I have been into restoring old engines for a short time but after a visit to a friends farm and my son riding his Ransomes Crawler, I thought "This is what I want next".   After lots of looking at photos and visiting people with crawlers I decided it was a Cat D2 as my first choice.  I like the quirkiness of the petrol starting (pony) motor and it has a decent size diesel main engine - the best of both worlds.  If you're interested in crappy looking old machinery (personally I think they're a work of art) and reading about people stupid enough to try and restore it........Read on.

My Cat D2

I bought my D2 on the 5th of November, 1999.  It cost me $1000 (Aus).   It had a leaking exhaust valve in the pony motor and the main engine had seized pistons in No1 and 2.   The main engine block was cast on the 15th of November, 1938 and the tractor (Ser. No. 3J3130SP) was assembled early in 1939 but the transmission has been replaced at some time with a later model one (4U6202). It's bare weight was 6,710 pounds (3.04 tonnes) with 25.8 drawbar horsepower from a 3.750" bore X 5.00" stroke main engine. Displacement is 221 cubic inches or 3.6 litres.

Site Menu

The Paint Job

Before..................	After