The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

I'm pretty far along in the tear-down of my '59 Dexta. Last week I began disassembling the hydraulic lift cover. Things were going well, until I came up against removing the lift arms from the cross-shaft:



The right lift arm came off fairly easily. But the left one is really stuck. Over the past week, I've been spraying the parts with PB Blaster, and today, I used MAPP gas and a puller, so far with no success.



Any thoughts? Is this one of those situations that just require more time and patience for the solvents to work? A bigger puller? More heat?

Thanks for any advice.

Don

You are doing all the right things Don, plenty of heat and keep pulling!

Get a metal pipe. I've got one 3 or 4 feet long I use for extra lever action. You can double or tipple the amount of force you can apply that way. Just put the pipe on the bar that you use to move the puller around.

Just be careful if you use a 3 or 4 foot bar on your 3 legged puller as Ian suggests. How strong is your puller,and where are you going to be if it breaks?Is there any possibilty that the lift arm has twisted on the shaft splines? TSG.

It can be difficult - ask Stefan
http://www.fordson-dexta.de/501255938c0 ... index.html
Happy New Year

Ben,
I was just going to scroll down and give him the very same information you did, well done!
I hope his will come off and he won't have to do what Stefan had to do.

Mark wrote:I hope his will come off and he won't have to do what Stefan had to do.

I'm unclear whether Stefan was able to salvage his lift arm, perhaps by welding it up? I suspect he had to get another lift arm. Perhaps I should ask him?

A hydraulic puller as shown in the link will give you many times the force and are getting very cheap now. I have a tolledo set which cost NZD250 (100 pounds). You may be able to get a local engineering shop with one to help you for much less than that.

Just dont use heat around them as they have seals inside which melt.

http://www.tridon.com.au/Products/Produ ... 12&P=68728

Ben,
I'm pretty sure he got another one off of Hartmut Linder, his breaker.

pjjms wrote:
Just dont use heat around them as they have seals inside which melt.

pjjms,
I was curious as to what part seals would play in a set of pullers. Unless they have sealed lubricants in them of some kind I can't think of a reason.

Mark,
In the hydraulic puller the center bolt is replaced with a hydraulic unit. This whole unit screws in just like the bolt, but when it's hand tight a smaller center bolt is tightened. This drives a small piston down inside the unit forcing the small amount of oil inside to act on a larger piston, which then pushes on the shaft you are removing the arm from in this instance. This gives the same hydraulic advantage you get with car brakes vs the old cable brakes. I think the page the link refers to says 10 tons.

They have about 50mls of oil and a couple of seals inside so don't like heat. Having said that they can be re kitted for just a few dollars. (I had a fitter in the workshop who melted the seals in ours twice before he got the message)

After many hours of frustration with manual pullers we only use hydraulic pullers at work now.

On a related issue we gave up using anti seize and now use Res-Q-Steel. Works great in the harsh enviroment of a timber mill, and now doubt in avoiding this very problem as well.

pjjms,
If I had of did a little reading I would have understood what you were talking about. I've never seen a puller like that before. When you said "Hydraulics" my mind went to a "Porta power." Looks like a great tool.

pjjms wrote:On a related issue we gave up using anti seize and now use Res-Q-Steel. Works great in the harsh enviroment of a timber mill, and now doubt in avoiding this very problem as well.

Res-Q-Steel doesn't seem to be available in UK. Perhaps it goes by another name?

The brand is International.

Distributed in the UK by the following...

http://www.international-marine.com/con ... egion=EMEA

pjjms wrote:The brand is International. Distributed in the UK by the following...http://www.international-marine.com/con ... egion=EMEA

http://www.international-marine.com/Pro ... eng+A4.pdf says it's only available in Aus & New Zealand. I wonder why

IMHO
Just a small suggestion but have you tried re-positioning the puller legs? Sometimes a slight shift can change the angle of pull and might get a result.
Also using two hammers on opposite sides can also shock a tight joint.
Also have you tried knocking it on further first? It may sound daft but you may achieve a tiny bit of movement which can then be 'worked' back and forward.
Jerry

Thanks for the tips, Jerry.

I'm still fighting this thing, but will try moving the jaws and double-hammer tricks. In the meantime, it is still soaking in PB Blaster. I wish I had one of those hydraulic pullers mentioned earlier.

I frequent another site for my Ford N-tractors: www.ntractorclub.com, and read a recent post where a 100-ton press was used to push out the cross-shaft. He mentioned that when the thing actually "popped," it sounded and felt like a small earthquake. I may give up before that! We have enough earthquakes in California without me triggering another one.

Don (a former Rotarian)

Nice site Don,
They gave you some good advice. I liked the one about heating it up tightening it, put more pb blaster on it and wait. Bout the only thing you can do if you don't have that 100 lb press.

I would turn that thing upside down and spray the other side with some blaster as well. I'm a firm believer in pb blaster. Jerry had a good idea about trying to knock it back on a bit, if you can ever get it to brake loose just a little bit one way or the other you can get the blaster to work better. Let us know how you get along.

Have you tried heat then pouring on cold water? Never fails with rusted bolts etc. But might be wise to experiment by using only a bit of water to start with. It would be a disaster to crack the arm from thermal stresses
All the best,

Pouring cold water on works very well on bolts and nuts, but I would be very reluctant to use it near cast parts. I suspect you will quickly turn one casting into two.

Thanks, PJJMS.

I had the same reservations. I am multi-tasking, now - doing some painting on my Ford 8N rims, cleaning up the Dexta rims, and thinking about removing the Dexta's pistons to check for ring and bearing wear. In the meantime, the lift cover is still being soaked with PB Blaster. It may not give, but I sure don't want to make a tough situation even tougher.

Don

[quote="ddoan"]Thanks, PJJMS.

I , and thinking about removing the Dexta's pistons to check for ring and bearing wear.

Don't know how your engine was running, but think that if you pull the pistons , you have to hone the bores and fit new rings.
Usually the top groove is worn. Fitted a chrome top piston ring of a BMW car in my Dexta, Size 90x 2 mm which required some filing to obtain correct ring gap (dexta bore is =+/- 89mm. Note: had cylinder ridge removed otherwise new top piston ring will strike the ridge causing trouble. If the engine was a good runner with low oil consumption I would leave the pistons in there bores.
Bearings is different, they are cheap and easy to change apart from the axials , they don't fit from a standard Perkins set.

Thanks, Jan.

I've decided to leave the motor alone, for now. Your post confirms that. As dirty as this tractor was on the outside, it shows remarkably little wear on the inside. Even the foot pedals show little wear.

Once I get it back together and run it for a while, I'll know better what needs to be done. The tractor wasn't running when I got it, so it's hard to diagnose all he problems until I can start it.

Yesterday I took the rear wheels apart: rims, center discs, and weights. Boy, those weights are something else. Check them out in my photo journal - you will see them towards the end of the album.

Don


http://picasaweb.google.com/tractorNstu ... estoration#

That's an impressive rebuild. Keep up the excellent work

really nice photos