I just picked up an old Austin Western 6WD grader. My question is; will it damage the driveline to drive this on asphalt, concrete or other hard surface?? I live in a very rural area and plan on driving the machine to different job sites. This will require me to drive on paved roads and I don't want to damage the drive line. If I have to trailer it, I will, but my beavertail is a little too steep for the blade to clear the peak when unloading it. It will force me to take a loader to the job site to build a ramp that has a gentler slope to it. PS: this has a driveshaft ie:mechanical driveline not hydraulic power to the front wheels.
I had six wheel AW back in 76. Some one had rigged a way of disconnecting the front wheels. The front drive shaft in front of the cab had an interlocking flange held together with two bolts. You simply took the two bolts out and slid the flange apart . I think the back part would slide in the splines. And yes you're correct, driving an AW on the pavement is just about the worst thing you can do to it. Maybe you could rig up some ramps.
My experience with 1960-69 vintage AW graders was with Park County. Often we roaded them on pavement for 10 to 20 miles. We did not experience drive line problems while I was there, (two years). I did however bust the rear end on a Super 300 when I was pulling ditches too agressively. It was repaired and I learned a lesson.
the state of ca. used pacer 300 for snow and dirt work ,it wasen't the drive lines but the rear ends that would wreck on hard pavement so we would check for rolling radius of the tires just like you would on a 4x4 pick up try to match tire tread evenly try not to run a new tire with full tread depth next to a all most wore out tread the next part drove us mad .take a tape mesure and mesure from ground to a spot on rim ,now measure all tires with this method and with air presure in tires ajust the hight of all the tires to make them all evan it will take a few trys the diferintials did not have spider gears but a 4 in. wide straight cut gear ,,,also heavy grease the steering nuckels they wood fail before rear ends