The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Ok, so I have been trying to get to (its buried in a shed at the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre!) and fit my dexta engine back onto the gearbox for some months now and on Sunday, I got it done!

Thanks to the use of a forklift and a jack plus numerous wooden blocks it slotted on very well once aligned correctly.



I had already replaced the gearbox input seal and fitted new pilot and release bearings plus a new clutch and pressure plate and had to machine new bolts for the pressure plate. The clutch actuation assembly had been fully stripped and cleaned re-fitting.

So a bit of paint to get on some bits and then the fire wall, tank support plates and tank can be re-fitted.

Mark, looking good. I am soon to split my dexta and repair the clutch, the only bit im a bit wary of, is getting it back together. Is yours a double clutch, as mine is. How did you line it all up correctly?

russelm wrote:I ...had to machine new bolts for the pressure plate.

Mark,
Bet that feels good - congratulations!

Did you machine new shoulder bolts for bolting the clutch to the flywheel?

Did we ever decide whether or not it is important to have shoulder bolts rather than ordinary bolts? I have one ordinary bolt fitted - is that a problem??

I too have had to replace a shouldered clutch bolt with a stock item.
Fingers crossed when I first used it!!
Topped my neighbours paddock with HIS topper (Twose 2m wide model!) last week.
What with a sloping field and thick thatch as he hadn't cut it in a year or more it was a bit of a struggle for my Dexta with just 6 hours on the clock from a new engine.
Had to lift the topper many times to ease the load and the clutch stayed fine.
At the end of the day there wasn't any smoke from the exhaust and it never went over heated.
Started it since then and it does seem as though that 4 hours very hard work on a new engine has settled it down.
Jerry
Bath
UK

Jerry Coles wrote:Topped my neighbours paddock with HIS topper (Twose 2m wide model!) last week. What with a sloping field and thick thatch as he hadn't cut it in a year or more it was a bit of a struggle for my Dexta with just 6 hours on the clock from a new engine. Had to lift the topper many times to ease the load and the clutch stayed fine.

Hi Jerry, do you reckon a 5ft topper would be more suitable for a Dexta?

Nick wrote:Mark, looking good. I am soon to split my dexta and repair the clutch, the only bit im a bit wary of, is getting it back together. Is yours a double clutch, as mine is. How did you line it all up correctly?

Hi Nick, its only a single clutch and alignment was pretty easy, I spent plenty of time getting everything aligned by eye and ahd the engine on some greased plates which allowed me to simply slide (carefuly) the engine towards the bellhousing. I had to rotate the pto to get the splines aligned with the friction plate but then it simply slide together.

I had cleaned the locating dowels well and applied a bit of grease to them as well.

I had also spent plenty of time getting the friction plate well aligned with the pilot bearing to before fitting.

Bensdexta wrote:

russelm wrote:I ...had to machine new bolts for the pressure plate.

Mark,
Bet that feels good - congratulations!

Did you machine new shoulder bolts for bolting the clutch to the flywheel?

Did we ever decide whether or not it is important to have shoulder bolts rather than ordinary bolts? I have one ordinary bolt fitted - is that a problem??

Yes I did machine shouldered bolts.

I popped down a local fastener stockist and selected a bolt of the correct size head but was way to long (its easier to get longer botls with a plane section on them) with the plane unthreaded section of the correct diameter e.g.:



I then machined them to length and cut a fresh UNC thread on them.

russelm wrote:Yes I did machine shouldered bolts.

Is it important to have shoulder bolts rather than ordinary bolts? I have one ordinary bolt fitted - is that a problem?? [/quote]

Re Bens Topper question, a 5ft topper would have beeen better but I think it really depends on what your cutting!
A lot of thatched grass was a real struggle wheras a nice meadow/orchard would have been easier.
It was 1st and Low for quite a bit.
Cheers
Jerry

Bensdexta wrote:

russelm wrote:Yes I did machine shouldered bolts.

Is it important to have shoulder bolts rather than ordinary bolts? I have one ordinary bolt fitted - is that a problem??

I would think that a few without shoulders should be fine but, I was 4 down!

Given they are a coarse thread the clamping force is not going to be to great and I would guess that the shoulder stops rotational movement of the pressure plate. Hence a few down will be fine as the others will stop the rotational movement and the 6 in total provide a good even clamping force to stop distortion of the pressed steel plate.