Posted by David Sherman on Friday, July 04, 2003 at 4:12PM :
I know it's not Dodge, but I'm hoping somebody has a "field expedient" that will work. I'm working on my old JD diesel tractor that appears to have lost lubrication in the #1 rod bearing, causing the bearing to seize up on the journal and spin. The rods are all fine and the other rod journals are fine, but #1 has lots of bearing material stuck to it. The #1 rod and its cap look okay aside from burnt oil on them. I'm still hoping to get away with an "in-frame rebuild" (liners and rings) since it looks to be a huge project to remove the engine given that not only is the engine the main thing that attaches the front end to the transmission/rear end, but this is a backhoe setup with a separate frame built around the tractor to hold the backhoe and front-loader. I don't think I can move the front of the tractor forward enough to remove the engine without taking the loader frame apart as well. The front of the crankshaft drives the hydraulic pump.
What I'm wondering is whether there is any possible way to remove the stuck-on bearing material from the crank, or even grind the crank with it mounted in the tractor. Sandpaper? Wire wheel? Die grinder? Torch? Some fancy chemical? It's just a slow-turning naturally-aspirated diesel so maybe some marginal fix would be good enough. Of course I also have to figure out why it lost oil to begin with. Thanks for any suggestions.
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