[Jimdear2]

I've just scored 5 Land Rover Defender wheels and tyres for free for this project.

Only down side is that they are down in Bordon Hampshire!

I still need to find another front axle though, preferably with brakes, and a means of getting a 7:1 reduction gearing between the motor and transfer box.

Woody,

Tractor Thing Indeed

Good greif how much metal are you planing to move with that little golf cart motor.

Two truck axles
Necessary spindles and hubs and steering
Truck wheels
Transfer case

Anyway, joking aside, looking at the picture of the transfer case It looks like a jack shaft is going to be the only cheap answer for your 7:1 reduction if you go with chain drive.

You mentioned eariler that you don't have room for much gearing on the input side of the transfer case. In the picture it looks like you might be able to reroute the shifter stuff to allow more clearance.

If you keep adding weight and shafts and stuff you're going to need a lot more then 7:1 though.

 

[Jimdear2]

Woody,

I know you have already invested a lot of effort in your tractor thingy and will most likely continue with what you already have in mind. But I thought I would throw these ideas out just fort he heck of it.

Here is a link to a axle that would be perfect (If you could find a like item over there) these were made for the popular (over here) Ranch and Farm utility vehuicle.

https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2156122420373739&item=13-1430&catname=

Another path you could take, I think you should look to see what there is in England that compares to an International Cub Cadet, Bolans or Wheel Horse garden tractor or just the cast iron type transaxle, they are all are darn near indestructible when properly modified. Even stock they will handle a lot.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cub-Cadet-1200-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5638330bc3

My own electric conversion of a Cub Cadet was cheap and easy. With 48 volts it will reach 14 to 15 MPH. The nice thing is if you find an engineless model, you end up with everything else you need except the electric drive. I spent a probably less then 200.00 USD on the chassis (excepting the specific bits for tractor pulling) including paint.

Sorry, just ramblin on and on. Stuck in the house for a while will do that to you.

Have a great holiday season

 

[Jimdear2]

Woody,

Come on, cut out this "wiser than" crap. More opinionated might cover i,. different experiences might also.

I wish I had done half of the nice stuff you've done in metal, never mind what you have done in wood.

Everything that follows is based on my perception that what you want is a back yard (garden?) putt putt, something that can pull a little wagon or you can mount an implement on to do a bit of work. But still use it to run down the sidewalk to the corner.

Back to the tractor. The Cub transaxle is handy because of the included axles and wheel flanges (a common 5 bolt on 4.5 inch Ford and Chrysler pattern), internal brake, all reductions being internal and the single longitudinal 5/8th input shaft makes it easier to hook up an electric motor. But man, since it is built like a miniature farming tractor, it is heavy.

A couple of other Ideas, Have you thought about just getting a golf cart or industrial truck rear axle, then mounting the motor as it was intended? From there it would be easy to build something to fit your needs. The side winder type input shaft garden tractor and lawn tractor (there really IS a difference between them) transaxles would also work if you redid your motors front cover to allow it to take more side loading.

Going back to that transfer case (box) you have. Are you sure that rerouting/relocating the shifter stuff isn't possible. That would make adding a large sprocket easier. Of course that would give you a very heavy version of a side winder garden tractor axle without axles, flanges and brakes.

I would think that some where in England, there should be a wrecking yard for garden tractors. That would be a great place to find "stuff" like steering and linkage. Hope there is one close.

Nice thing about doing a small vehicle like this is it can be assembled in the cellar during the nasty months and then partially disassembled and reassembled outside in the spring. I found also, these little things can require everything electrical (with the exception of a heater) that a full sized EV will need. Great practice.

Good Holiday Wishes Back At You,

 

[Jimdear2]

Woody,

Bear with me on this, just ocupying a slow day with nothing to do.

The Husky you linked to is a good example of a LAWN (YUK) tractor, everything is tin can. The motor would have to be mounted vertically. For this kind of setup you would expect a lot of side load on the front bearing and cover you made for the motor.

That Ferguson you refer to would have been a nice fixer upper for me 10 years ago. The price is very nice for what is there. Since the engine is also the frame it would take some doing to convert to BEV.

