Farmall H Crankshaft removal

Well hello again everyone!
I have taken the motor off of the tractor as everyone has suggested. I am one step away from taking the main bearing caps off.

In order to remove the crankshaft from the motor, I have to unbolt the connecting rods.. right? I have one piston almost top dead center that I cant get to. Should I just take the bearing caps off and try to tap the piston (likely frozen) down until I can get to the bolt? What about the other two pistons which I have the bolts off of (probably also frozen?

If anyone wants / needs a picture to better explain, just ask.

yes the rods have to removed first. get a piece of round hard wood like birch or oak that just fit the bore. then you get a post mall and give them a good smack downward. but it is best to hone all the rust on the top of the piston bore and blow it all out with air. beacause then once loose you will be driving them up and out. but ya a picture would have been nice to know what condition the bores are in. i dont know what u have dont or what u are using to loosen the pistons. if you said u are using a 2 lb. ball peen with some wood well u are beat before starting. dont be scared to hammer on them pistons. also i take it they will not be reused so go to town with all your might.

My intention was to save a bit of cash and reuse the pistons if possible. I dont mind buying rings though.

You will find that you will probably need new sleeve or two & they will come with pistons as a set. If some of your pistons are stuck tight undoubtedly the sleeves are rusted beyond repair. It is possible to get individual sleeve and piston sets. We overhauled a SM a couple of years ago that we put in only 1 sleeve and piston set. It's still running just fine. It didn't even need new rings in the other 3. Whoever worked on it before we got it screwed up the head gasket so it leaked water into #3 piston & it rusted that one up tight.

I bought a non running MF with a Perkins diesel. It had a piston rusted so tight it took a lot of pounding to get it out. It was pitted real bad after honing it still had some pits. I put a set of rings on it. The motor still runs fine. No smoke. Like you I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a tractor I new nothing about. It's nice to have everything shinny new, but sometimes it doesn't work out. Stan

An H may have cast iron pistons or aluminum. If the piston is stuck really tight the sleeve will come out. Maybe if you only damaged one piston/sleeve you can get a used set for that hole. A lot of people get a sleeve set and change all four and if they are like me they can't bear to scrape a sleeve and piston set.

With the block on the floor you just doubled your problem of getting the piston to move since you need a couple mains in to hold the crank off the floor when you do move that piston. At this point I would just try a universal socket to get the bolts loose and then you could remove the crank with the rod where it is. No I don't mean a universal and a socket. A universal socket,where the socket is the universal. Much shorter and would probably be in 3/8 drive. Might be able to get on the rod nut with it. The reason you doubled the work is the block will be siding all over the floor when you hit that piston with a wood block until you set it up on the bottom of the block. Otherwise just take the block and crank in and let them get it apart now. Suck it up and just put the sleeves in it now .You don't want to go back and do all this again in a few short years. You can spin rods and mains in after it is running if you want to skimp for now. Sleeves will cost probably 4-500 and bearings another probably 3-400 now with the main seals. The head work if you do it is not much if you have it done then more like about another 5. So you have about 2,000 in an engine that will out last you now.