austrakwildcat – email austrakwildcat@gmail.com

I spent a very pleasant afternoon at Neil’s place yesterday picking up a few bits and pieces and learning a bit about how he replaced the drive motors on his shaft drive VM powered RT45.

Neil still has a drive motor available for a shaft drive machine…here is a pic of the motor and the mounting for the bevel gearbox. I’m not sure what exactly is included – you will need to ring Neil on 0427400450.

Hi John,
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Just wanted to let other people out there playing with old Wildcats, that they shouldn’t be scared of the Wisconsin engine.
Everybody seems to want to rush in and replace it with something else, when it can be repaired reasonably cheaply, if you have a bit of engine knowledge.
I have included some pictures of my own Wildcat with the Australian built Wisconsin my son and I recently rebuilt. It was a result of the previous owner leaving it out in the weather and water flowed into the exhaust via a broken off muffler.
I must admit that it was only a top end rebuild, including new pistons, rings, gudgeon pins, four exhaust valves and a new intake manifold, as the old one was rusted through. I had my local engine machining shop install two 1/16 thick sleeves into both cylinders, as one pot in each side was badly pitted. He was a bit dubious at first about doing this, as the side walls of the cylinders are very thin, but I had nothing to loose as they were unusable the way they were.
I purchased parts from a supplier in the USA and were very reasonable, I think from memory the pistons, pins and exhaust valves came including post the very next day for under $300 Aus. It has cost me about $1000 to get the engine running again plus some paint and a bit of TLC on the tin work, which had rusted away in spots.This is a hole lot cheaper that buying an equivalent horsepower engine and retrofitting.
I have completely degreased the whole machine and have to replace the rusted out floor at the front, but hope to get it ready soon for the original green paint when the weather warms a little. I had a good friend of mine in Melbourne vinyl cut the “WILDCAT” decals for the front, so should look a treat.
I have always had these machines embedded in my memory, as my late grandfather had one in Cape Conran near Marlo Victoria, where he used it on his farm, and then later building the Burbang Adventure Caravan Park, which has now been named Jungle Beach. He had a front end loader, slasher, rippers and a blade and it got used a lot. An amazing little machine! I think there is some old video footage around of him working it if you are interested.
I hope to build a front end loader for mine and if anyone out there has one, I would like to be able to measure it up.
Anyway, your site is great and if I can be of any assistance to anyone, please don’t hesitate to contact me on pj.dew@bigpond.com
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Yours faithfully,
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Peter Dew.
Lakes Entrance Victoria.

VH4D_sale_brochure

Neil Munro is selling off the remainder of a later model RT45 parts machine. There is a lot of stuff that might be of  interest:

Neil Munro says:

In case you missed it there are currently two Wildcats for sale on GUMTREE. The first is Alan’s Wildcat full details of which are on this site. The other is one that surfaced a a while ago and is now advertised again. It’s interesting in that it has had a hydraulic update and an engine conversion in the not too distant past. If you read the ad the owner explains that whoever rebuilt it removed the original remotes, spools and pump so the machine currently functions for transport and towing. If you were looking at a rebuild/conversion as a project at a negotiable $3900 this machine would be a good start, presuming the re-engineering lends itself to reinstating full hydraulic functionality. (that is…installing ancilliary pump etc. on the current set up).

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/dromedary/heavy-farming-agriculture-equipment/williames-wildcat-tractor-like-austrak-not-williams-austrack-argo/1044481150

There are quite a few pics on Gumtree. From the looks of them the motor is water cooled. You can get a few glimpses of the running gear if you look hard enough.

The front implement bar at the front and the ram attachment points on the both ends have been removed. One implement bar remains which could be relocated or replicated and  the ram mount points are not hard to fabricate…..’

There are a few more pics from 2013 at the bottom of this page.

Bruno Rime from Tasmania has been on the lookout for a Wildcat. He contacted the owner of the machine above and talked about the modifications and knidly let me know the following:
“I did get to talk to the other owner with the rebuilt Wildcat. If I understood what he said correctly it was running something like a Holden Barina engine with a fixed displacement pump powering two variable motors. He seemed like a top fellow and very knowledgeable, unfortunately his Wildcat was sold before I could get the chance to look at it.”

Thanks Bruno!

In case you are interested, the 1970’s Australian b grade movie “Turkey Shoot” is on Youtube in full. It’s about the usual one and a half hours. You may find it hard to watch but if you do you will be rewarded by the AUSTRAK RT45 as a military vehicle supported by the very rare AUSTRAK spray unit complete with sprayer nozzles also portrayed a military vehicle. Just be warned…this was the film era of violence and nudity….and in this case…the era of AUSTRAKS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKI0RonWS5I