[AT] Starter installation trick on the later two cylinder JD Tractors.

Tue May 19 21:13:01 PDT 2020

Farmall H and M were similar.  You could do the clutch through the bottom of the bell housing.  You had to uncouple the flexible joint at the transmission input shaft.  Then the clutch could come out.

Jim Becker 

From: Cecil Bearden 
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2020 10:18 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com 
Subject: Re: [AT] Starter installation trick on the later two cylinder JD Tractors.

Touche Dean!!!!!    The easiest tractor to repair the clutch was the 1200 David Brown.  You could remove the top transmission cover and pull the PTO shaft and pull the transmisison shaft and the clutch without splitting the tractor.  The 1850 Oliver was also built so that the engine could be pulled by removing the coupling to the transmission and set engine and hydrashift crosswise on the frame and remove the clutch..  But, as far as ease of clutch rebuilding the 2cylinder JD had them all beat..
Cecil

On 5/19/2020 10:03 PM, deanvp at att.net wrote:

  Shall we discuss doing a complete overhaul on a clutch on a JD Two Cylinder vs any other upright 4 or 6 cylinder in line engine tractor?

  Dean VP

  Snohomish, WA 98290

  From: AT mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com On Behalf Of ustonThomas Mehrkam
  Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2020 7:40 AM
  To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com
  Subject: Re: [AT] Starter installation trick on the later two cylinder JD Tractors.

  Oh I left out Case from the list. 

  On Sunday, May 17, 2020, 9:38:02 AM CDT, ustonThomas Mehrkam <tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net> wrote: 

  Why do you guys LOVE those pain in the ass John Deer tractors so much.  I have owned international, Massey Harris, Massey Ferguson, Oliver and Miniapalious Moline tractors. All were acceptable. All of those tractors still run. :-}

  There was always a lot of Cussing, Wrench Throwing, Pulling etc from the JD owners. :-}   

  Now I did it and insulted your Religion. :-}

  On Sunday, May 17, 2020, 2:46:43 AM CDT, deanvp at att.net <deanvp at att.net> wrote: 

  I just went through a few days of hassle that caused me to remove/reinstall

  the starter on my 1958 JD 620 high Clearance tractor. There is an

  abbreviation for this procedure called a complete PITA unless you know a

  trick I knew at one time and had completely forgotten about. My situation

  was compounded by a 10" shorter battery cable than what is supposed to be

  installed. Mine was 54", the std is 64" that makes it a triple PITA.  I am

  referring to all the late Two Cylinder tractors, letter and numbered series,

  that have the starter inside a cast cavity in the underside of the main

  case. The battery cable is fed to an anodized copper semi-ridged ribbon the

  connects to the starter switch mounted on the starter. To use the proper

  terminology on a JD 620 it is called a cranking motor. To pull the started

  one is supposed to disconnect the battery cable from this copper ribbon

  before trying to remove the starter.  Well folks unless all the planets are

  in alignment and the nut that needs to be loosened is oriented such that you

  can get to it between the flywheel and the main case there is no way in hell

  that is going to happen.  Well, unless as JD very casually mentions that the

  flywheel may need to be removed. That is not a casual decision.  So if you

  have to remove the starter with the cable still attached, the battery cable

  needs to be worked forward and downward to provide enough slack to slide the

  starter out of the cavity so one can get to the nut that holds the battery

  cable to the copper ribbon.  That in itself can be difficult. But now lets

  say you are ready to reinstall the starter with the cable attached removing

  the slack at the starter in inserted into the round hole in the main

  casting. Here come the trick that will save you all kinds of grief and time.

  As you slide the starter cone into the hole you will all of a sudden hit a

  dead stop and are unable to get the starter further into the hole. 

  What you will discover is either the copper ribbon and bolt/nut tied to the

  battery cable is hitting the casting or the lever that actuates the button

  on the starter switch is hitting the cavity hole casting or both. The

  cable/copper ribbon and the starter switch lever go through an oblong

  horizontal  hole above the hole the starter goes into. So one comes to the

  conclusion that somehow the battery cable/copper ribbon is bent to go

  through that hole and then somehow pry the switch lever up high enough to

  get thought the upper hole.  I can assure you that just plain doesn't work.

  BTW, this is all hidden behind the flywheel. But what completely fools you

  is the starter can be raised another 1/2" or more in its hole because the

  whole cone isn't in yet and the lever simply slides over the interference

  and all is cool, I will guarantee you will convince yourself that the

  starter can't go higher because it is in a tight hole.  Wrong it will go

  higher. I used a floor jack to get the starter up close to the cavity and

  tiled the starter to get it started in the hole and then carefully found the

  center of gravity of the starter and lifted that whole sucker up the extra

  half inch or so and boom the lever and cable/copper ribbon fall into place

  by taking the slack out. Once I did it the right way I realized I had been

  here before but probably 20 years ago. And then all the lights started

  blinking.  This trick will save you hours of frustration and heartache.  

  I also changed the cable to a longer version even longer than standard

  version. I went to 72" rather than the std 64"  I wanted more wiggle room.

  I never could really firmly establish whether the original cable size  was

  2/0 or 1/0 from the factory but since there are places where the cable goes

  though that are tight fits the OD of the cable cannot be much over 0.5" I

  went out cable hunting at all the local Auto Parts stores as well as Napa.

  I found out there is a bunch of different cables out there with varying

  thickness of insulation. None fit my requirement until I found some 1/0

  Welding cable. That fit four requirements. High current carrying capability,

  OD wasn't too big, the cable was reasonably flexible and it was less

  expensive than anything else I had looked at. Now where do you get that

  stuff? Of course at a welding supply store except the closest one for me is

  a bit of a hike so I went to a "Batteries Plus" dealer. Sure enough had

  exactly what I needed. Cable cut to length. 

  So I hope this might save you some time and grief you when you work on the

  late letter series and numbered series Two Cylinder JD starter issues. 

  BTW, the thing that caused me to remove the starter to begin with was a

  complete misdiagnosis on my part.  !@#$%^&*(  Starter went dead. Made the

  assumption the starter switch had gone bad because I knew I had a good

  battery and 12 Volts at the starter switch.  The real problem was I had a

  resistive ground between the battery cable and the battery box and then to

  top it off an even more resistive ground (15K ohms) between the battery box

  and the rest of the tractor.  Now why did this all seem to happen when I

  thought I was going to go to a plowing day .    I Power Washed the tractor

  which I hadn't done in a long time. Rust developed immediately where it

  doesn't belong.  So the moral of this story is to never wash your tractor.

  Dean VP

  Snohomish, WA 98290

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