Swapping tractor with my engine

Mechanos · Sep 2, 2012

I've been re-working and "renewing" a 955 while keeping my other running 955 in working order. Today, I finally got to the point where I'm ready to pull the engine out of the runner and put it into the "new" 955. In about an hour I had everything disconnected from the engine and the engine ready to pull except for the rear two engine mount bolts. I tell ya, those rear two bolts are a PITA to get to. Looks like I'm going to need a 14mm crows foot (which I don't have) in order to get those last two bolts out. I'll have to run into town tomorrow and pick up a set of metric crows foot wrenches to get those last two bolts out.

dfkrug · Sep 3, 2012

Hmmmm. I don't remember using any special wrenches when I removed the
motor mounts. Are you replacing them with new ones as well?

Mechanos · Sep 3, 2012

dfkrug said:
Hmmmm. I don't remember using any special wrenches when I removed the
motor mounts. Are you replacing them with new ones as well?

How did you get to the nut on the bottom of the through bolt to back it up? That nut is back in a little notch cut out of the frame so it can't be directly reached (with an extention and socket) from the bottom. I tried from several angles and couldn't even get a finger on it... let alone a wrench. The crow's foot was just ticket. The extension went right up along the frame next to the oil pan and the crow's foot offset over into the notch and engaged the nut to back it up. Had both of the rear mount bolt removed in less than 10 minutes.

Reinstalling them took a little creativity as well. I lined the inside of the crow's foot with electical tape and wedged the nut into the wrench so the nut wouldn't fall out. Then reached up between the engine and the oil pan with the crow's foot on the end of an extension to hold the nut in place as I turned the bolt from above to start the nut.

I inspected the mounts and they were in excellent shape, so I did not replace them. I did have to replace the bonded coupler between the flywheel and the driveshaft. The old one was shot and was beginning to tear around a couple of the bolt holes.

I had to remove the fuel filter bowl to get one of the rear engine mount bolts out... I couldn't believe the engine even ran with the amount of black sludge gunk built up in the filter. I couldn't figure out what it was at first. Then when I dumped out the fuel tank there was a LOT more of that black sludge in the bottom... and a fuel pick up strainer. Then it dawned on me that all that black gunk was the remnants of the fuel line that had long since fallen off the sending unit pick up tube. Appearantly, it had sat in the bottom of the tank long enough to completely break down into a black goo.

Anyhow... I got the engine removed from the "old" tractor, cleaned up a bit and mounted onto the "new" tractor's frame. Engine to trans driveshaft hooked up, fuel tank cleaned out and ready to remount, front axle cleaned up and painted. So now begins the reassembly with a new radiator and freshly repainted body panels. It's been a long time coming....

catdozer · Sep 3, 2012

Mechanos said:
Anyhow... I got the engine removed from the "old" tractor, cleaned up a bit and mounted onto the "new" tractor's frame. Engine to trans driveshaft hooked up, fuel tank cleaned out and ready to remount, front axle cleaned up and painted. So now begins the reassembly with a new radiator and freshly repainted body panels. It's been a long time coming....

Pictures? This sounds Very interesting and would go better with pictures!! And good luck with finishing the project! Are you going to fix up the "old" tractor now?

dfkrug · Sep 4, 2012

Mechanos said:
How did you get to the nut on the bottom of the through bolt to back it up? That nut is back in a little notch cut out of the frame so it can't be directly reached (with an extention and socket) from the bottom.

Well, my memory has faded a bit, but I do remember it was not too easy. I took
out the engines of 3 of the 4 955s I owned. Never owned any crow's foot wrenches.

It has been more than 6 years since I did the last one, but I believe that I
removed the rear mounts from the engine, not the frame rail. I wish I had
taken more pix back then.

As for the black sludge in the fuel tank, all of mine had that, and I think
is was algae. Now JD had a tank drain below the fuel pickup for newer
tractors.