Now here is something that would be fun.
Again 10 years ago I would have probably went for it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Farm-Ga...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a55ffe890


This is a nice sidewinder type GARDEN tractor. These Wheel Horse and the Sears sidewinders are probably some of the toughest little tractors out there.
When you build something out of one of these you are building a family heirloom. A lot of these are 40 - 50 years old and really don't show that much wear. Again sidewinders are going to put a side load on the wooden end cap.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wheel-Horse-Gar...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45f0060934

Here is another Diamond in the rough. Inline drive train, very similar to a Cub. In line would work well for the end cap you made.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Allis-Chalmers-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0eeae81b

Another fun project. I've seen these redone as a ICE setup but would work well as a electric. Convert one of the two wheel walk behind garden tractors into a articulated unit with the addition of a perminantly mounted wagon. You stand/sit in the wagon and "Plow Handle" steer. The wagon would be a great way to show off some wood work. The one shown below is just an example seems like everyone built one of these things. In fact I beleive you can still buy them new.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Planet-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item25555375ff

All in all, a nice way to while away an afternoon.

Be well

 

[Jimdear2]

Woody,

I guess everybody has their own way to do Holidays.

Last thought for the day, I know that there are garden tractor pulling groups in England. I've seen You Tube stuff. They might be a good resource for locating what you want at a reasonable price.

Those big 4WD tractors are neat, I know what you mean about wanting one.

As far as building a tractor today, we probably would be. As it was today in between posts, I spent a bit of time today down in the cellar pulling down the blown Cub axle. Blew the diff when the tractor went up on the wheelie bars and the rear wheels spun up, right at the end of the pull, so when the wheels hit the ground. . . .boom. Got a new heavier diff carier, but I need to switch the riveted on ring gear. Started grinding rivet heads but had to give up after a while.

When you're old and sick you need to do what you can, when you can, if you are going to get anything done.

We started our newest puller last week. I'll get back to it tomorrow. 7 1/2 feet long 1350 lbs. with driver.

I have a small Ford pick up truck axle that is narrowed.
We have a 13 inch GE that will be mounted above the pumpkin of the axle We will chain drive from motor to the axle.

The Ford 7.5 inch axle has a 5.14:1 ratio and a positraction (may get rid of that).
With 12 inch rim x 12 inch wide x 26 inch diameter pulling tires we should see wheel speeds in the area 50 - 60 MPH depending on how fast we can spin the motor.
Our starting out battery will be around 160 volts and 5-600 amps. This tractor will be driven by my electric tractor partner. He is an old electric drag bike builder/driver.

I layed out and started cutting metal for a new additional battery box for the Cub Cadet to go over the motor in the front. I want to be able to go to 60 volts so that when I run into these guys with their "STOCK" tractors that the governor seems to have fallen off of (they turn 6000 rpm). The new battery will be a plug in deal, 48 volts when I pull wirth legal 13 horse people and 60 volts for the rest. The new battery will replace some preexisting weight.

I'm probably going to try to get at least one of the ICE tractors running again (they both have carburation problems). The single engine will be easier the double engine is more fun. We will see which one gets done.

I figure with the way my lungs are falling apart this will be my last year at this, I want to get as much done as possible.

I'll be watching to see what happens. I hope you find something "interesting" for your tractor thingy.

 

[Jimdear2]

I know Jim is lurking here also so here is my two "Commie" (Belarus) tractors... Errr they pull - but just around the farm ... Reworked them both -

The snow was in early fall - it would now be up to the first step - lol....

Dave,

Nice looking tractors. Wish I could afford stuff like that. My last tractor was a worn out 1938 Mini Mo. I couldn't afford to fix it when the welsh plugs between the cylinders blocks rusted away so I gave it to a collector for restoration.

Stuff built over here has gotten so expensive I don't blame you for going eslewhere.

Between satisfying the Fat Cat businessmen who need their trophy bonuses, the unions, the vocal minority, and the Governments, there isn't much money left to build anything if you want to stay competitive with companies that don't have to put up with that crap.

