Figure 1) since the three of us lived at least a hundred miles from where it was parked. My friends, Steve, Randy and I were excited about bringing the old rust bucket to life. Steve suggested we get a swimming pool filled with WD40 but this was not a serious idea. My uncle owned a large property in the redwoods west of Healdsburg, California and we had been spending weekends there. Although the land was owned by my Uncle, the old bulldozer was owned be the previous  landowner, Fred Dicke, but he had made no attempt to claim it and had no way to remove it from the property. To purchase it, we came to an agreement of $400 to be shared by the three of us. The bulldozer was a model HD-14, built by Allis-Chalmers, serial 2569, which corresponds to being built in 1943.  The paint scheme was a faded yellow covering some green (olive drab). It was a military dozer and was built in a hurry as the war was waging then. The Dickes bought it to work in their logging operation. Fred parked it when one of the steering clutches got stuck and they purchased a new Caterpillar bulldozer. Incidentally this model can be seen in the movie “Fighting SeaBees”, where a quick glimpse of the dozer can be seen while Susan Hayward gets a ride on the hood of an HD-14.

 Without much planning we began the project of getting it running. We decided to concentrate on working on the motor before tackling the drive train. We began by investigating the many systems involved in this motor. This unit is a 2 cycle diesel with a blower forcing air through holes in the lower portion of the sleeves. This allows inspection of the rings and pistons as they pass by the parts, assuming the hand hole covers are removed. We found acorn shells in two cylinders and cleared this debris through the ports by using air and hook shaped wires. Since the clearance is only a few thousandths, the shells stopped the motion of the pistons. In addition the roots blower was stuck and had to be cleaned before the engine could be completely cycled through 360 degrees. Using fresh batteries and after cleaning up the starter we were able to fire it up with out much trouble (Figure 2).

After some experience running it we found that the dried up seals in the blower allowed a lot of unburned fuel to come through the exhaust system creating a “slobber” effect of a mixture of air and unburned fuel that could 1) cause an explosion in the muffler or 2) trigger a runaway motor. We solved this problem by having the blower rebuilt.

The weather turned hot and we rigged a surplus parachute to provide shade (Figure 3). 

Next item(s) are the steering clutches. These needed to be pulled, dismantled and cleaned. The design of the drive train requires that in order to remove a steering clutch, at least one pinion must be pulled out between spokes on the drive sprocket, as well as a splined shaft which transmits torque to both clutches. Caterpillar uses 2 rings of bolts in this area which made it better for the mechanic’s task. We couldn’t find the old pinion until later, when it was found in the dirt. By that time we had ordered  a pinion from a midwest junk yard. The keyway was bad so that had to be reworked.

 Steve layed down a mosquito fog which can be seen in (Figure 4). We moved the tractor to the barn when we were able to move it (Figure 5),  shown here before replacing main support spring, we brought it back to the earlier spot and fitted the blade on it. I was amazed at the power.

The old dozer could push a lot of dirt with ease   (Figure  6). More than once this dozer saved the day at the vineyard. For example the time it was needed to pull a 1-½ ton truck out of a ravine. The John Deere was unable to pull that heavy truck. Fred helped me and the old HD-14 yanked the truck up and out of the ravine.

Bill Stubbs
Santa Rosa, California