Dave's 1450 Sub-Project

[CC1650Dave]

I went out and stared at it for a while, and decided to go with a thick washer, but I ground and filed it down to fit into the hole, so I could weld it in flush.

Here's a washer before hacking it up, and the one I fit into the hole:



Once I got it real close, I press-fit it into the hole with vise grips, so I didn't have to deal with holding it while welding.



I then tacked it in and periodically reamed the hole with a file and a high-speed grinding stone on my air tool to keep it clean. Once it was welded in, I ground the welds flat, and I'm ready to go:



I know there are a few gaps in my welds (you can really see them in this macro close-up) but I did both sides so I'm not too concerned with getting every space filled. The more I thought about it, these holes are holding a rubber fitting at low compression, so they're more of a guide than they are a "bolting things together" type arrangement.

I'll be putting the K341 16HP in this tractor for just a few months, so I'll be able to evaluate how this is holding up when I pull it back out.

[MartyC]

Been following your thread. Neat fix. Great work!

[CC1650Dave]

Thanks Marty. I did wind up going out and filling in the gaps after posting this. Just looking at the close-up annoyed the perfectionist in me.

[bocephus1991]

Looks like it outta work! Great repair job!

[CC1650Dave]

The other night, I did the trunnion on the 1450. When I did the 1650's trunnion, the tractor was split so I had easy access to the hydro. This time, I did it by removing the seat pan and tunnel cover only.

It was a bit more difficult to get to everything, but not impossible. Here are the steps to do it yourself:

This time I soaked those footrest screws with penetrating oil for a few days, then went straight to the impact wrench with a #3 phillips head mounted up to it. I stripped out the phillips on two of the screws, but I was able to grab the heads tight with vise grips, and turned them out that way.

Once you get the footrest screws out, you have to remove your battery and get the 4 bolts under there. Disconnect your taillight wiring and the seat pan will come off.



Then you disconnect the speed control linkage:





Then pull the pin from the brake linkage up here:



And now the two bolts holding the assembly to the hydro:



And that part is out:



Now you'll need a pair of ring pliers to remove the clip from the end of the shaft, and you can remove the bracket:



Once it's off, you'll be able to pull the springs and seats out:





And here's my trunnion wear. Really not that bad compared to most I've seen:



A touch of welding here, and then file it back to square.



That's all the pics I took. There's more related to this over on my 1650 Project Thread.

Reassemble the bracket onto the shaft and check for play. If it's loose at all, you'll want to add a shim on one side of the bracket or other (depending on which side centers it best over the springs) to get it snug, replace your clip, and put everything back together.

[ACecil]

Great pics, Dave! Thanks for the update!

[CC1650Dave]

This has me a bit puzzled. I went to check out the mounting of the engine cradle today, and when three of the bolts are in place, the fourth one is way out of line.

I'm using the $20 set you get off Ebay, so I'm not sure if that's my problem or what. I didn't spend a lot of time on it tonight, so I'll pull it back apart tomorrow and try and figure it out. It's really just a mock-up at this point anyway, because I need to get new bolts for this.

I welded it up using the oil pan to hold the rails in place, and it still mounts up to the oil pan perfectly. The inside of the rails measures true and parallel from front to back.





See how the rail runs all the way up to the frame? Everything else is pretty well centered over the holes...

[Methos]

Dave you've been busy! Thanks for the pics!

[CC1650Dave]

Update on the engine cradle issues:

I talked a little more about my problem over on buddylee64's thread about ISO's.

It was suggested that my rails must have warped during welding, something called "distortion" in welding lingo. I figured I was going to have to either heat the welds up with a set of torches (that I don't have) or grind them out and do over.

Tonight, I went out to the garage and decided to try and bend the rails inward a little, so I put them in the vise and brought them in 1/4". They did, indeed, fit onto the ISOs better.

But my oil pan would not mount up any longer. The holes were too close together.

Alright, now I know it's not all due to distortion. I bent the rails back out to fit the oil pan (which, by the way, makes them nice and parallel as they were when I welded them) and started trying to figure out what the heck.

It turns out that the frame itself is bent where the ISOs sit. The old ISOs were shot, and the K321 was torquing on the frame. Here's a look at what I'm talking about - the metal is not all that rigid here:






So I grabbed the frame with vise grips and bent these surfaces to the proper angle. It's kind of hard to describe, but the angle at which the ISOs rested on the frame, and the angle at which the bolts came through was causing all of the misalignment issues.




And finally, the engine cradle is mounted up and ready to provide a temporary home for the K341 from the 1650 project.

[Methos]

Dave I'm glad you got it figured out!