The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi All,

New member to the forum here. I am not new to online forums, and have read most of the etiquette posts I could find here, but if I ruffle some feathers, please excuse me.

I've recently acquired a 1953 New major at an auction sale down the road from my house at the neighbors. It had been sitting quite a while, but they had it running and I drove it home. Here are the issues and where I am at so far. At some point since its retirement, it sat outside and got some water in the transmission and rear end. The wiring is toast, the gauges are shot, and the generator doesn't seem to work. because of the moisture issue, I couldn't shift the auxiliary out of low. I drained both the rear end and the transmission, and filled them up with diesel fuel. I turned my 12 year old loose around the yard with it, and every time he came by the shop I wiggled the auxiliary a little until it was shifting pretty decently. drained diesel, and refilled both with clean 80w90.

Started playing with it around the yard little, and the leaks from all the years of sitting started coming out. Appears to have an oil leak from the crank seal on the front of the timing chain cover. How does the "nut" on the front of the crank come off? Is it standard thread and can you just use and impact once the front of the tractor frame is removed?

It also leaks from the steering shaft from the side of the steering gear. I pulled the vertical steering arm off, but cant make heads or tails of what kind of seal it is. I found very poor pictures on the net. suggestions?

Im sure I will have many questions as we move forward, but for now these are the priorities. Thanks to all who might be able to help in advance.

Hi Witty, Welcome aboard!
The bolt on the end of the crank is just a standard fine thread, it will spin rite out. The seal in the steering box will require some disassembly as well, the side cover(with gaskets/shims under it) has to come off and then the rocker shaft removed, I don’t remember what the early Majors had but it will most likely be a lip seal or a quad ring/o ring. If it is the lip seal you may be able to pick it out and replace it without disassembly, the quad ring is held in with a metal washer so the shaft has to be removed to get it out. Ether way its not a bad idea to open it up, clean it out , set the backlash and refill it with fresh oil. There is however a way to cheat, put a grease zerk in the fill plug and pump it full of very lite grease (John Deer corn head grease), if you destroy the evidence no one will ever know.

Pat

Thanks, Pat. So that large nut that the hand crank handle fits into is actually a bolt? didnt see that coming. I had suspected I would have to disassemble the steering gear to get at the leak.

G'day Witty; and welcome.
If you Google www.smallholderservices.co.uk/id25 you can access a [clear] diagram of the Major's steering box.

Pavel

You do not have to take the axle support off to get to the timing gears and crankshaft seal. Just take off the bottom hose, take out the starting handle dog then just take all the bolts out round the cover. You will also have to take off the dynamo.

You can carefully drive the crank shaft pulley off from underneath.

If you have a 1953 Major you will have a wide fanbelt. You will also have a large seal in the timing cover not the later smaller seal.

Pavel wrote:G'day Witty; and welcome.
If you Google http://www.smallholderservices.co.uk/id25 you can access a [clear] diagram of the Major's steering box.

Pavel

Thanks! this is exactly what Ive been looking for. The diagrams help wonderfully.

Brian wrote:You do not have to take the axle support off to get to the timing gears and crankshaft seal. Just take off the bottom hose, take out the starting handle dog then just take all the bolts out round the cover. You will also have to take off the dynamo.

You can carefully drive the crank shaft pulley off from underneath.

If you have a 1953 Major you will have a wide fanbelt. You will also have a large seal in the timing cover not the later smaller seal.

Bottom hose, as well as the nose cone and radiator are out of the way. I think I am going to have to pull the axle support off in order to get a impact wrench on the nut that goes into the end of the crankshaft. I have tried breaking it loose by hand with a wrench and just cant get it to knock loose. Unless somebody has a sure fire idea for keeping the engine for turning while I try. Also, is the Dynamo what we call the Generator here in the U.S.?

A good fitting spanner and a good hit with a hammer normaly does the trick

Top gear, Hi range, handbrake on will hold the engine if a sharp tap on the spanner still moves the engine round

Welcome to one of the friendliest & knowledgeable forums around.

Dynamo/generator? Same thing. The only option is alternator -- which is different.
I would also suggest chocking the wheels as the brakes are not the most reliable in the world.
And section 5 of the website showing the steering assy. also has good illustrations of the internals of generator and starter motor.

Pavel

Welcome Aboard Matey. Dandy Dave!

Success! After a few more attempts, the hammer and wrench method did the trick on the crank bolt. Now to dig up a suitable puller for the pulley.

