Maybe I should have called a plumber.

I took today off work, I've got a lot to do this weekend.

First job, change the oil in the differential.


I didn't have a tool that would open that. So, I just made one from an old rail spike.


This time I was ready for water. But I didn't think there would be this much of it.


Two and a half fucking gallons of it.

Plus a little bit more in the little pan.


So, there should have been 6 gallons of oil in the differential. I would guess there was actually around 4. But, given all the water in there, at least the oil would have been covering the all the gears and such, so it should be in decent shape. I also took out the remains of 2 corks from the bottom of the axle shafts, right at the bottom of the large bellhousing. I'm pretty sure these are there just to allow you to drain any oil that leaks out of the differential and into the axle housings, but I'm not positive on that. I need another bag of corks to properly seal them up again, so I didn't put in the gear oil today, I'll do it Sunday.

While I let the oil drip out, I drilled a bunch of 5/8ths holes to use these 12" bolts for my battery "tie-down". The c-channel is just about the right size.


Tore all the motor mounts, shafts, and tensioner bits out of the frame so I can clean all my leftover tapping fluid and drilling detritus off. Re-primered where necessary.


Re-cleaned (because they started rusting) the fiddly bits and primered them. I'll put some grease on the friction surfaces when I get everything back together so it's easier to slide the tensioner a bit.


Cleaned, primered, and painted the battery components.


Then I had to call it a day faily early. But, I had some mail to pick up at the post office first. I had to get a new contactor with a 12 volt coil. The last one I ordered had a 72 volt coil, but I thought it was rated for 72v across the contacts. So, it's my fault, but really, who the hell uses 72 volts to operate a friggin relay?


And...It works!


This contactor is much bigger than my old one. Easily 2x larger and 3x heavier, the contacts are bigger, and the copper bus plate is much thicker. It was even cheaper, amazingly.

Weld weld weld weld weld weld WELD weld weld.

Finished work on that battery tray.


I need to figure out some way to bolt the tray to the frame. The corners are all covered in weld, and not big enough to hold a bolt.


I welded an extra cross member and an ugly angle bracket on to hold a bolt.


It ain't pretty, but it works perfectly. Got the mounting holes drilled too.


Cleaned and primered.

Check out the rack on that.

Got the wheel in place, and I cut and filed an appropriately sized bit of keystock for the tensioner wheel. I also made one for the shaft coming off the motor.


Painted the bracket from Thursday.


Time to figure out how to put these batteries in the frame.


The steering column makes it a little difficult to get things in there nice and straight, unfortunately.


This looks pretty promising.


I've got to keep the rear 2 in the middle, as the frame tapers down closer to the transmission case, and the sheetmetal that hangs off the hood (eventually) will need to sit flush with the frame itself.


So I have to do this wackey offset in the middle. That's probably not a bad thing, really, it means I have to put more support in the middle to hold it all up.


Only got the first weld done. It was really hot and sunny and I was swaying a bit from the heat, so the stringers aren't as good as I'd like, but they'll work.


So, the battery tray allows enough room for me to mount another 4 batteries above this set when I'm done. I can probably get a third bank of 4 at the front too, if I stack them right. There's no way these things are 100 pounds, probably more like 60 or so, so I'll want more in there anyway.

I have the best neighbour in the world.

My neighbour is an awesome guy. He was kind enough to drill out the keyway on my tensioner wheel. He also drilled and tapped a new hole for a set screw.


Things are coming together nicely.

Why do these small jobs take so long?

I finished drilling the mounting holes for my forward bracket.


I was also lucky enough to find a 1/4" plate of aluminium that fit fairly well inside the bracket at the place I buy my metal.


Fuck I hate drilling holes without a drill press, it takes forever.


Right, cleaned and primered.


Hopefully tomorrow I can get the battery tray finished and this bracket totally painted and remounted.

Commiting some atrocities against welding.

So I took a short camping trip this weekend. Wasn't able to get a whole lot done on the tractor as a result, but it was certainly nice to take a break.

Once I got back and before I parked my tent trailer, I dropped the tractor off the rear wheel stands and rolled it back into my "shop". This is a lot closer to where I keep all my tools when I'm working, so hopefully it will streamline the work.


As for actual work, all I did tonight was take the front radiator bracket out, weld on a new crossbar, trim the legs, weld on wider feet so I can use both bolt holes in the frame to attach it, and drill some holes. Didn't get all 4 mounting holes done tonight, it got a little dark.

Massive failure leads to new direction.

So my attempt at building a hinged tensioner was a failure. One I spent way too many evenings on.


The wheel impacted the top pulley, and the pillow block's dimensions wouldn't let me mount the hinge any lower, or else it wouldn't move at all.


So I had to throw out all of that and I have to come up with something else. Luckily, I found a bit of slotted angle iron in my scrap pile. So I made a new sliding mount for a pillow block out of some tubing.


Welded it to a bit of flat iron to span the frame with.


As the frame is so cramped at the back, I need a bracket to keep the bolts from spinning whenever I need to adjust the tensioner. So I made this little guy out of some scrap.


Tacked in place just so it doesn't fall out.


All in place. Fits pretty good!


Now for the front. I only had the one bit of slotted angle iron, but that's ok. Up front I have way more space to work in, so I'll just weld 2 bits of flat together with a 3/8th gap in between so I can get some bolts in there.


Here's the other pillow block mount all welded up and drilled.


It's pretty cramped in there. But at least it all fits.


Here's the final product. This actually works, at last!



That's the last bit of major fabrication I have to do for now. Next up, batteries.