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I should use the correct terminology, the final drive attaches to the differential.  Also, when I filled up the final drives with oil the oil just came pouring out.  Looks like my oil seals are shot.  Anybody rebuild the final drives?  How easy or hard to get parts?  It was a bit depressing seeing that oil come pouring out after I have went through everything else on the machine and thought I had it ready to roll. 

I am about ready to put my Oliver OC-4 to work.  I have replaced fluids and filters, engine is running like a champ.  I am waiting on a some new U-joint assemblies from fordor.com and waiting on steering bands from oliverchris.  One of my last issues is the connection between the final drive and the transmission on the right side.  I have a slow but steady drip of oil coming out.  I noticed one of the bolts was a 1/4" out so I went to tighten it down and the threads seem to be stripped.  I have another up higher that just turns.  Is the transmission housing itself threaded or is there a nut inside of there?  The reason I ask this is that the left side has bolts sticking out of the transmission with nuts to tighten it down.  So I either need to take the backcover off the transmission off to put a nut back on (seems like a couple of loose nuts in the transmission could/would do severe damage) or I need to go up a bolt size and rethread.  Looking at the pictures in the manual gives me no clues.  Any answers out there from someone who has torn them apart before?  Thanks,

Grant

I made the marks on the pulley to align with the marks on the flywheel when I was figuring out where everything was pointing.  I then turned it to the TDC mark, then reversed a half turn before I adjusted things so the points were opening up at the spark mark on the fly wheel.  So I think I have all that part of it done pretty well and like I said, it is running like a top with just a bump from the starter.

I took the driveshaft with U-joints into Carquest and Napa today and told them a Model A U-joint would fit.  After waiting for an hour at the Carquest they gave me a price of $320 for the pair.  At Napa, the salesman just acted exacerbated that I asked him to find a part that wasn't in his U-joint book.  I ended up just ordering one from a website called fordor.com http://www.fordor.com/search_results.cfm?startrow=1362&action=prev&search=&sort=price+asc

The whole assembly is $90.  So to do both sides you would be $180 plus shipping.  Does that sound similar to what others have found or has anyone found a better source?  

I also started draining all the oils so I could change the filters and put new oil in.  The engine oil was definitely well used, but when I drained the transmission I got more water than oil.  The boot that goes over the shifter is gone so I am assuming most of the water went in from there.  Does anyone have a good source for getting a new shifter boot so my transmission doesn't fill up with water again?  Right now someone has wrapped a piece of inner tube around the shaft and secured it with electrical tape.  That is better than nothing, but I would like something that seals a little better.  

I hadn't heard about the impulse for hand cranking before.  I wonder why it doesn't mention anything in the manual about that or did I just miss it?  

I spent most of my day getting the clutch functional again.  Things were rusted together and frozen, not to mention a broken spring that wouldn't disengage the clutch even if you were able to move it.  Just got that all back together so I pulled the plugs once again and watched where the rotor was pointing on each cylinder's compression stroke.  The order was 2,4,3,1.  So I am a quarter turn out of normal, but at least the correct firing order now.  For fun I put the cap back on the magneto to see if it would start and how well it would run.  It started with barely a bump from the starter and ran even smoother now.  So I am guessing that things are NOT put together right somewhere between the magneto gear and governor, but it starts super easy and runs excellent now.  I really need to get some work done with it so is there any good reason to tear into it further at this point and time, or should I get my work done and this winter when I have more time I could disassemble to see where the magneto or governor gears were put in wrong?  I guess what I am asking is whether there is any risk of operating it this way, or is it just an annoyance that I can't put things together by the book?  And just to verify so I am sure I read the manual right: the number one position on the cap is the top right behind the viewing window?  Correct?  It seems someone assembled everything with number one being top left, one position before the viewing window.  

One last question: my only concern now is the driveline and U-joints.  I hadn't looked at them until I tore into the clutch pedal and one of the U-joints is shot and if I run it much that way it will probably ruin my knuckle.  Does anyone have any brands or part numbers to get U-joints from my local Napa store?  I stopped in and asked them today but they were having a hard time finding anything.  Thanks,

Grant  

   

OK.  A few questions and observations:  First, when you say the "mag trips"  is that referring to the lobe on the shaft opening the points?  Second, my flywheel has a mark with the initials "D C" which I assume means Top Dead Center and just before that there is a mark with no letters which I am assuming is my "Spark" mark.  Third, I pulled all the spark plugs off and held my finger over the hole and with the notches on the cap and gear lined up I am getting the compression stroke when the cap is pointing to the last position (going clockwise) on the cap.  If I had the wires set-up for the by-the-book firing order it would be firing on #3 cylinder when the #1 cylinder was on the compression stroke.  

So here are my thoughts.  Is it possible someone took the governor off sometime in the past 50 years and didn't line up the marks on the two gears when reassembling?  And since that is a possibility, I should really say is it likely that someone did that?  The fact is the motor starts up quickly and runs smooth when put the plugs into a 4,2,3,1 firing order.  Is it worth tearing apart the governor to check those marks as well?  Or should I just put it back together with the odd firing order and get some work done?

Yes, it has a magneto not a distributor.  Notch on rotor and gear are lined up.  I double checked that many, many times.  Putting the rotor on 180 degrees off gets no response from the engine, while the original position of the rotor gets lots of backfiring through the exhaust (so no starting with either position).  I was calling #1 cylinder in the front near the radiator and #4 the cylinder nearest the driver seat. 

And I have read the same thing about there only being two firing orders for 4 cylinders, that is why I posted the question.  It doesn't make sense.  I read and reread the book many times, double checking everything trying to see what I was missing before I finally swapped plug wire configuration out of desperation. 

Is it really necessary to pull the plugs to feel for the compression stroke when the rotor can only be installed two ways that will have the notches lined up?  What I mean is that if it doesn't fire one way, pulling the cap off and installing the rotor 180 degrees would be the only other right way.  Or am I forgetting something here? 

I bought an OC-4 with an IXB3 Hercules motor to push some dirt around.  It was not running when I picked it up and after replacing some spark plugs, wires, condensor, coil, and a few other things I was getting spark and fuel but still not running.  I have the manual and had turned the flywheel to the mark on the viewing hole, made sure the rotor was firing on the number one position on the distributor cap, etc and it still wouldn't run.  I checked compression and found between 100 and 110 psi on each cylinder.  Rotating the distributor back and forth I could get either loud backfires or a somewhat steady flame coming out of the exhaust manifold so I finally decided to move plug wires as it sure seemed like things were not right.  The firing order had been by the book (1,2,4,3) so for starters I swapped 4 and 3 so my firing order was 1,2,3,4.  The motor would halfways start and then die which was an improvement.  I then switched 4 and 1 so my firing order was 4,2,3,1 and the motor fired right up without hesitation and runs well.  I played with many other firing combinations just to make sure nothing else would work.  So my question is why in the world will it only start and run on 4,2,3,1 when the firing order should be 1,2,4,3?  Anyone else run into this sort of issue?