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1964 International Harvester 606D
International 2000 Loader & Howard Rotovator

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2018 "Revival" Project Page


4/22/18 - As mentioned on the previous page, the 606 was running badly, parked, and not touched for many years. Before either scraping it or starting to spend a pile of cash getting it field ready, the first step was to see if it ran. My cousin Bud, an excellent mechanic, stopped by one Saturday, told me what to go buy (basically two 12V batteries, starter fluid, and some "Diesel Kleen"), he came back a few hours later, worked his magic, and when he left, it was running better than when I bought it!


What the tractor looked like after sitting in the same spot for years.

Here is a close up of one of the back tires that disintegrated and the caustic ballast liquid leaked everywhere.

New battery #1.

New battery #2.

New tires, mounted on new rims, arrived via UPS from Tennessee!

 

5/3/18 - Random shots taken while assessing the work ahead.


Cracked front axle shaft.

No muffler or stack cover. This will be eventually remedied.
   

6/2/18 - As time permitted, and it is farming season so not much spare time these days, I began breaking things apart and cleaning them up. The first step was to get the old tires and rims off of the tractor. Every single bolt was rusted solid. Using cans of penetrating oil, I muscled off some bolts, but finally broke down and had the local mobile farm repair truck from Les Schwab come over and for $100, they were able to get 98% of the bolts off. These included the ones holding on the wheel weights, the hubs to the old rims, and the lug bolts.


For some reason, someone had used extra long lug bolts to mount the hubs to the axles. I suspect in an effort to protect the threads protruding from the backside, they installed nuts. All of these nuts and bolts had to be soaked and fought off.

A recently freed up rim. One of the wheel weight bolts on this one had to be ground and cold chissled off!

Pressure washed parts.

Cleaned up and primed.

One done, one not so much.

Side view of the seat after being removed.

Bottom view.

Back

Front

Peeking inside.

The pieces.

The seat mess had me a bit puzzled as it looked nothing like any of the available model. Finally I got it off of the tractor, broken apart and figured out that the original seat had worn out at some point in its life and they had wedged some random tractor seat cushion into the frame. Now that I knew what seat model I had, the De Luxe, by the way, I got a new seat back and bottom cushion ordered.


Looking down on where the seat was installed
 
Seat frame cleaned, sanded and primed.

Fiberglass seat back prior to restoration work.

Using John's white vinegar trick to remove rust from nuts and bolts.

Lug bolts cleaned up, rethreaded, and heads primed and painted.

Various wheel weight and hub bolts.

Shooting primer.

Cleaning off rust with wire brush (and a lot of skinned up hand parts).

Cleaning up parts.

I will paint these later after degreasing the rear-end of the tractor and paiting it all at the same time.

Documenting part numbers as I find them.

Looking down on where the left fender mounts.

Another part number.

Another part number.

Capturing decal images also.

And where they are located.

I ended up breaking down and buying a pile of new nuts, bolts and washers to mount the hubs on the new rims.

Inside of hub mounted on a new rim.

Outsie view of the same.

Close-up of the specifications.

Right tire mounted.


Left one too.


One last shot of the tractor in it old home before firing it up.

6/30/18 - It took a while, pressure washing, wire brushing, grinding and sanding, followed by priming and painting, but on this day, I got the new rear tires mounted, fired the tractor up on the first attempt, and drove it out of the shed! It sure felt good! First thing I did was to spray on a couple of cans of Gunk and hose off the years of dirt and grime. The photos below are just a few after it was cleaned up a bit. It is still pretty grungy so a more thorough degreasing and pressure washign will follow.


7/7/18 - Clean up continues ... In preparation for the new seat cushions that I ordered on 7/3 to arrive (due on 7/10), I started work on the seat components. The fiberglass back was awful. In the past, while operating the tractor, I would always have a rash on my forearms from the exposed glass fibers. So I sanded, used sanding sealer, primed, sanded more, and finally painted. Oh, there was a decal on the back so I masked it off to preserve it and when done, removed the tape and shot it with clear coat.

 

7/8/18 - The bottom of the air cleaner canister had been dented up a bit and was rusted enough that you could see daylight through it. I had a small can of old Bondo left over from doing some body work a couple of years ago and was able to ply it enough to get the hardener mixed into it. Cleaned it up and pounded it out as best as I could, shot the inside with silver Rustoleum, and slapped a layer of the Bondo on it. Will shape, sand, primer and paint it next.


Is that the Milky Way?


Parts all taken apart, washed and drying in the sun.
While things were drying, I continued working on the seat. I needed to get the sliding rails off of the old seat cushion bottom but the bolts were so frozen up (rusted together), I ended up using the side-grinder and removing them that way.

7/11/18 - The seat cushions, and other assorted parts, arrived from All State Ag Parts. Unfortunately, they do not fit the 606 "De Luxe" seat frame as I was assured in advance of ordering. Click here for the seat restoration page.


7/14/18 - I got the aircleaner bottom bowl shot with paint. It still looks like a beat up, very used part, but it is now relatively airtight and hopefully I slowed down its decay.



7/15/18 - The tractor has been sitting in the barnyard for a couple of weeks waiting for me to have a bit of time to clean it up. Today I got the hood removed and in the shop so that I can later straighten it out and get it painted. After that I emptied three cans of Gunk onto it and pressure washed the heck out of it. When Bud has the tractor, I will get him to pull off the old steering wheel and loosely install the new one so that I can take apart the dash, cleand and repaint, and install the various new parts that I ordered.


7/16/18 - I chatted with my mechanic cousin letting him know that I had gotten the tractor degreased, all of the filters and fluids together, and that it was ready to be picked up. I actually do still need to get the air cleaner assembly all put back together, make a list of everything that I know needs to happen, and to actually get all of the fluids and filters into one location and ready for pick up.


7/18/18 - I heard back from the customer service person from All States Ag Parts regarding the seat. I ended up foregoing the idea or finding replacement cushions and rebuilding the stock 606 seat. He said that it was only used on the 606s and that IH cross-referenced the old part number to the cushions that I returned. The solution was to buy the 706/806 three cushion seat components (hardware and cushions) for $176 and making that seat work. It should be here next Wednesday.


7/19/18 - Been working on getting the farm prepared for a wedding this coming weekend but carved out some time today to work a bit more on the air cleaner assembly.

   

 


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