Bringing a 640 Back To Life (was Newcomer)

[Soundguy]

Unless there are holes or flaky rust.. I'd just clean the tank... use something like laqure thinner or acetone to do it.... they solvate MOST things you will fin in a gas tank..

New valves are cheap.. some of em even work too!

soundguy

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Uh??? you mentioned fenders.. those are in the rear... I've only see a few front mounted fenders on fords.. and most of those are english machines.

Are you refering to the HOOD and dogleg panels by chance? the HOOD is what is around the gas tank.

You are in luck.. ford only used about 350 small machine bolts to hold the various parts of the hood, nose piece, doglegs, dash, and cowl together. With a good set of stubby wrenches and stubby sockets, lots of pb oil, plenty of luck, and some trained mice.. you should have no problem disassembling an old rusty ford hood!

First.. get the grill out of the way.. now, get the hood center out of the way.. now undo the bolts that hold the hood torpedo side to the dash and lower dash cowl.. , will be a couple onthe side, a few onthe bottom, and one inthe top track where the hood center panel is... do that to both sides.. then there will be a dogleg lower fastener.. with that off, you should then be able to unbolt the nose piece from one of the hood sides.. againprobably be about 6-7 bolts to undo a single side.. all captive nuts too.. so if one starts turning.. it's a real booger of a job as you have to cut the captive shell off the nut to get at it. once that is done.. the hood torpedo and dogleg will come off as a unit on one side, and the other side will have a torpedo, and dogleg, and nose piece.. that only leaves the dash and cowl.. and youcan leave those on to get at the gas tank.

This is all still very fresh in my mind as i just had to assemble the sheet metal on my 951 back in april / may. Do yourself a favor.. when it goes back together.. rup a tap theru EVERY nut to clean am up

soundguy

Chris, when I pulled the gas tank on my 640 I left the hood whole. There are a few bolts near the dash (6 I think) and then if I recall there were only two larger bolts at the bottom of the front grill sides. I then unhooked the wire to the head lights and had my father help lift the entire hood assembly off in one piece (it isn't heavy as you know but it is ackward). I replaced the leaking hose under the tank and fixed a couple other things while the engine was in the open then put the hood back on in one piece and bolted it back together. But it was actually quite easy, not as easy as my John Deere M but still fairly easy. The only hard part was two bolts that were rusted and were in corners (under the hood but at the dash end) and they were hard to remove.

 

[Soundguy]

If I would have had a helper, I'd have also moved the sheet metal as one piece.. however.. with only a loder or gin pole as help, and alot of shiney new paint.. i was worried about scratches and chips. I was also worried about fit. My 951 was originally a propane machine, and someone added what apepars to be an 800 gas tank to it with homade brackets. As i feared.. the brackets interfered witht he sheet metal, so i had to rework the brackets a lil.. was a trial and error kind of thing to get it all fit good.. but it came out nice. I AM glad I rad a tap thru every captive nut, and ran a die over all the hardware... ford put so many darn fasteners in that sheet metal between the hood hose and sides, and the rear at the dash, and along the cowl... heaven knows they'll never 'blow off'.. much different than the n with a couple dogleg bolts, and dash bolts and poof.. hood is off.. progress i guess!

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

Well... finally, the gas tank was pulled, cleaned and replaced.

It's running well and I will be putting it to work shortly!

 

[Soundguy]

good job.

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

I've noticed a little smoke coming out of the valve cover breather. Is this a
normal thing? None from the exhaust.

Maybe it's just all the ATF burning off in the cylinders from the soaking.

I ran it a good 15 minutes and it still was smoking a bit...

 

[Soundguy]

A lil smoke from the valve cover on a well used engine is no big deal... No smoke comes out of my tail pipe on my 850.. but some does thru the valve cover... no biggie..

If it really bother you.. you can rig up a poor mans egr/pcv setup...

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

No biggie for me...

I wonder if I could run a hotter plug. The 216's I have in now are coming
out a little wet...

 

[Soundguy]

Fore sure.. 216 crosses to a H10 champion plug.. IE.. oem heat range. Most ford owners are running an autolite 437 or champion H12.. really does help.

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

Fore sure.. 216 crosses to a H10 champion plug.. IE.. oem heat range. Most ford owners are running an autolite 437 or champion H12.. really does help.

soundguy

Thanks man... I knew you would have the right part #'s... I'll put a set in.

 

[Soundguy]

Good luck.. post back if you continue to have a problem with it.

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

Well, back to the tractor after the holiday get together and football marathon...

It fired right up, but the clutch seems to be frozen- no gear engagement.
just grind. I should have used the clutch while I had the gas tank out. I guess
I left it too long.

Any easy tricks to break that sucker free?

Maybe just adjust it out a little more?

 

[Soundguy]

No.. don't adjust it.

Block it for a ouple days then come back and check it.. many time sthe extended blocking makes it release.

If not there are a few tricks.

1, hookup a pto load like a mower.. block clutch, engage pto.. bump starter over a few times.. sometimes the extra load onthe pto pops it free.

2, similar setup.. put tractor in high gear.. like 4th or rev.. bump engine over a few times with thumb starter ( no ignition ).. with clutch blocked down.. again.. extra load sometimes pops it loose.

3, push tractor out to safe area to drive.. block clutch.. start tractor in 1st gear, drive in tight figure8's and stomp the brake pedal on the outside of the turns.

Once you get her unstuck, slip the clutch like taking off in 4th gear a bit. if you notice she gets sticky from setting again.. plan on blocking the clutch when not in use.. i have a 2n and an 850 that always needs the clutch blocked... and others that NEVER have the clutch blocked.

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

you ARE the man... will try when I get home from work...

thanks

 

[Soundguy]

post back if ya run into any problems.

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

Would someone post up a picture of the orientation of the distro cap and the
plug wires?

I want to make sure all the ignition looks right.

It's running a little rough and I want to rule out spark...

thanks...

 

[Soundguy]

Posting a pic of a stock setup may be useless to do that as your distrib may have been removed and reinstalled out of time, and the owner moved the wires around the cap and then timed it up.

Make sure your fire order is 1-2-4-3 CW.. #1 is at the front of the tractor.

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

that's true...


I'll check if the distro cap has a #1 marker on it and from there...

 

[Soundguy]

Don't rely on a #1 marker on the cap.. As long as the rotor points at the wire that goes to the 1st spark plug on the compressions stoke as #1 piston approaches tdc.. then that location will work, and you run the other plugs from there..

that's why i said a pic of the distrib can be misleading..

a thumb test is the quick and dirty way to check on #1 coming up on compression stroke..

soundguy

 

[tderrick]

**** .... I hate that test....