Monty's 1978 Case 446

[Tiggie]

I've come to the conclusion that the mystery pin does not belong to this engine. Doesn't fit anywhere, and not in the parts manual, as far as I can see.

Scary. Whoever was there before hopefully didn't ruin it from being revived.

[massacre]

That is a cool tractor

[Brown_Muscle]

This is a fun/neat project. Looking forward to seeing more of your progress with it!

[packman]

Nice! At first glance, I was thinking Explorer 5.0 swap LOL

Or maybe not LOL

[monterey1962]

V8 swap you say? Hmm.

I pulled the rear main bearing cover off because I was concerned about the crankshaft journal that I had cleaned up. I don't know what to do with it, other than run it and see what happens. They sell downsized bearings, but I didn't really feel like messing with taking it to a machine shop. Hoping this doesn't bite me in the ass. Rear bearing has a few scuffs on it from when I originally test fit it before cleaning up the crank.

I was going to rebuild the carb tonight, but upon disassembly, I found what looked to be a recently rebuilt carb. Gaskets looked good and were not brittle. Everything is clean. I reassembled it, and plan to run it as is.

The mechanical fuel pump was bypassed by a previous owner. This tractor has an electric fuel pump mounted under the tractor, and a mess of wiring to go along with it. I have no idea how this mechanical pump works. Need to do some research on hooking things up.

Edit: This is a pretty good video on this carb. https://youtu.be/yaoJHdrl3kQ

[monterey1962]

The guy in that video is right, the manual does show it assembled: plate, gasket, diaphragm, pump, rubber gasket, carb. The pump on my carb is assembled in the wrong order, and has an extra gasket installed. I'm thinking I'd better pull this carb apart again and make sure everything else is properly installed.

Edit: Btw, that mystery pin looks just like the pin that holds the float in the carb.

[monterey1962]

Confirmed, the mystery pin is a carb float pin. Don't know why it was in the timing cover.

Rebuilt the carb since things were done wrong. Adjusted to specs. Installed the carb, intake, and rear coupling on the engine.

[gadget73]

in the carb, in the timing cover, same thing. Has to be in the engine, and any place is good right?

[monterey1962]

Degreased the underside of the tractor since the motor was out. Removed the electric fuel pump and wiring. Had to pull the fuel tank in order to install new 1/4" fuel line. Engine is in, and the majority of parts are assembled. Took a while to get the front belt drive clutch adjusted right.

Will try to wrap it up tomorrow and see if it runs.

[monterey1962]

It runs, but I'm not happy with it. Spent HOURS trying to figure out a "no start" situation that ended up being fairly simple. Problem was, turning the key would only get one click from the solenoid. Went through most of the wiring, cleaned connections, replaced connectors, tested voltage, etc. Fu ... cking ... HOURS. Realized I was getting power at the starter, but the starter wasn't doing anything. Pulled a heat shield, and found that the starter gear was engaged, but jammed on the flywheel. After much more time of messing with that, I finally figured out that the starter gear was too tight when locked into the flywheel. It would spin the flywheel half a turn and stop. Starter bolts are in a very bad location to access, but I managed to loosen the top bolt. That made a big difference, but starting still requires putting the pry bar in there and nudging the starter away from the block a tiny bit for it to properly spin the flywheel smoothly.

A correction on info: I kept calling this a B43G, when it's actually a B43M. Well, a B43M-GA, to be more specific.

The reason I'm not happy is because this thing is LOUD. How loud? My neighbors closed their windows after I got it driving, type of loud. Ear protection is required to run this thing, and it's not the muffler that's bad. It's the engine itself. I can't tell if the motor is going to self destruct, or if this is how it's supposed to sound. It sounds like it did when the rear main bearing was bad, but with a more "rattling" sound. Kind of like loose heat shields banging. I'm disappointed in the outcome and myself, but that's the way it is. With parts, oil, and misc. items, I've got around $400 into it.

As of now, I'm thinking about selling it, but I want to mess with it more before making a decision.

[gadget73]

that sounds awful loud but high pitch like valvetrain noise. Is the tappet clearance OK ? Wrist pins also tend to be higher pitch like that.

[monterey1962]

I forgot to check the valves to see if they were adjusted properly during assembly. Will do that when I have time, and go from there.

[monterey1962]

Pulled the heads. Could not see anything that would be an issue. Intake valves were at spec. Right side exhaust valve was too tight. Adjusted to spec. Points breaker gap was close to where it should be. Adjusted to spec. Installed the new head gaskets that came with the gasket kit.

Got too late to start it and see if there is a difference.

[sly]

It might just be an old rattle trap and be in need of rubber mounts and resonator style intake and exhaust (those T pipes that go nowhere to help drown out the noise).

[monterey1962]

Cranks, but won't start. With the exception of the three times that it fired up and ran for three seconds, then died. I'm getting spark at the plugs. Tested the coil and all seemed good. Fuel filter is full of fuel and is located about 5 inches from the fuel pump. I even tried pouring a little fuel down the carb, and it wouldn't start that way.