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At some point in the past something similar has been done to my 49 8N. You telling this makes me wonder if the issue with mine was caused the same way. My block has been broken badly, and welded back, by an excellent welder and craftsman. You can't even really tell it when the tractor is all together. Just from the way it was broken I assumed that they had let all of the bottom bell housing bolts work loose and fall out, causing the tractor to essentially break in half. It broke from below the starter hole, across it and on around to the other side of the tractor. I weld, but not on cast iron much... Whoever did this weld was simply awesome at it. I have to assume that they preheated the block to over 600� to lay the bead on it as perfect as he did. So I won't tell you it can't be welded back to perfection. When I need to repair cast iron, most of the time I braze it. All my life I have used an old broom handle cut off to about 8" or 10" with a taper ground on the end of it for a clutch alignment tool. Folks tell me this can't be done properly with that, but I have used it for 30 years on many cars, trucks, and tractors, and have never had a problem with it being lined up close enough for the pilot to slip right in.
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