A little backgound: My dad bought this tractor for me in Jan. 1979 and I was six years old. I believe the cost was $550.00 and I had to pay him back with my allowance and chores on my grandparent's farm. Looking back, I should have owed him $900.00 because the owner had a 1937 B (also on factory rounds) and we could have had them both for that price (Yeah, I know). We found out from the previous owner that in the 60's and early 70's she was a sanctioned puller and they did very well. They were also really rough with it; the front end had been snapped off, and there were welds on numerous parts. But she ran like a top and had power for days. My favorite tractor experince was spending a whole week at a friends farm and using it to plow, disk and seed a barley field. She could plow in fourth with both bottoms buried. I had painted it twice but didn't really do it any justice. So in the spring of 2005, I began work on her. It didn't begin as a 'down to the main case' restoration, but that is the hand I was dealt I guess. I was having a problem with the governor gear occaisionally knocking the key out, so after reading this forum I was enlightened about the left side cam bearing problems on the A's...simple fix I thought. While the governor was at the machinist I set out to replace the cam bearing. It was completly shot; I replaced it and noticed there was play in the right side as well. That meant the right wheel had to come off. Now I was scared. I was always afraid of that because I was worried about cracking the hub area. So I bought some Kroil and soaked the bolts and axle everyday for 2 weeks. I marked each bolt with a sharpie to make sure I knew which ones loosened and got my four foot breaker bar ready. I just about broke all of my teeth on the axle when I put all of my weight into it and the 1st bolt just turned out. In 20 mins. the wheel was off. I got the pulley off once i figured out what the square holes in the drive disk were for and removed the 1st reduction cover and was in for the first surprize. The gear was tilted at about a 25 degree angle. But I was distracted by the outer race of the cam bearing hitting the floor. The old spring on the right cam bearing had allowed the race to spin in the hole, but the only real damage was to the race NOT the hole in the case (whew). After several posts on here, I discovered that the drive gear and pinion were worn out. The sliding shaft had to come out. While waiting for my wallet to catch up with my hopes I turned to the engine. I took off all removable parts and had the block pressure tested and magged. They discovered a crack that ran the length of the top. According to my machinist, It looked to be a bad casting not a freeze crack. It didn't leak, but for peace of mind I decided to replace it. In the meantime, I have replaced the rod bushings, push rod tubes, valves, seats and springs, and started paint removal.
That pretty much gets me to the present, hope I didn't bore anyone. I'll keep you all updated as I go.
Here it is before the block came off:
Here are some broken parts:
