The Hart Parr Oliver Collectors Association

[Donald Lehman]

Have a 1958 vintage OC 4 (no reverser in the tranny) in my Fathers estate. One cylinder burns enough oil to foul a plug every few hours. The thing jumps out of reverse, otherwise I believe the tranny is okay. It needs new rear sprockets and the tracks are worn past the point of being able to pin and bush them, so it will need new tracks. About what is the thing worth? I would like to restore it myself. My siblings will require that i pay what it's worth, but I am not going to overpay either. Or should I simply call Zimmermens and sell it to them for parts? Thanks.

[djm75]

You might want to call Landis and ask about how much this will all cost. I don't think I would pay much in its current condition because it is going to be pricey by the time you fix the trans rebuild the engine and get new tracks and sprockets and bearings. Personally I wouldn't give over $500 myself I have seen some with new undercarriage and run good for 2500-3000.

[John Schwiebert]

If this is a 1958 model it is a 3 cylinder model correct. I know you are in New York State. How far are you from CH? He parts out a lot of the little crawlers. He probably has good enough components that will last you as long as you have the crawler. Have you taken a compression test or a leak down test of the engine?

[Donald Lehman]

Yes it has the 3 cyl. motor. That's about what I figured it was worth. I am not familier with CH? Lowville is about 30 miles East of Lake Ontario in Lewis Co. Where is CH located? The idea that it would be simpler to swap with Landis for another one had crossed my mind. Most of my neighbors at the time had 420/430 JD crawlers. The JD's were okay, but not in the same league as the OC 4. No, Pop didn't run a compression or leak down test. The thing has sat long enough now that I would do a complete engine tear down anyway. The motor ran fine, didn't smoke much, just fouled the center plug every few hours. Other than the tranny not going into reverse, all the forward gears seemed tight and working fine.

[Donald Lehman]

The apraiser put a value of $850 on the OC4. I can live with that. The main problem is to fix the reverse. Figger to pull the head and check for bad valve seals and such before getting into the whole engine. It ran and didn't burn that much oil so maybe it's something simple. The tracks and sprockets can go for a while if they have to, simply because they are already past the point of being able to pin and bush them. This will probably be a project for this winter. I did find the operators manual for it, so that will help. Always remember being able to do one heck of a lot of work with that OC4 for being a small crawler. Used to move some outrageously big rocks and built a lot of roads on the farm with that little tractor. Did a fair amount of plowing with a 2 bottom oliver pull-type plow when it was too wet for the 88's to get through.