Worst tractor engine repair mistake

A few days ago on the ford forum a guy had a 5000 that he bought smoking and finally pulled the engine down and it had std. rings in .030 cylinders. Made me think of mistakes of OTHER PEOPLE that I have run across in the years that have been working on equip.
This summer we had to overhaul the engine in our 6220 Dresser Excavator. It has a Cummins 6cyl engine. It has the the click together thrust bearing on one main bearing shell. One side had fallen off apparently when crank was being installed as it had no visible wear besides what it had rubbed against in the oil pan.
Probably the hardest to diagnose was a 233 ford diesel that someone put one of the cam bearings in
out of alignment and the internal engine balancer never got oil. It took a tooth of the crank before I figured out what the problem was.
Whats some of the tings you have run across?
Ron

I bought a 300U that the guys step son had overhauled and later left the family. Engine wouldn't turn over - acted like a stuck piston. When I took it apart the guy had put the crank shaft bearings in the wrong places (there are 3 bearings and they are not the same size). I put the bearings where they were intended to be and the crank turned fine after that.

An "overhauled" Farmall H with gasoline vales in a distillate head (stems too long) We honed the cylinders and put in new rings and found a gas head for the new vales to make a home in. It runs better now. Oh yes, it also had the wrong points in the battery ignition (rubbing block backwards) Some people should not be allowed to own wrenches.

We had a new tractor that used oil right from the first day and found one piston with no rings.Easy fix just extra labor.

We had a new tractor that used oil right from the first day and found one piston with no rings.Easy fix just extra labor.I know of a couple complete overhauls that broke on dyno.

Back in the early seventies when I was young, in a hurry and thought I knew it all I put standard crank bearings on a crank that was turned down .010. It was the engine out of a 62 Rambler Classic. It had never been apart before and it came from the factory with a crank that had turned down main bearings. I didn't even check the backside of the bearing shells nor did I Plastigage the new ones when I put it together. Got it together and it ran fine but when it warmed up the oil pressure dropped to near zero at idle. One of those lessons I learned the hard way. Jim

Bought a AC D-12 at auction, motor had a miss, figgered water in exhaust had put a rust spot, on a valve, So I had the head off, redid the valves, and the miss was still there! Turned out to be some joker at the auction had switched #2 and #3 SP wires, to try to get the price down!

Dad bought an Allis D14 once at a sale with a small mis in the engine.The said bad spark plug.The truth was a bad rod bearing.They took the cap off pushed the piston to the top and wraped a piece of leather around the crank shaft with a hose clamp to keep oil pressure.He did know the tractor had major engine problems before he bought it.

I bought a John Deere D that had the cylinders in very bad shape. I had to bore it 90 over to take care of the damage. Someone had installed the pistons upside down, so they did not get any oil. The oil holes were installed on top. Bet the fellow that had the tractor never did know why the overhaul didn't last very long.

Not me but my BIL dumped 5 K into an engine overhaul on an 826 IH German diesel. Guy at the shop called him and told him the injector pump was real close to being shot and my BIL refused to have it rebuilt. About 6 months later The governor let go and before they got the engine shut down pretty much destroyed it. BIL has made that type of error a lot more than once.

Rick

I did the same thing on a 403 IH combine. Took old bearings to machine shop so they could get the right parts. Std. bearings on a .010 crank. Got to pull engine off combine again. Course I was young and doing the work for a neighbor for extra cash. Lost my tail on that one!

Bought a JD model A that had excessive blow by when it was pulling. We tore it down thinking bad rings. Turns out it had standard pistons in 40 over block. The head had also been cracked and dial pinned back together. A new head and NOS 40 over cast iron pistons (not aluminum reproductions) and everything works great. I don't want to discuss the amount of money it costs me.

I bought a JD 4020 and realized afterwards that the wet sleve seals were leaking....new experience to me, both the tractor and the problem.

In doing the OH, the new seal kit told me which seal went on the water side and which on the oil side. You may have guessed it, previous OHer had them backwards and prematurely failed as a result.

Course had he not done that I probably wouldn't have seen the tractor on the lot for sale. Course as it turned out, that would have been OK too.

Mark

I overhauled a IH 666 years ago. I accidentally put the connecting rod bearings in wrong on one rod. So the oil hole was in the cap not the other half. Lasted about a week. I had to buy a crankshaft and a new rod out of my pocket. I always double check them ever since.

I bought a JD 3020 that had a bad engine knock. The seller said he just Had it overhauled. HE was just tired of spending money on it. I dropped the pan to see what was wrong. Someone had put one of the rod caps on a half turn off. The nuts barely would start. The piston was hitting the head on the up stroke. I reversed the rod cap and put the pan back on. The tractor ran fine. I was worried about what else they may have messed up. A close friend bought the tractor. I told all I knew about it and that I did not know how the engine would last. Well he still has the tractor and he has put over 7500 hours on it since he bought it.

