Fixing Lift Arms

So I should have been more careful...that part is obvious.  There is a steel bar on the outside of the left lift arm.  I took an attachment off and the wire I had tied and wrapped around the 2 arms broke.  In about 1/10 of a second the bar is up in the fender.  Not good.  A few mins on the shop press and it was better than before (was a little bent when I brought her home).  So I added a few things I had laying in the shop to help out and made some not-so-original modifications so the lift arms would stay out of the tires.  It has helped.

Adding new parts - Alternator and Lights!

So I just finished installing an old Delco alternator from an old Cadillac.  It charges so that was great.  I used some old brackets and welded up a mounting bracket for the alternator.  I created the top bar from some old conduit with some fancy offset bends.  Works great.  Have it all wired up.  Check here for great wiring instructions:

http://www.myfordtractors.com/12volt.shtml

I added lights and a switch so we are ready to deal with it getting dark around 5:30/6pm.  Thanks to Jason and my mother-in-law for the Christmas gifts, some fancy lights from Just8ns and Amazon. I used the ones from Just8ns for the fronts even though I think they are the rear lamps.  The other was a generic 12v worklamp so I mounted that in the back.  Still need to sort out a ground issue on that lamp.

Also, dad had an Ammeter in a box so I have a nice illuminated Ammeter in the dash.  I will try to upload pics soon of all the new additions.


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Needs New Engine

It has been far too long since an update.  Here is the story.

Machine shop found cracks in the block where the valves seat so it was basically a lost cause.  I looked at ordering a new block and rebuild kit and the blocks are hard to find.  I finally decided to pony up the money for a fully assembled engine.  I purchased one from http://www.waltstractors.com and it arrived on a pallet.  A few complaints I have.  Some of the head bolts leaked coolant onto the head.  it would pool in the little dips.  Walt offered to send new bolts but the head bolts were longer and have stopped leaking so I didn't take them up on the offer.  Also the paint used on the head was not high temp and is all peeling off.

Bolted up my new engine and fired it up.  Starts easy and runs great.  No more smoke so that is a great thing.

I have all my old parts and I am looking to sell them.  The head was machined already and is in really good shape.  Be sure to check out the parts page to take a look.

Parts for Sale

Time to Tear it Down...

Well, although I did get some projects around the property done with the tractor despite it's bad smoking habits, it was time to tear down and fix the problem.  If anyone has the manual, it is amazing how quickly you can separate the engine from the transmission on these.  You can pull the pins in one of the front axle bars and fold the front tires aside.  I opted to remove the whole front end and roll it out of the way.

There was considerable piston movement so they are worn out.  We pulled the caps and the main bearings don't look that bad.  Everything looks like it has been serviced before.  Most parts are marked with .010


The clutch doesn't seem bad, the ring gear is missing some teeth from when the starter must have bound up.  I also found chunks of the starter bushing in there.  Will need to order a new one of those as well.  Off to the machine shop...

Smoking...Test Some Additives

The 8N has been doing some work around the yard.  I traded an old straight pipe which ran under the tractor for one that aims up.  The tractor had a minor miss on one cylinder which got much worse the more I ran it.  I have been testing additives just to see if they have any effect on it (I expect they wouldn't but the tractor seemed like a perfect test subject since I am rebuilding it soon). 

The first additive I tried was SeaFoam.  Since it only took half the can to treat the oil, I used the rest to treat the gas.  It did not solve the miss and the tractor continued to smoke the same. 

I also tried Mystery Oil both in oil and gas.  It seems to make the tractor smoke different (more but different smell and consistency).

As for results, I will say that when I inspected the plugs, cylinder 1 had plenty of crud around the tip so I am not sure if that was a result of the SeaFoam (which was in much longer) but I expect yes.  Here is a picture of the spark plug...

So I plan on servicing the block and ordering an engine rebuild kit depending on what I find in there.

At the same time I plan on welding up a bumper and brush guard for the front.  A very small oak tree leaned against the grill after I backed over it and nudged my grill and radiator, pushing the radiator into the fan blades.  I have been so careful not to drive forward over anything but this proves that when clearing brush with a tractor, anything can happen.

Hood, Front Fenders and Grill...

Today was a roller coaster of a day.  We will start with my mission to add an inline fuel filter (knowing that the gas tank still has rust in it) and I have learned that there is no simple way to add a tubing fitting to a flare line.  I will have to do some creative thinking to see if I can still manage to add the cheap filter so I can replace them regularly at least until some of the rust works its way out of the tank.