Have a great one,

 

[Jimdear2]

The end cap is only temporary, I wanted to test run the motor to find out what it would do before committing myself to further work. I will remake it in aluminium when I know what sort of ounting I will need to make with it.
Same with the splined shaft, I may make another or a different shape one yet.


Very lax of me.

I hadn't photographed the axle as it was oily and muddy and out doors in the cold.
Then it was in the work shop in bits being washed.
At neither time did I want to get my phone greasy or take my gloves off until the job was done. I will try and post a workshop view this week end.

Woody,

What the heck are you trying to build. First off it was a conversion of a lawn/garden tractor. Just a quicky job to learn the electrics so you didn't mess up the real EV.

Now you are out there with THIS axle and THAT transmission. God only knows what kind of steering, brakes, orther axle and chassis you plan to use . That's just a little motor. It sound like you want to haul a City Bus sized vehicle around with it. You can get so lost in a project like that you will never finish your MR2.

This is going to be fun to watch.

Be Well,

 

[Jimdear2]

Woody,

WOW how to you keep your bench so clean

Mine hasen't been that organised in years.

I have lots of started project stuff like this too. I woulkd take pictures but I'm too ashamed.

One of ny pullers uses a VW rabbit transaxle with a D&D ES 15A motor with the motor geared down 2 to 1 using a jackshaft.

I grafted a front end, steering, seat and hood from an old Sears tractor to the frame. I used the Hubs, Brakes and Spindles from a VW Dasher welded into the frame along with stock Rabbit alxes.

I'll attach a picture (ist Picture) of it taken at one of the Clubs shows. I let a few people try it out. Makes for big EV grins, this guy couldn't get enough of it, I had to pry him off. I'll attach another picture of when I was installing the motor. You'll notice how everything is twice as heavy as it needs to be. Got to break myself from overbuilding everything. (2nd picture)

The tractor is a work in progress so it hasent't been repainted yet. It sat out back for a few years once the ICE went bad.

I spent too much time on the Cub (3rd picture) so I didn't get the Different finished. The cub is something like I thought you wanted.

Since you are goung to build something around the size of a compact tractor I would recommend that you find a small 3 speed trans to put in between the 2CV and your motor. That will give you the gear reduction you need.

Then find the biggest rims you can at least 16 inches. Look around for garden tractor breakers and see if you cant find a set of wheels and tires.

By the way the tractor pictured in my signature is the different when it still had the ICE in it.

Sounds like you are just having more fun then is decent.

 

[Jimdear2]

I seem to be collecting a lot of cheap mechanical bits.

The latest find is this:

It is the back end of a Ransomes vergecutter and it gives me a two speed transaxle with wheels and hubs and a mount for the motor. The front end has four bolts that will allow a simple front end to be bolted on to take steering and batteries. The ratios are approximately 8.5:1 and 16:1 plus around 3:1 to 4:1 on the pulley.

Now I stop looking and start building, all the other bits will be back on Ebay so I can get some batteries.

The motor will be interchangable from this project to the MR2 to get the MR2 road legal.

Woody,

I see you are now on the right track to build a proper tractor thingy.

I can't wait to see what you come up with. Are you going to build your own front end or will you get a generic lawn tractor from the scrap yard? If you go the scrap yard route watch out for some of the really crappy steering systems. All plastic bushings and stamped gears they are usually worn out about a week before you buy it new. Try to find a tractor with a cast Iron front axle, most likely the rest of the steering will be of better quality.

If you build your own give me a shout. I know the angles necessary to get a proper steering for a narrow front end.

If you can find a Ross steering box that would be great. They were used over here on a lot of the high end garden tractors. Do a search on US eBay you will see a lot of them from used to rebuilt $20.00 to $120.00. Once you know what you are looking for maybe you can find one or something similar. You can bring back a total trash Ross gearbox to better then 80% with about 20.00 in bearings, a litle grease And some effort. access to a lathe makes it better.

That rear end looks STRONG and those equipment mounting points look like they would suppoet a lot more the those tires would.

Are we goin to see a piece of art wooden body once you get it moving?