Mechanos · Sep 4, 2012

dfkrug said:
Well, my memory has faded a bit, but I do remember it was not too easy. I took
out the engines of 3 of the 4 955s I owned. Never owned any crow's foot wrenches.

It has been more than 6 years since I did the last one, but I believe that I
removed the rear mounts from the engine, not the frame rail. I wish I had
taken more pix back then.

As for the black sludge in the fuel tank, all of mine had that, and I think
is was algae. Now JD had a tank drain below the fuel pickup for newer
tractors.

I see what you probably did... unbolted the mount from the bracket and left it bolted to the frame. I thought about doing that, but I figured I'd have a heck of a time lining up those bolts after I had the mount bolted to the frame.

Mechanos · Sep 4, 2012

catdozer said:
Pictures? This sounds Very interesting and would go better with pictures!! And good luck with finishing the project! Are you going to fix up the "old" tractor now?

Yeah, I'm a one man show when it comes to doing this kind of work and time to do these things is a precious commodity these days. As filthy and nasty as I got throughout the last couple of days, I wouldn't have gotten 1/2 the work done that I did if I would have taken the time to wipe my hands off, grab the camera and shoot a pic.

Mechanos · Sep 6, 2012

I decided to replace the exhaust pipe since it has rusted through in one spot. My 955 is one of the early models that had the exhaust pipe exit through the side engine cover panel. I guess there was some sort of issue with the exhaust exiting in that location and the installation of the loader (although I've never had any problems or that sort) so JD redesigned the pipe to exist out of the bottom rear of the engine cover panel. They don't even sell the side pipe anymore, so I had to get the new pipe and a different mounting bracket as well. I wish I'd have know that before I painted the body panels... I would have welded the hole up and body worked the panel before painting it. Oh well, I think I have an idea to repurpose that hole for something else.... but that is a post for another day.

dusty3030 · Sep 6, 2012

Mechanos said:
I decided to replace the exhaust pipe since it has rusted through in one spot. My 955 is one of the early models that had the exhaust pipe exit through the side engine cover panel. I guess there was some sort of issue with the exhaust exiting in that location and the installation of the loader (although I've never had any problems or that sort) so JD redesigned the pipe to exist out of the bottom rear of the engine cover panel. They don't even sell the side pipe anymore, so I had to get the new pipe and a different mounting bracket as well. I wish I'd have know that before I painted the body panels... I would have welded the hole up and body worked the panel before painting it. Oh well, I think I have an idea to repurpose that hole for something else.... but that is a post for another day.

Put a big fancy beer tap in it. Doesn't have to work, but everyone who see's it would try it just to be sure.

dfkrug · Sep 7, 2012

Mechanos said:
As filthy and nasty as I got throughout the last couple of days, I wouldn't have gotten 1/2 the work done that I did if I would have taken the time to wipe my hands off, grab the camera and shoot a pic.

Well, MECH, be careful.... as some say on TBN say, "if no pictures, it didn't happen."
Of course, I would never say that....

Anyway, my memory was correct. I left the rear motor mounts on the frame, as
you can see in this old photo.

Mechanos · Sep 8, 2012

"They" can say it didn't happen all they want, I can see the progress and I know its happening. LOL.

My latest gripe... I bought a new foil backed foam pad for the firewall and the foil was barely stuck to foam and half way fell off just taking the pad out of the box. I peeled the paper and stuck the foam to the firewall and used 3M spray adhesive to reattach the foil to the foam. Its stick on there now like stink on doo doo.

Mechanos · Sep 9, 2012

Lately, I've noticed a bit more than normal smoke from the crankcase breather tube. So, while I have everything clean and have easy access, I decided to pull the valve cover and check the valve lash. Spec for my engine is 0.008". All six of the valves were at 0.025". A few minutes later and all six were reset to 0.008". I'm anxious to get the tractor back together and refire to see how much of a difference it makes. IF all goes according to plans... it will be ready to fire up tomorrow.

