The LittleTractor Blog

So, answered an ad on Kijiji on the weekend, a guy outta town had a hydro pump, ram and lift hardware from a 1968 112h. Cross-referencing the pump on the parts catalog told me it was the same one as in Bror (67 112h, although it didn’t look like the ram was.  Decided last night that I’d make a road trip out there, and I’m glad I did…. The tractor had been left at his acreage by the PO, there’d been an electrical fire, so it was not drivable… Since the PTO clutch had seized and cracked, he had decided to repower it with a different engine… So he still had all the engine bits that he didn’t need.

Turns out yes, the ram is different, but the hydro pump is the same,

and even better, the ’68 SF shared the 10HP Tec engine with the ’67 (with a few differences… Electronic ignition instead of points, alternator instead of generator… ). So I took the engine and the carb as well…

The carb is a bit of a writeoff (loose throttle shaft) but its nice to have one I can dork around with to learn about, rather than messing with the “super-carb”. Engine still spins and still has compression, and after doing some crossreferencing with the parts catalog it looks like it will give me pretty much an entire set of bits that are otherwise unavailable or very spendy (piston, connecting rod, slinger, wrist pin, valve springs, valves, tappets, camshaft, crankshaft, crankcase breather) to have as spares…. I LIKE spares….

Well, I figured that if I was ever going to get the carb strapped back on and the engine back in and the electrical done, I’d need to go through the fuel system… So, today, thanks to the good graces of LTGal, who took LTBabe shopping with her this morning, and my mum, who took LTbabe this afternoon AND fed us supper while LTGal was at work, I got back out into the garage for a big chunk… So, when last we looked at the fuel system…

and unfortunately, the 64 MEG RAM upgrade did NOT help the sediment bowl AT ALL
So, NOT a pretty sight….

First of all, pull the sediment bowl off the tank…

The tech manual says,
“Wash out sediment bowl and dry thoroughly whenever dirt particles are noted in the bowl”….. Hmmmmm…. MIGHT be just about time… So… How the heck do you get it OFF? Tech manual says,

“The sediment bowl is easily cleaned by closing the shut-off valve and loosening the thumb nut until the bowl can be removed…” 45 minutes, a pair of slip-joint pliers and a bunch of shots of WD-40 later… I have THIS,

and I have THIS,

So, the Tech manual talks about a strainer, but I can’t see one… Looking at the top of the sediment bowl, I see this:

Well! How the heck is this bloody thing supposed to WORK, with a big rubber flap where the strainer is supposed to be?!?!? Oh… Waitaminit….

A bit of prying reveals…

Hmmmmm…

And then I can see UNDER the screen/gum container!

Okay, out comes the scrub brushes, the scrapey knifey thing and the Simple Green!

The filter screen, after 20-30 minutes of scrubbing and scraping:

The bowl hangar, after some sanding and polishing with steel wool:

The sediment bowl top, after about an hour of scraping and scrubbing and picking with sharp implements:

The screen and top reassembled:

The whole unit back together:

And strapped back onto a scrubbed and sanded tank (sanded by hand, as there appeared to still be very small bits of gas… and LOTS of varnish… in the tank):

So, things I have to do… Find out whether the sediment bowl gasket and screen are still available and order new ones… I kept the old ones and put them back in for now (and in case they aren’t) but they aren’t the best… Also, while I don’t have a picture of it, there’s a schwack of varnish coating the bottom of the inside of the tank… What I’m TRYING right now is a mix of water, Simple Green and a handful of gravel. I’m going to let the detergent sit for a day or so, then violently agitate the tank to see if the gravel will take the varnish off… Wasn’t sure how else to do it, because I have no access to any acids or anything like that… Next step beyond that will be to prime and paint the tank… Then I buy some new gas line.

All in all, a good day’s work….

Well, I had some time tonight, as LTGal was out at a movie and we pressed Kidlet#2 into babysitting LTBabe… But I just haven’t worked up the nerve to hone the cylinder yet… So, I thought, after my adventure in tires over these past two weeks, I thought I would get motivated and try popping some tires off on my own, just for giggles… This past weekend, I went out to my dad’s plant to do some mowing for him, and while I had a bit of spare time (and the old rusty rims from Bror in the truck), I thought I’d try Team_Green’s recommendation for easily popping beads on tires… HE said, it never fails for him, take a 2 x 6, place it on the tire close up to the rim, then drive up the 2 x 6 with your truck… Sure, I thought, I can do that!

Or not…. And that was even a 2 x 8… Okay, so I had a mallet, a wrecking bar, a tire iron and a screwdriver in the truck, so I went after it for a while… DANG that’s hard work… I managed to break the bead, but not get the tire off of ONE rim… So tonight I did some shopping!

Here’s the handy set of tools from Princess Auto, along with my mallet, my trusty screwdriver and wrecking bar…

And of course, I couldn’t do it without one of THESE!

Here was the first victim-er-rim… Fresh off of the 120 I got from Team_Green last summer…

I think my favorite tool is the 12″ beater bar, just LAYING into that puppy with the mallet is VERY satisfying. I’m not really too sure WHAT to do with the other two, I used them for prying and pulling and stuff… After an hour or so, I was left with this!

One thing I’ve learned is that I’m not MAD enough to take off tires… To really RIP them off by hand (without a handy bobcat) truly takes getting some serious anger on! The second one went quicker, ’cause I was getting ornerier, and I wasn’t gonna take no guff from no tire! (of course, my aim is worse when I’m mad, I may need some advice on taking small dints outta the edges of rims now…). In no time flat (okay, 45 minutes or so, plus some cleanup of the grease) I had THESE!

So, one step closer to having the nice lugs from Greensail installed on a nice set of rims. Thanks for the awesome rims Team_Green! I’ll probably STILL sandblast them and paint them, but they’re sure prettier than the ones that were ON the tractor!