1943 B rocker oiling issue

Nxslt1

Member
Just got it running last weekend and have ran and driven it 2 or 3 hours. When turning it over by hand I heard squeaking under the valve cover so I pulled the cover to make sure it's oiling. It is but the only thing with oil on them is the exhaust rockers and springs. The intake rockers and spring are bone dry as is everything else. I don't know how much pressure there should be up there on the valve train but it's getting a good amount of oil but only on the exhaust rockers and springs. It's quite noisy when running also. The rest of the valve train will not last long like this. It's holding 15-20 psi oil pressure. Any ideas or suggestions to get it to oil the entire valve train?
 
If you are getting good oil to the exh. it should let some get to the intake.
Whatever you do DO NOT drill extra holes to drip onto the intake or else it will suck it into the engine pretty bad.

Might try and put some extra oil on them for now and then go work it.
 
They do not receive solid continuous delivery of oil pressure. There is a port or flat spot on the oil pump shaft that allows only a momentary "pulse" of oil pressure to the rocker oiling tube each revolution of the shaft. That tube tees out to the exhaust valves & dribbles on them. Intake rockers are only oiled by being there in the mayhem as oil splatters, runs, drips, dribbles, creeps & spatters from the drip oiled exhaust valve and their rockers. You MAY (if you look closely) find oil holes in the cross tube above the intakes that are deliberately soldered shut! Deere was determined to not deliver oil to the intake valves and given the age and number of operating hours these tractors have accumulated, it may not be so bad an idea as believed. Yes I too was concerned when I first discovered that same thing some 50 years ago. But that particular tractor is still out there still working for a living! In my instance it was a post war long hood A and what I'd THOUGHT was a squeak turned out to be just a bit of "ringing" (almost like wind chimes) of those long tubular push rods clattering as they did their job and they're still at it.

Hope that helps ease yer fears a bit.
 
See if you can get the exhaust drippers to land right on the valve spring retainer and that way maybe it will launch it as more better splatter. I drilled mine for the intake and turned her into an oil burning furnace, as stated you'll be soldering them holes shut again if you make them. Should have been shot with oil can squirts before you put the cover on and be sure to do that now. Then keep checking as this is the way they are meant to be.
 
This does not ease my fears at all because I don't see how any valve train is gonna last without any oil getting to it. Everything but the exhaust rockers and springs is bone dry after running 2-3 hours. What I hear is squeaking not ringing. That's why I took the valve cover off and turned it over by hand. It is definitely the valve train squeaking. So are yall saying even a pinhole over the intake rockers is too much? I'm talking about a .040 drill bit.

This will probably be seen as sacrilegious on here but I'm beginning to not like the John deere. Lol The carb is being whacky after taking it apart twice. The first day I had it running it would start with two turns of the flywheel and now it almost refuses to start without lots of cussing. My F30 is so much easier to work with.
 
Not a sacrilegious offense, you can do it as you see fit. BUT you will be soldering the holes back up after she burns two quarts a day for you and the blue smoke is always there. Put some oil on it for now to get the squeaking to stop and break it in. You should be running it without the cover on to visually ascertain what exactly happens with the exhaust drippers and where the oil lands exactly. It may be that the oil runs to the outside ends of the tube and for the most part misses even the exhaust which would be the entire problem right there.
 
As I said I had the valve cover off and it's getting a good amount of oil directly on the exhaust rockers and that's it. After 2-3 hours of running you would think it would have already gotten oil on everything else.

I'm gonna take the cover back off and see what can be done to fix this issue because I'm not gonna run it with no oil getting on most of the valvetrain. I wonder if anybody has ever attempted to put valve seals on one of these.
 
If you're worried about it. Take your shaft apart and grease the rocker arms. Under a heavy work load your intake valves get lubricated by the oil mist in the valve cover.
 
(quoted from post at 20:07:04 11/02/17) If you're worried about it. Take your shaft apart and grease the rocker arms. Under a heavy work load your intake valves get lubricated by the oil mist in the valve cover.

Explain how a heavy load will make it oil the valve train more. I'm new to John deere so I don't understand that.

Took the valve cover off again tonight just to have a look. Still bone dry except the exhaust rockers and there has been no oil splash anywhere. The only oil in the valve cover itself is a small trail in the very bottom running back to the crankcase.

I've got a video of the squeaking I'll post in a little bit.
 

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