Custom steel cab build for a 1450

[ksanders]

I've used majic brand paint like you're talking about. Personally it's the worst paint I've ever used. 6 days later with hardener and it seems still borderline tacky. Now they sell a reducer for it but I know a tsc manager who said it's a widespread complaint. I've painted my share of tractors too

[CC1450]

thanks fellas I appreciate your input and ideas. I have a pop rivet tool and box of rivets. I may go that route for the rest of the panels yet, it would save me some grinding and filling for sure.

The cab will come off with the fenders. Take the fender bolts out, slide it forward an inch or two and lift it off. I've got a chain hoist setup so I'm not too concerned about it.

In regards to the paint I think I will just have napa mix me up a half gallon of each, white and yellow. I was reading some comments on other forums as well about the majic brand and saw others complaining about long dry times too. I'm not looking for a show quality finish, just something to protect the steel but I also am a little impatient. I don't want to wait a week for paint to dry, that sounds like no fun.

Tried to mount the ags on the front rims. Blasted myself square in the nose with a tire iron that slipped out of the bead. That was enough of that haha! I'm thinking I will pick up harbor freight's mini tire changer monday on the way home from work. It adds a little expense to the project but it will be nice to be able to successfully change tires on my equipment without beating myself up too badly. The 4 ply carlisle tires in 8" are very stiff and not fun to work with.

I didn't get much else done on the cub yesterday, decided to work on my garage's roof instead. One of those "better do what I need to do rather than what I'd like to do" days. I'm installing a steel panel roof on it. Currently has shingles and there's a decent leak. With the weather cooling off I figured I had better get it done sooner than later. Will update as more progress happens.

[cubs-n-bxrs]

Do you think it will clear the clutch pedal? Just trying to help you foresee possible obstacles.

[CC1450]

funny you mention that! This is a hydro so it's just a brake pedal. I have to do a little fine tuning to the framing as in all my wisdom I didn't think to allow room for the pedal to travel. As far as that pedal preventing the cab and fenders from coming off, I can always drop the rear end from the bottom of the frame if need be, I'm not all that concerned about it.

[CC1450]

finally found some free time to devote to this project again today. A few nights ago I got the ag tires mounted on the front rims. I had bought a mini tire changer from harbor freight to help, but still ended up calling a buddy over for an extra pair of hands. They put up a fight even for two of us, but they are on. I primed the wheels before mounting the tires, then used a couple trash bags to mask off the tires and gave them a coat of paint. Before our discussion of the majic brand paint I had picked up 1 rattle can of IH white to do these wheels so I used that. It does take forever and a day to dry. Sprayed the final coat on today.



Called the local IH dealer where this tractor was originally purchased the other day looking for wheel bearings. Said they had 4 in stock so I drove over there. When I got there the parts guy could only find 2. So I bought those, then ordered 2 more online. The bearings I ordered are stens brand but look identical to the MTD/cub bearings the dealer sold me. I will use one cub and one stens on each wheel. Those arrived today so I finally have 4 bearings after about a week of trying to put a set together. Hopefully the paint on the wheels will dry before snow starts flying haha! Got the tractor sitting on a jack under the front axle for now. Total cost for new front wheel bearings came in just under 80 dollars. Hopefully they last as long as the originals.


Got 99% of the framing for the cab finished today. I have one more bar to weld in at the left footrest but I held off on that because I need to reconfigure that area a little to allow the brake pedal to fully travel. I made a door frame to fit the right side opening.


I'm getting a lot better at welding the tubing without burning through it. The door came out just right. I mocked it up in the opening with strips of cardboard between it and the framing on each side, top and bottom to make an even gap at each edge. Then I tacked it together before moving it to the work table to fully weld it. The spacing from the cardboard will allow the door to open easily and give me a little room for weatherstripping.

The door in it's hole:

final positioning will be made when I install the hinges. its just held on with a clamp for now.

added some cross bars to the left side spaced in the same manner as the door side. This will help both sides look similar even though there's only one door.

The bar resting on the steering wheel is about to be welded in down the center of the roof, front to back.

Next round of cab work will be installing the rest of the sheet metal and preparing it for windows. I need to get this thing together and prepped for paint soon, my steel is beginning to rust on me.

You may notice in the pictures that I have removed the K321 engine. I'm going to repower this tractor with a new engine as a finishing touch. I need this 1450 to be reliable and more economical. I'm tired of burning up pricey oil every time I run it. It leaks and burns oil, the starter is on it's last leg and the factory exhaust is long gone. Not to mention bad iso mounts. I'll post more on the repower later but I've narrowed my engine choices down to two V twins. Briggs or chonda.

So with the engine out I can work on a few things I've been wanting to do. finally install that nice 605 bearing on the steering system, flatten out the plate and install a new gasket. First I have to find that bearing though, it's tucked away in a drawer somewhere.

