TO-20, Remove crankshaft without splitting???

I bought a TO-20 for parts (particularly the crankshaft) for fixing up another one. I'm having a devil of a time trying to get the engine split from the tranny. It looks as if the tractor was parked in a swamp for the last 30 years. The clutch assembly is very rusted and siezed. After much prying, pounding, wedging etc., I managed to seperate the engine and tranny about half to three quarters of an inch. It won't budge any further. I took the starter switch plate off so I could look (and pound with a rod) down inside the clutch housing. I can wobble the engine and watch the flywheel/clutch assembly move while the throwout bearing stays solid with the tranny shaft. So for my questions:

Is there anything mechanically in the clutch housing that could have broke in such a way as to prevent the engine from seperating from the tranny? In other words, am I for sure just fighting rust or could there be something else?

Is it possible to lift the engine block off the crankshaft without disconnecting the flywheel from the crankshaft?

Is there anything I can do to allow the tranny output shaft to slide out of the tranny and allow me to seperate the engine with the tranny shaft attached to the clutch?

Are there any other tricks (besides dynamite - yet) to seperating the engine? I'm afraid I might break the engine block if I keep pounding wedges down in there.

Thanks much,
Mike

Mike

It finally dawned on me too (like Jim) that I should remove the steering box. That opened up a hole big enough to do some more pounding. I tried to get (some) of the clutch bolts off but could only see three of the six. All three bolt heads were rusted round so a wrench wouldn't work on them. I ended up cutting all six bolt heads off later with a cold chisel.

Anyway, removing the steering box opened up a hole just big enough to get a bottle jack sideways in there between the tranny casting and the clutch. It still wasn't easy and took several attempts and several different sized steel blocks (because the jack would only move about 2 inches laying on its side) but it finally came off.

Also, I should point out that this tractor probably wasn't parked in a swamp like I first thought. The entire bell housing was packed full (and I mean right full) of mouse droppings/grain/nesting/mud etc. Someone made an access hole when they took the starter switch off and mounted it to the battery holder (presumably because the starter rod from the tranny broke). It really stunk in there. I really believe that mouse urine causes more damaging rust than regular water does. So don't leave any mouse holes in equipment left in the field...

Thanks again for all the help & suggestions! Now I can finally get back to work on my original tractor...

Mike

• Mouse Nest

Watch out from fire inside the housing.

Roger in Iowa

I still wonder if there might be something besides rust because of how much I am able to wobble the motor. With the weight of the motor hanging from my shop crane, I can push it from side to side quite easily by hand. When I do this, I can get about an inch of seperation (between motor and clutch housing) on one side of the motor before the other side touches and vice versa. I doesn't seem like there should be that much side to side motion if the shaft was still engaging the clutch. At least when assembling the motor to the tranny, I seem to remember having to get them aligned fairly straight before they would slide together.

I'll try some WD-40 in there. I don't know if I can get it down in far enough to do any good though. I wish I could seal the whole clutch housing up enough to fill with diesel and let it sit but it would just drain out from under the flywheel. I'm going to push my pride aside for a moment and confess that I shoved the garden hose down the starter switch hole and let it flush for about half an hour with water. I didn't see how I could do any more water damage. I hoped the water would soften the rust up enough to let me break it free. All it did was make a huge mess in my driveway. Which reminds me, I should open the tranny drain plug and let any water out that went by the shaft seal...

So, is there no hope at all of undoing all the bearing caps from the crankshaft and lifting the whole block off the crankshaft? The rear crank seal housing can be unbolted from the block from inside to allow the block to be lifted away but I don't remember how the front of the crank fits into the block - through a hole in the block or can the bearing housing be undone like the back?

Thanks for the interest and I sure welcome any more insights/ideas.

Mike