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1450
Just wanted to say hello to everyone.
I am taking possession of a 1974 1450 today. Went to look at it yesterday, and while it needs a little TLC, it looks like a solid tractor. The gentleman stated it ran 3 years ago when it was parked, and my first thought was, yeah, so what. 3 years is a long time to leave something sitting for no reason, so something has to be wrong. I was hoping it wouldn't be serious. Got there, hooked up some cables and cranked it over. turned over with no issue, but would not quite start. Checked the spark, and it would arc a half inch, so it seems hot enough. It had fresh gas in the tank, but that really doesn't mean much if it has 3 year old gas in the carb, so I dropped the bowl for a look. It was very clean, and bone dry. Pulled the float, and got the needle freed up so gas would run, and replaced the bowl. Turned it over again, and it fired right up. No smoke, no hesitation, and a great relief. Aired up the tires, and started the test ride. The speed control was a bit stiff, and initially it would only go about half way, but it moved forward and reverse with no issues. Kept manipulating the speed control and eventually, it went full forward, and the thing jumped out at full speed. You have to love it when you start out expecting to walk away, and the initial results are a disappointment, but it turns out good in the end. The only attachments are a beat up 44" deck(all three spindles turn smoothly, so only cosmetic issues) and a front snow blade. In any case, glad to be here. I have been searching for a good vintage tractor for a couple of months now, so I have spent a lot of time on here as well as other sites. This site was very influential in convincing me that the 1450 was worth going and taking a look at, so you all have already been a great help to me. I figure that you will have an opportunity to help me out a lot more in the near future :beerchug:. I have been wrenching for about 4 decades now, so I'm pretty good with the standard maintenance items, but there has got to be a whole lot that isn't in the factory manual, that you folks have figured out. |
Welcome. Great success story. I think there are a few other Texas members here as well. We all love pics on here so we will be waiting for them!.:beerchug:
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Welcome yes these purchases are usually a bit of a roller coaster ride on the emotions. Glad yours is ending on a high side.
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:Welcome2: Sounds like you will fit in just fine with this group. Nice to see someone make all the right moves to check out a non runner. :beerchug:
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You've got a great tractor!
First thing I would check is the engine ISO mounts. The engine sets on them and it's common for them to crush over time. If you can rock you're engine back and forth, they will need to be addressed. The QL tractors are IMHO some of the coolest looking tractors IH made, however... :TTWWP: |
Welcome to OCC! Glad to have you!
Looking forward to seeing pics!:beerchug: |
Welcome to OCC! Congrats on your 1450.
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Congratulations. Did this one happen to be in Canton or Athens? If so I almost went to get it Friday but talked myself out of it. Good luck and have fun.
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Just got it home, and gave it a little bit closer look, and while I didn't get burned, there is plenty that will need to be addressed to bring it to it's full glory. On the other hand, a new muffler, spark plug, oil change, carb kit, and maybe file and set the points, and it would probably be good for the full season. Needle valve stuck closed again while I was tooling around the yard to get the oil up to temp for a change, so I'll have to address the carb this week. Too late for this year, but I will have a hydraulic tiller built for it by the fall, so I can start getting my garden sorted out. It came with a full set of manuals, including Operators, Service, Parts, and a Kohler engine manual. Some of it's previous history is folded in the pages of the manual, in the form of old service notes, and receipts. |
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Well, no Pics yet, but I got a little bit done.
First things first, I aired up the tire for the third time in 3 days. 3 are holding, but one of the fronts leaks off overnight. Fired it up, and pulled it down by the shop, yanked the battery and put it on a 2 amp charger(actually, its a 60 amp charger, on the lowest setting). Pulled the rear fenders and started cleaning out 40 years of grunge and old straw. Yanked a lot of it out by hand, and then hit it with a blower nozzle and 125 psi air. Got a lot of it off, but there are several hours of cleaning before I'm going to call it done. Soaked everything down with a liberal bath of WD40. Not much works better as a pre soak when cleaning greasy items. Most of the time I can just follow it with the compressor, and then just a soapy bath, but this thing is a mess. Strangely enough, every bolt or screw I turned was barely hand tight, and some were downright loose. Even missing one of the 12 point aircraft bolts holding the hydrostatic pump together and another was not even finger tight.. Talk about a near miss. Will have to go thru this thing with a socket set, and check every single fastener before I put it into operation. Drained the oil, but did not refill. Will probably fill it up, and run it for an hour or so, and then change it again. Gathered up the parts of the muffler, to see if there was enough metal to repair it, and for the most part it is full thickness. It just shook itself to death. I'll repair it and weld another brace to it. Still Have to remove the pipe threads from the exhaust pipe, where it broke off, and come up with that odd shaped pipe coupler. I may just see if I can duplicate it with schedule 40 pipe. Another option is to fab up a bolted flange, since my block is drilled and tapped for it. If I go to all that effort, I'll probably just make a new muffler for it. Pulled the top cover off the Diff housing to check on things, and for the most part, it looks good. One thing concerns me, but I'm not quite sure how to handle it. The inside of the housing is coated with a thick, paraffin like substance. I am sure it is a deposit from the oil, but I have never seen anything like it in a hydraulic system. It almost looks like the waxy deposits that you found under the rocker covers of an old v8, back when oil wasn't the same quality we have now, but it was much softer. About half way between paraffin and Vaseline in consistency. Guess I'll just clean it up as well as I can and hope for the best. Hate the thought of a big glob of it working its way into the hydrostatic pump, or clogging the filter. That's pretty much where I stand right now. I know I was all over the place, but my intent was not so much to repair anything at this point, as it was to make a good assessment of what I have and prep it for the work to come. |
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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. |
Dahoyle check your private messages, I sent you one a while back
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No pics... IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!!
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Thanks for the update.
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Well, spend a few hours today rebuilding the steering box. I don't understand how someone can let something get so bad when all that it really needed was a few shots of grease from time to time. I was concerned that the worm was worn unevenly so I did the initial adjustment out at one end. Once I got everything set how I wanted, there was barely any slack in the wheel, as compared to the sector shaft. On the other hand, now I can tell exactly how bad the rest of the steering is. McMaster Carr will be getting a fair bit of my mad money this month to replace every single tie rod end. The front axle also has some pretty significant movement, but I think I will be doing a bit of re-engineering in that area. I will be installing radius rods to handle that.
http://fixthatford.com/images/diagrams/3A1.jpg I also overhauled the speed adjust lever while I had it out. The rivets holding the handle onto the flat spring had developed a lot of slop. Improvised an anvil and peened the rivets and presto, good as new. Of course, once again, getting one thing tight reveals all the slop in the rest of the linkage. I will be fabricating new linkages with threaded rod and small heim joints. I will be going thru the rest of the speed control next. Going to have to replace the springs, shim up the linkages, and to a little welding. Need to build up the pins where they ride in the slots. they have flat spots worn into them. Not severe by any stretch of the imagination, but If I have them out, may as well add a little weld and file them to fit a little better. Guess the pump is coming out next weekend. |
Thanks for the update.:beerchug:
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