YunoBlog

Here’s a quick hint! Now I gotta get back to work… 🙁

I’m getting excited about the prospect of getting this engine going, but I’m trying to be realistic.  Not to be TOO negative, but I’m kinda already working under the assumption that this engine will be (if I get it running at ALL) of limited lifespan…

So, on the brighter side, I got the go-ahead this morning from my dad (who if you recall correctly, wants this tractor back once I have it going) to buy a schwack of bits to throw at it… So here it is, my Christmas Wish Engine Restoring List:

AM30363 WIRING HARNESS
AM31096 GASKET KIT 1 (CONSISTS OF (2) M41814, M42149, (2) M42221, M42179, M42180, M42181, M42193, M42194, M42195 AND M42202) ENGINE OVERHAUL

M82655 SEAL 2 – Oil Seals

AM31029 CAPACITOR – Condenser

AM33074 RING 1 STD, (SUB FOR AM31105) (this is the full ring set, for the standard bore

26H17 SHAFT KEY – Flywheel Key
M41335 BELT

M40109 SHAFT KEY – Pulley key (’cause I farged it by having to drill it out)

M42226 BELT

M41985 BELT

H30756 SHAFT KEY – Hydro pump shaft key (cause I lost it when I was taking the pump off… being really ambitious and assuming I can get that far)

I also already have the lock nuts for the connecting rod

The various belts are the hydro pump belt, the main drive belt and the starter/generator belt…

Things I have to hunt down are the

AM31095 PULLEY – the pulley that bolts onto the flywheel for taking the belt from the generator

And of course the breaker points…

I was QUITE surprised to find that the wiring harness was still available, AND it was only $30…

Again, this list-o-parts will certainly not be all I need, I still gotta arrange the carb, I still gotta get everything back in and hooked up and I’m sure I’ve missed some things… But its a start…

Carb is all boxed up and ready for shipping down to Mark at CarbRescue… I know, I know, I’m wimping out, but two things…

1. That carb is pretty dang rare, so I don’t want to #$%#$ it up
2. I know my limitations, I’d rather have a professional do it right
3. I’m not the one paying for it, in the long run (if my dad wants the machine back)
4. If I really want to learn carb restoration, I can do that on my 110 with the Kohler, for which I’m sure there’s more parts if I botch it…

Okay, so, four things… NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Here’s some BEFORE pics of the carb:

Well, I got the first of probably MANY emails back from my JD parts person about this rebuild… The question of valve springs has been answered.  The Tec valve springs are obsolete, NLA… So, that answers THAT question… Unless I want to buy BillTheTractorMan’s, although I gather he’s out of town now….
Worse news, the breaker points are obsolete too…  Although, I DID find a post on Weekend Freedom Machines talking about being able to order Kohler points and having them be identical… Gonna have to check that one out…. Hey waitaminit!  I have a Kohler out in the garage!  In Ernie (the 110)… Hmmmm….

Played hookey a bit at lunch today and took the crankcase, the crankshaft, camshaft, valves and piston into a machine shop for them to give a once-over…

Here’s what I know…

Cylinder bore is within spec (yay!), MAYBE a thousandths out at the bottom… They suggested a deglazing or a honing (I expected that, think I’ll go with a honing since it sounds easier…)

Piston… Well, its within spec, they had no advice on the rings or the wrist pin as, well, they just whomp them out the brute force way and if it gets wrecked in the process they just get a whole new piston/wrist pin/connecting rod/ring set… not really an option here…

Crankshaft – looked good to them, crank pin was in spec, they suggested a good polishing for it…

Camshaft – Again, they didn’t have a lot of advice about it, it looked fairly good to them aside from some scuffing at the nose of the cam lobes.. However, since I can’t get a NEW one and I can’t rebuild it and if I order one from eBay I can’t guarantee its going to be any better, my options are kinda limited…

Valves – looked good to them… again a good polishing would be in order for the valve stems…

DOH! I shoulda had them check the valve springs! I was in a rush to get back and forgot! Might have to pop back with those…

They gave me the obvious caveats, of course… They can’t tell me if the connecting rod is good, as its aluminum… It’ll be a gamble, but hey, its a 44 year old engine, this whole thing is a gamble…

So, there ya go!  I’m learnin’ lots, and that’s what its all about, right? Well, and getting an old tractor running again… I found it really interesting talking to the engine shop guys… It was a bit startling to hear them talk about what THEY do to rebuild an engine, because they don’t waste time mucking about trying to do something the gentle, persuasive way… If a part gets broken in the process, they just replace it… However, when I thought about it, time is money to them, no different than any other business. They don’t have the resources to “waste” on a possible no-hoper… So what that REALLY brings home to me is that restoring an old tractor is a labour of love…

Of course, that’s probably why they did the mic’ing for me gratis, as they’d all probably LIKE to take the time to lovingly restore an old engine. Can’t see them going into a business like engine rebuilding unless they had an appreciation for doing it…

So, I hauled out the piston, slinger, camshaft, crank and tappets for some pics in better light this morning…

Here’s everything laid out…

The camshaft

Frankly, I think the camshaft looks pretty good… Tops of the lobes are a bit scuffed, but not too bad… Not sure where to measure to and from…

More details of the crankshaft

So, the crank pin actually measures within tolerances (I did find a set of digital calipers at Peavy Mart last weekend).

Bearings both look clean and spin well

THIS is the only spot I’m worried about on the crankshaft, the end of the pulley side of the crank… Dunno if I should be trying to clean it off or what…

Here’s my nicely marked tappets

I think the piston bearing areas look pretty good, and the slinger is fine

There was some grunge in this spot, most of it came off with a light scraping

Obviously, I’m gonna have to get this cleaner, or get it machined…

So, here’s my thoughts… In my limited experience, I think everything south of the cylinder inside this engine looks really good… I think the cylinder needs a honing/polishing, everything north of the cylinder on the intake side needs work… AND the piston face and rings need work… My theory is that the engine got shut off with the intake valve open, allowing moisture into the cylinder… Fortunately, the rings DID keep it out of the bottom half of the engine… Just the intake valve and tappet suffered, and a bit got past the rings… This must have been what locked up the engine to begin with… Rings stuck against the cylinder wall about 2/3rds of the way up (there was a bit of a mark there when I cracked the head….)…

LTGal has suggested taking the block in to one of the local Deere dealers here to see if they will check it out and hone it for me, and possibly clean out the valve passages and valve guides…

So, I decided to go for broke tonight and just dive in…  Here’s the ridge reamer, doing its thing….

Just to remind me which bolts go where...

aAnd here’s the cylinder cover from the top, with the bolts removed….

Cylinder Cover removed

The INSIDE of the cylinder cover, looking pretty good… although I didn’t really need to do anything with the oil seal…  Would this mean its leaking?   If it didn’t seem to be tight at all around the crank?

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the inside of the crankcase….  the guts…. The first time anyone has looked at this in over 20 years, possibly in over 40 years…..

Looks pretty good, I’d say…  Bearing on the crank looks new, slinger is uncracked, all the parts in there appear rust-free…

What next, o loyal readers?