Rotating Ring Gear

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Kind of sleepy, so not sure this will make since to you, but piston only fires every other round, and if you look at crank throws, they are 2 up and 2 down, so only 2 places where the engine stops.

[Jim Becker]

One cylinder fires every 180 degrees of crankshaft rotation. So for each piston, there is another one that fires exactly 360 degrees later (back to the same crankshaft orientaiton). Either of those two pistons coming up on compression would stop the crankshaft in the same position. The other two cylinders would tend to stop the crankshaft 180 degrees away.

[Dan England]

Thanks, John and Jim. I now understand why there are two, rather than four, areas of worn teeth. Dan

[Dan England]

Chemotherapy treatments tend to sap my energy level for a few days and that has been true following the most recent session. However, I am feeling almost human today and want to get back on the Pony project. Both the clutch and flywheel have been removed, I have rotated the ring gear on the flywheel, have ordered a tool to align the splines and it should arrive tomorrow. I had hoped to bolt the clutch to the flywheel then install the combined unit on the engine. But it now appears that I must first bolt the flywheel to the engine, then attach and align the clutch unit to the flywheel. Is this the correct sequence? My next question: I removed the clutch from the flywheel and laid it aside. I have made no adjustments of any type to the clutch. Since the clutch functioned properly before removal and since there has been no adjustments during or following removal, I should only need to bolt it back on the flywheel and it should function properly without any adjustment. Is this correct? As always, thanks for your advice. It is appreciated. Dan

[Bigdog]

Dan - I believe you should be OK on your clutch adjustment. However, if you have the specs it will be a good time to double check the adjustment.
Your sequence sounds correct too.

[Eugene]

Flywheel is mounted first, then the clutch disk and pressure plate. You won't be able to get to the flywheel mounting bolts with the clutch disk in place.

If you can easily access the flywheel and the pressure plate with the engine mounted. Center the disk in the pressure plate on the pilot shaft hole. Do not fully tighten down the pressure plate. Leave just enough tension so that the clutch disk can be moved with a bit of pressure. Mount the engine to the torque tube. When assembled, tighten down the pressure plate. This way you don't need a clutch disk alignment tool.

[Dan England]

I installed the flywheel and clutch (using an alignment tool) a few days ago. I was able to work the oil pan back in position and get it installed. But when we slide the motor to the torque tube we hit a brick wall about one and one-quarter inch short of bringing the two components together. I have rotated the flywheel slightly many times in an attempt to move that last inch or so but have never gotten past this point. I believe that the problem must be a failure to get the splines of the pressure plate to mesh with those of the drive shaft. We reached a point of frustration and decided to shut down for today. I welcome your suggestions. Dan

[Ike]

Dan,

Does it have a pto? If it does, you should be able to engage the pto and use the pto to turn the drive shaft while you are trying to align the drive shaft and clutch.

Ike

[Dan England]

Ike: It does have a PTO. However, I haven't yet installed the radiator so I have used the crank pulley, as well as turning the flywheel, in my attempts to mesh the splines. I have been thinking about possible reasons why they won't mesh and I may have identified the problem. While I had the motor and torque tube apart, I noticed that the front of the drive shaft set quite low in the tube. I can grasp the drive shaft and move it up and down. I am now thinking that the anterior tip of the drive shaft contacts the clutch below, rather than at the level of the splines of the pressure plate. If so, how can I raise the tip so that it meets the clutch at the proper height to enter the pressure plate? Dan

[Dan England]

I installed a pulley on the PTO and went that route to match splines. Gives finer degree of control, and it took only a few minutes to put them back together. Now to trace down an electrical problem and when that is solved I should be ready to go. Thanks for advice from each of you. Dan

[BigBill]

I'm a little late with info but it may help others in the future.

When i was building the CNC lathes we would put the inner bearing races / ring gear in the oven to expand the ID bores and put the outer bearing races / flywheel in the fridge to compress the OD dimention. Then we would assemble the two mating parts.

Being an ex-auto/jeep/truck mechanic i seen many flywheels in my day. Some ring gears were just pressed on with nothing else holding them. While others would have tac welds in maybe 6 places to hold them on and stop them from slipping on the flywheel. I figure welding 4 places on my int154 flywheel will work ok.

If you have a ring gear or any other gear that you can't replace that needs new teeth you can weld new teeth on by using Certanium Alloys & Research Company welding rod for welding new gear teeth on. This company offers welding rod for every application.