Having been laid off in November, I decided to re-arrange the barn to start cleaning up the '67 112 I bought from fellow member @dmarchelle a couple of years ago. The tractor ran but was little hard starting, variator not responsive, and needed a good going over and repaint. The steering wheel is got cracks so I'll have to research on how to fix that. The steering wheel cap is intact but the clear plastic is got spider web cracks through out.
This is shortly after I bought it & the 140 from him.
I started dis-assembly last night and tonight. Got the seat, fenders, grille, hood supports, gas tank off. Been taking pictures as I go & bagging and tagging smaller parts (mostly bolts/nuts/washers at this point). This is after I cleaned up and moved tractors to create room to work.
Here SN plate. I have most of the tear down pictures on my phone and once that charges I will post them.
This will most likely be a long term project as I have picked up some off the books work during the day, but have more time in the evenings to spend on it especially to keep out of the wife's hair.
One thing I never noticed was that the tie rods are not adjustable as on the SFs. Just seemed weird.
I will post as I go so as to document the clean-up.
John I'm glad to see it's getting some love. All my RF 112's seem to be hard starting. They just seem to want to crank a while before they fire. I have just accepted it as the nature of the machine. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
Maybe cause it's the starter/generator? Never had one before so am not familiar with them. I found a place that can go over and rebuild it if needed up in Bullville, NY.
Mods, thank you for moving to correct forum. Had a senior moment when I started it in gear drive section.
Got steering wheel off with bearing puller. Couple of turns and it popped right off. Sprayed with PB blaster last couple days so that may have helped.
Question.....is dash tower welded to frame? Right side has clip with bolt to frame. Left side has tab that appears to be welded to frame and tower. See pictures.
Looked at parts diagram and there should be 4 tabs on pedestal that go thru frame and bolt from underneath. Will verify what I have later today when I do more teardown.
Got engine out and steering column. Also removed variator from pedestal. Next up is variator and brake and lift linkage under frame. Will need to take a bunch of pictures for that. Picture before steering column came out.
The engine shouldn't need much work. It ran fine and no smoke, so I'll probably just pull the head, decarbon and put new head gasket, clean breather, carb clean, etc. and repaint. It'll keep me occupied til weather warms up to paint.
Did some more disassembling tonight. Tie rods, steering knuckle(?), and lift arm. Do have a question regarding the lift tube. I think it is pressed/slide in to the cast piece. I don't see any threads to be screwed in and it has a set screw. Can anyone confirm my suspicions? The variator tube screwed in, but lift tube does not appear to be so.
I tried turning with pipe wrench but it was not budging as you can see in the picture.
After soaking with PB and throwing some heat on it, the lift handle tube came out.
Now to read up on service manual for best way to pull variator and brake guts out from underneath.
It pulled out. It was held in place with set screw. You can see the set screw hole in picture I posted. The variator handle tube was threaded and screwed into the cast base. Why JD did it two different ways is beyond me, but they must have had a reason.
No updates, sorry. Been busy with handyman stuff, the wife's birthday this past weekend and reno work on the homestead. Hopefully get back to it this weekend.
It's been awhile, but was able today to finish tear down. Friends wanted to go golf but I haven't touched the 112 since I last posted so I declined.
Boy there's va lot of stuff underneath. Took lots of pictures for future reference. Everything off from under neath.
Tranny unhooked. Looks lonely all by itself.
Frame sitting waiting for clean up. Gonna be a lot of sanding.
Last pile of parts to go thru and clean.
Satisfying to get it all apart but still have long road ahead, cleaning, sanding, painting, and rebuilding things that need it.
Cleaned some of the parts and started to take the variator apart. Even going by SM instructions it really did not go as planned. Instead of the outside sheave coming lose,bthe one nearest the arm did. So had to use puller to get arm off. Then got sheave and inner sheave off. Now have to figure how to get the other outer one off. Applied some heat, Blaster to both sides then put in baggie and stuck in freezer overnight. Will give it a try again tomorrow.
Not sure about the sheaves and whether they will be salvageable. I'm not going to be using this 112 for heavy duty work. Probably just pulling a cart at most. They are quite rusted and pitted.
Took wire wheel and then 120 grit then 320 grit paper to one. Looks a lot better but can still see pitting on it.
Next to other one in original condition.
There is also some pitting on slide sleeve. Nothing major in my opinion, but I'm no expert.
Expert advice welcome. Should I bother going any further with clean up or find a good one if I can?
Wow. This makes me appreciate my survivor 110 RF even more John. Mine looks its age but no rust to speak of and it's in pretty decent mechanical shape. I could mow with it if I wanted. But I must admit I'd have more fun with it if it was like yours and needed lots of help. A successful rescue is the juice for many guys here at WFM. My dear old dad rarely bought an antique engine that was already saved by somebody else. The joy for him was hunting them down and bringing them back to life. Doesn't matter if it's a JD or a hit and miss engine. It's the exact same fun.
Keep up the good work! Will be interesting to follow along.
Thanks Army.
The 112 did run and moved under its own power before the tear down. The variator didn't work but I figured it just needed new belts.
I'm gonna try cleaning the one sheave up more tonight and will post progress.
Cleaned up the sheaves before dinner. A tremendous improvement but still pitted. I talked with my local JD guru. He said that might work.
I couldn't get the other outside sheave off, so cleaned it the way it was.
I'm gonna pick up some dry graphite and put it back together for now.
Took the SN plate off tonight and sure enough, there was a number behind it. Just like others that have restored theirs like @woodpecker41.
Number is no where near SN. Only thing I can maybe guess is it's a '67 and number 860 off the line.
SN for reference.
Gonna be taking some 0000 steel wool and gently clean the tarnish off the aluminum area being careful not take off the black portion.
I don’t think that your guess is anywhere near right. My ‘66 110 had 31144 written behind the tag. I’m thinking it’s just a build number. Something that ties it to a build sheet before it gets serialized.
Since it was raining and really couldn't clean parts outside, I decided to see different methods worked best for getting rid of rust and paint.
I started with air powered abrasive tool that my son has. Only have small compressor in the barn and it worked well but pad gummed up rather quickly and compressor couldn't keep up. Plus it was tough in corners and tight spots.
Next I tried my orbital sander with 60 grit paper. Worked well on completely flat surface and outside corners but no where else.
Finally was wire wheel on drill. Cleaned loose stuff well and got rust off but not to bare metal.
Friend has sand blaster for the frame and bigger really rusty parts but don't want to tie up his machine and time for everything.
Any other suggestions?
Here's s picture of seat. Upper back was done with abrasive tool. Seat was done with wire wheel. Didn't use orbital on this as it really didn't work.
Took @wachuko advice and used the big compressor. Also got some coarse abrasive disks when I was out yesterday. Did a much better job. Also used wire wheel to get into tight spots.
The reinforcement plate on bottom of seat was pretty rusted and half gone, so removed it and will tack on a new piece. We got some plate laying around to use.
There were only 4 tack welds holding it in place and didn't take much with cut off wheel and air chisel to pop it off. Took some picture with tape to layout holes for new one.
Got one coat of primer on to protect till new piece is on. Will put second on I about 1/2 hour.
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