1973 Ford LT75

They dropped it off a little while ago. Came with a deck and dozer blade.

Waiting for the snow to melt off it.

Pics to follow.

So far,

Solid, decals are in great shape, has newer 8.5 BS motor, paint is faded, very little rust. rubber looks decent, factory blade, belts cracked but intact, told it runs, no battery or fuel to test now.

Plans,

15.5 BS motor, 100 pounds of weight. possible hydraulic lift. has spare pto pulley up front with room for a generator or hydro pump behind the grille.

Sounds awesome. Cant wait to see some pics.

Hard to get a good shot. the garage is pretty cramped right now






The dozer lade is in equally good shape.

Beautiful! Thats an odd mounting position for a motor, but hey, whatever works, right?

Yeah, it's unusual on modern tractors for the cylinder to point out the side, normal operation is for the cylinder pointed out the front.
All the pics I've seen show thhis as the factory configuration. The tank needs to be cleaned out and the carb will need a bit of attention, but I predict I'll be pushing snow within 2 weeks.
Future plans

It has a 8.5 flathead, I'll be swapping in a B$S 15.5 OHV engine
Probably AG tires with chains,

A belly pan for weight, instead of the mower deck, i'll add a pan to carry extra weight.

I like to swap in trailer tires up front simply for the load rating.

It's actually quite small as tractors go. Its physically smaller than My MTD, but very solidly built Its not much bigger than my (old long gone) RER John Deeres.

The old craftsman LTV's had their single cylender motor sideways to fit under the hood - those were stock like that.

Only issue might be airflow , but other then that a motor can be mounted anyway you need it to fit.

Nice looking tractor! I myself am working on restoring an old LT75 also. Mine was not in nearly as good of shape, and will be powered by a Kawasaki 14hp OHV from a John Deer. I have subbed the rear axles in the transaxle to give me an extra 3" on each side, a 1 inch body lift and more to follow. I will have to snap off some pics before it gets too far along. I'm going to paint it the new ford blue. I think the old ford blue looks "pre-faded".

Yup she's a runner,

Drained all the water out of the tank and carb, ripped the factory screen of the petcock, aded an inline filter, put some fresh gas in. gave it a dozen pulls or so, and away she went.

It settled down to a nice idle, after i got it off choke.

It shifts and moves in all gears. I couldn't actually drive it. It's damn cold out, and i'm not opening the big door for annything right now.I'll be mounting the blade tomorrow., And I have to clean out the tank some more.


BUT I AM SO STOKED TO PUSH SNOW WITH THIS THING.

You push that snow chopperhed. Get some video or something!

Chopperhed: "Drained all the water out of the tank and carb, ripped the factory screen of the petcock, aded an inline filter, put some fresh gas in. gave it a dozen pulls or so, and away she went."

Thats similar to the yazoo my nephew used to have - he gave me the old 11HP briggs off it and i put it on my agway - when it was on his tractor with the sidesaddle plastic tank , no matter what carb cleaning or tweeking couldnt get the thing running right ( would always 'chug').

When i put it on my agway, i yanked the side tank off ( agway had its own tank), cleaned the carb again and it ran super smooth - i noticed the mesh screen in the tank near the drain - was probably all gunked up .

For anyone serious about their engine life. Ripping that stupid ass screen off of the fuel valve (petcock) and ading and in-line filter is a no brainer.

That being said. I took the afternoon, and threw on the tire chains I picked up yesterday ( 30 buck at Princess auto) OOOOOH SHINY

changed the oil and flushed the tank with old fuel to get rid of the last bits of dirt.

Oh and I re-clocked the recoil start, which is handy since I'll be doing the power elbow thing on this beast till i get a battery .

She's ready for work. Tomorrow is supposed to be relatively warm. I'll give it a try on the hardpack snow on my driveway.

Took it out tonight. Its +6 C here tonight and everything is wet and sticky.

Even with the chains traction is a serious issue. I burned a tank of fuel and managed to get down to concrets in about half the driveway.

The OL will be pleased her side is clear. If I had a small tiller on it, I could use the tiller to bust up the hard pack snow, and it would be easy to push. As it is, the tire chains did more work breaking up the snow, than anything else.

Maybe some studded tracks,

Hmmm......



BTW, a rototiller does a great job of breaking up hardpack snow. I've tried it.

No pictures?

Problem with my driveway is its too wet. Plowing or snowblowing youll dig right into the gravel.

Doug Fackler wrote:

No pictures?

Problem with my driveway is its too wet. Plowing or snowblowing youll dig right into the gravel.

Sorry, busy driving, no time for pics

Cleaned up the numbers on the frame and engine.

Turns out its a 73, originally 7.5 hp, with a 95 8.5hp engine in it. Has a perrless 600 3 speed in it. at a slow smooth idle I wasn't able to stall the engine pushing. the tires spin first.

The original engine had an alternator, the current one was originally a pull start, and they swapped in the original starter, hence, this one has no alternator.

I'm going to add a truck battery behind the trans for extra traction, and it looks like I'll have to swap in my'98 15.5 with the alternator.

Also working on some sort of framework to add suitcase weights in front of the rear tires, with out punching extra holes in the frame, and interfering with the lift mechanism. I figure I can fitt them under my legs when I'm sitting on it.

Got a battery rack started on the arse end. It going to get a nice looking cover and hold down. I also have to extend the hitch back if I decide I need it.


And a pic of the blade. Factory Ford, 34" wide



And the little winch motor i'm going to use as an electric lift. It will be power up and down.
The design I have in mind will be able to pick the front wheels off the ground. The winch motor is actually a ceiling lift for handicapped people. I got it for free, since it was past its service time.


And I made up some new battery cables to run up to the engine.

Got the electric lift prototype built. This one has too much flex, i'll need to build one out of heavier steel.
The motor is from an electric handicapped lift, controlled from a dsh mount toggle switch. I welded a piece of #50 chain to some 1" square tubing. It has nylon guides for smooth operation. The cable will be clamped to the frame using existing holes.





Lift arm attachment. The next one will have more space to allow the blade to float a bit.



Last shot of the stripped starter gear.

My rear weight/ battery mount. The battery is a deep cycle gell cell from a wheelchair. Completely sealed and submergeable. ( a buddy of mine tested one in his boat, by sinking it. )



I've since added a clear polycarbonate cover to protect the posts.

Chopperhed wrote:

Hard to get a good shot. the garage is pretty cramped right now






The dozer lade is in equally good shape.

that is an amazing looking mower

Its in amazingly good shape for the year.

A good cleanup, and some fresh paint and it would look like new.

what did u do to the starter? or was that u

Nice lookin tractor.
I like the front plow setup you made.

THE MTD GUY wrote:

what did u do to the starter? or was that u

If you read further back, the gear was old and it just stressed too much, slipped and shredded. Pretty easy to replace though.

THE MTD GUY wrote:

what did u do to the starter? or was that u

Since the tractor was repowered after 20 years, and the original starter was used, i'm guessing that the teeth were off a bit.

You can see that it wasn't fully engaging. The newer starter I put on meshes perfect and fully engages.