This Won't Take Long

J

Jim Becker

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Staff member
That's what we always think. This afternoon I was going to get my '49 Cub out and reverse the drawbar to mount an implement. This tractor, which I have had for a long time, came with a left final drive housing that had been slobber-brazed. The drawbar bolts were all messed up and rethreaded to 3/4". Long ago, I got a replacement final drive assembly but never got around to changing it. As I thought about trying to fight a drawbar onto the 3/4" bolts, I decided to just swap the housing and get it over with. It wouldn't take long.

I got out the replacement assembly, ran a tap into all the crud-laden bolt holes, cleaned up the input shaft, added some oil, and it was ready to go. Just needed to swap it in. Started in on the tractor. First thing, the mounting bolts required 2 different wrench sizes. Odd. Turned out, there were 2 3/8" bolts and 4 that had been oversized to 7/16". Between the oversize and the slobber-brazing, sockets and box end wrenches would not fit on several of them. Some weren't tight, others were really stuck. I finally managed to break them all loose. 4 bolt holes in the housing had been drilled out for the 7/16" bolts. One of the 2 dowel pins was missing. Fortunately, the replacement came with 1 dowel, so I have enough for the job. I'm not convinced that the holes were actually drilled and retapped oversize. They may have just somehow forced the bolts in. I tried running a 3/8" tap into the oversized holes and it seemed to hit some material. So I think I can fix them with 3/8" Heli-Coils. Somehow, I happened to have a 3/8" insert kit with 5 inserts. I tried my luck on one hole and it seems to have worked okay. I did have to drill out some material before tapping for the insert. I still have to put in the other 3 inserts. After spending the rest of the afternoon and much of the evening, the tractor is still hanging on the hoist, waiting for me to do 3 inserts then reassemble everything. The rest of the job won't take long.
 
Oh Jim… I feel your pain 😵‍💫

My beloved daughter was helping me with a “project” many years ago. Simple enough as it began, turned into something like yours !

Out of nowhere, from the mouth of a child, a new saying was born: “Oh… a Chain Reaction Project !” Every time another project starts, I think fondly of her, and the direction the project might well go ?

Jim, thanks for starting my day with some laughter 😂
 
Best book I ever read to the kids was Jimmy's Pet Boa Constrictor....all about chain reactions and the story of EVERY project I ever started...
 
Thanks (everyone) for sharing this! I'm so glad to learn that my experiences are somewhat as normal as most everyone else and I'm not the oddball......... JMHO Stan
 
glad i am not the only one that runs into this!! Good luck on the rest of your project and hope for no more problems on it!
 
Sounds familiar to me. Every day occurence. But there is a bright side. Next time you want to reverse it everything will be fine. Yesterdays hour, half hour for someone half my age, job did get done late afternoon. The jobs that go smooth you don't remember. I think I had one back in ............................. 78 or 79......................... :D Vern
 
I just got finished turning parts from 2 Cub-3 Field Cultivators into 1 cultivator and some leftover parts. That used up a week-worth of tinker time. I'm not sure which was more work, coming up with 7 decent spring teeth or getting the 5/8" rivets out of the frame rails. Anyway, after finishing it I had a little half hour or maybe hour-long task to try it out. That is what turned into the final drive project.

Today I was going to be in town. So, I decided to pick up new bolts, grade five to get a slightly better fit in the Heli-Coils. Checked the parts catalog for the proper lengths. Wow, is that entry in the catalog messed up. I finally decided on 1" and 1-3/4" long. You know what lengths the hardware store has: 3/4, 1, 1-1/4, 1-1/2, 2, 2-1/2. I covered my bet by buying both 1-1/2 and 2. I got back to installing the inserts. Drilling out the 3 remaining holes showed that they were all in worse shape that the first one, hopefully still good enough. I only got to 1 of those inserts. It gave me grief, mainly on removing the tang. It does not work well if the insert is starting to clear the back side of the hole. I installed it several times before I called it good enough. Another day, another insert.
 
Thanks for telling what you are doing.
I don't think you said if you replaced the oil seal in the final drive, on the upper shaft. While it is off is a good time to replace the seals. You probably know the upper seal, and the seal in the transmission usually need replacing before the lower seal, on the axle shaft.
 
Jim, regards the tang problem; I've found it easier to insert until the bottom of the helicoil is flush, then use a dremel with a cut-off wheel to remove any loops extending above the top.
 
Bob McCarty said:
Jim, regards the tang problem; I've found it easier to insert until the bottom of the helicoil is flush, then use a dremel with a cut-off wheel to remove any loops extending above the top.
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That makes sense. In this case, I thought the entire insert would be contained inside the hole. I think I was done in, at least partly, by a small piece broken out of the casting. The coil was not as supported as I thought it was.
 
Glen said:
Thanks for telling what you are doing.
I don't think you said if you replaced the oil seal in the final drive, on the upper shaft. While it is off is a good time to replace the seals. You probably know the upper seal, and the seal in the transmission usually need replacing before the lower seal, on the axle shaft.
Click to expand...
In the spirit of not making that project any bigger, I rationalized not replacing any seals. My rationale:
- The seal in the transmission wasn't particularly leaking before, so might not now either.
- I have no idea if any of the three seals in the final drive leak, no point replacing one if I am going to find another one needs replacing. Changing the top one requires dealing with the brake drum to remove the shaft. Don't want to go there.
- Since the housing will have been recently removed and replaced using new hardware, removing it again isn't really much work.
 
I had too much other stuff going on to touch it yesterday. This afternoon I finished it with no more major complications. This particular tractor had not been run since last fall. So, the next thing was to see if it would run. You know what was next, turn on the gas and see it start pouring out of the carburetor. I cut the fuel back off then tried starting it. It started right up and ran until it ran the carburetor empty. I think I'll give it a chance to fix itself. That is just a normal spring start-up.
 
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