Still waiting for one bearing to come in for the Super Six transmission so I’ve been doing some work on Grandpas Major, and I planed on pulling it at Symco the weekend after next.
She had no brakes so I had to replace one cable and then just a few springs and adjust everything back up. Did some fixing to the seat and welded some half ass patches on the fenders so they weren’t flopping in the breeze. I then replaced the PTO shaft seal, I was a little surprised when I dumped the oil from the rearend, this stuff could have passed for sweet cream. I removed all the old framework for the front blade, some of the parts were welded to the frame rails along with several other pieces of iron. The front wheels were tilted at a pretty bad angle so I jacked up the front only to find the king pin bushings completely shot, so I pulled the spindles, welded them up and turned them true again in the lathe last night, the bearings and seals came in the mail yesterday so if I have enough time tonight I should be able to get the front end back together.
We wont be pulling with any of the six cylinders this year, to many Irons in the fire, we'll see how Grandpas will do for now.
I welded the spindles lengthways with a MIG, after they are turned back down there is always a few pits and low spots but I don't fret over them, I'll never get enough hours on it to wear them out again and the low spots just retain grease anyway!
I've always found it amazing that the bulk of pulling tractors encountered over here - including one with a pair of Packard Merlins some years ago, seemed to use bog standard Major back ends - not like Ford to over-engineer something
Best send before the power goes out - in the middle of a spectacular thunder / lightning storm atm, air so humid you can slice lumps out of it - not usual for our balmy summers which seem to get more barmy as the years pass............
Best regards
Rick - Bogside on Bure
1958 Diesel E1A Mk2 s/n 1470165 - still in working clothes
So Marc did pull "Walter" last summer and did OK with him but we found the head gasket was quite bad so we did not do much else with him last year. A few weeks ago Mike pulled Walter in the shop and tore him down, apart from the head gasket everything else looked good. we plan on putting him back together with the same bearings and probably a light hone and reuse the rings as well. this evening I got the sleeves back in after reworking the rear two, but I still have to strip the head down and send it out to get a little shave as it has some bad erosion from the headgasket leaks.
I had been cleaning up the top of the burnt sleeves in the lathe with an old piston slid in to the top ring and supported with a live center, this worked well to clean up the first step where the head gasket rests but I also need to remove the same amount of material on the top of the spigot and since the piston ring was against this I was later taking it to the belt sander to do this.... but I've now found a better way, my old friend Mr loctite! I don't bother with a ring on the piston, I just literally glue the piston in the sleeve with the green loctite and then chuck it up in the lathe and clean up the first face, and then remove the same amount off the top of the spigot, I then toss it in Granny's oven for a good 15-20 minutes to get the loctite to release and a little shove in the press and it pops back out. those things were glued in there so tight I seriously think I would have split the sleeves if I would have tried to remove them before heating them to the release temp of the loctite. When all done I make shims to get them up above the block by .002-.004 and they are ready to go.
Now I just need to convince Granny that the smell of burnt carbon and loctite in her oven wont hurt anything.
I got the head back last week, they had to shave .008 off to clean it up, slapped everything back together with new head bolts. went through the injectors and found one with a needle that was sticky, Marc cleaned it up and set the cracking pressure on all fore. We started it up with little to no issues. This morning he grabbed the dino from work and we broke it in and then made him do a little work. he was pushing 60 hp, withe the clip in he was hitting 75.
Check out my videos on YouTube, we also got the Super Six and the 6D Power Major.
Marc pulled with Walter at Symco last weekend in the 6000lb class, took 4th out of over 40 tractors. Walter is pulling a lot stronger with a good head gasket!
Mike also pulled with the 54 and took 7th in the 5000lb class.
