[AT] 430V

Spencer Yost yostsw at atis.net
Mon Sep 4 08:21:50 PDT 2017


Your posts are coming through.  This is long.  Sorry about that 

I pulled the oil pan – I cover that later.  I’ll try to answer some emails quickly:

John - #1 stuck, #2 isn’t I am nearly certain.   As for not putting money in it – that really isn’t the point (well – money is always an important point I guess but you know what I mean).   This is a VERY nice, straight, unmolested, low hour tractor with decent original paint, original documents and I am the second owner.   I don’t even want to ruin the look with a cleaned and painted engine, etc. if I can help it.   I do have the rocker arm off the pushrods and the valves and the valves are free so I am good there.
Greg:   Removing the head is fairly involved – hydraulic line and steering, coolant manifold, exhaust manifold, etc.  Again – I have no rational reason why, but I just believe in my gut that the tractor is not stuck badly.  This is based on a list member (who helped arrange the sale) who has history with the tractor.   So, I want to pull the head as the last resort.   Check my oil pan summary below.
Cecil.   I finally had to crack the piston out of my Pacer(break the top off by driving from below).    Even then the rusting was so bad they could not bore it.   They had to dry sleeve it and bore the dry sleeve.   So, I know where you are coming from.

Just to recap; here is everything I tried in the order I tried them:

1:  Soaking
2: Rocking:  No chance to develop enough acceleration.  Drive train very tight - in a good way
3: Pipe wrench on the PTO (with old coupler to keep from ruining the shaft).  No go.
4: Crowbar on ring gear teeth.  Available holes, geometry and space limitations made this a no-go.  No real way to get purchase without ruining teeth.
5: Air pressure:   Exhaust seating is squirrely (rust flakes washed down by the water from the exhaust manifold probably) so air pressure leaks down too fast.   I did not think air would loosen it but hopefully help push penetrant down further.  Farmer and Dave:  I believe grease would show the same failure mode:  Up through the valve and not down through the rings. 
6: One wheel up, other on the ground chocked.  I then climb on the cleats of the tire and bounce.  Not successful.
7: Lifting rear of the tractor with wheel weight on hitch bar:  Not successful, even with moderate vertical rocking.

Next attempts:   I was thinking along the same lines as Dean and use Toms advice of using the starter.   No spare armatures for welding nut/socket; but I do have a working starter on the tractor.  With the pan off, I will lightly tap the piston and then will try a start while in neutral first.   If that doesn’t work, I then want to put it in gear and suspend the rear as I hit the starter so gravity is helping.    This set-up just sounds dangerous, so need to spend the extra time to devise a safe place/way to do this; in case it works.  I do have HUGE oak blocks.   At the very least I will place them under frame of the hitch so when it drops it drops those 3” onto those instead of the tires hitting the ground.  After this; it is time for the hot water spa treatment for the tractor (-:

As for the oil pan:  I pulled it and got the bore scope out and looked at the bottom of the cylinders.   #1 is near TDC and lots to see.  I am VERY heartened by what I saw there.  #2 is near BDC and not much to see but as suspected #2 shows nothing to dissuade me of my conclusion that it is free and #1 is my only problem.   As for #1. virtually no rusting on the cylinder wall.  A lot of loose debris, like small rust flakes, on the wall.   I do see some evidence of galvanic corrosion at the bottom of the skirt.  Just a trickle of rust on the crank.   Joe had drained the water and added oil before I picked it up, but as most of you know there is always a watery “film” that is left behind in the in the pan and oil pump that should be wiped off.   That is the reason I pulled the pan.  The watery film was only on the very bottom edge of the pump pickup screen so not much water ever got in.   My bore scope has a video port, so I’ll see if I can capture pics for you folks.  Never tried this before so who knows….   I also found that the light bodied WD40 penetrant does indeed drain, but only coats about a 90 degree arc of the cylinder walls.   So 270 degrees is rusted tight enough to block penetrant.   No evidence of the heavier fluid draining down the wall.

Thanks again!

Spencer Yost



Spencer Yost




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