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What is the best method to degrease a JD50 tractor?

16K views 21 replies 16 participants last post by  ttazzman 
#1 ·
What is the best method to decrease a 60 year old tractor?
 
#2 ·
jdrules2; well when I did mine yrs ago, I used dawn dish soap and scrub brushes all by hand on it, other than that idn. big jim
 
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#19 ·
My wife's step father used to use diesel fuel sprayed through a compressed air siphon sprayer. Worked great, but made me nervous thinking of the diesel being somewhat atomized. I know it is not volatile like gasoline, but still is combustible.. Plus you are left with the diesel residue. But is sure cut the grease nice.


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Yeah well seems like I used your wife's stepfather's same remedy and I'm getting through it but it's still a lot of grime left to go through so that's why I asked the question you know but thank you for your info and your story was a little nice something to read I mean knowing that I'm somewhat on the right track.
I am still trying to figure out why anyone would want to decrease there tractor:laugh:
Laughing out loud, and I think that's to paint it for the appearance you know new stickers new paint looks good and that's what I'm going for.
This: Degreaser | Engine Degreaser, Heavy Duty Degreaser & Cleaners

And a pressure washer. I have also used regular WD40 to degrease and that will work as well but the above cuts through nicely. Makes the job go much more quickly. Post some pictures when you get it done!
Will do man and thank you for your info it's very good intell..
 
#4 ·
1) Spray greasy areas with PurplePower (or eco-friendly Simple Green).
2) Scrub as needed.
3) Blast with pressure washer.
4) Repeat as needed.

Make sure the tractor has completely cooled off so the sudden contact with cold water doesn't crack anything. I typically wait until the exhaust manifold is cool to the touch, just to be sure. Also, avoid spraying the backside of the dash, the engine air-intake, the various case breathers, and any of the spark/ignition components. Be careful not to remove decals or paint with the power hose!
 
#7 ·
Mineral spirits in the garden sprayer. Soak it down and let it sit for a couple hours, THEN hit it with the purple power and pressure washer.

Mineral spirits penetrates heavy grease,and caked dirt on oil, much better, giving the detergent something to work on.

Think of it being like using baby oil to get grease out of the Carharts, and off the skin.

I gotta second the heated pressure washer if you can snag or borrow one. The difference is huge.
 
#8 ·
I repainted a 1940 B in 1972 that had a 32 year accumulation of dirt/grease/oil all over the engine/transmission.

I started with putty knives & screw drivers and scraped as much of the accumulation off as I could. Was half inch thick most places. Then I sprayed a gallon of Gunk degreaser on it straight out of the can. Their Foaming Engine Brite is the same stuff in a spray can. I hooked the B up to my Super H Farmall and towed it the 8-9 miles to the car wash in town and blasted the daylights out of it. Bet I high pressure sprayed it for over an hour. I brushed some areas with a bristle brush on some difficult areas after spraying again with Gunk. A tooth brush in some small areas works best.

When I got ready to spray paint it was clean. I masked stuff for 3-4 hours and used up most of rolls of 2" & 3/4" masking tape. No electric start or lights or hyd. On the tractor. We already had the decals and some green & yellow paint from repainting the 4010 a couple years before, gallon of green and quart of yellow was all we had to buy.

Tractor was BROWN before I started cleaning it. One pass over the sheet metal with a wire cup brush in an angle grinder and the hood was more green than I'd ever seen it.

Don't know if the B was worth the paint. Dad paid $90 for it in December '69, we put a mismatched set of 11-38 tires on in place of 9-38 Firestone's which one had a 1" diameter hole right in the middle of the tread. Tractor sold for $120 in December '72. The tractor collecting hobby really hadn't started back then. It was pretty worthless on a 160 acre row crop grain/livestock farm. It's ONLY job was to pull the JD R spreader through the 68 inch wide 100 foot long driveway down the middle of the hog house. It was too slow and miserable to start for things like raking hay, hauling feed/water to the hogs. So it sat!
 
#9 ·
Lay a bunch of cardboard under the tractor to catch everything. Get a parts washer brush and a putty knife and some Varsol. Scrape the bigger stuff off and then using a smallish container you can hold in one hand, keep dipping the brush in the Varsol and start at the top. Blow it off with an air gun and repeat in the tough areas.

Once you're done, you can dispose of the cardboard properly or you could use it as a fire starter in the fire pit.:laugh:
 
#14 ·
Good catch Paul! :lol:
 
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#17 ·
My wife's step father used to use diesel fuel sprayed through a compressed air siphon sprayer. Worked great, but made me nervous thinking of the diesel being somewhat atomized. I know it is not volatile like gasoline, but still is combustible.. Plus you are left with the diesel residue. But is sure cut the grease nice.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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#18 ·
The 1966 White ready-mix truck I drove the summer of '76 was repainted about 1972, was completely cleaned of all oil, grease. Dirt, and accumulated cement scum from every nook & cranny. Then they laid on the Construction Orange Imron paint. Everywhere!

By summer of '76 everything behind the radiator was getting a pretty good coating of grease and grime. Then the return fuel line from the six injectors on the 165 HP Cummins started leaking at one of the silver soldered joints so hot diesel fuel sprayed everything on that side of the engine and the back half of the other side, both the main & auxiliary transmissions, drive shafts and both rear drive axles and inside both frame rails plus all the cross members. Probably cost the company 500 gallons of fuel, plus the eventual repair after I ran out of fuel one morning, leak got REALLY bad, leaked 60 gallons of fuel in 5 hours! But my truck was all orange again! And the next morning after I ran out of fuel my truck was finally fixed!
 
#21 ·
That purple Zep stuff from Home Depot works surprisingly well. Using it straight in a spray bottle right out of the jug without diluting cuts the grease pretty good after scraping off the thick stuff. It surprised me when I tried it on an old truck motor. It works real well on the shop floor too.

 
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