Farmall H fan wont spin?

Earlier in the fall I bought a Farmall H from a guy a hour or so away. He said he replaced the water jacket gasket on it because it leaked, but other than that was a great running tractor that he has had no problems with. Well, today I went to start it because it's starting to get cold here (29 degrees today) and I was going to let the tractors run and charge up for a bit since they hadn't run in a couple days, but it would hardly turn over. I didn't have a multimeter on me to check voltage at the battery (my house/garage and farm are two different places) but it didn't seem dead, it just seemed like it didn't want to turn over. I then noticed that the fan was not spinning. I walked around front and gave it a tug, and it seems stuck in place. It has a tiny bit of play, but it wont spin at all. It finally fired and ran for a second and the belt just spun around the pully and started smoking after a second so I shut it back down. The belt is tight and the fan just wont turn. I popped the radiator cap off and it looks like thick sludge in there. I couldn't reach it with my finger to feel it, but this can't be a good sign. I checked the radiator fluid upon buying it, while looking it over, and it looked to be green antifreeze, so I don't know what my issue is. It ran fine Friday when it was about the same temperature outside. It's cold in my barn and I have limited light and tools there and don't know what I should do. I hope the block doesn't freeze or crack if there is water in it. I can't start it to pull it out and drain it, and my family is all on vacation, so I have no help pulling it out with another tractor. I don't know what could be the cause of this. Any ideas?

Get a 20# propane tank, a sunflower heater to attach to the tank, light the heater, aim at the engine and wait for it to warm up a bit. Sounds like the coolant is a bit stiff!

Lack of grease in the fan hub bearing will cause that problem. I have an M that when we got it we thought it was locked up. I played with it some and found that the water pump was locked up. Ran good other then that so I ened up replacing the water pump and it runs good now

get an anti freeze tester and check the freezing point on the coolant. could be froze up. if so, you gotta get it out of there before a hard freeze and the block cracks.

Hmm, I'm guessing you didn't test the antifreeze level.

You need to get that thing warmed up and get the water drained ASAP.

ya one of two things:

frozen impeller on water pump, or siezed brg.
betting on the frozen impeller.

Agreed. The guy worked on it knowing he'd sell it and filled it with water instead of antifreeze. Saved him about $20.

I know that this is a serious problem and that there are safer and better ways to preheat this engine but when I was a little guy I remember a customer of my grandfathers had a similar problem but it was out in the middle of this snow covered field. He had been plowing and left it for the night and it snowed and froze and the owner couldn't get it to start. So he called grandpa and he called me out to help him picked up an old 55 gal drum and a bunch of wood and a few bricks. When we got out to the tractor everything was cold soaked and the tractor would barely turn over even putting a 12 volt jump on it. So gramps took the barrel over and set it beside the tractor and then took a big hammer and started beating on the edge of the drum to start kind of tucking it in at two places. Then he cut out the bottom with a cold chisel and a hammer. All said and done he set the barrel under the tractor and the bends kind of saddled the tractor and the oil pan was down in it. He then placed a couple of bricks under the bottom edge to both push the barrel up against the tractor and keep the barrel off the ground. He placed kindling under the barrel and lit it off and for the next what seemed to me hours but later gramps said it was only about an hour maybe two we sat there slowly feeding this little fire the wood he'd brought along. From time to time he'd pull his glove off and feel the top of the engine and pull the dipstick to check the warmth of the oil. Then the time came and he cranked the engine over. It spun like it was summer and fired off. I can still hear that old H model out there idling on that cold snowy silent day. I kind of yearn to hear it again from time to time. I asked gramps about the fuel catching fire and all, but he said, that we weren't going to let the flame get very big and the way he built the barrel all the heat and what little smoke was being held tight to the engine. I really miss that old man. Learned more by watching him about how to get things done than anyone can tell you. He never thought a question was silly and always took the time to answer it. When it came to tough homework from school, he was the one that would sit down and teach me. Not giving me the answers but teaching me how to go about thinking through an answer. It's funny that a couple of months ago I came across that old barrel out behind the old barn. It's all rusted and has holes in it from the rust and multiple times its contained a fire since that day, but every time I see it It reminds me of gramps. He died this date in 1977. He was 102 and the day before he died he finished an overhaul on a Cadillac engine and installed it and delivered it to the owner. He died of an undiagnosed brain tumor. May we all have the opportunity to build those kind of memories, and may we all be as willing to share our years of knowledge with those that desire to have it. LarryT

There is a possibility that the previous owner loaded the tractor with stop leak to sell it. Too much stop leak can bind up those old pumps.

Dell

Especially if a "natural" stop leak was used, like black pepper, oatmeal, etc.

Dell

"thick sludge"? Sounds like frost to me. I bet she's
froze.

(quoted from post at 09:20:45 12/07/10) Take the fan bet off and start it up. let it run for a few... and you can drive it for a short distance where you want it. just keep an eye on the heat gauge. Dot let it boil over.it wont overheat very quickly in that weather.

once the engine warms up, chances are the fan will turn. drain it immediately, and winterize it..

Andy

Click to expand...

Not sure why I didn't think of that. I'm heading up there now to get it fired up and get it up front to the garage.

Well Saturday it was around 40 degrees. I went up to the farm, the fan was nice and free. I then noticed something that concerned me. There was a small puddle under it, and I noticed two stain running down the side of the engine, from two of the spark plug holes, and a couple small stains on the other side of it, running out of the water jacket behind the carb. I fired it up, and it ran just as it always does, let it run for about 10 minutes, drove it around for a few, brought it back to the garage, and noticed coolant was still slowly trickling out of those two spark plug holes. It doesn't seem down on power, and doesn't smoke or anything, and I drained the oil and there was no sign of water or coolant in it, but coolant coming from the cylinder cant be good..I don't know what to do from here. I went and bought some antifreeze and mixed it and put it in, so hopefully it's good from here on out, but could the head be cracked? Or one of the sleeves? Where do I go from here?

Thanks.

Anyone have any ideas why there's coolant coming out of the spark plug holes, and how I go about fixing this??