On an unrelated note, can anybody tell me the differences between the air cleaners over the years? Mine seems to have an open port or hole in the air cleaner housing facing towards the fuel tank. I had the opportunity to look at both a mid 50's new major and a late 50's power major and neither of them had this hole. When I'm in the shop later I can take a picture if need be. Just curious why they are different.

When I rebuild the steeringhouse I put a O-ring in the place for the seal. Worked two years and then it faled. Now I have some grease cord in it and it keeps dry.

Your air cleaner is what I refer to as the either/or unit, on the early majors the preacleaner didn't always protrude through the hood, rather it had a short little precleaner attached to the port facing the fuel tank and the unused port capped off, I'm thinking the earliest ones may not have had the top port at all. Eventually they eliminated this and all units had the precleaner on top and up through the hood, these early tractors with a down swept exhaust have a nice "clean" look to them.

Pat

The early air cleaners are different then the later ones. Also, the caps on the ones that came though the hood are round on the earlier tractors and angled on the later models. Dandy Dave!

Hey Guys,

So I was able to loosen up the front end, and get the pulley and also the timing cover off to replace the seal and the gasket and hopefully fix the oil leak from the front of the engine. When I removed the cover, I noticed that most of the threads on the bolts were damaged. I ran a thread chaser in the holes, and was able to get most bolts to snug up, with the exception of one. on the lower side of the cover, behind the crank pulley, there appears to be a hole that is threaded into the mounting plate attached to the front of the engine, but isnt recessed into the engine block like the others. is this the case? or is there a broken off bolt in the block from the previous owner? it doesnt appear to be a broken off bolt, but I was hoping somebody could shed some light on it. I used a shorter bolt, a washer, a lock washer and some thread locker to try and get it to tighten up. The problem is, when I tighten it, the bolt bottoms out, strips the threads, and of course will not tighten after that. For reference, I have attached a picture. You can see the bolt in question, it is towards the bottom of the housing, behind the edge of the crankshaft pulley. It has the doubled up washers on it right now, it is the third one from the left side of the picture.



Moving on, I had a considerable amout of play in the front end, so I diassembled that last night. It apprears that I need new bushings, new spindles, and possible the big bearings. Forgive me if I am breaking any forum rules, but is there a preferred vendor we like to support? Are there any quality differences out there? Gonna try and remove the bushings from the front axle tonight, and clean it all up and get ready for some new parts.

Thanks again!

Hi Witty
As you move from different area of repair on your tractor, to another area, it is usually a good idea to start a new thread.
It makes it easier for people to follow your progress, but more importantly it's easier/faster when looking up a previous past post on a certain subject.
Good to see your making progress on your girl.
Kiwi Kev

I believe all the bottom ones that thread into the front plate are fine thread, the “torqueing sequence” in the manual should show what ones go where, there are several different lengths as well as fine and coarse thread. If I get a chance tonight I’ll look to see if that one goes into the block but I’m thinking the oil pan is behind it, thus it would be a short fine thread.

Pat

As far a venders, Use whoever suits you. They all seem to have a few different things then some others and competition seems to be friendly. If you have stripped threads, you may need to fix it with a Helicoil or similar thread repair insert. And do not be so worried about edict on here. As long as you are not cussing and posting photos of nudes things are pretty easy going. Dandy Dave!

Damit Dave....I like nudes things!

Lol, ok guys, thanks. I belong to other forums and have been reprimanded for asking about the wrong vendor, or not following some goofy rules about where to post.

BearCreek Majors wrote:I believe all the bottom ones that thread into the front plate are fine thread, the “torqueing sequence” in the manual should show what ones go where, there are several different lengths as well as fine and coarse thread. If I get a chance tonight I’ll look to see if that one goes into the block but I’m thinking the oil pan is behind it, thus it would be a short fine thread.

Pat

I dont have a manual and was thinking of getting one. Which one is best? The bolts I took out were all coarse thread, and alot of them stripped. If the bottom bolts are fine thread, that would explain alot. I just dont want to get it back together and still have a leak.

Thanks again guys.

The best manuals are the Original Fordson ones. Dandy Dave!

BearCreek Majors wrote:Damit Dave....I like nudes things!

LOL... Stripped Fordsons and parts are OK even sandblasted and nude. And Clear Hooter horns are all the rage. Dandy Dave!