Next I spent Sunday trying to repair the severely rusted front fenders.  I wet sanded the hood after the rain fiasco.  I got everything ready for a coat of paint Monday morning and was hoping for assembly Monday night.  All did not go as planned.  After wet sanding I cleaned the hood with a degreaser as recommended by the person behind the paint counter where I bought all the paint.  This was a mistake.  I should have wiped it down with Acetone like I usually do.  After a few swipes down the hood I noticed some really bad fish-eye finish.  I grabbed a rag and soaked it in Acetone and cleaned all the fresh paint off.  I wiped down the other areas I sanded and painted the hood for a second coat.  The fenders turned out as well as expected since I didn’t make them perfect.  I had a feeling they would get beat up someday, I didn’t realize it would be today.  Nothing seemed to fit so it took some beating and bending to get the front fenders to match up with the grill.  Of course I was then missing a critical pin on those fenders to fit into the grill.  I made it work with a bolt tightened into the grill and decided I would put a hole in the fender side to receive the bolt.  I welded a nut to the outside fender (good bye paint finish) and assembled most of the parts.  

Here is where the 1948 Ford 8n sits.  The fenders line up pretty well with the brackets on the front but the radiator cap would not fit.  I have added 2 layers of a high density rubber but it is still not setting the radiator high enough to clear the top of the hood.  I will need to add some spacers and buy some longer carriage bolts to mount.  The hood and fenders are sitting off to the side until I can get some spacers and raise the radiator.  I will hit the parts place and pick up some new steel fuel line and make some pretty bends up and over the engine to the sediment bowl.

Reassemble and Ride...

More progress on the 1948 Ford 8N this past weekend.  Saturday I spent the morning at Acme in Sanford picking up some fasteners to replace the severely rusted ones I removed with Vise-Grips.  After spending $6 on a bag full of stainless fasteners and some steel, I began assembling all the cleaned and painted parts. I mounted the new radiator, attached the dash plate and console.  I attached the battery box and made a wood bottom to set the battery on.  I may make a rubber one later but since I had a scrap piece of thin plywood almost already cut to size I decided that would work and I placed an old battery I had for the boat in there.

Saturday was also spent putting the starter back together.  A few lessons learned: Make sure you press the bushing in far enough that it doesn't rub on the grooves in the starter shaft.  Since my rear plate (think rear of tractor) had a crack I tried to press the bushing into the good half.  I had to press it in more to make it clear those grooves to it ended up in about the middle.  If you have the right sized bushing and your plate it not damaged you would press the bushing to the outside edge.  After clearing that up we had one operational starter.  Too bad the starter solenoid was bad so that would have to wait until Sunday.

I drained and replaced the oil with 20w50.  I put in the new oil filter.  I drained and added the 90w Mineral Oil I purchased from NAPA to the transmission.  I installed the radiator and hoses (putting a thin coat of Teflon pipe compound to keep them from rusting more) an used some new all stainless pipe clamps.  I filled the radiator with Anti-freeze and distilled water.

We attached a temporary tank to the dash and hooked up the fuel line.  My dad and I hot-wired the starter and cranked it up.  We ran it much longer than last time so it had a chance to warm up.  The flat head 4 cylinder has a unique sound to it especially when there is no exhaust pipe.

Sunday I attached the air cleaner, attached the new starter solenoid from a 1970's ford.  I think the original should be a 3 pole but mine is a 4 pole.  I will add another page talking about wiring the tractor later.  We wired in the new key ignition and the push button.  Once everything was ready we attached the temporary gas tank again and started it up.  This was the first chance I had to drive it so it was time for a road test.

We first adjusted the carburetor now that it had an air cleaner to give proper airflow resistance.  I may also add another page talking about carb adjustment later.  I put it in gear and pulled out of the shop.  Under load it sputtered a lot so we continued with adjustments.  Eventually it ran pretty good.  I tried all the gears and pulled it up the hill.  I will say that 4th gear really moves compared to the others.  It is definitely a "get home for supper" gear.  It did smoke once it got warmed up and the oil got thin.  I will probably first try some Seafoam as I have read a few posts saying in some cases it works to help clean and free sticky rings.  I will also check compression to see if any of the cylinders are real bad.

That's it for now.  Next I need to work on fixing the front fenders to support my hood.  So stay tuned...