KTA Resto Progress

Back in April I had some questions for you about my new project and many of you graciously replied. Thank You!
I promised I'd keep you updated on progress.
Its been a fun 6 mos. with some frustration coming at the end.
April 12th - trailered it home 100 miles from Clintonville.
Motor stuck, clutch lever stiff, almost no gear oil in tranny, couple valves stuck, milky oil. Plug wires junk.
Proceeded to remove the head and had it rehabbed. 8 new seats, one new guide, milled slightly.
Manifold turned out to be junk, crumbling in my hands. Had a hole from the intake to the exhaust chamber.
Cleaned and rebuilt the carb including resoldering the small hole.
Freed up the pistons - cylinder walls looked good enough.
Gas tank has crud in it, not yet removed. The baffle in there will make this a challenge. Rear small gas chamber has a rust hole but won't be using this anyway. Using a temporary tank for now until I clean the main tank.
Oil filter / pressure reg unit was chuck full of sludge and the various ports were stiff or stuck. Dismantled and cleaned, replaced 1/2 ball and replaced the felts with a cartridge.
Water pump is good but had a small pipe fitting about 3/4 dia x 1/2 lodged in the intake ring area of the impeller.
Radiator core turned out to be junk. Replaced core and had to have two cracks welded on side panels. Flat belt was shot. Now using 2 serpentines side by side.
Governor is not working at all. Yet to be addressed.
Had the magneto cleaned and adjusted. That arrow and window on the rear is awesome.
Water pump shaft repacked with graphite rope.
So after addressing the above it went back together and in early August we had it running. It started relatively easy and the clutch and tranny are working well enough. I say enough because now that the clutch collar is freed up there seems to be a lot of wear in the forks. It wants to release on its own occasionally.
After the first start I realized the radiator core issue and took my first shower in old antifreeze. Fun!
After getting the radiator fixed we did the second startup. All seemed ok. Right foot on the clutch lever to keep it from releasing. A few water drops flying backward from various spots. My second light shower in weak antifreeze.
Time to drive it the 3 miles home from the storage unit (my temporary shop) to my overcrowded barn.
Made it home and that was the goal.
Checked my nice new 3 gallons of oil upon arrival at home and it had a milky look. Ugh!
Pulled the valve cover to check head bolt torque, seemed good, (120 lbs) but......found a mess on the inside of the cover. Tan goo.
So I changed the oil, cleaned the goo, and filled her with good antifreeze and put in a new thermostat.
Next running it was going great and then the radiator overflowed once again. My third antifreeze shower. This time I was tasting it!
Then I had smoke coming from the radiator cap. Heat gun used to check various spots for temp and had 180 to 200 degrees. (Realized later I lost 1/2 of my coolant to the ground).
At this point I backed it into the barn where I'm contemplating my next step. I'm suspecting a leaking head gasket or crack in the head or block.
The confusing part about all this is it starts very easy, and runs very well. (bypassing the governor for now)
Haven't run it since finding the piece of pipe in the water pump but I'm not thinking that could cause the problems I'm seeing.
Its been an interesting journey so far to say the least.

Common for KEA KEC KEF motors to crack heads.Have 4 or 5 parts KTA's. All heads cracked. Is reason MM went to split block head setup. Odds are is not head gasket. KTA head gaskets were to be reused as low compression.

If it is the head, is it repairable?

Never tried getting repaired. I just go get another. Lots of old U
s around. Am sure with modern technology any can be repaired.

With troubles, looking good.
Tom, have you taken the clutch cover off and adjusted the clutch yet?
Good time to grease the throwout and transmission input shaft while you're in there.
Does the input shaft have a Zerk on a K?
Oh! 3/4 wrench, loosen the clip, remove the clutch access cover, rotate things until you see a small pin near the center of the clutch.
Wiggle the pin out and turn the collar a click or two clockwise. Clutch disengaged, of course.
Try the clutch again and readjust until it will stay engaged.
Hope that helps.

Update for you.
I put the water pump cover back on and took out the thermostat out.
Filled it water and it ran ok. Brought it up to temp using cardboard on the radiator. I'm going to run it this way a few more times with antifreeze. Fingers crossed.

Take a peak under the radiator cap and check as much as you can see. Check if there is any scale lying on top of your core. Any time you bring a tractor back to life after it has sat for decades the rust and lime chunks fall off the inside of the block when it is heated up. Your new radiator may have filtered these out and plugged up the flow. Whenever I redo one I always put a filter between the engine and the top hose to the radiator.

As far as the clutch, worn forks will not effect the clutch staying engaged. After the fingers lock in there should be no pressure on the fork or brass collar. Adjust the clutch as Duey has said You should feel a definite snap when you engage it and it should stay in. BUT also if it is adjusted to tight you can't push it hard enough to lock the unit together, and the lever will just fall back. Have someone work the lever while you watch the action through the side plate.
MMDEL

Yes I've seen a lot of silty rust come out
as I drain the radiator so it's definitely
doing some flushing.
The clutch has been acting normally
lately.
Assuming everything goes good from here
I'd like to find a drawbar assembly. Mine
is missing. If anyone knows of one I'd be
interested.

Nice to hear about your progress Tom. I should've asked about which oil filter cartridge you chose.
And thank you for cleaning out the oil filter housing and replacing the internal filter-pressure ball.
Del, I'd like to hear or see more about a coolant filter. Newer thought to me. Sounds neat!

This post was edited by Duey C on 11/04/2022 at 10:06 pm.

Duey; I use the large Hyd filter from under the step of a G1000. It just has a fine screen in it. Put Hose barbs on the filter and then you have to adapt hoses for size and configure to the tractor (different sizes elbows whatever) then for some place to hang or mount. Normally have to leave the hood off until the system is cleaned out. Running on a dyno helps to speed the process.
MMDEL
PS: I had a Motrac that had sat for some time and maybe mice had got into it before I bought it. Set it up with a filter, used it till it started to run hot, removed the element plugged with scale and fuzz. Did that four or five times till it stayed cool and filter stayed clean. Then put everything back like it was supposed to be.

Went with a pleated type filter from
Welters. At first I wasn't sure it would
fit but had to remove the big spring and
them it fit just fine.
Luckily the steel tube was OK. Just needed
cleaning up.

MMDEL, that's really good information and makes good sense. Thank you! Hoping others will see your method too.
Tom, that's a Henry KE5905! I wonder now if Welters gets filters from Henry or if Welters found the maker first.
Or they simply share which makes good sense. Very neat! Many, many TC/MM engines still earning their keep here and out west.
And the Piece De Resistance to me.
The threaded washer from the top of the felt-stack that also keeps the filter in place using the short housing/canister nut!
The long/taller nut doesn't need that. Very interesting to me!
Looked for that bit of simple info for two years.
The KT here has one on top of the felt-stack but the CCW 21-32/403 pleated oil filter with that washer on top smacked me in the face so I could learn.
Thank you!

This post was edited by Duey C on 11/05/2022 at 10:34 pm.

I also learned something while restoring
this assembly. (Actually learned many things) The top nut doesn't have a
great sealing system. Just that big brass
washer.
So I had bought some high tech thread tape
for a gas leak in another spot near t h e
carb. I took that tape and wrapped the
shaft of the nut kind of thick and it took
care of the oil seeping out by that nut.