Farmall tractor story, page 2

5/23/04:  Pat came over and we started building the engine.  The pictures are on this page. We put in the sleeve O-rings and tappets, then the main bearings and crankshaft.  We had a heck of a time adjusting the rear main bearing as when torqued to 75 ft/lb, the crank was hard to turn.  The other mains were Ok when tightened, so we played with the rear bearing and eventually found that a 1.5 thousandths ship under the cap made it loose enough that it would turn, but not be too tight.  The crank journal wobbles just a little in the bearing, so I suspect the crank is bent just a little bit.  We will see what happens when we get it running. 

We put the wrist pins in the new pistons with the old rods and put the rings on.  We put the sleeves in the block with a light coating of dish soap so they would slide right in.  We put in the pistons and then the rod bearings and caps.  We put in the filler pieces at the ends of the block and installed the oil seal felts in the rear plate and put it on, the new oil seal in the front cover and put it on, and the oil pan last.  We put the cam in and times it to the crank gear by matching the single punch marks on the gears.  We put the governor gear in and timed it to the double punch marks on the cam gear. 

I cleaned and installed the transmission pilot bearing in the crankshaft.  We mounted the flywheel and torqued it, then installed the clutch and pressure plate.  I do not have a pilot tool, so we got it eyeball-close and hope it works.  We put the crank pulley on and rigged the engine on the hoist, picking it up from the engine stand. 

We were just about ready to install it when I ran my mental check list and realized that I had not torqued the rod bearings.  Ratz!  We put the engine back on the stand and pulled the pan.  I torqued and cotter pinned the rods, we put the pan back on, and got the engine back on the hoist. 

We started moving the engine onto the bell housing and found it would not align.  We pulled it back and I looked at the clutch.  Ratz!! I had put it on backwards, so we took it off, flipped it over and put it back on, realigning with the eyeball method again. 

We moved the engine back to the bell housing and it felt better, slipping in a little, but not all the way.  It was hung up on the dowel pins and they were not going in easy.  I used four of the old head studs as aligning pins by screwing them into the back of the block and the bottom of the bell housing, this held the engine in alignment.  I used two long 1/2 inch bolts to start pulling the engine toward the bell housing a little at a time, wiggling it as we pulled it in to make sure we were not bound up.  It pulled in smoothly, and once snug, we replaced the aligning pins with bolts.  The engine is now on the tractor!!!  We got the engine assembled and on the tractor in about six hours.  What a day.  Time to clean up and relax.

5/31/04:  I cleaned up the front end today.  It was just packed with dirt and grease.  I removed the front wheel fork and wheel assembly to make it easier to move around. I bolted it onto the engine, but found that the model C block has a threaded hole on the top right bolt instead of a hole for a bolt and nut like on the model B.  I need to get a coarse bolt and the front will be back on for good.  I remounted the front fork and tire assembly and removed the "crutches" that have held the front of the tractor up while the engine was gone.  It is starting to look like a tractor again.

6/2/04:  Carolyn and I drove down to Farm & Fleet to buy some parts.  I bought a magneto tune up kit, muffler, rain cap, oil filter and plug wires.

6/4/04: I bought radiator hoses and a fan belt.  I put the new fan belt on and I added oil to the fan hub and greased the steering gear.  I bolted the manifold on, installed the carb and throttle linkage to the governor and from the governor to the hand lever.  I bolted the air filter on, but I do not have a hose for the carburetor connection. I took the magneto apart and cleaned it up.  The rotor is cracked, but the kit that I bought has the wrong one.  Very strange - the kit was for IHC A/B/C/H/M tractors - it might be for the distributor types, not the magneto - the points have the spring going the wrong way, too. I will get the right one later, so I installed the magneto, spark plugs and the spark plug wires. I installed the oil filter and put the oil gauge back on.  I hosed out the radiator and installed it with the new radiator hoses. I adjusted the valve gear. I removed the fuel tank and the sediment bowl assembly.  The glass is cracked, so I need to get one.  The fuel tank wad a gallon of very stinky fuel in it.  I cleaned it out with lacquer thinner and bolted it on and installed the sediment bowl and fuel line.  I removed the brake cover and removed the right brake pedal assembly, as it was stuck.  I worked it loose with PB Blaster and oiled it, then put it back on.  Both of the brake return springs are broken, so I need to get two of them before I put the cover back on.  All that is left is installing the oil pan valves, putting oil and water in it, and a piece of hose to connect the breather to the carburetor.  Pat is coming over Sunday, so we may start it then (I hope it starts, anyway).

6/6/04:  Pat came over and we finished up a few odd jobs on the tractor.  We drove all over town looking for springs for the brake pedals.  I also bought some fine thread nuts for the radiator, a piece of 1-1/2 inch hose for the air intake connection to the air cleaner, and a couple of 3/8 pipe plugs for the oil pan.  I put the brake return springs in. We filled the radiator with water and found a leak on the back side down near the outlet pipe.  Oh well - we can get to that later, as it is just dripping.  No water leaking out of the oil pan drain, but there is some on the right side of the head gasket.  I tightened all of the head nuts down a little and the leak stopped.  I put in some gasoline and we found the sediment bowl was plugged, so we drained the tank and cleaned the inlet to the valve - I forgot to do this when I had it off the other day.  Then I put in the lower pipe plug on the oil pan and we put in 5 quarts of 30wt engine oil and the upper pipe plug when oil came out of it.  Click here for the finishing touches and the startup and drive around.

We then took the tractor out onto the street, hooked it up to our John Deere model B and pulled it in 4th gear with the ignition off until the oil pressure came up.  Then with the ignition on, I let the clutch out and it started. No muffler, out of time, and the valves a little loose.  I drove it up into the driveway and after letting it warm up a bit, I shut it down and readjusted the valves.  It started on the hand crank after a couple of pulls.  I drove it a little, then started adjusting the carburetor.  I idled it down too much and it died and would not start with the crank, so we pulled it with Pat's truck just a few feet and it ran again, and much better that before.  I drove it around a bit more to warm it up and then tried to readjust the carb again.  Pat gave it a little drive and we parked it back in the yard to play with the adjustments again.  Finally, I backed it into the garage and shut it down for the day.  I put the hood and grill back on and used the wire wheel to strip off the white face, as Marcel is now speaking again.  I sprayed the bare metal with rust converter, and will sand it and paint later.

Back to page 1

Click here to see all of the pictures