Posted by Gordon Maney on Monday, August 11, 2003 at 1:35PM :
In Reply to: Freeing up stuck flatheads, help needed! posted by Eric B. on Monday, August 11, 2003 at 12:21PM :
Buy a gallon of penetrating oil, the kind of container used to fill hand operated spray bottles. Remove all the spark plugs, pour about half a cup of penetrant in each cylinder. Go away for a few days.
Then raise one rear wheel off the ground and support the axle housing with a stand. Put the transmission in top (direct) gear. You will be able to rotate that rear wheel back and forth through a range of motion, resulting from the lash in the drive train. Turn it back and forth fairly hard, using the wheel like a heavy flywheel, banging it against the end of its range of motion. It works really great on old tractors, since the wheels are so heavy.
This works much better than a starter, and, using the starter runs the risk of damaging the starter and the ring gear.
If it does not free it soon, let it sit for a few more days. If you can’t get it then, remove the head, use some fine sandpaper and clean all the cylinders above the pistons. Most likely it is the rust above the piston that is stopping you, not anything between the piston and the cylinder. If you have heavy rust there, freeing it in the hope you will make it a runner is probably a waste of time and energy.
After cleaning the cylinders thoroughly with sandpaper, apply penetrant again, let some more time elapse. Then go to work with that rear wheel again….
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