by Clint Dixon
The pictures of the nicely painted tractor are of a 1949 Sheppard Diesel SD3 (three-cylinder). It appears that the hydraulic pump for the Monroe unit is belt-driven from the crankshaft. The reservoir is a tank located below and behind the dash. The hydraulic valve does not look familiar.
Notice how the seat of the tractor is mounted to a clamshell that differs completely from those used by Jeep as well as the Le Roi Centaur tractors. The Monroe cylinder is obviously housed within this unique housing. Note how the upper link point is much lower. I believe the Le Roi Centaur was able to get away with using a “mostly” stock Monroe housing as the housing was mounted to a platform that was very low and was probably about the same height from the ground as the bed of the Jeep. The Sheppard has much larger tires than the Le Roi Centaur and the axle, transmission, and operator’s “platform” is further from the ground. I suspect Monroe had to lower the upper link mounting points to maintain the working geometry.
I am 99% sure that the stationary link, and the leveling link, has been created specifically for this tractor during its restoration. I believe the original Monroe parts were missing when it was found and before being restored. I also see that the lower lift arms are welded assemblies from modern components instead of Monroe parts. If the upper link position had to be lowered, I would be willing to bet that the original Monroe stationary and leveling links had to be longer than those used on the Jeep as the rockshaft is quite a bit higher than the upper link position.
The images of the unpainted tractor, yet to be restored, is another 1949 Sheppard Diesel SD3. Note that parts are missing from its Monroe Lift also. The owner said that its pump was driven off of the high/low transmission gearbox and that the reservoir is the gearbox itself.
