The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi all,

I'm brand new to this forum which reads like a great well of knowledge on all things Fordsons so I'm hoping to learn as much as I can.
I'm in Southern Ireland and I have a New Performance Super Dexta which I purchased over a year ago and have started doing so work to tidy it up.

My main issue is a heavy oil dripping from the rear of the engine so I suspected the crankshaft rope seal which I have since replaced and i'm confident I done properly i.e. soaking of seals for a few hours prior to fitting and clean trimming of the ends leaving 0.3 to 0.5mm of seal protruding above half housings. The seal went back together properly and was tight on the final squeezing of the long bolts.
I suspect the cork seal at the rear main bearing cap so I.m going to drop the sump and fit new gaskets and cork strips however I have no experience of cork strips.
I presume these sit into a slot in the main bearing caps or in the sump itself so do you use gasket sealer along the length of the strips on both sump and bearing caps?
I heard that cork strips should only be wiped with Vaseline and installed with no sealer?
I assume the paper gaskets go on first with some sealer and the cork strips come up to meet the paper gaskets?
Do you cut the cork flush with the sump or do you leave so much protruding like the rope seals, if so how much should I leave protruding?

Appreciate your help on this as its a lot of work so far to remove the front axle, take the weight of the engine from above and drop the sump so I want to try to get it right and hopefully I wont' be dripping onto the concrete anymore!

Dexta1987

I am no authority on the crank corks, but I have successfully put several cork crank seals in David Brown's, and a set In a Dexta. Using some Silicone Gasket Maker glue your cork into the place for it in your sump, then with a razor cut the ends flush. You are supposed to make dummy bearings out of wood to hold the cork in position till the glue sets, but that will be your decision whether you can do without. Others will have varying ideas, but this has worked for me, and so far, no leaks.
Hope this helps!
Joshua

Thanks DextaJ for the advice, much appreciated.
I tackled the sump over the weekend, I had the front axle off the tractor and the weight of the engine taken by a support from above while the bell housing resting on timber blocks.
The sump was stubborn to come off and I’d swear that was it’s first time off as it was like it was welded tight, the paper gasket eventually splitting down the middle!
The recesses for the cork strips are in the main bearing caps at the either ends of the crankshaft and it was no joke trying to get these to stay in place when gravity was working to drop them to the floor. I discovered that the cork strips are actually very slightly wedge shaped I.e. one side being slightly wider than the other and I think this is meant to facilitate a slight friction fit in the recesses in the main bearing caps, this I figured out after them falling down too many times!
Once these were in place, I coated the paper gaskets with silicone sealer and also the hemispherical mating ends of the sump where these meet the cork strips and jacked the sump back up into place. It’s a very heavy sump so I guess it is an integral stressed member of the engine and bell housing combination.
All went back together fairly painlessly and I have ran the engine now for long enough to see that the oil drip is completely stopped, so I now have new crankshaft rope seals and new sump gaskets so the next minor leak to tackle is a weep from the PTO shaft, this should be more straightforward I’m hoping
Thanks again for the sound advice