42/43/4400 Valve Adjustment Procedure

[RoyJackson]

Outstanding post, Arrabil!!
Between your posts and dfkrug's, anyone should be able to rebuild their 4xxx series tractor!

 

[kennyd]

Superb writeup:thumbsup:

 

[arrabil]

Thanks guys! Glad its of use to someone.

I'd like to add some thoughts:

*) When you're turning the flywheel, its possible to have the "1" mark in the inspection hole and the rockers for cylinder 1 really tight. That means you need to rotate the flywheel 360 degrees until you find the "1" mark again. DO NOT loosen a 0.000" clearance.

*) The tech manual has zero torque specs for this procedure (more wonderful precision). The valve cover bolts were on pretty tight. Tighten them from the middle out. Then do it again. And again. Until they stop moving. Its because they are well lubed by the oil. But don't bust out the breaker bar or the two handed grab. I'd guess they need 35 ft-lbs.

*) The rocker nuts are also pretty tight. You need to get them very tight but there is a point at which you can strip them. You don't want to do that. Its a feel thing if you're a brute like I am.

*) Blue Loctite is useless here. The temperature of the engine will make it release anyway.

*) Read the Deere manual section I attached in post 1. I didn't necessarily cover all of that.

I didn't know there was an oil filler cap on the valve cover

I saw it there a long time ago and it never really clicked with me there were two until you just said it. I had to go out today and find the other one. Which is also the one I've always poured the oil into. Funny.

How many hours does your tractor have on it?

1081. All the o-rings and gaskets were shot. I think if you're not paying the dealer, I would invest in the $40 in parts. You don't HAVE to, but it seems like a good expenditure to me.

About how long did it take you to do valve adjustment?

The valve adjustment itself took fifteen minutes. The whole process took three hours and that includes an hour of looking for the inspection hole. I have to do this regularly on my '83 533i and can hear when it needs it. Actually, I can hear the difference on the 4200 now too so I'm just going to repeat this procedure by ear.

That sucks that the right loader mount has to come off. I have my canopy's front posts mounted to them.

Can't speak for your canopy, but I'm very glad I had to take the loader mount off. The bolts were super loose. 50 ft-lbs vs 166 ft-lbs (or 255 ft-lbs even according to the online manual). I wound up removing all eight and Blue Loctiting and torquing them. It was worth the work to know they're in there properly now.

 

[arrabil]

On to the rest....

While you've got all this apart, doing the exhaust manifold gasket is only minutes more work.

First the separator has to come off. One bolt/nut and one bolt.

 

[arrabil]

Undo the manifold bolts now. Two of them are studs with nuts. If the nuts stick and the studs come out, don't separate the two. Just treat it like a bolt at that point. If the nuts do come off, then you can use the studs as guides as they were intended to be used.

I can see why the bolts don't break off. They have lots of room around them in the holes so they don't rust weld themselves to the manifold. Thats a good design. Not every manufacturer is that smart. Believe me. Because of this I did not replace them with stainless steel ones.

Notice how dirty the mating surface is. I just knew the manifold gasket was shot. Make sure you clean this well if you want a good seal on reassembly. I scraped it well.

I stuffed some rags in the exhaust ports while I worked on the rest. This isn't critical but what the heck.

 

[arrabil]

You can see I scraped both muffler mating surfaces clean too. Again, you're not going to get a good seal with steel gaskets unless the mounting surface is as clean as possible.

The new exhaust manifold gasket is visible in there.

You can see the airbox was reinstalled too. I did that while the manifold was removed and the ports were plugged with rags. I could just as easily have done that before touching the manifold.

 

[arrabil]

And finally the muffler and new muffler gasket are installed. You can see them with the running engine here.

Two things I noticed immediately. The engine is quieter. Its not quiet, but it is better than before. The exhaust manifold gasket wasn't doing anything. This may be the cause of my intermittent white smoke. Fingers crossed.... I sure hope so!

The second thing is that the engine sounds "tighter". This is what it should sound like after a valve adjustment. I'm glad I can hear the difference. Means it really needed it.

Now that everything else is done, the loader mount goes back on. I think I said earlier.... I actually undid all eight (both sides) loader mounting frame bolts, Blue Loctited them, and torqued them properly.

All done! On the to the other tasks I have in mind.......

 

[mjncad]

The valve adjustment itself took fifteen minutes. The whole process took three hours and that includes an hour of looking for the inspection hole.

Can't speak for your canopy, but I'm very glad I had to take the loader mount off. The bolts were super loose. 50 ft-lbs vs 166 ft-lbs (or 255 ft-lbs even according to the online manual). I wound up removing all eight and Blue Loctiting and torquing them. It was worth the work to know they're in there properly now.

Since you did it in three hours total; I'll triple my expected time to get it done.

For future adjustments; do you think it would be worthwhile to drill a hole in the loader mount endplates so you can use one of those Ridgid/Milwaukee, etc fiber optic borescopes to find the marks on the flywheel?

 

[arrabil]

I think you're selling yourself short. I bet you could do it in less than four. Still, if you really want to triple the time, triple two hours as the one hour didn't count for actual labor.

As for the scope, nope, there is no place to drill a hole anywhere near where you need to be. The real key being that you need the inspection hole. Its the cylinder mark relative to the hole that tells you that you're in the right position.

Here is something you could do though.... Under the tractor you can see the flywheel and the inspection hole and there is a good bit of room for your hand. If you imagine the flywheel like a pizza, the cylinder marks are on the outside of the pizza on the crust. If you took some white-out and made a mark on the cheese side of the pizza/flywheel, you could turn the flywheel until the mark was at the inspection hole and line up the white-out mark with a ruler or pencil or something. I wouldn't do it, but thats not to say its impossible or not accurate enough. If you can be assured you're lined up properly, its the same end result. Worst case.... try it, see if you think its accurate enough, undo the loader mount then only if necessary.

 

[beenthere]

That was a very impressive read, and pictorial. Really appreciate the time you took to make the "presentation".

Now I'm pumped to take on that task on my 4300. There is some oil coming off the engine and running down the lines just ahead of and under the starter. Will trace that back, but expect to find the valve cover as the source.

Need to re-read the thread, but am about 600 hours now so expect it is time to adjust the valves. Glad to hear about the location of the inspection hole.

Many thanks.