I took another look at the SOFA (to couch it in different terms - God, I
love puns!) that I installed on the TR3A yesterday. All of the comments I
got back from fellow listers (and thank you, one and all, for these)
suggested that a thicker gasket would do the trick. I took the SOFA off
(VERY messy) and took out the new gasket and compared it with the one that
was in there originally. The old one was thicker. I also removed the
smaller diameter O ring from the middle of the SOFA and put the SOFA in
place without this O ring to see where metal to metal contact was taking
place. I had assumed that a machined surface on the SOFA would contact a
machined surface on the filter head, after the center O ring was compressed.
In fact, this is not the case. The counterbore that the center O ring fits
in, on the SOFA, is of slightly less diameter that the boss in the filter
head that the O ring selas against. Thus, I put the SOFA in my drill press
and filed a chamfer on the edge of the counterbore, so that the SOFA would
enter the head a little firther than it was before and hopefully compress
the outer gasket. For good measure, I put the old gasket back in (it was
still in good condition), reassembled the SOFA (with the center O ring back
in position), filled 'er up with erl and not a leak in sight.
I celebrated by driving to the "Rock River Thresheree" in Milton, WI. What
a great afternoon! Antique tractors, steam engines, a threshing
demonstration on a thresher driven by a Case steam engine, a steam driven
saw mill etc etc. It was great! Didn't see any other TRs thought, nor even
a Standard four banger in a tractor....
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