Mechanos · Sep 10, 2012

Success! Today I put the fuel tank back in, changed the engine oil, filled the radiator, installed a new hydraulic filter and poured in 4.5 gallons of liquid gold (aka Lo-Vis Hy Guard). Then I poured some diesel in the tank, manually pumped the fuel filter bowl full of fuel with the little pump lever on the side of the fuel pump. I raised the rear of the tractor and put it on jackstands so I could test the HST (MFWD driveshaft not yet installed).

Now the moment of truth... turned the key and after a couple of cranks she sputtered a few times and then fired off. After a couple of seconds, it smoothed out and ran great. Looked it all over for leaks... there were none so I throttled it up to about 2000rpm. Forward and reverse in both high range and low range worked. Put it in 4WD and check the front output shaft, check. Moved the PTO lever to "both" and engaged the PTO lever, check... both PTO's are spinning. Checked the rockshaft operation, check. Tried the steering, check. All systems functioning and NO LEAKS!!!

At this point, I throttled it on up to 3200 (rated PTO speed for 540rpm) and let it run with the PTO engaged for about 10 minutes. My newly installed water temp gauge climbed up to 160° and leveled off. Checked the breather tube and there was no smoke... looks like the valve lash adjustment took care of the excessive blow-by. The engine sounded a heck of a lot happier too.

Now comes the tedious and detail oriented process of putting all the body panels back on.

v8only · Sep 10, 2012

nice good job, its always nice when you take it all apart and put it back together with no leaks.

Where can i find the valve lash adjustment on my 755 id like to check mine out.

Mechanos · Sep 10, 2012

v8only said:
nice good job, its always nice when you take it all apart and put it back together with no leaks.

Where can i find the valve lash adjustment on my 755 id like to check mine out.

The 755 uses the 3TNA72 doesn't it? If so it's the same... 0.008"

While overall, I like this tractor, there are some silly desgin choices that were made. You should not have to remove the fuel tank in order to gain access to back of the dash panel to change a bulb.

Mechanos · Sep 17, 2012

So close I can taste it! I went to the dealer to pick up what should have been my last order of misc. little items for this project so I could get them installed tonight. But, there was snafu with my order... the dealer's inventory showed that they had one of the parts in stock, so they didn't order that part. Turns out there was an inventory error and they did not have it. They had to order it today and it will won't be in until later this week. In my opinion, they should have placed the order as "machine down" since the error was on their part. They didn't offer to do so and I didn't press the issue.

I got everything else installed... the only thing that remains is a new rockshaft quadrant. It was dark by the time I got done tonight, but I plan to pull it out and take some pictures of it tomorrow after work. I need a photo record for what it looks like now and I need to put it to work immediately. We all know what that means... it will never again look as good as it does right now. Besides, I have already been chastized in thread for not posting any pictures... LOL

dfkrug · Sep 18, 2012

Mechanos said:
I got everything else installed... the only thing that remains is a new
rockshaft quadrant.

OK, I will bite. What is a "rockshaft quadrant"?

Glad you got it running.

Mechanos · Sep 18, 2012

That's what JD calls the plastic do-hickey that goes around the rockshaft lever and is bolted to the fender. It has the stop numbers (1, 2, 3... etc.) and has the cam lock lever stop. Dumb name in my opinion, but that's what they call it.

Mechanos · Sep 18, 2012

A little backstory...

Two years ago, I purchased this rather pathetic looking partial 955 that also came with a partial 855 parts tractor.

I was able to make a runner out of the 955 and began to use it in it's disgraceful condition while I set about locating and acquiring the pieces needed to put this 955 back together properly. Along the course of the last to years I scoured craigslist, ebay, etc. and slowly accumulated the all the parts. One of the things I bought was a 70A loader that came with another 955 that was pretty much stripped from the operator's station forward. I started going through this second 955 fixing and replacing things, painting body panels, etc. until I reached the point where I needed the engine out of the runner I'd put together. That was about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

So, I pulled the runner along side the the other frame and began tearing it down to pull it's engine. The enging was cleaned up while it was out and transferred over the other frame and I began reassmebling things. Here are the results: