Rain and Ford overhaul (was Re: [AT] test

[Indiana Robinson]

On 2 Apr 2005 at 9:06, Mike Sloane wrote:

> No driving tractors around here today - the predictions are for 3-5" 
> before this storm is over. That isn't much for the Gulf states, but that 
> is a LOT of water in the Northeast. We had a couple of inches on Monday, 
> leaving all the creeks and rivers nearly full, so todays water will 
> surely cause some flooding.
> 
> I am making progress, however, with the overhaul of my Ford 2N engine. I 
> pulled the engine and removed the valves, guides, camshaft, and 
> crankshaft. The reason for this was that I was not able to remove the 
> cast iron sleeves with my sleeve puller. But with the crankshaft out, I 
> was able to set up the puller, turn the engine over, and give the bottom 
> disc of the puller a couple of (not so) gentle taps with a hand sledge. 
> That got the sleeves moving just enough to let the puller take over. But 
> it is still a hard pull every inch of the way. I have two liners out, 
> and have the third started - one a day is about all these out of shape 
> muscles can handle. Once I have the liners out, I will order all the 
> replacement parts and put everything back together. The interesting 
> thing is that the rod and crank bearings are .010 oversize and are like 
> brand new, but the pistons, rings, and liners are badly worn (or broken 
> in the case of the rings). The block must have been bored to accept the 
> thicker cast iron liners, but the pistons are OEM Ford marked with 4 
> rings. I suppose someone could have gone to all the trouble of boring 
> the block, installing new sleeves, and turning the crank and yet still 
> put the original pistons back in, but that doesn't make sense in my 
> book. The piston grooves are mostly double the original width! But, as 
> much work as it has been and frustrating at times, it has been a great 
> learning experience. Thanks to all who offered suggestions on removing 
> the sleeves and the unique Ford flathead valve bodies, and to Bob Brooks 
> for lending me his valve unique Ford flathead valve guide remover - I 
> could not have done it without that tool. My fond wish is that the 
> assembly will not be nearly as difficult as the tear-down.
> 
> Mike



	There used to be a piston kit available for those where you removed the liners, honed 
the block and put oversized pistons directly in the block. There was also a piston kit 
for a while where you pulled the sleeves, bored the block out oversized and put in even 
larger pistons directly in the block. I seem to recall that the latter brought the HP up 
to well over 30 HP... I'm thinking about 34 to 36. That would have been a peppy N.    :-)
   Could have been tough on the drive train though... I think they were all M&W and sold 
through the old Tractor Supply Store (now TSC) back in the late 1950's.

-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. Here 100 years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net