Deere 4020 Repowered With Combine Engine

Deere 4020 Repowered With Combine Engine COMBINES Miscellaneous 19-3-10 "When I bought my 1969 Deere 4020 a few years ago, it had only 2,300 hours on it and looked as good as the day it came off the assembly line," says Robert Stewart who liked the 4020 but not its gas engine. "You have to reset the carburetor for working under load and for idling-type work." So the Chatham, Ontario, ridge tiller converted the 4020 to diesel, using the engine out of a junked Deere 7700 combine that had only 2,000 hours on it. He got the engine for $2,500. "Since I repowered it three years ago, I've put on 780 hours. I'd rather drive the 4020 than any of my other tractors," Stewart says. "You can hardly tell it's the same tractor." But finding the combine engine to repower it with was the easiest part of the project, he adds. There were plenty of glitches he and mechanic Jake Knelsen, who did the work, had to overcome, he says."We made it up as we went," agrees Knelsen. For example, the front pulley on the crankshaft of the combine engine had to be machined down so it could be used to drive the tractor's hydraulic pump. Also, 1/4 in. had to be cut off the bottom of the tractor's radiator shroud so the combine engine's larger fan blades could turn in it. And the breather unit on the combine's intake manifold had to be matched to the tractor's with a piece of pipe. "Then we ran into difficulties fitting the oil pan onto the tractor because it was too big," says Stewart. "We finally called Deere and gave them the specs. They told me an oil pan off a 4430 would ft and it did." Once the oil pan was installed, the dip stick had to be cut shorter to ft in the shallower pan. The diesel engine's fuel shut-off had to be rerouted through the tractor's cab. Finally, heater hoses to the tractor's Year `Round cab had to be rerouted and replumbed. While the tractor was torn apart, Stewart had the clutch replaced. Total investment in the repower, including Knelsen's $500 bill, was about $5,500, says Stewart who uses the tractor for all his planting and tillage work and some grain-hauling. "It runs like a dream. It's a real treat to operate," he says. Next Stewart plans to replace the tractor's current cab with a Sound Gard cab like he saw featured in a recent issue of FARM SHOW. Contact: FARM SHOW Foliowup, Robert Stewart, R.R. 3, Chatham; Ontario, Canada N7M 5J3 (ph 519 352-2255).

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