Auction 446. The work begins.

[DavidBarkey]

The repair should be fine I think. I'm curious, are those rivets or how is it holding together?

No it doesn’t appear this is riveted. The “nubs” you see in the picture look to be alignment pins and are part of the casting. I question why Onan decided on a two piece intake in the first place. My guess is it came down to money and production time. Probably faster and cheaper to make them that way. It looks to me like the only thing that keeps the halves together it whatever sealant they used during assembly. It sounds like a poor idea to make it that way then I realize it’s been 50 years since they put it together at the factory so I’d say it worked pretty well!


@Harry the mating surface is kinda thin. I’m sure it could be welded but it would take someone with considerably more skill than I have.

I’ve got the intake put back together and the plan now is to reassemble the tractor tomorrow night. I guess we’ll see if I glued it up good enough!

The halves were injected molded .It had more to do with shape and smooth surfaces . Those nubs were to be longer and were peened over to hold the two halves together like rivetting with a little sealent . The peened (rivetted ) part breakes away and the come unglued . I clean them real well carefully drill out both halves and use allum rivets and bolts wrapped in tape to hold together while the JB weld (overnight stuff). cures .

[Harry]

I’m a firm believer in JB Weld. I’ve used it for years with terrific results. Harry

[JSinMO]

The repair should be fine I think. I'm curious, are those rivets or how is it holding together?

No it doesn’t appear this is riveted. The “nubs” you see in the picture look to be alignment pins and are part of the casting. I question why Onan decided on a two piece intake in the first place. My guess is it came down to money and production time. Probably faster and cheaper to make them that way. It looks to me like the only thing that keeps the halves together it whatever sealant they used during assembly. It sounds like a poor idea to make it that way then I realize it’s been 50 years since they put it together at the factory so I’d say it worked pretty well!


@Harry the mating surface is kinda thin. I’m sure it could be welded but it would take someone with considerably more skill than I have.

I’ve got the intake put back together and the plan now is to reassemble the tractor tomorrow night. I guess we’ll see if I glued it up good enough!

The halves were injected molded .It had more to do with shape and smooth surfaces . Those nubs were to be longer and were peened over to hold the two halves together like rivetting with a little sealent . The peened (rivetted ) part breakes away and the come unglued . I clean them real well carefully drill out both halves and use allum rivets and bolts wrapped in tape to hold together while the JB weld (overnight stuff). cures .

I hadn’t thought of injection molding that make sense. That must have been pretty new technology at that time. I clamped the halves together while everything set up. It will have 4 studs and 2 bolts holding it on the tractor but if my concoction doesn’t hold I’ll move on the JB Weld.

[JSinMO]

Well this evening did NOT go as planned.
I put everything back together and hit the key, and the tractor came to life and sounded great! Throttled up good and ran smooth. I finished putting everything together and checked the oil. It was a little low, the engine does burn some oil when it’s working. I topped it off, closed the hood and hopped on for a test drive. I started it up, raised the blade, and went to back up and it died. Now it’s back to the same problem, no gas to the cylinders. I took it all back apart and I couldn’t see a split in the seem but the gaskets I made did not look good I should have done a better job. I fiddled around some more but I realized I’m really getting tired and making dumb mistakes like putting it back together and cranking the engine and wondering why I’m not getting fuel only to realize I didn’t hook up the impulse to the fuel pump. so I decided I needed to stop and get some rest. We have a full day of other stuff to do tomorrow and I obviously need some sleep. So at this point I don’t know what happened. I’ll have to look at it with fresh eyes another day.
I really dislike evening like this!

[Eugen]

Oh no, one of those evenings! Sorry to hear Jeff. Good call on leaving it for another day, because last thing you want is working on it tired and maybe even get injured. You'll figure it out with a fresh mind in no time.

[Harry]

Those situations sound familiar to me. I always say I learn from my mistakes. I’ve been trying to slow down but it’s hard to do after always in a hurry for years. I’m sure you’ll get it running fine again Jeff. Harry

[JSinMO]

Well fellas naturally the 446 was on my mind first thing this morning! So I got up to the shop a little while before the first truck arrived to start loading out hay. I pulled the intake back off and looked things over. Seal along the seam looks good carburetor was ok but the gaskets I made weren’t worth a darn! I sat down at the bench and carefully cut a new set and reassembled the intake on the engine. What do you know it runs! . So after the first hay truck left I finished putting it all back together and went for a spin. Starts and runs just like always now! Walking away for the night was the right move, but like @Harry said it’s hard to slow down sometimes! A key takeaway here would be if you need me to turn a wrench for you thats no problem, just don’t have me make gaskets for you!

She could use a rebuild for sure but that’s not on the menu for now. As long as it stars up easy and still has the power it has now, we’ll run it!

[Eugen]

Glad it works! That's all that matters, really!

[Harry]

Glad it works! That's all that matters, really!

I’m all in on that Eugen. It has to run no trailer queens in my shop. If it looked to nice I would be afraid to use it and scuff the paint. Harry

[JSinMO]

Well the weather is supposed to deteriorate around here the next couple of days. According to the news the sky is going to fall and cats and dogs are going to start living together. Latest report says up to 8” of snow with wind at 45MPH and near blizzard conditions. That would be a significant event in this area. I’m not convinced that’s going to happen but I figured I should get ready just in case.
Since I’m pretty well done with mower till spring it needs to come out of the shop.

I took the trailer hitch off and put the carry all on the back.

These are the weights I have. I don’t know how much they weigh but anything is better than what I have on the tractor now.

The 446 sure seems to have good pulling power but these worn turf tires are absolutely useless. I could spit on the ground and it would lose traction and spin!

So now for the fun part. I have a set of free to me tire chains that I’m going to put on. Keep in mind I haven’t used chains on anything in probably 35 years! They really aren’t normally needed around here we just don’t get long term weather that would require them.

I tell you that so you’ll understand that I have no idea what I’m doing!

These are for a 15” tire so there a size to small but for free I’ll try and make them work. I managed to get them around the tire now how the keep them on?

I had a couple of chain binder I found in my grandparents barn years ago there antiques for sure but they seem to work. For the inside I used rope to cinch everything up.

I’m sure you fellas up in the north country are having a laugh but I’m using what I got!
I don’t know if this is going to work and I’m certainly open to critique and any suggestions any of you have to make them better. I’ll defer to you experience for sure!

There on and seem to be staying in place so I guess we’ll see.

I’m about as ready as I can get for the impending snowmageddon!