[ndanger]

Thanks for the tips on the vent.

The manual shows jack stands holding the front section up. I was planning to do that if mine fit. Otherwise I'll jack it up and drop it back on stacks of 4x4s.

My neighbor has an under-used small floor jack, so I'll probably borrow that. I'm kinda out of shop space and I'm not working right now, so I'll probably wait to buy my own.

The next step is to get the decades of crud off of the drive train. It's a mess. I have to go out and get some degreaser and get the power washer out. Are there any orifices on the hydro that I need to cover up? I'd cover the differential vent, but I'm going to change the differential fluid anyway.

I also plan to pull the rear differential cover to see in what shape things are in there. Hopefully I won't need to repair anything, but the brakes were starting to fade a bit when I had the tractor in service. I may need to replace them. I remember a thread awhile back where Matt? posted a reply about how to go about doing that.

Also, the hydro fan has no vanes anymore. I need to figure out a way of replacing that using some sort of split-coupling arrangement (I saw a YouTube video where a guy did that) so I don't have to pull the engine up and forward to free the driveshaft end.

It's amazing when one starts pulling covers off and looks at the stuff that was covered up.

I really need to get this thing in service so I can finish hauling slash and finish mitigating my property for wildland fires.

Thanks.