Ford LT 110 Off-Road Build

Thanks a lot Mighty, I'm real happy to see it out and about too. Nothing bothers me more than to have a non-working tractor sitting in the shed for so long, haha.

I have lots of plans for it now so hopefully there'll be lot more to come!

Got the little Ford pushed outside and got it driving again tonight.



Didn't just slap a belt on it like I initially planned though. I've been meaning to drop the rear pulley size to speed 'er up, but just hadn't done it yet. I figured this was as good a time as any!

Anyway, the big ol' factory pulley didn't fair so well, but I got it off:



About a 6" pulley went in it's place.





With the 5" one on the front it gave 'er some pretty good speed. The torquey ol' oppy will still idle in third though once you're rolling though, haha. I didn't get an actual speed reading on it, but she moves buddy!



Then lastly, a quick mock up of the front wheels I'll be running on it:





I like it so far! I just have to modify the spindles a bit as these rims have a much longer hub than a standard lawn tractor rim, so the spindles are too short. But that'll be easy. Hoping to get that done tomorrow!

The is a neat build. Those fronts and rears off the Jacobsen?

MAN, those new front tires make a big difference.  I like 'em!

@MightyRaze gripsters!

Thanks fellas! Yeah they change the look for sure. Should be a real an improvement in the steering department too.

Looks much better now.

Thanks Beal, I think so too!

I actually got the spindles done today and installed the new wheels:



The nut goes up against the inner bearing race, so there's no need for a double nut. I might add one on each side just to be sure though.

They fit good!



No clearance issues or anything, perfect!

Couple off-road shots:







Let me know what ya think!

Not much new with the little Ford recently, other than a much needed oil and filter change. I did however pick up a nice little parts machine today:





LT-75 chassis, mostly got it for the Peerless 600 with 3-bolt hubs. Probably gonna use that for the MTD, but there's lots of good spare parts for the Ford!

Anyhow it's still been starting and running reliably, however it has a horrible acceleration stumble/stall, especially when cold. The carb probably just needs adjusted, but I'm gonna put a real nice carb together for it instead, as the one on it isn't the original one and isn't in the nicest shape.

Other than that she's been fine. However it did leave me stranded today when the clutch idler fell off



Had to push it back ti the house in the dark. Man did that suck, haha. I'll be sure to make sure the nut is tight next time!! Wouldn't hurt to keep a couple spare 3/8" nuts on it either.

Sick find on the parts machine! Iv Been doing some back tracking and checking this build out.

Thanks! Haha, yeah some of my work was pretty shotty at the start there, but I think she's come a long ways now!

Little more tinkering here tonight:



Been wanting to upgrade the rods and ends on the cross-over steering setup for a while now, just make it a bit better looking and heavier duty.

I actually used the tie-rod and drag link from the little parts tractor, since it had garden tractor sized rods and ends on it, and I didn't have to modify them too much to make them work.





Nice 1/2" stuff now, much better!







Very happy with how it went together. Got the wheel toe dialed in and she felt great on the test drive.

Nice to have that done!

Very cool little machine! I never was a ford kinda guy but....uh...I think....I might just need one of those.
Anyways off topic but (dont remember what thread it was) I seen your welder in the background and it's pretty cool. I'd love to have a stick welder. My grandpa works on electric motors and a guy brought one in like yours but the poor thing was fried beyond repair. (It caught me and my dads eyes) Just wondering if you had any advice about stick welders? I like the look of the older ones just dont know how they perform.

Thanks Blake! Yeah it's a fun little tractor.

The old Lincoln 225 tombstone is an awesome welder if you're doing work with any steel 3/16" or thicker, and also steel that's not perfectly clean. Real good for working outside too. Before I got my Lincoln 100 wire feeder I used to do sheet metal work with the 225 using the 60-75A range and real small rods. Pretty tedious work, but it always turned out strong. So they're fairly versatile in my opinion, I'd definitely recommend getting one!

I have one just like AKs, but mines smaller at just 180 amp. Still easily does anything I want to do

Yeah I'd like to get one. See my dad is restoring my sisters square body and he uses a thinner wire in the mig welder and it doesnt like thick steal at all so I'm always having to change out wire and it's a pain in the butt. Plus It would be nice to just get after it and burn something in good.