When I was in trade school back in 1978 our teacher said he did that with a car he wanted to sell. He sold it that way. I wonder how long it takes until that piston makes its way down until the rod starts hitting the crankshaft

i cant think of a mistake ive made on a tractor engine but i have had to let a couple of them sit for months untill i saved up enough spare money to buy what i needed to do the job right, no worse feeling than having to tear back into a tractor that broke down when you knew what you did wasnt enough to fix the problem totally, ie putting in new bearings and not going ahead and doing rings ect while your at it

not quite in the same vein as a damaging mistake - but - my truck.

bought it real cheap because it wasn't running right - horribly in fact.

The previous owner was of the "if it don't work, put all new parts in" mentality.

He changed EVERYTHING - new sensors, new senders, new emmission controls, new exhuast, new wiring harnesses, alternator, battery, waterpump, new throttle body, plugs wires, etc etc - hell he even put a new radiator in it.

He loved the truck, and figured if he changed everything he could, eventually it'd run right.

But, he finally got to his wits end. Even his 20 year old "mechanic" buddy couldn't figure it out.

I got it home - looked it over, noticed the distributor wasn't quite tight enough - turned it a few degrees and the engine has been running like a swiss watch ever since.

I've been tempted to email him to let him know what it was that had caused him so much grief - but something tells me he'd appreciate it more if he never knew how simple it was.

When our partneship just got into swing my dad bought a 686 with the German Diesel. It was a lemon from the first week. It was a demonstrator so it had a couple hundred hours on it so we thought it would be OK. Well the batteries wouldn"t hold due to no copper in a section of the alternator wire. The harmonic balancer fell off at 200 hours. They drilled the holes for the wide front too deep and hit the oil cavity for the power steering. The sleeve o ring surfaces leaked on two sets of sleeves The pinion gear stripped off at 4000 hours. the fuel pump went nuts one year. The clutch springs broke twice causing the clutch to fail. And the best is one year when we were splitting up the partnership,my brother came down wanting to use my 706D because the shop had his tractor for a month. I told him to go back to see what happened,they should furnish a tractor. Came to find out they overhauled it due to the sleeves leaking and put it on the dyno to break it in with out putting oil in the crankcase. The insurance company wanted parts so it was on hold until they got them back.I did like that tractor for cutting hay once you got on it.The brother got rid of it before it made 5000hrs.

I didn't put the pan gaskets on correctly on a car that my wife drove and leaked/ran out of oil with in less than a 1000 miles. That was 40 years ago. Still haunts me every time I open up an engine.

Not a tractor, but the first year I was into stock car racing, I crewed on a particular car and basically spent the season learning how NOT to do things.

Someone else on the crew built an engine that ran a half dozen laps and blew. It fell upon me to tear it down. I had it upside down on an engine stand with the oil pan off. Something didn't look right. Then it dawned on me--there was no pickup tube on the oil pump. When the car was standing still, the pump was below the oil level, but throw the car into a turn in a race and the oil piled up in the right rear corner of the oil pan, away from the pump.

Later, when I had my own car and crew, whenever we had an engine opened up two guys worked together. One would do the work and the other one would double check every move he made. Caught a few mistakes that way.

uggh - brings back bad memories - but I like how you put it - "spent the first season learning how NOT to do things"

I'd add to that that the first season is also to learn that it's almost always the simple things that'll get you.

And they're also the hardest mistakes to live down.

Bought a tractor from an old boy in TX one time. He was supposed to be a good mechanic. He had overhauled this one we were told but couldn't get it to start. Long story short, I had to re-overhaul it. It had standard bearings on a crank that was turned 30k. The cylinder walls were honed or more like just scuffed with what looked like 80 grit sandpaper turned by hand, and the sleeves were siliconed in instead of being cleaned up and and new o-rings used. Would hate to see how some of his other projects went.

Years ago I was rebuilding a Chev 250 straight 6 and got a bran new torque wrench one of those clicker types. Started put it together but the torque just did not feel right to me. So I went and got a 2nd torque wrench the beam type and sure enough the new clicker type was no good so I took it back and have almost never used a clicker ever again. Still have that engine with less then 3000 mile on it but the truck it was end fell apart so pulled the engine out

I think anyone that does mechanic work has made a few mistakes in their lifetime. I know I sure have. A few years ago, I blew a head gasket on my perkins diesel. I put a rag in the intake to keep it clean, when I started taking it apart, and forget to take it out. When I finished, and started it,it ran like crap. After a short time, I saw pieces of rag comming out ot the exhaust. I am real lucky I didn't bend a rod on that mistake. Stan

