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Gotta rebuild the clutch! |
In my previous article(January–February 2010), I
was pleased to find out that the “W” Power Unit (think
“stationary engine”) brought here for me to restore
was in good internal condition. This engine started life
as as No. 111, but was shipped to Texas and was apparently
converted to the No. 113 style right off the bat. It
is being restored as a No. 113, because that’s what it
thinks it is. No sense in turning this 65-year-old warrior
into something it’s never been except at birth.
The teardown proceeded
after I finished writing the
first article. I went after the
clutch assembly, and getting
that rusty piston
unstuck. The clutch didn’t
look too bad, considering it
hasn’t been used for many
years. But the engine had
been sitting outside without
a clutch cover, and
there was plenty of winddriven
dirtpacked in it.
The counterbalance came
out fairily easy with a
puller. You have to be real
careful here, because getting
in a hurry can lead to
something getting broken.
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It only took a couple of bumps to get the
good piston out. |
It’s good to have a plate full of chocolate chip cookies
and a jug of cold milk nearby, so you can take a break
often. With the
discs out and
inspected,
there was no
doubt that
replacement
was in order.
One was
cracked; the
other was
badly worn.
Now I could
get the belt
pulley off, and
then the cover
behind the pulley. It was time to get that big piston
freed up. I had taken off the connecting rod caps and
carefully set aside the shim packs that were removed.
You have to take the time to make notes as to where the shim packs
camefrom, so
they will be put
back correctly.
Have another
cookie.
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Interesting
find… The number
one piston
and number two
piston were in
the wrong cylinders.
No. 1 was
on the pulley side and No. 2 was on the flywheel side.
It’s
not a big deal at this point, but when the set was balanced
at the factory, followed by the crankshaft and flywheelassembly, the pistons were where they were, and
marked as such, to assure the best possible static and
dynamic balance for smooth operation and long life.
They’re going back where they belong.
I took a long, soft-handled, rubber dead-blow hammer
and
pushed on the
rod of the
unrusted piston.
It had to
be tapped a
couple of
times, and the
piston came
out fairly easily.
After it was
out, I placed
the shims
(removed earlier)
in the correct order, and put the rod cap back on in
the correct location.
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How’s that for excellent babbitt!? |
A pleasant discovery… whoever worked on this
engine previously, someone since the factory, had rebabbited
the rods to like-new condition. I’d guess that
no amount of shimming could make them fit properly.
Babbitting is a operation that has to be done right, or the
rod and crankshaft journal will suffer excessive wear. Rebabbited rods
were also
available from
Deere on an
exchange
basis at a
nominal
price.
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Overall, the “bottom end” of the engine was in darn nice condition. |
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