Vintage Tractor Engineer

Hello,
I was very impressed by your web site, I hope you may be able to help.   I have just bought a little grey who’s owner told that it had always been kept inside - he owned it, his father before him ect ect, he told me that he had a minor problem with the starter motor.I have removed the starter, which from the outside looks as if it has recently been re furbished.  I had a local repair company look at the starter and they told me that it was full of oil, and because there is a fault in the engine somewhere the same thing would occur if I repair the starter and re install it.

Can you tell me what the problem might be, and if it is a big or small job to repair. I forgot to mention that the model of the tractor is a TEF 20. Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks, DM

VTE replies….

If there are no visible external oil leaks, then the only way the oil can get into the starter is from the flywheel housing. Oil can enter the flywheel housing from either the engine shaft seal or the gearbox seal.

Any leaks into the flywheel housing should drip out of the drain hole in the bottom of the flywheel/clutch housing. This drain hole should have a split pin in it - this is supposed to vibrate about and keep the hole clean. Sometimes the whole gets bunged up with dirt, leading to a build up of oil in the flywheel housing - which then gets flicked into the starter motor when the engine is running. The oil often gets onto the clutch as well and so can require clutch replacement.

Therefore, the first thing to do is make sure the drain hole is not bunged up. The leak from the seals could be very small, and may have accumulated for over 50 years! If either of the seals need replacing, you will need to split the tractor to access the problem.

One of our readers (Don) has sent in some info about his 1958 TO35. Don’s father bought the tractor back in 1964 and in 1978 (11,000 hours) the engine was pulled down for a rebuild. The crankshaft and bearings were all still good after these engine hours, but one of the liners was broken and the pistons and rings were worn.

Don was worked in the toolmaker’s shop and was able to manufacture a new liner from a piece of 4340 heat treated steel. It was interesting to see what had happened by 2007 when the engine was dissmantled again. The first photo below is the liner that was manufactured form the 4340 steel, and the second photo is one of the original cast iron liners.

 

The 4340 liner had worn .005″ in comparison to .001″ for the original liner. Clearly the piston and the steel sleeve hadn’t gone well together. The self-machined liner had kept the TO35 going for another 30 years at little cost, so well done Don. It is great to hear the story and see what had happened inside the engine.

Here we can see the big end shells that were replaced in 1978 using the original unground crankshaft.