B oil mystery

My 38 B shows good oil pressure on the gauge, but oil is not getting to the governor gears or tappets at the front of the engine. When I run the engine, both are totally dry.
I"ve checked the obvious: the tube running from the governor to the tappet cover, the oil trough inside the governor, and the oil tubes and plumbing inside the crankcase. All seems to be in order, but obviously, something is plugged, broken, or disconnected. You would think if oil is getting to the oil pressure gauge which is screwed into the governor housing that oil would be getting to the governor gears, but it"s not.
Before I start tearing this beast apart, can anyone give me an idea of where to focus my efforts?
 
There is a small hole in the casting behind the oil pressure gauge that sprays oil onto the governor gears then the oil that splashed off of them gets caught in the little oil cup in the gov housing that feeds the tappet oiler line. This small hole gets plugged up.
 
Another guy told me something similar - that I could stick a long wire through the oil pressure gauge hole and un-plug the small oil passage. With that information, I unscrewed the oil pressure gauge and used a wire and strong light w/mirror to probe the hole and look inside. No luck.......the oil pressure gauge hole goes back about 1 inch and then curves upward preventing any straight wire from going through. My governor is stock and original with the tractor. Am I missing something?
 

I agree, I haven't had this problem either but I'm going to keep checking this post to find out a cure just in case I run into the same issue some day.
 
The hole is very small and hard to find sometimes. I used a cutting torch tip cleaner to open mine
 
The curve upward in yours seems to be the deal breaker as I've never seen that, only ones I've seen, the oil galley behind the gauge ends with a tapered hole sort of like a funnel, NOT the standard cast or even drilled blind hole bottom, and at the apex of the funnel is the teeny oiling hole. They plug up with crud only because they are so small to begin with and do need roto-rooting every decade or so in my opinion. Full shop air pressure on the oil gauge fitting for a good long while might be enough to blow it clear - it's usually very soft goo in the hole. After several minutes of 100 PSI and no pop, hiss, you might try to screw a grease gun hose onto the 1/8 NPT pipe threads at the oil gauge fitting and pump away at a goodly rate in hopes of pushing the crud out of the hole if air pressure isn't enough. Flush the grease out with air pressure, then run it a while and see if there is any improvement? Otherwise, it's got to come apart. At least the governor shaft has to come out so you can go in that hole with mirrors and good reflected sunlight to see if you can find where it comes out at and attack it from the front side. IIRC, if one can drop the governor lever rod downward you can fish the gear past it and get the whole shaft out that way, not much fun putting it back in there either, but it sure beats pulling the steering shaft, fuel tank, fan shaft or the radiator approach and then the governor case itself. Once you find the hole at the top of the upward curved section cast into your case, you might consider drilling your own custom access hole to it and plug it with a pipe plug? Might get lucky just questimating and drill to it if that seems more doable than the removing governor shaft approach to you. Paint the pipe plug green and maybe nobody will notice it?
 
The governor on this tractor looks stock and original, but now I'm suspicious since the pressure gauge hole is different. From reading all the posts, I'm pretty convinced the problem lies within the governor and will focus my efforts there. I hadn't thought of blowing compressed air through the pressure gauge hole and will definitely try that first. If air and grease fail, I'll take a good long look at the governor and pull it off if I have to. Thanks for your input!
 
I have been watching this thread also, my governor was dry and not working. I took the flywheel side cover off and everything seems OK but dry. I removed the oil pressure gauge and tried a coat hanger with no luck. Then used a marker flag wire and sure enough I found the hole and was able to poke through it. Hope this takes care of the issue. Will dump a gallon of diesel fuel in the crank case and put on a new filter, drag it around in gear for a bit and drain it, put a new filter and oil. Won't know for sure until the mag comes back.
 
I can explain why my governor is different. I was looking at my parts manual and discovered that JD changed the governors on the unstyled B late in the 1937 model year. My 38' B has governor case B1102R which is correct for the late unstyled B's, and all B's which were built before late 1937 have governor case B269R.
I blew compressed air through the oil pressure gauge hole and heard gurgling in the main crankcase.......which I hope is good. I plan to drain the engine oil and pour a gallon of diesel in the crankcase and then pull the tractor around in high gear to try and clean things out a little. If this fails, I'll be pulling the governor off.
 
I had the same problem with my unstyled AR. I posted looking for help and was told to use a small wire and put a 90 degree bend in the end because the hole is inside the oil pressure gauge hole but goes to the left. Not straight in as I thought. I did this and found the hole. It was plugged.
 

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