Not really a "Car" project...

[Low-Tech Redneck]

Well, the engine has succesfully been removed and loaded into the van for transport to the local machine shop on Monday for a hot-tanking, valve job and re-sleeving of the cylinders.

Took the crank in last week and they had to take .40 off the mains to true it up, but otherwise, it's reusable. Camshaft will be checked for out-of-round and we've ordered a new timing gear when we found hairline cracks starting to form in some of the teeth of the old one.

While they're doing that for us, we're working on the front steering/suspention which has worn very badly after 60 years of use.

The front king-pin assembly that the front axle pivots on has to be pressed out and replaced, both tie rods have to be replaced (they're big suckers too, about 3 and a half feet long) and the radius rods also have to be re-sleeved and re-pinned as the factory connections have long since worn out.

Took out the clutch, and it's hosed, ordered a new pressure plate and clutch, and cleaned up the old flywheel to reuse, it needs a new ring gear, the old one is missing/has mangled several teeth, so one of those is on the way

We're replacing the radiator with a new one, the old one was the factory one that looked to have been soldered shut at least a dozen times in a dozen places over the years, so no sense in trying to save it.

As part of the conversion to 12 volt, we cut all the old wires out and removed all the old guages and what was left of the 6v generator and regulator systems and will also be fixing the stock starter switch which conked out decades ago and had been clumsily bypassed with a key switch, which also conked out after several more years, (last few years whenever we needed to start it, we started it with a small length of wire and alligator clips.)

We also removed the old battery tray to use as a pattern to make a new one, as this one has succumbed to battery acid leeching out and rusted nearly away.

New carbureator rebuild kit is on standby in a box, it's a simple little one-barrel gravity fed deal that has only a handful of parts, refreshingly simple for once.

The big problem now is just all the grinding/sanding to get rid of the grease and 3 layers of old paint, 2 layers of red and a 3rd layer of pink that USED to be red.

I'm going to pony up and buy a new hood/headlight wing assembly and new rear fenders rather than try to clean up the corroded originals, don't tell Dad, It's a surprise

[Low-Tech Redneck]

Well, good news bad news....

Bad news, the head is cracked and two of the cylinders are cracked, the good news is, they can be welded shut, the crack in the head is fairly small (1'' long) and the cracked cylinders can be remedied with more bore and thicker sleeves (thank goodness for a sleeved engine)

The shop says that the magnuflux shows that both cracks are in the middle of the cylinders and don't extend the entire length of the wall, so they're pretty confident it's fixable, and for what it's worth, they couldn't have been that bad, as when we drained the oil there was no evidence that there was coolant and oil mixing, so none of the cracks were deep enough to get into a water jacket.

The downside is that it's going to probably set us back a month, so we'll have to find other stuff to fix in the meantime.

I'll probably take the PTO pump assembly out this weekend (it's under the seat) and take the rear tires off as the brakes are shot, I should really get some pictures up.

[kc_beck]

Yes, yes you should.

[Low-Tech Redneck]

Looks kinda funny with no front end....



For those of you who've never seen a flathead engine, well, here it is. Just got it back from the machine shop at the start of the month. There was a crack in the top of the head that they welded back shut for us, and a crack in the block around the #3 cylinder which they were able to bore out and install thicker sleeves over (the stock ones were already pretty big, .090's in fact. These are even larger.







There's only 3 pistons installed right now because I got, ahem, a bit too rough with one of the piston rings on install and kinda, snapped it, so we had to order a new set for that last one.... ok, so we aren't all perfect

We'll also have to braze this hole shut right above the starter mount. Seems like someone once upon a time closed it up with JB weld or something like that, due to all the dirt/grease that collected here, we weren't even aware there was a hole here until the machine shop cleaned the block for us. Probably was a casting artifact like a bubble or something that simply couldn't be detected by 1950's era QC on the assembly line, and at some point in the 60 years since, the weakened section finally gave way.... we'll close it back up.



The "cluprit" for the dead cylinder, the block, and the sleeve, were in less than stellar shape in that area

[angryrobots]

f'n awesome. what are the plans for the rest of the tractor?

[Low-Tech Redneck]

The major thing we're doing is switching from a 6v to a 12v system. And since that requires gutting the wiring, we're going to replace all the gauges (they'd long since stopped working anyway) and get the starter working again (it has a push-button start, but it hasn't worked for years either)

Dad wants to clean up all the sheet metal (fenders, cowl, hood) but they're so rotten with rust, I'm going to get replacements (and they do make them)

We need to rebuild the PTO pump and get new seals, the entire PTO assembly under the rear seat leaks badly out the back and out the rear axle shafts, where the fluid has gotten into the brake drums and pretty much destroyed them by saturating the brake pads in oil to the point they've turned to mush.

All the major suspension parts (pins/bushings) are being replaced

And finally, we need to get new rear wheel rims. Those tires have calcium chloride in them to prevent the ballast inside from icing up in the winter, and over the years, some of that has leeched out and caused the rims to rust out, but, only the "ring" part needs replaced, the main "dish" part is still good.

When it's all said and done, it's going to go back to work for another 60 years

[angryrobots]

oh i have no doubt you can buy anything for it, theres a million of 'em out there. my uncle has an old ford.

[Low-Tech Redneck]

The total production figures are something like half a million, for just the 8N, the 2N, 9N and NAA models (which were all similar, but different) sold several thousand more, and I'd wager most of them are still around either as museum/collector pieces, or still working. That cast iron body is impervious to almost anything short of being sunk in a lake....

The 8N's only failing was as farms got larger, they didn't have the top speed to work larger acreages effeciently, but, they still are tough enough, reliable enough, and simple enough that even 60 years on, they can still do the job they were intended for on smaller farms or just a small chunk of personal land like my family has. It's really amazing to think that the original descendant of the 8N was first designed in 1939.