I also wanted to add front hydraulics with quick disconnects at the front end. To do this I took a spool valve from another 1450 and installed it in series with the existing valve. In order to use the existing hard lines from the hydro pump I had to modify the valve mounting bracket by widening it to have enough space for two valves. There is not a great deal of room in the dash tower to add things so placement was tight.

I took the original 1450 mounting plate off, then cut a section of the same plate off a parts tractor. Welded them together to make one plate and drilled new holes to hold the valves. Due to how the plate mounts to the steering column with U bolts and the location of where I wanted the valves, I had to install the bolts that secure the valves in place differently. I welded them with the heads in back then ground them flush as to not interfere with the u-bolts.

widened mounting plate installed and quickly painted


To connect the valves to the hydro pump lines and each other was not too difficult. Hardest part was bending the return hard line into place a few inches over from where it was. It originally wrapped halfway around the front of the steering column which gave me enough slack to bend it around some and connect to the out port of the second spool valve. I jumpered the valves together with a hose from a parts tractor's lift cylinder. The jumper goes from the out port of the first valve to the in port of the second valve.



I'm still working on how exactly to control the second valve mechanically. Likely a similar lever to the existing lift lever. For parts to finish it I just need a couple hydraulic hoses and quick disconnects from surplus center to run to the front. I will install the disconnects in the lower left grille.


Plan is to run a hydraulic chute rotator on the snow thrower made from a small low rpm hydraulic motor and a slip coupling to the existing rotator gears. The slip coupling will allow the coupling to spin if the motor is still powered at the end of the chute's travel in that direction.

I also ordered a few LED lights for the top of the cab. 2 of these spotlights:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00

and an LED strobe:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...ilpage_o01_s00

I'll post more once I get something else accomplished. Thanks for reading!

[CC1450]

quick update on the cub winter project thread. I installed some more of the sheet metal panels, and smoothed over all the seams on the right side with a coat of body filler. Hung the door in it's opening and put sheet metal on the lower portion of it. Also got the wheels installed on the front axle again.
The filler will be sanded out, any low spots filled and then primed and painted.

The LED spot lights and strobe came in the mail, as well as some hydraulic parts from surplus center.
This is the drive setup I'm working on for the chute rotation


the hydraulic motor's shaft is the same diameter as the rotation gear off the qa42a snow thrower. The drive coupling is a 3 piece deal that has a rubber insert between the two outer halves. This provides a little "give" in the drive line and is more forgiving of misalignment and binding than a direct coupling. I cut the shaft of the rotation gear off a couple inches to be able to mount the hydraulic motor a little closer to the body of the thrower. I've got a motor bracket clamped up, that's where I left off for the night tonight. I'll weld it up tomorrow after work after some more test fitment.

I also removed the stock hydraulic control this evening. It will be modified into a dual lever control, similar in form and function to the factory dual control stick option. I purchased a couple things for this already just need to build it. I also picked up the hoses, quick couplings, fittings and a needle type dual direction flow control valve. The valve plumbs in at the motor and will allow me to dial down the RPM, hopefully to a suitable level for this application.

I'm hoping to cover a lot of ground this weekend on the project

[ol'George]

On the chute direction control:
Be aware that the chute ices up under certain conditions and small gravel from the driveway sometimes gets stuck in the teeth on the chute rotation stamping/gear.
That will cause catastrophic results if power is applied.
A suggestion would be use a piece of hose as a coupling, with hose clamps.
or some similar slip "clutch" so no damage will result.
I have had too, on occasion, stop and clean my rotation assy.
when my hand would not rotate it.
-------just my $.02

[CC1450]

thanks George! This is my first snow thrower of any type so I appreciate the input. I'm hoping I can really slow the hydraulic motor down and use the existing coupling but we'll see what it does once it gets some juice to it. I may have to make a slip coupling as you suggest, that's a good idea.

here's the hydro motor bracket and 3 piece coupling set up on the thrower. I need to get a couple different bolts for it to complete it, just used what I had on hand for now. The rotator's gear housing is held onto the thrower by a carriage bolt, need to get a longer one to compensate for the bracket.



also will get a couple rubber washers at the top attachment point once I make it to the hardware store.

In other news...
I have been putting a little cash aside here and there to fund the engine transplant. Started looking around and found a wheelhorse tractor guy selling a bunch of kohler engines. He goes to farm auctions and finds all sorts of deals. Bought a kohler command CH22S 22hp V-twin from him this morning. Great compression, clean oil and complete minus exhaust.


He said he bought it to put in a project of his then found a deal on a 25hp command and bought it to use instead. It is set up with some odd shafts, there is (or was) a bolt on shaft with 1" diameter on the flywheel side. I removed that first thing and was happy to find the flywheel tapped for bolts. Should be easy enough to adapt to the driveshaft on this side.

pic of flywheel side shaft I removed:


The PTO side is another story. It's got a 1.5" shaft that does not appear to be removable. So I either have to find a 1.5" PTO or some sort of step down adapter. If I have to step it down I will have to cut the existing shaft down in length. hoping to avoid that, we'll see.