Now I have two things I can't wait for, your tractor thingy and now the 13 inch motor for the new pulling tractor is getting closer to complete. A buddy with a nice shop is letting my partner in this project and me use equipment when it's free. I have the movable brush rigging almost done, we will have the keyway in place by Thursday (man that shaft is hard) The end bells have been machined down and cleaned up for Powder Kote. We will clean up the barrel through the week. The end bells will be chrome silver and the barrel will be electric blue metal flake with yellow lightning bolts.

I hope you plan on replacing that wood motor end plate since this will be a side winder. Though it might be OK with a properly supported shaft.

Sorry to run on so but I am just happy to see the tractor thingy going forward.

I'll be watching
Jim

 

[Jimdear2]

Cheers Jim.
It only cost me £10 at the scrap metal yard!

I'll look forward to the 13" photos on your thread and some more pulling video.

I have ordered a 22mm thick aluminium plate from Ebay to make a new end cap for the motor.
I figured that if I kept the outside of the plate square then it would give me 4 lugs for bolting down to the adaptor plate on the MR2. It would be bigger then my lathe would chuck but I realised that if I removed the chuck and bolted the plate to the chuck drive plate then I could use the gap in the bed to get 10" diameter swing.

I will be using the short splined shaft I made earlier to take a pulley and I think that if I mounded it between two bearings then there will be no radial load on the motor. It would also allow the motor to be slipped off the shaft to use on the MR2 until it gets its own motor.

I was going to make the front end as, having found a lawn tractor grave yard, the ones available were costly and looked more suited to a child's pedal cart. Any advice would be great as I was going to just make an 'agricutural' center pivot beam axle with simple (and approximate) akerman steering. It will only have a speed of 0.7 and 1.3 mph per 1000rpm in each gear if I use a 4:1 pulley drive.

This week I will be busy as I have to prepare a couple of pieces of my furniture work to be used for a HRH visit to work. I will have a Royal bottom on my chair, signing papers on my table. If it works out it will be a great publicity photo for my website.

Woody,

Great news about HRH. Post a picture on this site if you can.

Sound like you have the motor set up well in hand. what you describe for drive shafting should do the job. Think about an overdrive jackshaft set up to maybe try to get the top speed up around 5mph. Over all it would be more usable. Belt drive should be fine.

Couple of questions about the Tractor Thingy (called TT in the future).
General questions:



Does the TT

• Have a real differential?
• Have any kind of brakes?
• Have a reverse?

Questions related to the potential front end:

• What size will the OD of the final rear wheels and tires be?
• What will the center to center width of the final rear tires be?
• What diameter front wheels?
• What is the planned width (center to center of the tires)?

Suggestions:
See if the lawn tractor yard might not have a couple of usable spindles or even a completefront axle with wheel and tires. The spindles alone will save you half of the figuring and work because the ackerman steering offset and KPI is already built into the units.

If you are going totally from scratch a good general spec. for the ackerman steering offset is 15 degrees per side and a good general KPI is also 15 degreese. For the standard garden tractor front wheel that will put the SAI contact close to the center of the tire with a 2 degree +- camber.

From there, once you know front and rear tire diameters it is easy to set up caster, trail, camber and SAI.

I know you might be saying, is this needed on something only going am couple of miles an hour? But I bet that in the end it will go faster, plus it will be heavy with the batteries so you might as well make steering as acurate and easy as possible.

A thought:
Check on what if any costs iof any are involved import wise if I were to send you a pair of spindles as a gift. They would probably be classed as used auto parts or some such. I have three or four pair sitting around that I will never use. I don't think the shipping would be too bad. I'll weigh them and see.

As far as the Big 13, I guess I better start a build thread. I'll take my camera over with me next week and snap a few of the motor worl we are doing at the shop.

TT forever,
Jim

EDIT.

Sorry; Didn't read/understand that you have the MPH in hand with a 4 to 1 drive. Ignore the jack shaft suggestion.

End EDIT

 

[Jimdear2]

Have any kind of brakes? No, But I was thinking of a transmission brake on the drive pulley or use the plug braking of the controller.

