Two minutes total hammering time, even before today, and the rockshaft pin was out!!
I swear to God that was all. Like I said before, you could tell nothing was solid when I hit it. I added the giant C-Clamp yesterday to hold the frame together but it wasn't enough. Decided what I needed was something I couldn't move with a hammer--a farm tractor. Before I started on the Cadet this afternoon we put the scrape blade on the back of dad's 454 IH (about 45 hp)--weatherman is calling for snow. I managed to squeeze it crossways in the shop then moved the 1811 parallel to the blade--really close. Put a piece of 2" tubing between the Cadet and the scrape blade. Hit the rockshaft a couple licks with a 2lb hammer and could tell it had moved just a bit. I was using a piece of barstock to drive with, so knowing how bad I swing a hammer I gripped the heck out of it with visegrips to get my hand out of the way. Several more good hits and then it seemingly jumped a 1/4" and changed sound--it was like knocking a ball over the fence, you knew you had it. From then on it was just steady hammering. I was quite happy watching the parts fall on the floor! I would have took more pics but my phone battery went dead. Enough with the rockshaft for today. I pulled the carb out of soak and put it back together and installed it and the muffler. We were really late for supper so it was time to call it a day.