Well I was having some real fun on Saturday with the little Ford, made a little dirt track and me and my young cousin were doing some laps. I was faster obviously, and I was about to take a short cut to lap him again but when I bumped 'er up to 3rd cog I found myself coming to a very abrubt stop.


Wait....I've heard this somewhere before. Oh yeah.....



Yep, I seized up the pinion shaft bushing in this poor 600.





She's locked up good! Well it had to happen sooner or later though, we were ripping around for quite some time so I guess it's not a surprise that it happened when it did. Ended the fun pretty quick though, haha.

Oh well, sooner or later I'll take the trans out and tear it down to fix it. Hopefully I can save the shaft, but we'll see.

Always another project!

Alrighty, been a while but I finally got back to this job tonight. Not too much progress, but I at least got the ol' 600 dropped out:



She's dirty!



Gonna leave the oil draining overnight so I can hopefully tear it down first thing tomorrow.

It's about time... that was a whole month ago when that happend.  Should be done by now.  LOL Just kidding.  Hope all the parts are ok, just some fixin.  Knowing you and all your sources, probably got another 600 on standby.  

Haha, no you're right it definitely has been long enough!

Anyhow I got the trans tore down enough to get to the pinion shaft. Made a little puller and got the shaft pulled out a little bit, but I broke it twice so I'm gonna have to come up with a different idea.



Moved it a little ways though:



All the other internals look fine from what I saw, so I shouldn't have any problems there.



However the needle bearing for the main shaft fell apart upon splitting the case, so looks like I will have to track one of those down and most likely check the others.

I guess she's sitting for a little bit:



Oh well, hopefully we'll be back together in no time!

Interesting.....I've never seen the inside of a 600. I've got one in an old sears that I have but ive never really looked at it too much. Seems to be well built almost like a miniature 2300.

Yeah they're real neat, definitely pretty well built like you said. I think some of these components are shared with the Peerless 1200, but I'm not positive.

Anyhow, made some good progress over the last few days. Finally got the pinion shaft out and checked out the damage:



Pretty much the same as last time, haha. Right by my fingers is where the bad spot it. You can see the raised spots from the metal transfer when it seized to the bushing. Pretty bad.

Next thing I did was press the pinion bushing out:



Now last time this happened I used a spare transaxle to put together with the bearings, so I didn't have to worry about saving the shaft that time around. However, this time I wanted to re-use the trans and all the parts so I used the best way I could think of to fix the damaged shaft.

Pretty much just chucked it up and cleaned it off.



Didn't have to make any actual cuts, I just went at it with some coarse grit emory cloth and then polished it up with some fine stuff.

Turned out really well!



Can't catch any spots with a fingernail, and I didn't undersize it, so I'm thinking it will be good.

Gonna go see about picking up some bearings today, so hopefully I'll have good luck with that!

Oh wow, that came out great!

Yeah I'm quite happy with it!

Little more work yesterday... the hub on the short axle shaft was seized on big time, I actually had to reach in and bend the snapring off to get it out of the diffassembly and case half. After trying some stuff and getting no where, I borrowed a press to finally make it talk:



Had to press it down that way a little bit to get the clip off the end, then I flipped it over to press it right out of the hub.



Got it all apart, she didn't go quietly though!

The axle and hub are pretty rusted, and you can see the woodruff key is kinda messed up too.



Not sure what's up with that, but the inside of the hub looks fine so I don't think I'll have any problems.

Lastly I replaced the needle bearing for the main shaft, it fell apart when I split the case halves:



New one:



Good to go.

We're making steady progress here!

Well I finally made some more progress on the 600 repair over the last couple days.

Got some NOS gaskets this time so no need to mess around with RTV stuff.



Went a different route with the pinion shaft this time and used a bronze bushing:



Little experiment I guess, I think it will work well though.

Mostly back together:



Dissassembled the shifter cup to clean it up and grease it:





Then the shifter went in and she was done:



Going to hopefully throw it back under the little tomorrow and get 'er rolling again!

Nice AK!  I'm not sure what was in place of the bushing, but the bronze one should work out fine!  Can't wait to see the old ford rollin' again!