I will ask this question here rather than burying it in my other thread. When I was dismantling my Case 188D, I needed to move the crank to get at the rod bearing nuts. I put the crank nut back on and used a breaker bar to move everything just enough to get a socket onto the bearing retainer nuts. Pistons were rusted into the sleeve bore, so really tight. I neglected to remove the nut when it all went to the machine shop and they left it there too. I'm finally back at this and can't get the nut off the end of the crank. Crank, rod and pistons are in the block. Head is still off. I'm making the assumption that the nut is regular thread, not reversed. I have a fixture made to hold the crank from turning from the flywheel end. The flywheel is still off. What are my options for getting this loose? I'm not sure if heat is an option but I do have some big cheaters once I know I'm turning it the right direction. Once the nut is off, I am read to put it all together again but don't want to screw this up now... Tinkerer, Delmer and the other well experienced guys???
Tough one. I assume you don't have a big impact or you'd have tried it already. The cheater should work as long as the engine is held solidly enough. You can usually confirm the thread by looking at the end of the nut, even if no threads are showing, you can still see the end of something that's tapered clockwise or counterclockwise. If the block is held more solid than your fixture to hold the crank, you can put the head on temporarily with enough rope or rags, or chunk of wood? in the cylinder to stop the first piston halfway.
Thanks Delmer, this has me stopped for now. My own fault as its should have been off before I sent it in. The nut has a 1/2" square hole that fits the impact, but its not up to the challenge. I have been using a breaker bar and pipe so far. The fixture holds the rotation, but with the 6' pipe on the breaker, I can rotate the whole block. I had never thought about blocking the piston with the head on... On days like this, I normally would have brought in the tractor and used the bucket as a hold down, but I think you can see my problem with this right now. If I can't come up with something by tomorrow, I'll have to call a friend down the island and actually admit that I can't do this myself. He has a large impact that would likely do the job but I'll never hear the end of it.... I appreciate your input on this and many other things on the forum.
It is a conventional RH thread,Heat will not hurt, you are going to replace the front seal anyhow
Jusk glad to hear you are getting back after it and i know what you mean about never hearing the end of it but what the heck if it works ......its when it dont work and you still have to listen to it ..........good luck ...........
Thanks Melben, I was concerned about heating the nut and thought I would try other ideas first. Once I get the block secured, I should be able to get it off. I didn't think it was tightened that much, but I'll know better for next time... I'd be buying a lot of replacement pieces if it wasn't for advice from you experienced guys. I can't see that I will be building another 188D anytime soon so want this one done right to last for another 30 yrs.
xpack, I can handle the guy down the road, by just ignoring him. When my wife asked how much longer this was going to take and when she could get her hydraulic lift table back, I have to pay attention and get on with it. I'm feeling pretty good in the last couple of weeks and am just so glad to be able to sleep all night and not be coughing any more. Its been a long couple of months.
I hear ya jusk glad your better now.........Heck just borrow the impact get the nut loose and tell the wife your waiting on the neighbor to loan you the impact :beatsme .......Just make sure you dont need to borrow anything else from the neighbor........hahahaha
In the old automotive days, we'd get a stuck crank pulley, find the socket and breaker bar, let it rest against the frame and bump the starter to spin the bolt free. All depends on the direction of the fastener and the engine rotation.
I personally would lean towards using the socket and breaker bar. I'm a little concerned the hammering of the impact would wallow out the square hole in the nut as I doubt it is hardened steel and only designed for rotating the engine while doing say a tune-up. Good Luck!
They can be a pain, out of the many i have had apart 90% were taken off with a 1/2 " air gun that puts out 450-550 ft lbs. Like melben said some heat will not hurt. The big thing is holding the crank from turning, i am stunned that the machine shop didn't leave it hand tight knowing you may have a seal kit to install. If you friend has a better air gun i would get it and move on with the project.
Its Off! Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. In the end it came off pretty easy with my old Blackhawk breaker bar and a 4ft pipe cheater. I used a shot of xpacks Deep Creep voodoo potion and then chained the block to the tractor rear wheel so it wouldn't move. Gave her a good pull and click it was loose. The threads were pretty dry and may have been part of the issue along with my having it sitting for a month while I was sick. I would have moved up to the longer cheater if needed and the rosebud, but they just got to watch. Its amazing what some good advice and a decent nights sleep will do to solve a problem. I appreciate all the input and once again the valued experience from you guys that spent a career on this type of stuff.:notworthy Stay tuned and I should have some new stuff posted soon on the Project thread and finally get back on track.
Jusk cool you got it .........i like the chained to the wheel idea seems like we must get creative when doing stuff like this and although it may not look good while doing it .....it gets the job done and no one gets hurt......... i had to come up with a few things like that when i was doing mine as well .................i remember having a eye bolt screwed into a truss and a ratchet strap to hold up the steering column ........
Xpack, The Deep Creep voodoo potion must have done the trick. I was going to put the block under the bumper of my M37 truck, but it was too low to work. The closest thing was the back half of the tractor and the wheel, so it had to do. Before, I couldn't get a good purchase and the block would move, but the back wheel, chain and a come-a-long did the trick. I recall seeing your sky hook and when I needed to lift my front axle assembly without the wheels, I improvised and used a couple of scaffold sections, steel channel and a cable come-a-long that I hadn't used in years. It let me lift the whole axle assembly and get it all scraped and scrubbed clean, ready for prime and paint. I'll use it to hold the steering column when I start the torque tube inspection in a couple of weeks. I'm wishing the overhead gantry wasn't still a pile of steel in the other shed...
Yea Jusk i have a 12" wide 24' long i beam i am installing in the new shop it will have a hand pull trolley and 2 ton electric hoist on it just for things like this ....It is very interesting to see the different ways of accomplishing the same things...... The older i get the more i try to the apply the kiss rule (keep it simple stupid) When i owned my dragline crane the old guy who told me about it said the winch cable for the boom had more strength than the lift cable for the bucket and when i had to lift one track out of the mud we chained the bucket to a big tree and started lifting with the bucket cable and when we got about 3 ft of the track out of the mud all hell broke loose as the cable busted and after repairing the busted cable we were still hooked to the tree the same way and even deeper in the mud after the 3ft drop back in the mud .....then i remembered what the old guy had told me so we tried lifting with the boom winch and it raised her right out without any problems and we threw logs,ect under the track and walked her out of there...... To this day i dont know why that worked like that as both cables have the same weight on them when lifting like this but one things for sure the old guy was right.....
I also have a M37, one tough truck! I find a 3/4" impact gun on a 1/2" air hose works pretty good on these jobs! Howard