The pully in the picture looks like it has a couple of surfaces the you could make a nice disc type brake work on.

What size will the OD of the final rear wheels and tires be? I am thinking of starting off with a set of old 205 55 16" tyres off my car on steel rims giving a 23" diameter but it will depend on getting suitable rims cheap, otherwise whatever else I find.

Twenty three inch overall is a good starting point. Most of the garden tractors over here use a 23 or 26 inch diameter agracultral or grass tire so there are many wheel and tire combos around that would give you a wide low, pressure flotation tire later on if you want it. Using 23 inches would allow you to go to ag tires and wheels without affecting the front end. Lets lock it in at 23 inches rear tire diameter. Those usally mount to a 10 inch diameter wheel. Make sure the hubs on the axle will clear. I don't have a set of 10 inch wheels handy but I think the smallest ID is around 7.5 inches.

What will the center to center width of the final rear tires be? Not sure yet, will see what the wheels are like and then I will make spacers, figuring on about 24" centres to a maximum width of, say, 30".

What diameter front wheels? I have a pair of 8" diameter trolley wheels or I can use the 15" diameter wheels that came with this axle.

What is the planned width (center to center of the tires)? As above.

Lets lock it in at 30 inches center to center for now. I think that the 15 inch diameter wheels would better serve because larger diameter handles soft stuff better. Give me a proposed final length and we can both start sketching in a final product.

They are just the budget ride on mower type where an 'L' shaped rod doubles as king pin and axle threaded through folded tin work. The steering is another 'L' shaped rod that gives 2/3 turns lock to lock.

I think you are going to want at least 2 to 2.5 turns lock to lock. If you can't find anything premade, I have sucssfully built steering systems using chain and sptockets. We can look into that later.

Thank you, that would be wonderful. I am sure we can blag customs into letting though a late Christmas present.
I can appreciate the preference for good steering due to the weight and future fun factor so good spindles would be a great starting point.

PM me and we can see whats up, I'll weigh the spindles and see what postage will be.

I'll do a first sketch and trade you for your ideas. I'll send it along in a day or so. Picked up a chest cold and with my lungs I have to stay in bed. Doing E-Mail on my netbook and wireless is about my limit for the next little bit.

Later,
Jim

 

[Jimdear2]

Woody,

I like it. Rear motor makes sense.

Suggestions;

Best put all your battery weight up front. You will be shocked at how easy that front end is going to come up. As far as power, those Gel cells should work OK, but I heard the gells dont take high draw, deep cycleing well. Probably not a problem with the tractor (I get a half hour running at almost full throttle out of 4 very used 45 ah AGM batteries) but might be with the car if you need to go any distance. Another thing with gells, don't forget that the can be mounted at any angle.

A thought on motor alignment. Maybe a jackshaft or a 1 to 1 right angle drive?

The front spindles I'll be sending you are 3/4 inch. They are made from bent 3/4 inch round stock, machined and then the steering arms are positioned and welded. I would love to send you what is in the eBay pictures except that axles of eithe one are cast iron and weigh about 20 plus pounds.

Cub Cadet axle
http://cgi.ebay.com/1967-Cub-Cadet-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5885cc97ab

John Deer Garden tractor axle
http://cgi.ebay.com/1974-John-Deere...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5885ad1a9c

The drag link arm are what the bottom bushing of the axle rests on. Very simple stuff.

The wheels will be retained by either a snap ring or a flat washer and bolt or cotter pin. I don't remember what type I have here. I'll send you a picture as soon as I can get out to the shed. We are goin through some global warming here . 20 degrees F (-17 C). The warmest its been all week.

Jim

 

[Jimdear2]

That's great, I can make an axle from some 70mm x 50mm x 3mm box section.

I will have a look for other battery options but I am doubling or trippling the cost with conventional deep cycle ones that are also big enough for the car. I am only expecting the car to move enough to be tested and made legal.

I was thinking of a right angle drive for the motor while I was working on it. I will need to see what I can find. There was a pile of worm and wheel gearboxes at the scrap yard but I ignored them last week as there was too much mangled machinery around them. Probably too much reduction anyway.

