Newbie with a need for help

First off, I'm a Ford guy (Ford 8N), but I need JD help.

I have a neighbor that bought a house and acreage. It came with a JD Model M tractor in pieces in the barn. I think it is a 1950 but I haven't checked the serial number yet. The tractor was in the process of being rebuilt when the PO got a divorce. It has sat for over a year. The new owner asked me to help him put it back together. It seems that most if not all of the parts are there and in good shape. The JD M is greatly different than my 8N. I have found an on-line parts manual, but I need a manual that shows me where all the parts go and torque and tolerance specs. If possible I would like a free online version so we can work it tomorrow some more.

The problem we have is the crank won't turn when everything is torqued down. It has new pistons and rods. I found one of the pistons in backward and the rod cap on the other was on backwards. I haven't checked the back of the rod bearings to see if they are undersize. The main bearings are stamped .0010 us. I assume the crank was turned also, but I don't know. I plan to get plastigauge tomorrow and check the clearances. My question on the main bearing cap is do the little cleat (the little bump in the bearing) on the cap go on the same side as the cleat in the block or opposite. I have tried the cap both ways and it is still too tight to turn over, even with a 12 volt directly to the starter.

It's frustrating not knowing what has been done so far!

Any help would be great!

Thanks,
Danny

Your best bet would be to pull it back down and start from scratch. That way you know it's right. There should be marks of some type on all the caps and bosses so you can match them up correctly. Might be dots, lines or numbers. Mains torque at 140 ft lbs & rods torque at 55 to 60 ft lbs. There is no free tech manual online. The parts manual can be downloaded free from jdparts.com. It will show where the parts go. BTW - The crank alway's comes first and is torqued and checked with plastigauge before pistons are dropped in.

Just guessing that he probably got oversized bearings n didn't get around to having the crank ground also the bumps go to the distributor side I think but u better check the book to make sure

Thanks for the responses. I'm going to plastigauge all the bearings first. I might get lucky and find something with the clearances. If that fails I have about decided to take the engine back apart, get the crank mic'ed, get rods sized and try to determine which way the main bearings caps fit.

Thanks again,
Danny