Foton Tie Down points - Transporting

[affordable]

When you get ready for any parts give us a call ,I have alot of Foton parts ,steering wheel,ect. The Fujian Lijia engine is also used in the Jinma 454 tractors,and I now have a good source in China for Foton parts.About 6- months ago I was offered a used FT404 like yours with a blown engine for parts,it had everything you needed for body parts .Deals like this come up from time to time.If you ever need to talk directly to me just tell any of my guy's to find me,leave your number and I will call you right back.
I also own a Plumbing and site utility company ,so I'm not at the shop all the time

Tommy
Affordable Tractor Sales
"Your Jinma Parts Superstore"
www.affordabletractorsalesco.com

[roy697]

It would be nice if I could find a whole tractor for parts. The cost of restoring this to factory a piece at a time would not be practical, how ever I just need a functional tractor that would be safe to operate.
Have any of you silver soldered a banjo fitting? (That much heat might damage the finish & make it start rusting.)

[Rich Waugh]

Roy,

I've silver soldered a lot of various fitting for use in hydraulics, fuel lines, plumbing of one sort and another and for the forges I've built over the years. As long as you fit things carefully, keeping in mind that the solder flows by capillary action and is not a filler like in welding, and use the right flux, (I prefer Battern's Self-Pickling Liquid Flux) you should have few problems after a bit of practice. You'll probably want to use an oxy/acetylene torch with a small tip and soft flame for the job, though a BernzOMatic turbo torch will do it if the pieces aren't too big and you put them on a soft firebrick or charcoal block to reflect back some of the heat.

The finish on nearly every Chinese steel part I've ever seen has been the very thinnest of flash platings that did little to prevent rust in my island salt air climate. In use on a diesel engine, everything soon gets covered with a thin film of diesel and oil and dust, doing a better job or rust prevention than the cheesy plating.

You need to use silversmith's silver solder not the stuff they sell at the plumbing shop or hardware store, which is more properly called "silver-bearing solder." That stuff has only 1 or 2 % silver in tin and melts at around 450 or 500F and has slightly more strength than lead solder, but not much. Real silver solder, on the other hand, melts at around 1500F, is copper and silver, and has a tensile strength almost that of the steel itself. In fact, I use it to make up band saw blades and they last for months and when they break it almost never at the solder joint.

If the banjo fitting in question is in a location where it will be subject to constant vibration or severe strain, I'd opt to replace it with a new one if possible, but they generally mount to something fixed and should be okay properly soldered. If you have a lathe, the go-ahead way to do them is to make the new part sleeve into a recess so that the solder is an adjunct to a mechanical joint, but that's really overkill. Rob would do it though, I'll bet.

If you have more specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Rich

[roy697]

Thanks Rich
I found a used replacement setup for the tractor. It should be in the mail by now & expect it next week. With that in mind when I get around to getting my Oxygen tank filled I will play around with one of the broken banjo fittings just to see if I can fix it. I am still in school just like I keep telling my kids & the grand kids, never out of school till your dead. I have never worked with such a small piece before, any idea how to hold it without damaging it?

[Rich Waugh]

Roy,

I was originally trained as a silversmith and still have all my tools so I use a "third hand" thingy that is a heavy base with a ball joint to which is affixed a pair of cross-locking tweezers. I have two or three of these setups so I can cobble together almost anything I need to.

In the absence of "third hand" gizmos, you can use soft iron binding wire, thin cotter pins used like old-fashioned clothespins, nails stuck in a piece of soft asbestos board, etc. Just needs to be something that will hold it without exerting any crushing force when the piece is hot and tender. Iron things that are slightly rusty are dandy sinnce solder won't stick to them, but you can coat any surfaces you don't want solder on with a thin coating of yellow ochre artist's pigment in water. Typist's white-out fluid also works pretty well for this and is easier to get usually.

Remember that the solder flows toward the heat, and that the hot piece should melt the solder.

Hope this helps.

Rich

[roy697]

I'll give that some thought & one of these days make an attempt to repair.
Thanks for the input.

[roy697]

Picked up the new seal & o-rings. Cleaned the splines & housing for the drive shaft. Seal went in fine & is holding 8 gal of diesel, no leaks. The o-rings were the wrong size so Off I went looking, found them a Sears. Cost more for the fuel to get there than the o-rings cost. Re cleaned the parts, greased the splines & put it together. Nick put Anti-seize around the injectors & install them. Put a 3/4 drive ratchet on the front of the engine, cranked it over, not much compression, now I am worried. Any thoughts? Hour meter shows less than 200 hours. I plan pulling the rocker cover & take a look there next.