I started on the frame for the TT.

I had some 40mm x 5mm angle from the scrap metal yard so I used that to for the bottom part of the frame. It is a bit small but it will do as a start and I will make a top frame over the batteries and then brace the whole thing into a girder bridge. If I can find some 50 or 60mm angle that would be better.
I need the TT to be CKD so that I can get it back off the bench and out of the basement so the four bolt attachment to the axle is really good.
I also need to get some extraction fitted as welding indoors isn't nice.

Woody,

WOW, you don't fool around once you start something.

A thought on the pully. It looks like it is keyed and pinned to the shaft. could you drive out the pin and turn the pully around so the snout is towards the gearbox then redrill and repin it. That looks like it would give you another inch.

Looking at the rear hubs with the three bolts. I remember seeing some French vehicles that used a three bolt pattern. Any chance they are the same?

On the front wheels make some spoked hubs and bolt them into the 4 bolt holes. Get some tubing that will comtain 3/4 inch ID bearings or bushings and make spokes from flat stock, Weld them to the hub on an angle then bolt or weld them to the wheel. Made a rear wheel for a Motorcycle Ice Racer with side car like that once. Used an old steel hub from a something motorcycle (can't remember) and a 15 inch car rim we had cut the center out of. We had the widest tire out there. This was back in the days when a 4 inch Harley rim and tire was the widest thing out there.

Don't say welding indoors around me. Just saying the words make my lungs clench up.

You keep going like this and you will finish in time to plow the last snow this year.

Jim

 

[Jimdear2]

Hi Dalarden,
So today I popped into a car breakers to find a couple of steel rims to use for the back of the TT. The intention was to get 16"x6" ish as I have a couple of old tyres from my car that would do as good slicks to start with. Also using 16" rims would allow me to use Land Rover off road tyres or dumper truck tyres. The chap pointed me to a skip full of old rims and told me to find what I wanted from the scrap. I found a couple of 16" x 6.5" steel wheel rims that felt a bit light but had a lot of offset to widen the track a bit. £5 the pair so I had them and left. They were aluminium with electronic pressure sensors on the valves. Not sure what car they were from but they will do.

I will make some spacers to make them fit and then use then inside out.

I also went to my friendly scrap metal yard and came out with something that I don't know if it will be a bargain or a waste of money. However, more on that in my MR2 thread as it is more relevent there.

Woody,

Nice find on the wheels. The wire looks promising as well.

I beleive I'll have those spindles on their way to you maybe this Wednesday. You will have to handle anything at your end to get them out of hock. Their value will be about $20.00 USD.

They are made from 3/4 inch bar stock that has been bent, machined and had the steering arms positioned and welded to so you can look for wheel bearings and tubing that will work with that for your hubs. Most tractors using the cast iron axles just bored the axle and ran the spindles in the cast iron with grease (should be obvious in the eBay pages I sent).

If you make an axle up out of box section tube and round tube you can run them in the tube OK as long as you grease the heck out of them (that's how I did my double engine tractor). I also ground grease reliefs into the spindle to make sure the grease got distributed

 

[Jimdear2]

Thank you Jim, I will let you know when they arrive.

I am up late trying to work out a spacer/adapter design to fit the wheels.
The wheels have 5 studs at 108mm pcd and a 60mm bore. I have found out that they are Renault: Espace, 21 turbo, Val Satis wheels, interesting but not helpful.
The transaxle hubs have 3 studs at 118mm, or more likely 4 5/8" pcd.

I'd like to get about 2 1/2" to 3" spacer, probably a disc on each end of some 3" pipe, turned and drilled to fit the studs. I will need to have a 60mm spigot for the wheels though and a flange to locate to the axle hub.
It is made awkward for fitting the wheels back to front as the outside doesn't have an easy flat face for mounting.

Woody,

Yep "sure" it's a pain to figure out stuff like that . . . NOT. Those kinds of things are what we do this for. Thats braging rights.

Here is a possible way to mount the wheels.

