halftrackinfo
general discussion => what's on your mind? => Topic started by: steve1973 on June 28, 2014, 12:43:30 AM
-
Does this saying sound familiar? Well, it is very true with most of my projects including my latest one. A few weeks ago I got my PTO back from being rebuilt so I decided to put it in. I drained the gear oil out of the transmission and removed the PTO cover plate. Two years ago I purchased a new reproduction PTO driveline at the Huntsville convention so it was time to get that out. At the PTO end the u-joint was never installed. I found out why. The yoke on the driveline was out of alignment. This is on a new driveline. I ended up getting a new one welded on and the driveline place installed a new u-joint. This all took place this week with the 4th and other activities next week. So Wednesday I got the driveline back and in place then mounted the PTO. I finished up the install Thursday then I connected the driveline to the PTO. This went smoothly BUT I can't turn the driveline due to interference with the bell housing. ??? With no time to spare I had two choices. Connect the front u-joint to the winch and call it good till I have time to figure out what to do and be careful not to engage the winch OR remove the PTO so I can remove the driveline and put the cover plate back on and call it good. For those that haven't taken one of these off before, four of the six nuts are easy to remove. The other two are a pain in the @#* to remove. I chose to hook up the winch and to be careful not to engage the winch. I do have the winch lock out plate in place. That leaves today to button everything up and fill the transmission with gear oil. That went smoothly. I went to start the engine to turn the gears in the tranny but was having difficulty keeping it running. I looked back and saw a plum of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. I stopped the engine and to realized I have a blown head gasket. ??? >:( Side note- just because Don has a blown head gasket doesn't mean I need to have one. :( My track seems to follow his lately first with a wheel cylinder and now a blown head gasket. I'm not having any fun and with my first event next Tuesday. The game plan now is to get the hood off Monday morning and get the head off so my mechanic can inspect the head and engine for damages then hopefully reinstall the head. It will be a miracle if I make the event Tuesday and even the 4th. I'm hoping things will work out but enough is enough. I will keep you all informed on how it works out.
Steve A.
-
I will keep my fingers crossed for you Steve! Best of luck.
-
Steve, I had a new pto shaft made from an original and had the same problem because the new yokes are slightly different than the originals. What I did is take a small disc grinder and carefully grind the edges on the yoke being careful not to go too deep as to get into the retainer clip groove. It now barely clears the bell housing, but it does clear.
PS a guy at the convention has head gaskets for $25 each if I remember correctly.
Steve
-
Thanks Steve for the info. I have a few extra head gaskets just for this reason. I measured my new yoke to just over 3.5 inches with the original being 3.46 inches. I will try that before making a slight relief in the bell housing. I will get to that next winter. I have to take apart my rebuilt winch as I have a leak in the front seal and my rebuilt steering box as it is now leaking. It's going to be an oily mess. ;D
Steve A.
-
Steve,
I can only imagine the joys you are experiencing with the issues you've had pop up. One of these days my track will be finished and when I start running it I'm sure I'll get to know how you're feeling. :) Don't let it discourage you….
-Tom
So has this put the brakes on your radio installation? Post up when you get everything installed.
-
Well I took one step ahead, Matt and I got the head back on and she runs great again! It didn't take too long. Note to self it doesn't say to but make sure to recheck the torque on the head after you run the engine for a while. Now I'll I have left is to fix the rear brakes and my track problem.
Steve I got your hood loose while I was in the shop All you need to do is get the one center bolt loose. Might need to hit it with a cold chisel ;)
Don G.
-
I also have experienced the pain of replacing a HT head gasket. Our recently rebuilt motor started to weep along the head / block only after a few hrs of run time. The block and head had been surfaced during the rebuild and the head gasket was new of course, also applied a coating of copper coat. Even re-torqued the head after initial start warm up. Checked with my engine guy and he suggested checking my torque wrench for accuracy. Found out that my high dollar torque wrench was way off, when set to the spec'ed 75 ftpds, my wrench was only actually doing 55 +/- ftpds. I'm religious about releasing the strain on the torque wrench after every use.
KC
-
hum, i guess i should retorq the head bolts too. Ive run my french engine a hour or so. What is the torq for the headbolts, 75?
Andy
-
I believe that is correct.
-
Well, I started Monday at 9 am with the hood removal and finished that at noon. Don was a big help getting all but one bolt loose. I spent almost an hour trying to drill it out with no luck. The bolt was too hard for my drills. I took my air chisel and split the nut in less than a minute. With that out of the way it was time to strap together the hood assembly and get it ready for lifting. I was able to get all the bolts removed but the two rear corner bolts. They were seized pretty good and didn't want to budge. In tune I couldn't get the hood loose in the rear. I broke my blade bit trying to spin the screw head. I then wire wheeled the paint off freeing that bond and one screw came loose. This wasn't the case with the other which I used a pry bar to brake the bond and the hood was free to remove.
