[Farmall] O-12 Progress

[John Hall]

Ok, no fair!!!! Either its too warm where you are or you got too much spare 
time on your hands!

And what do you mean "eventually"? Got another project in the shop already? 
At least thats my favorite excuse.

John Hall
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Olmstead" <olmstead at ridgenet.net>
To: "Farmall/IHC mailing list" <farmall at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 7:18 PM
Subject: [Farmall] O-12 Progress


> Got the '36 O-12 running again on Saturday. Finished machining the oil 
> filter mount a couple weeks ago and bolted it in place. It's working well; 
> almost no seepage around the filter cannister. The original mount is 
> probably unusable; it's deformed and cracked from being tightened too much 
> too many times. I used a tap screwed into the filter mount center hole as 
> a guide to position the filter mount on my milling machine, then filled 
> the old gasket groove with JB Weld, let it cure, and used a boring head 
> with a 1/8" cutter to cut a new gasket groove perpendicular to the center 
> mount hole. This technique works very well, but some filter mounts are too 
> warped and cracked to fix. I think that IHC realized that the oil filter 
> mount had problems; they made three or four different models. One of the 
> earliest changes was to add bracing to the underside of the filter mount.
>
> Filled the engine up with diesel fuel, pulled the sparkplugs and towed the 
> tractor around in gear for fifteen minutes. It failed the good ring test; 
> lots of diesel fuel blew out of the spark plug holes. Worn piston rings. 
> Surprisingly, though, the tractor doesn't smoke visibly.
>
> Dropped the oil pan, which was a major chore. As expected, you have to 
> almost remove the front axle. The alignment yoke that holds front axle 
> straight needs to be dropped six or eight inches, which means that I had 
> to remove the cap that holds the ball under the clutch and then drive out 
> the front axle pivot pin, then lift tractor up until axle and alignment 
> yoke dropped down away from the oil pan. I also removed the tie rod to get 
> it out of the way.
>
> There was a lot less sludge in the oil pan than I expected. I pulled the 
> oil pump and cleaned up its inlet screen, which wasn't in bad shape. This 
> tractor had clearly been maintained pretty well for most of its career. 
> Cleaned up the oil pan and installed new gaskets, which is a pain on the 
> F-12 family. Four separate pieces. It's all worse on the O-12 because it's 
> down low and surrounded by the cast iron chassis. I'm not used to having 
> to use jackstands in order to get to a tractor oil pan, and I don't like 
> it!
>
> Since I had so much of the front end dismantled, I cleaned up the tie rod 
> ends and the axle pin holes and installed new grease fittings in 
> everything. Future service will be a breeze.
>
> Put everything back together and decided to wait on fixing the radiator 
> leak; I wanted to get the tractor running. Filled the radiator with water. 
> Cleaned and refilled the air filter. Installed a clean rocker arm cover 
> and decided to wait on valve adjustment. Cleaned the sparkplugs and 
> reinstalled them. Actually I forgot to put them in, and was puzzled when 
> the engine spun three or four full revolutions for every pull on the hand 
> crank. Oops.
>
> Started the tractor and the smoke boiled off of the muffler and exhaust 
> manifold. All that diesel fuel burning off. The tractor's a good runner, 
> but seems down on power. Yesterday I tried to use it to pull a drag around 
> the yard and out onto our access road, but the drag loaded up with wet 
> sand (it had rained), and the O-12 couldn't maintain RPMs in second gear. 
> Dropped to first, and the rear wheels just spun. Broke out the '36 F-20 
> and finished the job with it. I have pulled the drag with my F-14, but it 
> has a fresh rebuild and 3.25" high compression pistons in it. Big 
> difference!
>
> The transaxle on the O-12 is still full of mucky old transmission oil cut 
> with diesel fuel; I need to run the tractor some more and drain that mess 
> out. The tractor rolls noticeably easier now; the lube was so thick that I 
> couldn't even push the little tractor by hand. I'm not looking forward to 
> draining it. Nor replacing the radiator core. But it'll happen eventually.
>
> -Karl
>
>
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