Bring the 5 bolts through the adapter plate. Then install 5 lug nuts backwards (taper out) install the wheel using standard nuts and washers properly tightened against the backiside of the wheel. This will center the wheel on the cones of the reversed lug nuts. You wont need the centering spigot although mounting would be easir=er if it were there. Since I'm not there looking at it, I'm sure there are refinements.

Looking good.

Jim

 

[Jimdear2]

I am still pleasently surprised at how helpful and generous people are, you sending the spindles, jackbauer's vacuum switch, Jozzer's buggy motor, The chap at the tyre shop fitting the tyres for free and just now, I was outside chatting to some tree surgeons feeling a tree and they sharpened my chainsaw properly for me and showed me what I was doing wrong.
And my mum wonders why I help dig out driveways in the snow, send free firewood off to friends and do free jobs for some people.

A very smart person I know of once wrote (I don't know if he originated it) I paraphrase;

"When you've recieved help, don't pay back PAY FORWARD"

Robert Heinline . . . Smart Man !

 

[Jimdear2]

Pay it forwards is good and healthy, I like that. There was a film about that wasn't there?

Here it is: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/

I'll have to see if I can find it and watch it. Amazon for $2.00 used I'll order it.

I believe I first heard this back in the late 60s early 70s. Robert A Heinlein (Sorry about misspelling the first time around) was a Science Fiction writer of some note. He used the quote in one of his stories. It appears he did not originate it though. I checked the quotes directly attributed to him

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robert_a_heinlein.html

If you've got some time read through them. I think you'll find the interesting.

I try to base a lot of my actions around these ideas and those of Ayn Rand.

I got the big pulley off this afternoon and had a play with bits I had that might fit the shaft. I came up with this for race gearing! Funny how the little sprocket was a perfect fit including keyway!

I also found a triple pulley block that fitted the shaft so I just need to open the keyway a bit to use it. I figured that I could machine it and use it to mount the bigger chain sprocket and then fit the small one on the motor shaft and then house the whole thing in a chain case that allows for bearings both sides of the sprockets and for tensioning and safety.
The input drive shaft can then stay in place while the motor is pulled for the car.
The tooth count is 12 and 42 so there will be a good reduction to allow for higher motor speeds.

Image seems to be upside down, not sure what Photobucket is playing at.

Looks like you have things in hand. A idea if you use the triple pully and if your trans has a neutral you might consider a power take off i.e. another pully and shaft with a slip belt clutch.

Jim

 

[Jimdear2]

I could get carried away.

I'll have a read about Heinlein, thanks.

Woody,

Come on . . . getting carried away is what it's all about, thats where the fun is. First you dream about what you want, then you build what you can afford.


Just got back from my partner's place. We finally managed to get the fields out of the barrel. I didn't beleive it, but the fields are heavier then the barrel.

Picked up a set of spindles, but need to find the steering link arm and couple of other pieces tomorrow morning out in the shed. Should have them boxed up and on their way tomorrow. I might have some 1/2 x 20 lug nuts I could throw in, I have to look. Probably not a good idea the SAE pitch thread bolts might cost you a fortune. Let me know if you think you can use them.

Jim

 

[Jimdear2]

Thanks Jim.

I think I am going to get a box of M12x45 cap screws and then eiher turn a cone onto some nuts or get some Ford wheel nuts on Ebay. They seem to be selling in packs of 4 and I need 10!

While I am getting the bolts I will probably sort out an order for other misc high tensile nuts and bolts. Buying them in small quantities from the local DIY shed is pointless as they are made of cheese there.

I am going to have to try and make the hub adaptors into some kind of simple disc brake with a parking brake lock if I am to use the driven pulley as a PTO.

I decided to take a load of scrap to the scrap metal yard today, I was cleaning my car out to take my furniture to college tomorrow and 'got carried away' in the tidy up. Came back with £76. Not bad for the bits of dead engine and some old push bikes and some of the lead from my roof repairs. That's half the cost of the cable covered.

Woody,

Just about to walk out of the house to go to the post office. I got the spindles but I can't find the arm that links the spindles to the steering link rod. Well its a simple piece and you should have no difficulty fabricatinng it. I'll make a drawing and sens it to you.I've also included an old pair of the wheel bearing that are used in the front wheels. They are a bkit ratty but maybe you can use therm as examples. They are standard hardware store wheel barrow wheel bearings over here. Maybe you can find equivalents.