[Rich Waugh]

I always go for the cheapest possible problem first - is the compression release lever somehow stuck open?

Could be a few frozen rings, too. A little lubricant in each cylinder and plenty of patience.

There are probably several other simple, cheap things that could be causing low compression. I'm sure some of the wiser heads here will offer good advice.

Rich

[roy697]

Well I removed the rocker cover. I could not believe how clean it looks, checked the gap & they are very close, just a touch over spec.. I removed the injectors & put a little 10w-40w in each cylinder, cranked it over about 10 times, sucked out the excess with a mity-vac & install the injectors again. Compression was very well improved. I am hoping the oil will settle around the rings & help with compesssion. Got the stuff I ordered from Tommy. Now the starter will not turn. Took it apart, looks like they dunked it in a mud puddle, dirty, rusty. After cleaning it & a simple continuity test I think it will work once I get a clip replaced & put it back together. The solenoid is damaged, the plastic is broken but I think it will work till I know the engine will run then I will look for a replacement.






Checked the compression release & it is OK. ( good idea to check )

[roy697]

I was able to clean the starter well enough to put back together. Tested with jumper cables before installing. No good. Loosen the case bolts a little & hit it with a rubber hammer, now it runs. Install to the tractor. YES it cranks. Put 2 gal. 30-W oil in the crankcase. Done for the night.

[bradblazer]

Roy,

Good progress - keep it coming! Not many responses but we appreciate your documentation!

Nice work on that starter. There are so many times when we throw away stuff like that when all it needs is a good cleaning / lubricating.

I'm thinking you'll get 'er cranked up and be surprised at how good that engine still is. Probably be good to run the break-in sequence again.

It's been a day - you might have already fired her up?

Thanks again for posting,
Brad

[3RRL]

Yeah Roy,
Keep up the good work and keep posting all that progress you are making.
I'll admit I've been so busy that I've not been posting much on other threads. But I check yours out every day to see what you're doing. I've had my starter apart a couple times and mine (almost) looked like that from the start. I took the solenoid apart and cleaned an lubed it as well. Both work well now. I still get the occasional "click, click..." but after a couple trys, it engages. I'm thinking it's a poor ground connection because when I wiggle the cables and wires, it works good again.

After you get it cleaned and lubed, try it out on the bench to see if it works as good as it should.
It should spin like the Tasmanian Devil. Be sure to secure the starter motor because the torque is huge.

Any further progress on the engine?
Did you end up removing the head to see what condition the liners are in? I know you put some oil in there, but if there is a bit of rush on the liners, you will want to scrub that off with a Scotch Brite pad and then blow out all the dust.
Rob-

[3RRL]

Also, out of curiosity, when you removed the injectors themselves, was there a lot of build up carbon around them? Or were they clean? When I removed mine, the tips were covered and also behind the tips. I cleaned them up with a soft brass wire wheel.
Rob-

[roy697]

No we did not remove the head.
The injectors were dirty but not bad "According to Nick", he said not to do anything with the tip other than a soft rag with cleaner. The 3 inches or so above that was dirty & rusty so I put the wire wheel to it & buffed them good. We put anti seize on them above the sealing ring.
Any how.
Good, no, Great news. Nick came over & we put the fuel lines on that I got from Tommy. Had to modify one end. (remove banjo fitting & extend the length & change hose size 1/4 to 5/16, the line was about 5 inches short but that was not a problem. You can see how much we extended it in the bottom right corner of the picture. Removed the primer pump & cleaned it, it was stuck. Put oil in the crank case, 7+ gal diesel in the gear box, started priming the system, Nick with the wrench & me on the key. After bumping it over to get the fuel up to the injectors the darn thing fired up.
(Nick in the picture) Only run it for a few seconds at a time.




The starter was a little problem. Didn't want to turn after cleaning & putting it back together. loosened the case bolts about 1/2 turn & hit it with a rubber hammer. Spins real good now. Did not use the compression release now that I think about it. The plastic on the solenoid is broken but it still works for now.

[roy697]

Even though the dash was broken by the trees the interment cluster was not broken. We plugged it in & most of it seems to be working, fuel does not show any thing, all I need now is something to mount it on or in.



I may talk to a few people around here that have done fiberglass & take a run at, most I could do is waste a little time & a few dollars. The dash is in about 4 pieces.