Well, still no pics yet, but I have a lot done. Should be able to start re-assembly tomorrow.
Today, and all previous effort has been directed towards cleaning, identifying issues, and disassembly.
Managed to get the steering shaft out and disassembled. It ended up being a lot more of a chore than I anticipated. Used the trick with an air hammer to remove the wheel, after letting it soak up penetrating oil for about a week. Pretty much came right off. Went ahead and disassembled the gearbox, but ran out of brake cleaner, so I still have a lot of cleanup to do on it. The pin was worn flat out, so I chucked it into an electric drill and spun it against a grinder to re-shape it. It came out pretty close, but I may spend a little time on it. Want to see how it feels after I assemble it before I commit any more effort on the pin, since there will be irreparable wear on the worm anyways.
The sector shaft bushing seems to be pretty tight, so no work needed there.
Bearings are a little rusty, but I'm just going to clean them up a bit. may run them into the races with a little bit of valve grinding compound to smooth them up, and then clean them reassemble. used to do that with bicycle bearings before they started using sealed bearings. You can get a really smooth action, but you don't want to over do it.
All in all, given all the slop in the system, it is going to be about 10 times better. I will hit a bearing shop this week and find a thrust bearing for it. If anyone has a part number that can be cross referenced, I would appreciate it. I hope it is as big an improvement as I have heard.
I welded up my old muffler yesterday, but I am not going to use it long term. I'll just go ahead and order a new one for it. I'm not going to install side panels on the tractor, so I will most likely find a small canister muffler, and install a vertical stack and muffler. I like the look, so I'll give it a try before I shell out 90 dollars for an OEM system. I'll have to decide if it will survive the vibration long term. I will be leaving the firewall off as well, but will hang on to it, just in case I decide to install the panels at a later date.
Pulled the engine and made a thorough examination of the engine mounts and as I suspected, there was a lot of wear, and the engine was loose. Figured I was dealing with some threads pulled out, but they look reasonable. Three of the bolts were missing, so the oil pan has been sitting there wearing. I'll be ordering a cast Iron pan before it all goes back together. I will be adding the brace to the rails as well. need to find a fuel bowl gasket and a needle/seat for the carb.
Hope to have all the needed work on the tractor done by the end of the week, but It probably will take a little longer.
At least I have all the unpleasant work done now. A little bit of cleaning left to do, but It is always more enjoyable to watch something go back together than it is to tear it down.
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