Got to go for now, sounds like you have the front wheels and rear wheels figutred out. Thats great! ! ! If your interested I have made steering gear up with a 3 to 1 ratio using chain, sprockets, self aligning ag. bearings and a bit of flat stock. If you can't find any thing at the scrap yard (you seem to have a good local yard) let me know and I'll forward a description.

By the way you can come and clean up my scrap pile any time your over here i'ts got to be going over two ton now.

 

[Jimdear2]

Jim's spindles were delivered an hour ago.
No import tax to pay either so that was good.
Many thanks Jim.

Glad you got them and that their was no duty.

The delivery woke me. All this lack of sleep and I finally slept so soundly that I wasn't all that happy being woken but it was worth it. Unfortunately all that sleep came after my alarm clock went off and only got me through to lunch time. I should have been working hanging a door for a neighbour so I have sent my appologies and I will do it later rather then work on the tractor.

With all of the hoopala around a visit of royality, along with what appeares to be a very busy schedule. (you hide it well but it peeks through). I can guess you could be a bit on the frazzled side and need a bit of extra sleep.

I also got my delivery of drive chain, chain couplers and bearings. The bearing were one short as the package split open in the post but I have emailed the seller about it so hopefully I will get a replacement.

I also had a 'Doh!' moment. Jim's spindles, and he did tell me, are 3/4". I machined my drive components to take 20mm bearings and ordered a bag of 10 as they were cheap at £7.36 for 10. Doh!
I should have machined to 3/4" and just got one set of bearings to fit everything. I have asked the bearing seller to price me a set of 3/4" bearings along with the missing 20mm.

A couple of points on the spindles. Do you understand the terms TOOT, KPI, SAI, Camber, Caster, Toe, Trail, Wheel offset and Contact patch. All the correct angles are built into that set of spindles I sent. That is, WHEN you use the right angle and sizes on the the pieces you construct. Since you will be using the TT as a general yard and neigherbourhood vehicle we want to get it right so you arn't fighting the steering all of the time.

First thing, since you are ordering bearings, the King pin posts need to run in bushings not ball bearings. You could use taper bearings but that will just overcomplicate things.

For the King pin tubes you need to figure how to fit your components into the overall length allowed. This is the dimension from the support flange to the retaining washer and bolt. both tubes need to be the same length.

I use a piece of 1.5 inch OD X 1 inch ID steel tube. I get two 1 inch OD x 3/4 inch ID with a 1.5 inch flange hardware store bushings per side. You cut the tube to the proper length, then press the bushings into the tube, ream and polish the inside of the bushings until a proper fit is made.

A hint, the weight of the front end is going to rest on that little flange where the steering arms attach. It works but there is a lot of friction there. I always put a radial bearing with two thrust washers here. When I'm done I make up a little skirt seal to keep trash out of the radial bearing and allow grease to flow out.

All of the above should equal the dimension between the flange and the retaining bolt and washer.

For other bearings, If you plan on an articulated front axle (I would) you will need at least a 1 inch solid crosspin and bushings. Bigger is better here.

Since I don't have a Cad program (couldn't use it if I did) and what I do (did) use for dimensioned drawing went away when my system crashed. Then I bought a new machine with Windows 7 which won't load the old software. Now I've been sick and my hand shakes so much I can't freehand it.

What that was all leading up to . . . is we can't do any more to the front end until the rear end is finished and firmly locked down. Your steering box location is finalized. Length, wheel base, axle drop and front track is established.

What we want is the contact patch established in the linier center of the tire with a 1/2 inch or so of trail behind the verticle centerline. In order for the Toe Out On Turns (TOOT) to be correct the front track is going to have to be about the same width as the original tractor (we can fudge that a bit though)

Sorry to be so verbose Woody, I've been stuck in this house for over a week with this latest episode of the whats going around. I'm about ready to explode, in fact if I could stop wheezing and hacking long enough I think I would explode.