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/DSCN1998.JPG)
After lunch I moved all the stuff overlapping the head and removed the head bolts. By 2:30 the head was off.
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/DSCN20011.JPG)
The top is a third head I used for bolt placement. The bottom head is the one I removed.
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/DSCN20022.JPG)
I took a break for an hour then met up with my mechanic Matt and started the cleaning process. I ended up putting on my spare head from my spare engine that is stored at Matt's house. It was clean and ready to install already. It's nice to have a good stash of parts handy. It save my butt and Don's on several occasions. I cleaned all the head bolt threads while Matt copper coated the head gasket and chased all the threads in the block.
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/DSCN20031.JPG)
He did inspect my cylinders before putting on the head and at first glance all that he saw I needed was new rings. Then he saw the sides of the cylinders where the engine sat for many years. The engine will either need new pistons or sleeves. The current size is .030 over. He said I should go .060 over with as bade as the walls are from rust and pitting.
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/DSCN20042.JPG)
Since this engine will be my back up to my back up I'm not to worried right now. I will get the parts needed for rebuild but not right now. So, by 7pm we had the head back on and the engine running again.
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/DSCN20051.JPG)
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/DSCN2006.JPG)
I ended up doing an oil change due to contamination in the oil and then reinstalled the hood with all new bolts. As we were putting the front bolts on I noticed the left upper corner of the radiator armor has separated. The brace that ties the left horizontal and vertical radiator armor broke at the first mounting bolt hole. Go figure. We clamped the two pieces back together and put in a loner bolt with a thick fender washer to hold it together for the time being. No off roading till this gets fixed. By 8:30 the project is complete. I made it in time for work at 11pm. Boy, am I tired. Today, Tuesday, I will be driving it to the local ball game for Military Appreciation Day then Friday is the 4th of July Parade. I should have at least 60 miles on the track by next weekend.
Steve A.
-
Nice Steve, my only issue is with the piston oversize. If you go 60 over, that might be the end of a rebuild later on unless you sleeve. Id try for a size under 60 if you can.
Andy
-
Well Steve got ahead on this one. Here's a shot of Steve's Track looking through my back door :mrgreen:
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/2156/medium/4th_of_july_1.jpg)
Don G.
-
That is a wonderful sight to see! glad you made it.
-
Steve,
Nice work getting her going for the parade. Nice view from Dons track. You guys drag race'em see which is quicker ;D.
Gary
-
We just had our clubs big get to gether at Don's place for Camp Gleason. I drove the track out to his place, 15 miles. That's the farthest I've driven my track. Since our mechanic adjusted my timing it lagged power so that needs to be addressed. Other than that it was great! we had 18 military vehicles total, 2 halftracks, 2 M37's, 1 Dodge WC flatbed truck, 2 M151's, 2 M38A1's and the rest were a mixture of WWII jeeps and early civilian jeeps painted up as military. Even Don's jeep thing had a new paint job ;). One of the trail rides was a 10 mile loop around where Don lives. We had an 18 vehicle convoy that was awsome to say the least. The only bad thing was the heat. I'm sure the temp was in the upper 90's that day. The food was great as always as was the company. I will post some photos of this on a seperat thread if interested.
OK, now for the good news/bad news. Don also had some engine problems as it seemed to be running on three cylinders so to speak. Yesterday, our mechanic went out to Don's with me to look at both of our tracks and was able to fix Don's engine problems. Don had a leaking ignition coil, wrong spark plugs and his felt seal from his carburetor air horn was sucked down into one side of the carb alowing only three good cylinders to work. Don's track runs great again. Bad news. Matt changed the plugs in my track, reset the timing and then heard the noise. I now have a low end engine knock. My engine is done and needs a rebuild. Don will trailer it out to the shop on Monday. Also, my ignition coil was bad. We robbed it to use in Don's track. I was able to catch Don on his way home to pick up a spare coil at my shop. It to was going bad but not as bad as the others. You sure can't find quality parts anymore. So, with my track down for an engine rebuild I figure it is a good time to rebuild the front half of the track so I plan to have it down for two years and hope to have it ready for the 2016 MVPA convention in California.
Steve A.
-
Steve,
To bad about your motor. You've been doing a lot of work to the halftrack. I hope you're back on the road sooner than later. As for ignition parts, I hear the same complaint from a lot of people who have vintage stuff. During the past memorial day parade a dodge wc and a halftrack died after the parade, both points.
Gary
-
Gary,
I solved the point problem and installed a Pertronix electronic ignition module. It's been over two years and no problems and is very easy to install.
Steve A.
-
I did pass that info along to them, the points that were in there looked cheap compared to the originals. I also have helped a guy restore his 69 vette and he on his third coil in about 2 years.
Gary