JD 60 Radiator Cap

Some good points posted.

My JD 60 service manual is silent on the subject of cap pressure. Or, if it says something, I haven't found it. When you consider how much more coolant there is in the 60's system versus a 320 cu. in. car, I think it's safe to say it wasn't designed to run terribly hot. Add to that a fully exposed engine for natural air cooling, and you're never going to get it to run as hot as your 327 Chevy or whatever.

Ignition timing and mixture can cause that cool running. Too rich gives you unburned gasoline which washes down the cylinder walls of lube, dilutes the oil, and covers everything in black soot on its way out. Black smoke is the big tell tale. Lean it out, it will run hotter and more efficiently. Don't get it so lean there's a lot of white smoke -- that does nasty things to exhaust valves and ultimately the whole combustion chamber.

Your '55 should have a thermostat instead of shutters. That thermostat is a booger to get to. A cheap and dirty cure for the winter is running with a plastic trash bag over part of the front screen until it comes up to temp. Meantime it sounds like you're in no danger of boiling over, so tightening down that cap isn't going to hurt anything.

Steve

The pressure meter in my left thumb says you're about right. I can compare my cap to an auto cap rated at 7 psi, and the JD cap is a lot weaker.

What you explained about your water temp and pressure makes a lot of sense. Anything is better than washing the cylinders in anti freeze.

I checked in to getting a tach for my 60 at my JD dealer this past winter (mine never had one). If memory serves, they could still get the cable for about 40 bucks or so. The tach was in the $120.00 area. Don't think they had the tach bracket anymore, so figured I'd have to pull out the tin snips and sheet metal bender for that job part of it, or start calling junk yards. The drive assembly was even bigger bucks, so I put the idea on the back burner. There's a tach on ebay now that says NOS. If it really is, and it's set to zero, might be a nifty thing to mark your rebuild.

• tach on ebay

Understand on freight. That's the nature of the beast, though, I'm afraid. You can send it by the post office and lose half of your stuff, or use UPS or FedEx to make sure it gets there. If you ship a half pound of electronics that costs 200 bucks instead of a gasket, it's not such a bad deal.

I've seen a tach picture somewhere. Just don't remember where. I'll see if I can dig it out.

I've got a JD service manual -- dealer happened to have one. What does ITT say, and what's right?

Steve

.004 is basically no gap. Even a Hoosier guy like me might catch on that ain't gonna work! The JD service manuals are a bit easier to decypher than the ITT ones. I've got an ITT manual for our 1020 JD. Never found a glaring mistake like you did, but I think I'd get a JD svc manual as well if I ever feel the urge to really dig in to it. Actually, that reminds me. I do have a spare JD service manual for a 60. It's for a standard or an orchard (forget which) so some things are a little different from our row crops, but most things are dead on. It's yours for a song if you ever need it.

I know one other guy who has a 60. I'll check him to see if he has any rebuild plans. Mine has good compression and isn't burning any oil. I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" so I'll take a pass right now.

Here's hoping we both get to put in some time on our 60's this weekend. They say it's only going to the high 80's here, so the old poppers probably won't even break a sweat.

Steve

Most guys talk about their 60's running way cool -- under 180 or so. If that's the case with yours, don't run any pressure. Why put undue stress on an old radiator, pipes, etc. I still have the old cap on mine, and wasn't aware they were offering choices. I'd choose zero.

BTW, nice picture of your 60 on the site.

Steve

That is cool, 125? My gauge starts at 140.

Anyway, couldn't remember about the cap, so went out and looked. Yes, it does have a spring. A weak one, though. It's never gotten hot enough to come close to boiling over, or lose coolant -- even at 90 degrees and working for three or four hours.

The guys at the link below have original type caps for $37.50... and your 60 looks good in every other way I can see. Might want to consider it.

Steve

• K n K antique tractors