[AT] BAD Tractor Day: need some advice

[Carl Szabelski]

If it is as you say, a ring fitted onto a casting, the process is the same
as putting any gear on a shaft, or putting the pulley on a Cub crankshaft.
Heat up the ring and place over a cold casting. The trick is to get it hot
enough, and uniformly heated. You usually need to get it up in the 330+
degree range to get it to expand a little. It also helps if you can cool
the casting so that it shrinks a little. When they put new tires on
railroad wheels, they use a gas fired ring system of torches that heat the
new tire in multiple spots to get it hot enough and evenly heated. When I
had to reinstall the front pulley on the Cub I put the pulley in the oven
and let it sit there for a while to get it hot. I had no way to cool down
the end of the shaft so it was room temp. Then I used a threaded rod and a
home made spacer with a nut to press it on.

Not knowing how large the ring is, you may have to do is get a good fire
going in the back yard and put the ring in it, otherwise try using an oven
and set it for as high as you can. You can try packing the casting in ice
to cool it down, or put it in the freezer for a day or two.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that the ring will start to cool as soon as
you remove it from the heat source, and the casting will start to warm as
soon as you remove it from it’s cooling source. You can try to minimize the
loss of heat by hitting the ring with a torch while getting it ready for
the install. Also, once the two come into contact with each other, they
will start to set pretty fast. So you want to set the ring on the casting
as accurately as possible, and be ready to drive it one way or the other to
get it properly positioned before it grabs.

Good luck

Carl

On Saturday, November 20, 2021, STEVE ALLEN <steveallen855 at centurytel.net>
wrote:

> So our weather was quite nice today, and my son and I had planned a number
> of chores including putting the Christmas decoration boxes in the garage
> (from the shed) for easy access, doing a final mowing around the sheds, and
> brush-hogging the field.
>
> When time came to crank up the '51 JD A, we went through the normal
> process--check oil, grease, gas in tank, touch up the plugs, check for
> condensation in the oil (none found), etc.  Turned on the key, turned on
> the gas, and hit the started pedal:  the starter just spins.  Try again
> once or twice.  Same.
>
> In the past, we have every now and again had it spin once or twice, but
> never had it failed to engage on the third try. Must be a bad patch of
> teeth.  so we took the spare steering wheel and the ratchet, and we pooped
> the center cover off the flywheel cover, and we turned the flywheel.  Hit
> the pedal.  No engagement.
>
> I pulled the cap screws off the cover while I had my son disconnect the
> battery.  I crawled under, and had him push down hard on the pedal while I
> peeked in with a flashlight.  What I say dismayed me:  the teeth are chewed
> up all the way around.  I had him spin the flywheel.  A few places had
> mostly intact teeth--say a loss of about 3/16 or a quarter inch at most.
> Some stretches had teeth chewed up all the way to the center.
>
> I do not understand how we got to this point at all.  I haven't ever
> looked before, but, as I said, we have only had rare instances of
> non-engagement, and the next time we hit the pedal, all was well.  I
> expected a few bad spots, but I had no idea it was all around.  We tried
> very hard to find a spot where the started could engage, but no such.
>
> (We then hooked everything back up, and I tried using the
> wheel-and-ratchet to actually start the old guy, but I just couldn't get
> enough Ummph on the spin to start a cold tractor that hasn't run in a
> couple months.  No joy at all.)
>
> Now, if my none-too-trustworthy memory recalls correctly, the ring gear is
> not a part of the flywheel casting but just a ring of teeth fixed to it.
> If that's true, I think I can take it off and flip it around (or replace
> with the beautiful ring off the broken flywheel on the '49 A).
>
> What would be the procedure for removing and reinstalling?  Heat?
> Hammer?  Harsh language?
>
> Any insight on how we might have gone from what seemed like a few bad
> spots to a ruined ring (so I can try to avoid it again)?
>
> The "original" Steve Allen
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