Just wanted to report my great day yesterday. I was getting frustrated that the Cub had been taking a back seat to other projects around my house, so I decided to take a Cub-related day off of work and devote my time to getting MerlinCub back together.
For those of you who weren't familiar with what I was doing, I made the mistake of TAKING THE HOOD OFF" of the tractor...
Actually, I knew that the head was cracked and poorly brazed on my tractor, so I had decided to fix that. He has been in my shop with the head off since late August and was calling my name!!
Well, yesterday, it was time to attack!
First, I had to deal with the manifold to which the exhaust pipe was welded. No problem...took out the handy-dandy angle grinder and cut off the old pipe and ground off the weld. Got the stump of the pipe out of the manifold using the how-to tip on the forum. The threads on the manifold were really crappy, so I used an old 1" pipe that I had sitting around as a tap using Rick (whatever the flavor of the day name is) Dulas' tip. Then I put a new (used) 1' pipe back in the manifold...that was ready to go.
Next, time to double check the inside of the engine for cleanliness and get the new head on. I purchased the head from my good friend David Bennett a while back, and it was just longing to get put back on the engine. When I insured that the inside of the cylinders and valve chambers were clean, I went to work getting the head on. Well, I can tell you that it was a success. Used CopperKote on the gasket and on the head bolts, and brought each one up to 25# torque first (in the order that it says in the manual) then I brought it up to 35#...then to 45#. Didn't strip a single bolt! Boy was that fun!!
Next, it was time to attack the lower bolster. The pipe plug that was in the bottom was corroded and had gotten stuck YEARS ago. Well, some poor soul had rounded off the square head on it, and it was pretty buggered up. When I was splitting the tractor this summer, I had to drain the water, so I took a saw and cut the rounded off head off of the plug. I used a drill to drill out the center of the plug and get the coolant out of the tractor. I left the plug in for the time being when I disassembled it, so it was now time to get it out for good and get a new plug in there. I tried EVERYTHING to get this out and was the biggest pain of all the projects I did yesterday. Finally, I drilled a couple of smaller holes in the plug around the bigger one that I did originally. Using the smaller holes I drilled and an old worn out screw driver, I tapped on the plug, and YIPPE... It busted right out of the hole. The threads were surprisingly in very good shape!!
Then to get the reconditioned Mag on the tractor and time it. I made sure that my engine was at TDC, and the governor was in the correct position. Made sure that my tower was pointing to the #1 tower (it was!), and put it on. I followed the advice of may posters in the forum from the past, and feel pretty strongly that I have it timed right...
Well, then it was time to get him back on all four feet. That took a little bit of work when you are by yourself to get everything lined up with the jack underneath the tractor and handling the front end. All in all, though, it went smoothly.
I wanted to try to get him started one time before I had to quit for the day, but found out "DOH" the battery was dead. I don't have a hand crank and I was a little leery of kick-back anyhow, so I didn't try to start him. This was the only disappointing thing of the day. I really REALLY wanted to end the day with him running again.
Sorry this is so long, but I needed to share my giddiness with my fellow forum members. This is the first time I have EVER been inside an engine on my own, and I was really nervous about doing this. Some jobs were a PITA, and others were much easier. All in all, I am proud of what I have done so far...NOW to get him started...
I am sure that I will have some questions once I can get to cranking MerlinCub again soon! I can't wait to hear him run again! I am going to have to take another Cub day off work sometime in the future. It was good for the soul!
Mike in La Crosse, WI
