Dave's 1650 Project

[CC1650Dave]

NAPA was $5.50 each on those seals. Autozone was $13.99. Go figure.

[CC1650Dave]

I think the thing that's starting to get to me about this project is that everything is still tear down, tear down, tear down.

I'd like to get something "built up" and ready to go, but I have painting to consider.

You keep thinking, "I'd better paint it while it's apart" so I can do a better job. And you don't really want to start painting until you have enough parts ready to go to make a good painting session...

[westofb]

The axle bearings will stay in place when you pull the axles out, if they come apart, probably wise to change them out, they are bad. I've been inside both my tractors rears, the axles come out very easily, use a couple screw drivers or an open set of needle nose pliers to push the axle retaining clips off. I reinstalled mine by getting them in place with the needle nose pliers, and then pressing them on with the wooden handle of a small brass bristled parts brush. On the seals themselves I used a small pry bar to pop them out, taking care not to gouge the bearings. I did not need to replace any of the wheel bearings, but am guessing you would need to either jerk them out with a bearing puller on a slide hammer, or remove the axle tube and drive them out from the inside.

I feel your pain on the paint work, I am still in the process of getting all the parts for the 149 painted. I have been doing a few items at a time, doing them as I needed to put it back together. It breaks up the prep work and painting into smaller jobs, but I am going through a lot of mixing cups and wasting some paint doing it this way. Work has been keeping me very busy, but I plug away at it as I can, I hope to have it done in time for fall plowing and snow removal duties thus winter.

Your making good progress, keep up the good work!

[westofb]

Just catching up reading your posts to this thread and saw where you were asking about rim sizes. Once you dismount the tires, the inside of the rim will be stamped with the rim size. On my 149, I put ags on the rear and chose to go with the narrower rims (7" I think, anyway the ones that came with 23-8.50-12 tires). Here is a pic of the inside of my stock rear wheels (the ones that came with 23-10.50-12 tires) showing the stamp inside of the rim indicating the size, the date of manufacture, and the manufacturer of the wheel.
006.jpg005.jpg007.jpg

I thought it was interesting that the wheels were made by Firestone.

[litlmikeyl]

Dave,

I hope you're not getting discouraged that it seems like you're still tearing down things. I just "got over" that feeling with my 100 because it seemed like the teardown process was never going to end. I ran into the issue of whatever I touched was either worn out, broken or PO modified and needed to be remedied. A fluke for my situation is that I am updating things as I go - such as swapping my axle tubes & axles from bushings to the roller bearings from a newer rear end. Either way, its worth everything you put in.

You mentioned earlier the elegance of the construction of these tractors. Whoever designed these really knew what they were doing and made a magnificent little machine. Take comfort in the notion that once you're done the tractor will probably last until your son is going into retirement... maybe longer.

Speaking of your little boy, my Dad did the same thing with me when I was 4 (I just turned 30 this week) and what I learned while tinkering on various things with him led to wrenching on bigger things and it snowballed from there. I use the knowledge that I learned from him everyday of my life and in ways that I didn't think was possible. The benefits both of you will reap are far outside what you can imagine.

Excellent job so far! Keep it up!!

[CC1650Dave]

No worries Mike, I'm not getting discouraged. I just like to complete little sub-projects within the project to feel some sense of accomplishment. And the more I let things sit after tearing them down, the less fresh the reassembly is in my mind.

I kind of keep the idea that this may be Ryan's tractor one day, long after I'm gone. It adds a long-view to the project that keeps you going. Thanks for the encouragement, this thing is going to be sweet when I'm done!

[CC1650Dave]

westofb, I was kind of hoping that these 23x8.5-12's are mounted on 8.5" rims so I don't need to replace them when I go to 10.5" or 12" tires, but they could very well be 7". Although, when I look at them the rim does seem to be as wide as the tread.

They'll be coming off soon and getting cleaned up, so we'll see...

[CC1650Dave]

Painting has really been consuming my brain time lately. I've read a lot about it here, and other places.

I've been wanting to buy an air compressor for general garage use for some time, but there's just no way I'm going to be buying one of these big 30 gallon, several hundred dollar units that everyone recommends.

I'm wondering how a basic home-use compressor with an 8 gallon tank or so will hold up for shooting small parts with an HVLP gun. Anyone here have experience using an undersized compressor with an HVLP gun? I mean, if it can shoot for 5-10 seconds at a time, I think I can work with that to do the frame and chassis parts. I'll just shoot them outside, and if a bug lands on them I'll knock it off and keep going.

I have two cousins with full auto painting facilities, so maybe when it comes time for the sheet metal I could take it over to one of their places to use their setup.

[_DX3_]

I painted my 128 with my Lowe's air compressor and an HVLP gun... Never ran out of air and could paint all I wanted. It's a 10 gallon I think. Electric motor.

Set pressure around 40psi at the tank. Worked good for the gun I used.

[TheSaturnV]

Concur.

I used my 5hp 20 gallon and never had to wait for air. The size of fenders, frame and hood are so much smaller than doing the whole side of a car for example. Plus, as mentioned you use low pressure settings with HVLP guns.

Sandblasting, now there's a need for a big shop compressor.