I can't use my real handle cause my grandson reads this forum. I've got him convinced I don't make mistakes. I didn't over haul the engine, just changed the oil. Forgot to put the oil back in and ran it about 5 minutes. Luckily it's a one cylinder engine.

this could qualify , hit a deer with cummins dodge ,,repair shop was 40 miles away , ,, went to pik up truck , after new grill shell , radiator , headlite ,, cold friday evening ,, skeeter told me i was good to go , took off with dodge cummins ,,got on interstate ,, heat wasnt coming up rite ,, drove 18 miles ,, with temp guage finally pegging in last 5 minutes til exit with no heat ,,,. pulled up to water faucet and ferried 2 liter bottles of water one at a time , exhaust was completely clean ,that cummins was hot, after 2nd bottle started to get real hot heat, temp guage started to come off pegged !...added 2 more temp guage was down to 90 %,, added 2 more and temp was normal and heat was hot,,. ,went to auto parts store and bought 2 gallon antifreeze ,, poured at least 6 or more qts in before the cummins was full ,,.//// skeeter failed to put any liquid in colinsystem when he got nearly done ,the cummins only had residual engine fluid for coolant ,while i was adding antifreeze , massey dealer stopped by, and i told him of my adventure ,, he noticed skeeter failed to fasten top hose clamp to radiator,!!!dam skeeter!.. THE ENGINE WAS NOT HURT ,,.that was 250 thousand miles and 15 yrs ago ,the cummins is just broke in now ..skeeter was overly apologetic, ,he was short handed that day and was upset over his mother in hospital... gave me a new set of front tires and disc brakes,,. even though insisted motor seemed ok ,. and to keep his $$$.. bottomline ,, great folx arehuman, and will make mistakes when distracted , sick or rushed ,,

I did that with a 3010 john deere. It ran terrible and I was using it to grind feed when lots of red burning stuff came out the muffler.It was quite the show and the tractor started running better and better.I had used a couple of paper towls instead of a rag.

Mine is kind of insignificant, but I rebuilt a 4030 about 25 years ago in my garage. The engune was back togther, and ready to be fired up. Just add water and oil, and test fire it. Water, check. Oil, 12 qts in. Check the dipstick level. Dry???? Why is there oil all over the floor on the opposite side of the tractor??? Why is the drain plug still on the step??????????

Then when we graduated to having a professional racing engine builder do our engines, he once put one segment of a rear main seal in backwards.

No one is infallible.

I did that with a 671 Detroit in a truck. Dad let me have the privilege of putting in another new piston and liner, that I bought, on my day off. Lesson learned.
Ron

I bought a Ford 8N that had the head gasket installed with white caulking.

One of the many times I put new intake manifold gaskets on a Chevy 3.4
I put the rubber fuel lines back on the rails and forgot to tighten the clamps.
Glad it didn't take long to find that one. Could have been much worse.

When I was in high school the engines class teacher bought a VAC Case. We tore it down to check and reassemble it as a part of our grade. We found the previous owner had replaced the bottom half of one rod bearing with a piece of a leather belt! I dont know how, but it was running when he bought it. BT

Not a tractor engine, but rather a 402 (factory .030 over 396) in my buddy's '70 Chevelle. He just rebuilt it, spending $$$ for machining, balancing and stuff. He had it almost ready to drop in the car, but no cam. He came over and asked to borrow one, so I went out and looked at several on a shelf and handed him a hydraulic Crane Fireball with good streetable lift and duration. Next day he tells me got it all together, dropped it in the car, fired it up, lost all oil pressure, turned that engine into high $$$ scrap. He thought the oil pump failed. I went over, helped him pull it, took it apart, and there was nothing wrong with that oil pump. I kept going through the parts over and over and finally the problem jumped out at me. The engine was a '70, and without thinking, I handed him a cam that was pre-'69 that I bought specifically for a '68 427 street Impala I built, but decided on a different cam. Chevy changed the rear bearing oiling hole and cam journal in '69. From '65 to '68, the rear cam journal had a groove cut in it, down the center, about 1/8" wide from memory, and the bearing oil hole was about 3/16" to restrict the oil flow and maintain higher oil pressure throughout the engine. In '69, Chevy did away with the groove in the rear cam journal, but to make up for lack of oil to the face of the journal, increased the size of the oiling hole in the bearing to about 1/8". They simply reversed the two, but I have no idea why. The cams were basically interchangeable in the big blocks PROVIDED that you used the correct bearings with the correct sized oiling hole to restrict oil flow through the rear oil passage in the block to maintain proper oil pressure.