I cut a piece of plywood to set in the frame of the 1450 so I had something to set the engine on while I get an idea of fitment. It's going to be a tight squeeze but it will fit. Had to unmount the oil cooler to get the engine past the frame rail. it will have to be mounted remotely... was thinking I may mount a 12v fan on it and blow the heat from it into the cab...

This is roughly where the engine will go. I really just wanted to see it in there.


I found some sort of PO mod on the right valve cover, going to have to investigate that. looks like a little lever. didn't notice it until I got home of course.

I managed to snap the handle off the dipstick getting the engine home so I will have to order a new dipstick. I know the factory exhausts for these are pricey so I'm going to have to evaluate my options there. For the price I paid for the engine I don't mind having to spend a little more to get it going though. I was seriously considering one of those predator harbor freight v twins. I'm glad I found this Kohler instead!

[CC1450]

looked up the engine by the spec number listed on it which is 76501. The info I can find says the PTO shaft is 1.4" diameter. Found a handful of different PTOs that can be used, one of which came on some onan engines. New 1-7/16" ID Pto clutches are a lot pricier than the 1" PTO clutches.

still that's a relief to have figured that out. dont need to cut or adapt anything on the PTO side. I also happened upon a really helpful video about the bigger diameter PTOs here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxL3zkqeIEs

also figured out the PO mod is a rubber freeze plug in place of the oil fill cap. A proper fill cap is about 5 bucks so no big deal there, I just hope there is not some oil pressure problem or some other reason it was installed.

[CC1450]

had some free time today to play with this project. I hung the rest of the sheet metal panels and put the roof on. made some "bump outs" at the front corners of the roof. They have brackets for the spotlights installed inside them, which partially hides the ugly brackets that came with the lights and brings them in closer to the body of the cab. Also, they will protect the light housings from branches. I used rivets to install the roof panel, the rest of it is all welded.

I fixed the brake pedal clearance issue by trimming the outside edge of the pedal down 1/2" to pass by the framing and adding a small pocket at the front lower corner that lets it fully travel.

Covered the non-door side with generous patches of body filler to close off the seams and join the panels together. There's a couple low spots I will have to add some more filler to before I sand it out. Now that all the panels are on it, I'm getting anxious to spray some primer but there's still a lot of body work to go yet.




picked up a latch for the door, it's made for an RV but will work nicely with the 1" framing on this cab.

On the mechanical side of things I think I made some good progress recently. After a lot of reading on various websites and looking for a reasonably priced PTO to fit this engine I landed what I am hoping will work perfectly. It is a used part that was on an onan in a JD 318. I got it for 130 dollars and it's in great cosmetic shape. no cracks on the field coil or signs of wear on the components. It is a single wire PTO so I can use the original PTO switch too!



Test fit on the engine is a success!



I've got to track down the 4 bolts that mount the PTO to the engine block, and pick up some 3/8"x3/8" key stock to finish this part of the puzzle. I was thinking I should find or make a sleeve to cover the exposed end of the driveshaft, then hold it all in place with a washer and bolt in the end of the shaft. I'm not sure if there is supposed to be a spacer behind the whole PTO or not. As it sits the backing plate is touching the smaller mount holes just below the holes I will use as they stick out further. everything seems to move freely as it should so hopefully it will work.

I also picked up some other goodies. These things are an engine to driveshaft adapter and engine mounting plate from a cub cadet 3186.

The mounting plate has holes in the proper pattern for the command engines, and is nearly just as wide as the frame rails on the 1450. I'm still measuring and weighing my options as to how to use it, but it seems like a good thing to have on hand. My go to idea is to chop this mounting plate down so it's not much bigger front to back as the mounting pattern, butt it up to the underside of the frame and integrate it into the front axle carrier. If I can make this work the front two engine mount bolts will have to bolt to the axle carrier, with the rear two bolts using the holes in the 3186 mount plate.

command ch22 test fit to 3186 mount plate is good


I'm going to have to make a bump out in the frame rail for the starter to clear. The oil filter on the opposite side also hung over the frame rail and looked like it could touch the tire if you cut the steering hard. Not fond of that, and I am trying to avoid cutting the frame as much as possible here so I decided to run a remote oil filter on the engine. I picked up a kit from jegs with the right size parts. I need to source two right angle fittings that will replace the straight fittings included with the kit on the engine side. If I can find them I may not have to cut anything on the oil filter side of the frame.

here's a pic of the remote oil filter engine adapter on the command. Nice that they included two plugs for the adapter!


I'll get some more work done on it and post up soon. Winter is coming!!!