Caterpillar Twenty-Two

The newest addition to our collection is a 1936 Caterpillar Twenty Two Crawler Tractor. This tractor was made in Peoria Illinois USA, has a 4.1 L four cylinder petrol engine and produces just under 24HP. The tractor was found years ago on a friends relatives property, however it was only recently that the owner agreed to selling it. 

Mag and spark plug leads on the RH side of engine

Oil pressure!

After transporting it to our shed, the tractor was steam cleaned and I began the repairs to get it running. Firstly, I removed the magneto to check the reason for the tractor not having any spark. With the help of a friend, we got it throwing a good spark by cleaning dirty points. New ignition leads were made, the old terminals from the brittle original leads removed and the terminals soldered to new pieces of HT lead. Next I concentrated on the carburettor. When I turned the engine over (using the hand crank as there is no starter motor) I noticed the carbie had a fuel leak from the bottom intake pipe. As this is updraft carburettor it would be difficult to flood it, however I removed the carburettor to check that it was clean and that the needle and seat was serviceable. Finally I set about cranking it over to no avail, so with the help of my Dad, we used the 4wd to tow start the 1936 Caterpillar until it fired up.

I forward to one day restoring this tidy original machine.