[AJD] Upper Water pipe on 1953 60??? - Typical antique tractor saga

[Dean VP]

Antique tractors make you pay if you ignore them for awhile. About a year
ago I picked up a 1953 60 that I thought was a parts tractor. As you may
recall it was stuck but had a bunch of valuable stuff on it. I was able to
break it loose and get it running but the starter was messed up so I had to
pull start it to get it running. 

Well it got put in the back of the shed and ignored since then however, I
did take the starter all apart and cleaned it up and the only thing that I
couldn't fix was the starter switch. I got a new one of those and finally
got around to adding that and everything worked great off the tractor. So
yesterday I installed it and it worked flawlessly when I got a good battery!
:-).

In the process I found out I've had two more 12 v batteries go south so went
and picked up a new one today. Installed it and the starter spun the tractor
over very well but it wouldn't start. No spark, points corroded, fixed that,
still wouldn't start.  Gas stale, drained gas, put in new. Tried again,
popped right off and ran nicely. Shut it down quickly because I hadn't added
water yet. Filled the radiator with water and had a water leak I hadn't
observed before. Oh, I didn't tighten the plug good and tight, no leak there
any more but one next to it. Where is that coming from? Upper water pipe has
a rust through hole, water exiting onto block and head dripping next to
drain plug. @#$%^&.  Oh joy. But the leak isn't bad enough to keep me from
running this for a bit. 

Filled radiator and then proceeded to try to start the tractor again. Engine
locks up starter Bendix gear makes terrible sound. Hand turn flywheel and
sure enough a hydraulic lock on the cylinders.  Now what do I have a cracked
block or head or something? No water in it all last winter and it didn't
have this trouble before. Weird! Pulled plugs, sure enough both cylinders
full of gas not water. Haven't had this before either. Removed gas from
cylinders, pulled carburetor bowl to see if the float and needle was
shutting off gas properly. It wasn't. Removed float and needle from
carburetor while carburetor still on tractor. Didn't find anything wrong.
Blew seat clean with air and reassembled the carburetor. Now the float and
needle is working. Must have got some dirt in the needle/seat interface when
I drained the gas tank. Ok, now let's start this sucker again. 

Engage starter, terrible noise, Bendix gear having a tough time engaging
ring gear. A couple tries and it eventually engages and the tractor starts
right up. Gas tank has a leak as well but that I had observed before. So
with a gas tank leak and a water leak I took it for a short ride outside the
shop and put it back. All is cool. 

I need to find out what I did to the starter Bendix gear because the ring
gear doesn't look all that worn. Another project.

Finally now the question?

But I have a question on the upper water pipe section. JD still sells them
for a nice tidy sum of $57 plus two one dollar "O' ring gaskets. However, I
have never done this procedure before. I have read posts on ATIS where it
was mentioned that this pipe can be substituted with a common variety piece
of pipe. What diameter, ID and OD, and what material should the pipe be made
of?  How is this pipe held in the two castings?  Friction fit?  If so how do
you get the pipe out of the two castings to replace the pipe? I would
appreciate input from anyone who has been down this road before. I guess one
could get a whole assembly from a salvage yard but one never really knows
how good that pipe might be either.  Or maybe try to gas weld the hole in
the pipe if the hole isn't too big and it's not rusted out elsewhere. 

When I pull the hood to find the gas leak, I'll try to fix the upper water
pipe at the same time. I may be looking for a replacement gas tank as well.
Anyone have a good one to sell?

One step forward and two steps backward.  

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
storeroom door 


www.deerelegacy.com

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