1947 John Deere B engine repair

[Larry2809c]

The Model B was at idle and running fine, when I notice blue smoke coming from the exhaust, and I thought it was just some oil burning off in the cylinders as the tractor had set for a while. Continued to let it idle and soon it was making a grinding sound...I turned the engine off immediately. When I tried to turn the flywheel by hand, I can feel a drag and a grinding sound. I think the flywheel side main bearing died.

If this is the case, how difficult is it to tear down the engine and maybe pull the crank?

Thanks

 

[bigboreG]

Not bad. Take top cover off, remove rod caps and slide pistons forward. Unscrew oil lines to crank. Remove clutch, right brake, reduction cover and associated parts. Be sure not to lose cam spring that sits behind cover. Cut the wires on main bearing housing cap srews. Remove cap screws and pull housing with bearing off. Remove flywheel cover, flywheel and cap srews for main bearing housing. Now would be a good time to check cam bearings. Remove the crank out of the right side of tractor. Now you have it out. Undersize bearings are available through JD or most auto parts stores. I would suggest taking the crank to a machine shop to check for out of round . Hope this helps.