Wozztography
New User
After over 20 years of sitting outside, almost being sent to scrap 3 times, trying to sell it just as many, we have finally decided to restore our John Deere Model A. I'm restoring it with my father, and this is our first restoration. The tractor belonged to a family friend who has since passed, so there's a lot of sentimental value to it. It has no rear rims or tires and the front tires and rims are flat, but other than that were finding most everything else we have. Dragging it into our shop, we both had the same thought - "What the heck are we thinking?!"
Well, after about a week, we have most of the tear down complete, and I have to say I'm impressed with how easily the bolts have come out! A little PB Blaster and they spin right out. Our cylinders have some slight pitting in a few spots, but the pistons are in great shape. The rings are all free, although since we have it apart we will install new ones. The crankshaft we have yet to remove. Once we got the pistons off the crankshaft we we're able to get it spinning, but not very easily. Our guess is oil hasn't gotten to the bearings for some time and they may be worn out. We also removed the fly wheel and found one of the splines is severely rusted, so between that and the fact that we don't know how the journals are worn we may be looking at replacing the crank. The gearing in the transmission works pretty smoothly now, the PTO, Hi-Lo and all of the shifting forks move and the gears mesh smoothly.
Our only hiccup so far has been the pulley and the components related to it. We haven't been able to remove the clutch forks because of the disc that it moves is seized up pretty bad. We have tried heat and I've been soaking it with oil for 3 days but we have yet to see any movement. If anyone has some advice on how to tear down all those parts it'd be very helpful. I've included pictures at the bottom of this post so you can see what we're working with, and if there's anything else we can look for to identify the please let us know!
Well, after about a week, we have most of the tear down complete, and I have to say I'm impressed with how easily the bolts have come out! A little PB Blaster and they spin right out. Our cylinders have some slight pitting in a few spots, but the pistons are in great shape. The rings are all free, although since we have it apart we will install new ones. The crankshaft we have yet to remove. Once we got the pistons off the crankshaft we we're able to get it spinning, but not very easily. Our guess is oil hasn't gotten to the bearings for some time and they may be worn out. We also removed the fly wheel and found one of the splines is severely rusted, so between that and the fact that we don't know how the journals are worn we may be looking at replacing the crank. The gearing in the transmission works pretty smoothly now, the PTO, Hi-Lo and all of the shifting forks move and the gears mesh smoothly.
Our only hiccup so far has been the pulley and the components related to it. We haven't been able to remove the clutch forks because of the disc that it moves is seized up pretty bad. We have tried heat and I've been soaking it with oil for 3 days but we have yet to see any movement. If anyone has some advice on how to tear down all those parts it'd be very helpful. I've included pictures at the bottom of this post so you can see what we're working with, and if there's anything else we can look for to identify the please let us know!