My buddy showed up and asked to borrow a cam for his '70 ('69 or newer) engine with larger oiling hole in the rear bearing that should have used a rear cam journal with no groove cut in it. Without thinking, I handed him a '68 or older design cam with a huge groove cut in the rear journal for increased oiling due to the smaller oiling hole in the rear bearing for the '68 or older engines. Maybe because they moved from the cartridge oil filter to the spin on in '68, but I knew better and just didn't think about it. So when my buddy mated that '68 or older cam with that big oiling groove with the '69 or later bearing with the bigger oiling hole, there was nothing to restrict the oil flow in the rear journal right above the pump (source) of oil flow to force the oil through and to the other passages throughout the engine block and components. No oil to the crank or rods, no oil to the cam and lifters, and that engine seized and became scrap, at whole lot of $$$ worth of scrap. The fix to use the older cam with the newer bearing, would have been to solder the oiling hole shut in the rear cam journal, then redrill it smaller at 3/16", install it and all would have been fine.

It was so long ago and I honestly don't remember if I told him or not. He didn’t punch me, which he should have, so I’m pretty sure I might not have told him. I might have though. I honestly don’t remember.

Mark

Wasn't my mistake - I bought a 1937 Farmall F-12. The oil pan was leaking to the point where we had to drain the oil so it wouldn't leak all over my friends trailer on the way home. Finally got around to taking the pan off to replace the gasket.....Except there WAS NO GASKET. Just that Blue RTV. Worthless cr^p....

First engine I rebuilt was a 292 Ford V8 in my 57 Ranchero. I added a Oiler Kit for the Rocker Arms. You had to Tap into a Allen head plug in the oil passage on to block. Didn't know there was also a water passage plug same side of block and same size plug. You guessed it, started engine and had water squirting out of the Rocker Arms

Built a 6-71 Detroit that was missing the plate that the emergency shutdown flapper seats against. Since it was nothing but a flat plate with two rectagular holes in it I used a gasket for a pattern and made one. When I test ran the engine it would idle fine but acted like it was starving for something and wouldn't go above like 1500 RPM. Checked everything I could think to check both fuel and blower related, called everyone I knew that had ever laid a hand on a Detroit and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Finally took the intake housing off the side of the blower, to make sure the flap hadn't broke, etc and tested it with the housing off. Fired it up and it ran like a top. I knew the only thing I had done was to make that plate, so that had to be causing the problem. As I stood there contemplating the situation I remembered there was another engine behind the shop that might still have the OEM plate on it so I went and checked. Sure enough there was the plate I needed. Took it off and matched it up with the plate I made. Both holes in my plate were identical in size to the OEM plate so no problem there. The only difference was the holes in mine were located about 3/4 of an inch higher than the ones on the OEM plate. I held up both plates against the blowers opening and the holes in both plates were wide open into the blower so there was no restriction caused by the different hole position, and when held against the housing with the flap there was no restriction caused by anything there either. To this day no one I've talked to can eplain why the holes just being lower would make such a significant difference in the air flow when they were exactly the same size.

In the mid 80's I worked in an auto parts store. Had a guy come in and buy points, condenser and plugs for his old ford pickup. A few days later he was back for a cap & rotor. After that, he bought plug wires, and a few days later a fuel pump. Shortly after that he came in asking about a carb kit. I walked out with him to check the tag #. When I took the lid off the air cleaner, the air filter had more dirt in it than a 40 acre farm field. Apparently every time he worked on the truck, he took the whole air cleaner can off without ever looking inside. We started his truck with the filter out, and his eyes got about six sizes bigger. He claimed it had never run that good since he got it.

We had a neighbor that had his 6030 JD in the dealer shop in town to get an engine OH a number of years back. The guy that done it put the main bearing caps on backwards and it locked up across the street on the way home. He wasn't a happy camper.

I have two stories of other peoples mistakes that worked out well for me. About 20 years ago a friend of mine shows up at my place with a 79 Camaro behind his tow truck and asks me if I want to buy it for $75. He said he picked it up from a guy because it didn't run any more. I said sure, I could always use it for parts. He drops it in my driveway and I cranked it over to have a listen and it cranked over kind of slow so I turn the distributor a little and tried again. It sound better but still didn't fire. I turned the distributor a little more and it fired right up. My friend is standing beside me and I knew he was thinking sh*t, I could have got $500 for it.

Years later I needed a car and a guy I worked with told me about an 89 Mustang with a 2.3 in it that his BIL had that he couldn't get running that he wanted to sell. I went over and had a look at it and cranked it over and had a listen. I had heard that sound before so I made a deal with the guy for $50. I called my brother to come over and when he got there I said have a look at the timing belt when I crank it over to see if it's moving. I cranked it and he said it wasn't moving. I send him over to canadian tire to grab a belt while I pulled the timing cover of and when he got back I installed the new belt and started the car. Cost me $15 for the belt and I drove the car home. The next day at work the guy that told me about the car tells me his BIL had tears in his eyes as I drove away. Turns out the guy had been trying to get the car running for over a year and could not figure out what was wrong with it.

Sorry for the long post.

Harry