Carl's 416-8

The deck got torn down to the shell this morning and of course it looks worse as well.  At least the shell is really good which is the only part hard to find and not made anymore.  Almost every bolt has been pulled as you can see in the pics so I guess it's hammertime for a lot of the rest of the day. 

 

It's coming along.  I did the center hole with a piece of 1/2" thick steel about 6" round that I keep on the press, problem is that it won't work for the outer spindles.  I also noticed a lot of the ridge was gone and the outside worst spindle was pulled up and made the tilt even worse.  You can see it in the first 2 pics.  The third pic is where it's knocked down enough to get the spindle straight minus getting the low spots fixed on the opposite side, and getting all of it straight.

The next step is to get the rest of the bolts and hole straightened out which will mean making a "tool" or custom dolly that will fit right so when it's flipped over there will be something taller than the ridge to back it while hammering it out.  I got started on it from a scrap piece of 1/4" steel that is enough to do it with, and used the center spindle reinforcement as a pattern.

A hole was punched in the center, then a bolt with a shank that fit the punched hole perfectly, and a lock washer and lock nut on the back went on. Then the nut was chucked in the lathe to center it.  A parting tool was used to check it and get a good reference mark.  It will take too long to do it all on the lathe with a parting tool and it's already almost 7 here again so I'll finish it up tomorrow.  I've never had one bad enough to have to make a tool like this but I'm sure it will still come in handy on less damaged decks.  It will also fit both recessed sides so that's nice.  

 

Well, now we have a custom tool to check and fix spindle mounting flatness.  Quickest way to make it was keep shearing around the mark then finish it up on the lathe.  It took a few hours but a good custom tool is worth it.  



 

I finished a lot of the deck thanks to the new tool and the paint is looking pretty good too.  It's getting late so I'll get some pics tomorrow.  I got slowed down some when I was changing dies to punch a few holes in the new tool and the guide that has to be raised up to change them fell forward and caught my right arm as it swung down. The machine wasn't on, the guard is just real heavy and has a sharper edge on it than I thought.   

I had some 2 sided velcro and after getting the bleeding slowed down I got a liberal amount of kerosene on it and and a shop towel wrapped over it so I could keep working.   The vise is handy for a lot of these things as well lol. 

 

The deck was straightened out before the little mishap yesterday so I got pics of it this morning.  The reason I was punching the holes is because I knew the marker lines would go away and I wanted something better to see while working with it and make sure it would stay in place while straightening.  If not it could ride up and mess up the ridge, especially on the discharge side.

It straightened out quicker than I thought with the new tool.  It looks like there's still a gap around the edge in places but it's just the camera angle + shadows.  The back side has a bevel on it to match the ridge it sets up against so it won't damage it. 

Next step prob tomorrow or next week is to get out 3 good spindles and do some blade alignment checking to see if it needs more tweaking.  After that there are few small holes to patch and a few cracks to weld up.

 

This is the 4th time out for cleaning, at least without the steamer this time.  I swear if I have to get this thing out to the water again I'm gonna scream. 
Not really but this tractor is pretty much setting records in every category except welding or fabrication.    

On a bright note, the shop is cleaned up again and after much buffing, swirl removing, polishing, and a final wash to get the compounds off of everything it turned out really good.  All that's left is a wax job and a little detailing.  Putting everything back together and doing that may be a good job for tomorrow.



 

Today the tractor is being called as at other times the "might as well"  tractor again lol. 

First up this morning was finishing up the LED tail lamps.  Next up was getting the step on so the belt guard and rear fender could go on.  Of course someone had been there as well and the clutch pulley was hitting the step...  So it was time to fix yet something else unexpected.  We knew the pulley had a little play in it so since it had to come off, might as well replace it, might as well take the bad shock off, might as well set the brake switch just right, after all that the step went on the way it belongs.  Looking at the step the fender was hitting the step and prob making noise so might as well replace the bumpers that were gone.  You all see where this is going...

After getting all of that right and the belt guard and rear fender, new seat, the dash panels and all was on it was time to finish and set up the PTO.  After greasing the PTO bearings and shaft when it was ready to put the brake on it was wore out and had a loose rivet.  The wore out part wasn't so bad. but since it was loose what if it came loose and hit the PTO metal to metal so might as well replace the PTO brake with one we rebuilt here.

I think the tractor is pretty done now other than making a slot hitch setup to hold some JD weights that Carl already has for his regular mowing tractor instead of putting wheel weights on this one which will just be more of a pain if a rear wheel has to come off.  More on that next week but we already have an idea of what to do when he was here a few days ago. 

 

I finally get out earlier today, then I'm taking tomorrow off.  I need a day to catch up on cooking, cleaning, and being able to let my right arm get some air this weekend and scab up instead of being covered all day and night.  Here are some pics after getting it all together, a little more detailing, getting compound residue off, and a good waxing. 

 

Finally sorta online.  Internet is spotty and phone runs off of Spectrum internet + phone, phone service is unusable and they can't send someone out until late Saturday.  It looks like I have peace + quiet for the rest of the week lol..  At least I got this on here.

Internet is doing better but outgoing phone is still unusable pretty much.  It's like a bad delayed stutter but Spectrum said they know it's a problem on their end after checking the line the other day.  I think it's in the phone/internet modem but we'll see on late Sat. 

Anyway, I got 3 nice used spindles out the other day, pulled them apart and checked them out, cleaned the ends, checked all the threads for everything and they were pretty nice for 1/3 the price of new ones.  I had 3 NOS pulleys that had a little surface rust so they got blasted for the test fit.  I decided to put everything together and do a test fit.  Everything looked good but I still didn't have the blade alignment I expected...

I decided to check the new Toro blades that don't say Made in USA anymore.  I got out my Empire machinist square and used the heavy long part to check the blades.  They are all different and the holes aren't perfectly centered, or have a precision fit like the old made in USA ones on any of them, I took pics of 1 for an example but the pic still doesn't show everything you can see with the eye, the light behind did help though.  By the fit, finish, the fact the hole is sloppy, and they are not straight tells me they are prob made offshore but they are the best available.  It's coming back apart in the morning to do a little welding, undercoating, and painting on the shell then I can finish it up and see how everything works.  I wouldn't be surprised if it had a little vibration but maybe not, we'll see.