Balance Gear Knock versus Connecting Rod Knock... Anyway to tell?

[Docwheelhorse 2,740]

Hello All,

My C141 (1978) is basically all original and runs great with no smoke or oil consumption. It has always had a low speed clunky/knocky (is that a word? LOL) noise in it that went away if you opened it up. Well--this weekend in the blizzard the old K321 was running HARD at full throttle for multiple hours turning the single stage blower. Tractor didnt use any oil but I think the low speed noise has gotten worse.... so is there anyway to know if its the balance gears or the rod and if it can be confirmed that its the balance gears can it just be run as is or will the balance gears "blow up" like a broken rod? I suspect its the rod---the reason I say that is that a noise that goes away at high speeds leads me to believe that there isn't enough time for the rod to "clunk" when it changes direction. Also--if I opened up can the balance gears just be pulled out and chucked permanently?

Thanks for any thoughts

Tony

[oldredrider 2,553]

Hey Tony, In my opinion, what you are describing is a rod knock. Sooner or later you'll need to address that and when you do, take those balance gears out and you'll never have to worry about them again.

Don't know if you remember, but at the big show, you noticed my C-141 knocking in front of one of the barns...had a generator mounted on it. Still has a slight knock but I'm not too worried about it because I pulled the balance gears out of it years ago. I'll get back in there and fix it one of these days!

[squonk 43,918]

Pull the head and turn it up to TDC. Put you hand on the piston and rock the crank back and forth. If you see movement in the crank but the piston kind of stays in place or you feel a clunk in the piston it's a rod at the crank journal or a worn rod small end piston pin issue. K cars used to rattle all the time and it was always a worn piston pin hole. I've torn down 2 Kohlers inthe past year and both had sloppy pins.

[Ken B 3,189]

Do like Mike said, if you find the rod is tight then pull the pan and knock the balance gears the hell outta there.

[MalMac 1,332]

On my C-141 I rebuilt it and against my better judgment i put the balance gears back in. The reason I rebuilt it was due to rod knocking. Now I can here the balance gears. To me the difference in sound was the rod knocked and the balance gears give a more of rattle at slow RPM's. I plan on getting them out of there before they let them self out.

[groundhog47 347]

Say Toney, Here is a good post on that issue>>>>> Down toward some one showed how they removed them in block with just pan off