[AJD] THT (part 2

[Karl Olmstead]

On Monday, I honed the cylinders while John and his assistant started 
putting the BO engine back together.  Unfortunately, the cylinders were much 
worse than we expected.  Lots of fairly deep rust pits.  They really need 
reboring.  That was beyond the scope of a weekend rebuild; I'll have to take 
care of that later.  I managed to get a couple of the new rings on one 
piston, but finally asked John for help.  He finished the job in about five 
minutes.  I was reluctant to spread the rings far enough for fear of 
breaking them.  John had the right touch.  And strong enough fingers to 
spread those big rings.

Bob Currie showed up in the afternoon.  He got a lesson from John in 
adjusting the bevel gears that drive the fan shaft.  I was busy adjusting 
shims, but got some of the lecture.  The fan shaft must be loose in order to 
do this.  One set of governor housing gaskets adjusts bevel gear mesh; 
another set adjusts position of one gear on the other.  At the fat part of 
the gears, the teeth should wind up even with each other; one gear shouldn't 
have a portion that doesn't mesh with the other gear.  Bob's a fun guy to 
have around.

I installed the engine block and then we bolted in the main bearing 
retainers.  I checked out the crankshaft with a vernier caliper, and was 
surprised to find that all the bearing journals were well within original 
spec and still round.  We tried removing one shim from each bearing 
retainer, but then the crankshaft wouldn't turn, so we put back all the 
original shims.  Bearings and crank journals all looked fine.  Then we got 
to the rods.  I spent hours fiddling with rod caps and shims.  Dropped the 
rod bolts into the crankcase once.  Dropped the nuts into the crankcase 
several times.  Dropped an entire pack of shims once.  Thin shims are 0.005" 
thick.  Eventually I got to the point where inserting a shim left the rod a 
little sloppy, removing it made the rod too tight.  So we left both sides a 
bit loose.  I'm new to this kind of work; on a Farmall engine, 0.005" is the 
difference between a new engine and one that is completely worn out.  I 
ended up removing one shim from each rod bearing.  You must never, ever make 
the bearings too tight; that'll burn them up.

Then there were the oil lines.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate 
connecting short, stiff copper lines inside a crankcase where you can't see 
them?  Especially the one running up to the governor.  About two hours on 
that one.  We finally removed the governor (which I had bolted into place 
earlier) and got that fitting started.  Then John put the governor back in 
place and somehow got the fitting on the other end of the oil line started. 
I understand that JD did eventually figure out how to cast oil lines in the 
block and cylinder head.... in 1960.

We got the cylinder head and rocker arms installed about 7 pm Monday 
evening, dumped in a bunch of oil and tried hand starting the BO.  Not even 
a pop.  I was tired, so we quit "early".

Tuesday morning, we rearranged the shop so that John could use a friend's H 
to drive a belt and spin the BO's engine.  Driven by the belt, the BO 
started popping almost instantly.  But then it dumped a good share of its 
nice clean oil on the floor of the shed.  Seems that the oil filter housing 
bolt was a little bent.  John straightened the bolt, and the housing sealed 
on the second try.

We started the engine using the belt again, and got it running fairly well. 
It still favors one cylinder and misses a lot on the second.  Probably bad 
plugs, plug wires, or dirty magneto.  But I can work that out later.  It was 
starting to rain, so I sealed up the intake and exhaust pipes and got ready 
to load the BO on my trailer.  The fenders, fuel tank and air cleaner went 
in the back of my truck.

I hated to make the 400 mile return trip with only one tractor, so I bought 
a '39 H from John.  It has the early H features; cast iron front wheels, and 
tall gearshift cage.  It runs fairly well, although I found later that it 
doesn't have much power.  The transmission is in rough shape.  Refuses to 
shift, and likes to get stuck in two gears.

I winched both tractors onto the trailer, had lunch, and hit the road.  By 
then I was sick of rain.  Drove for a couple of hours, then stopped for the 
night.  The H lost the tin can off its exhaust almost as soon as I got on 
the freeway, so I was worried about water in the cylinders.  I tried 
plugging the exhaust with a Mandarin orange, but it blew away too.  I was 
thrilled to see the sky clearing just in time for a pretty sunset.

Left Santa Nella early this morning and got home about one o'clock.  More 
rain for the first 100 miles.  Snow in the mountains, none on the roads.  To 
my surprise, it's been raining here in the desert, too.  Dragged the BO off 
the trailer with my forklift, and pushed it into my shed.  It may freeze 
tonight, so I loosened the bottom radiator hose and dumped the water.  Went 
back up to the trailer and got the H started.  It ran for at least ten 
minutes, so any water in the cylinders must be long gone now.  Then the next 
rain storm came in, so I capped the exhaust stack and went back in the 
house.

I was disappointed to find that my F-350 dually diesel only gets about 8 mpg 
with the trailer behind it.  But hauling 12,000 pounds, I guess that is to 
be expected.  It gets 16 or 17 when unloaded..

Karl