The LittleTractor Blog

Gentle tapping with the persuading mallet will get the pulley to slide about 1/4″ along the shaft, but I can’t seem to get it any further… Got it to the point where I can fit a pry-bar behind  the pulley (between the crankcase and the pulley) and try to do some leveraging, but that doesn’t seem to go anywhere… It will slide back and forth (with assistance) about a quarter inch… Sooo… loading the set-screw hole with PB Blaster and breaking for lunch seems in order…  Then after lunch, I think I’ll cut some wedges outta 2×4 and pound one (gently) into either side of the space behind the pulley and see what that does…  Makes me feel better to NOT be wacking the pulley with the persuading mallet, ’cause I’ve seem a couple recently that are cracked…

Wow, that was a pain! Had to use a flywheel puller (which meant buying one…) a rubber mallet and lots of PB Blaster ( a penetrating spray). Lots if good advice from the tractor forum folks again…

Next up, the drive pulley!

So, tonight LTGal let me go out and play tractors again… She EVEN let me go SHOPPING!… Off to Princess Auto to pick up a valve spring compressor…

Of course, while I was THERE (unsupervised, bwa ha ha!)… How could I pass up on THIS, for sale 1/3 off

or THIS, on sale half off…

Whew! WRONG night for ME to go shopping! 

Of course, once I got home I HAD to try out the valve spring compressor…
So, here’s the intake valve….

Pretty bad, huh? Well, there was nothing in the service manual that said DON’T try to clean the valves up, so out came the trusty sanding block again! (which by now is wearing down to a really smooth finishing tool)

And just so you don’t think I ignored IT, here’s the exhaust valve…


Not as much crud on it, but I don’t have any pics of it cleaned up yet as my camera batteries went dead…

So, as usual, loyal readers, I have some questions!

1. Have I botched the valves by scrubbing them clean? I wouldn’t THINK so, as I don’t think a fine sand would take THAT much metal off… and I certainly wouldn’t want to put them back in as grubby as they were. AND the service manual says to clean the carbon off the stem, head and face with a wire brush…

2. NOW I see what you all meant when you said my el-cheapo measuring tools wouldn’t be up to the task (although they got even cheaper, as I got a price reduction from Princess Auto tonight on them)… They both LOOK like they still have a good margin, but I can’t get a good measure on them… Should I drop them back in, or should I be picking up a different set of valves (BillTheTractorMan, I’ve still got your valves in mind if I’ve botched these ones…)?

3. So, if I don’t have a spring compression tester, what other ways do I have for testing the strength of the springs?

4. Do ya have to lap the valve seats every time you do something like pull the valves and clean them? Or is that only when you replace the valves or seats? Like, should I just be able to (once I have the intake and the exhaust de-rusted) drop these valves back IN and off I go?

5.  I’m figuring I should be concentrating especially on the intake valve for cleaning up, since THAT’S where the carbon buildup is going to cause problems with premature detonation… Am I off-base with this thought?

Next step, the flywheel! But first I gotta get a 1 1/16 impact socket… Not so easy, as I found out tonight at Princess Auto!

Oh PS… I also got a lot more degreasing done on the cooling fins tonight… Took out my grandfather’s beat up old penknife from forever ago (its been kicking around in my toolbox doing nothing for years) and used it to do some VERY productive (in so many ways) scraping of the cooling fins and the other hard-to-reach with a cloth areas…  By the time I get this engine all back together, it’ll be squeaky clean! :fing32:

Here’s Bror’s cylinder head after a light cleaning some weeks ago

Here it is after today’s work

So, not much work getting done on Bror this weekend , as Littletractorgal pulled 3 evening shifts (Fri, Sat, Sun) and so the rest of our time is either running around trying to get essentials done (recycling, garbage, lawn mowing, housecleaning etc) or me taking care of LTBabe…. BUT I did get some time sitting reviewing the service manual for the 112 in the car (waiting in the parking spot for LTGal and LTBabe), and I noticed a pattern… damage to the cylinder head – cause number 1, dirty cooling fins… Damage to the piston – one possible cause, dirty cooling fins… Damage to the valves, possible cause, dirty cooling fins…. Hmmmmm…. Based on how much crud there was/still is built up on the cooling fins, guess I SHOULD be focussing on getting the exterior of this engine squeaky clean!

So, one of the OTHER things they mention in the manual for before you remove the piston from the cylinder is “Remove carbon and ridge from top of cylinder bore with ridge reamer.” and they have this pic of a spiffy crank-like tool, the ridge reamer… Despite sounding like a cool tool to have, I wonder if there some OTHER way to do this? They give dire warnings about damage to the piston occurring if you DON’T….  What do people do if they DON’T have a ridge reamer, I wonder?