Struck has been providing top-quality American-made equipment for over 50 years now. Many of our customers have tried to restore their MAGNATRAC® that were decades old. We’ve featured a couple of restoration projects already and we’re happy to share another one. This restoration project features a MAGNATRAC® MT2000, a model that came out 45 years ago.
If you have an old model of Struck MAGNATRAC® and you’re planning to restore it, then you might pick up a thing or two from this story.
We got this story from a YouTube channel named SearsStruck – aka gardeningpreacher. Since the owner of this YouTube channel didn’t reveal his name, we’ll just call him Gardening Preacher.
The Gardening Preacher has wanted this machine for a long time. As a matter of fact, he tried to purchase this a couple of years ago, but the owner wasn’t ready to sell it yet. Unfortunately, the owner passed away and he was able to buy it from his widow.
As you can see from the images above, this MAGNATRAC® was in a rough state. There’s rust all over, some parts were scattered, and the hydraulic hoses were shot. It didn’t surprise him that much since he knew that this machine was set outside all the time and hadn’t been running for years.
But that didn’t stop the Gardening Preacher from doing what he wanted to do with it. He said, “I’m hoping, with some work, this thing is gonna be a fun little toy.” and man, he was right.
When he finally brought his new toy home, he quickly examined the state of its parts, and he said, “It amazes me how solid this thing is, like this hood, I mean that’s just heavy. It’s not a cheap piece of tin.”
He quickly disassembled the parts and got those ready for sandblasting and repainting. And while he was doing that, he had something to say about the frame of his MAGNATRAC®, “The frame here — that is thicker than any of my sears tractors. It’s just an impressive, impressive piece of machinery. I love it.” he said.
He’s really excited about this project, but he’s got his work cut out for him as he noticed that he needs to fix the wobbly input shaft.
At first, he thought it was just the wheel (the one he’s holding in the picture below), but it’s actually the whole shaft that’s wobbling.
After he got the transaxle out easily, he drained the transmission fluid. He was glad to find that there’s no major damage inside. As for the wobbling issue, he found out that the problem was the bearing on the input shaft — one of the balls in the ball bearings was missing.
In order to fix his transaxle, he bought a new ball bearing and an oil seal. He said it probably cost him $7.92 for the ball bearing, shipping at $8.00, and some tax — but it was worth it since he’s going to have a non-wobbling input shaft.
Gardening Preacher sure knows what he’s doing as he managed to put the pieces back together, which was the challenging part.
Sandblasting and repainting the stripped-down MAGNATRAC® was by far the easiest part of the restoration project. However, he still encountered some challenges along the way. He tried to paint his stripped-down dozer using a spray can, which can be too expensive. So, instead of spending more than what he hoped for, he decided to go in a different direction and purchased a spray gun and a gallon of paint.
If you’re planning to repaint your dozer, then you might want to follow what Gardening Preacher did, ditch the spray can and go for a spray gun and a gallon of paint instead.
After repainting the parts of his stripped-down dozer and fixing his wobbly input shaft, Gardening Preacher started to reassemble his MT2000. He replaced a lot of parts such as washers, brake bands, and brake drums because most of them were already broken.
When it was time for him to install an engine, he had reservations about which one he should go for. He initially thought about going with a 13HP Predator as it’s probably the easiest to install, but he thinks it doesn’t have enough power so he didn’t go for it. He then tried putting a Winsun 13HP Diesel Engine but the engine was just too tall.
Finding the right engine proved to be a tough task. But he finally found an engine that he likes, he decided to go for a Predator 670 22HP Twin Cylinder. Even though it didn’t fit perfectly to his dozer, he was able to make the necessary adjustments.
Gardening Preacher’s first test drive was a success as everything went smoothly. However, he knew that he still had a lot of work to do for his dozer’s backhoe and front loader.
For his backhoe to work, he needed to add a shaft and pulley on the left side of the Predator engine he put in. We were impressed by what he did because it’s not easy to weld the shaft to the side of the engine and have it placed dead center.
After adding that much-needed shaft and pulley, he pointed his attention to the hoses. If you take a look at the image below, you’ll see that the hydraulic hoses weren’t looking great. Just by looking at it, you can easily tell that it needs to be replaced.
He replaced only a few of them at that time because those hoses don’t come cheap. As a matter of fact, if he tried to replace them all at the same time, he would have ended up spending more than what he paid for his dozer.
or the front loader, he managed to make it work by applying penetrant lube and replacing a few broken parts (you’ll see the image of the old pulley below, and it looks horrible). He also pointed out that it was a good thing that the hoses on the front loader weren’t that long.
If you want an in-depth explanation of how Gardening Preacher restored his MT2000. You can head to this playlist and watch his videos. We’re happy that we were able to share Gardening Preacher’s successful restoration story. If you’re looking for a MAGNATRAC® like the MT2000, then we recommend MAGNATRAC® MH4900. It has way more capabilities than the MT2000. It’s the perfect dozer for homesteaders or large property owners who want to keep the cost down but still get great performance.
