Ford LT 110 Off-Road Build

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!

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it!

Originally there was a *gulp* steel bushing for the pinion shaft, which is why they lock up with increased input speed. On the rat rod I used a needle bearing which has held up great, but I'm thinking a bronze bushing will work good too.

Oh, so the metals rubbing together getting hot was seizing it?

Oh yeah. Good ol' steel on steel contact, haha.

Okay so I went at the installation today as planned.

Got it bolted up to the frame without issue:



Then pulley, belt, hubs, and wheels:



Wasn't sure how it was gonna start after sitting for so long, but I just threw a battery in and she took right off.





Test drive went well!









She's back in action again, definitely happy about that.

the bronze bushing should stay lubricated better than the steel it bronze tends to hold oil a little better than steel does (if my metallurgy memory serves) and it will have more loading surface than the needles would have probably wont be as affected by impurities and the needle bearings were either since it's a single piece.

Those fronts are so narrow. Good look with the shocks. What they come off of?

tinkering bob wrote:

the bronze bushing should stay lubricated better than the steel it bronze tends to hold oil a little better than steel does (if my metallurgy memory serves)  and it will have more loading surface than the needles would have probably wont be as affected by impurities and the needle bearings were either since it's a single piece.

Hey nice to hear from you again Bob! Been a minute or two, haha.

You're right about the oiling with bronze bushings, that's definitely a plus of using the bushing versus a needle bearing.

Hillbilly Offroading wrote:

Those fronts are so narrow. Good look with the shocks. What they come off of?

Thanks, I'm not exactly sure what the coilovers are off of, I pretty much just found them and eventually painted them up, haha.

I personally like the narrow tall tires on the front of the Ford... Reminds me of the old school tractors. 

I agree with Mighty on this one. Btw what size tires are those?

Hey allis, do you see any slopping out of suspension joints after a while? And if you do, does it make the steering weird if the axle can wobble back and forth a bit? Kinda curious.

Thanks fellas, the fronts are 4.80 - 8's, should be about 16" tall I believe.

As far as having suspension link joints wearing out and causing play, I haven't had it happen on any of my builds so far. Same with the joints I use for steering components.

The skinny front look neat, but Ive wondered, if turned one way full lock would they be more likely to buckle if they hit something?

Well as I posted in the GT thread, things are to the point where I can go play with all my tractors again. Today's task was to get the little Ford up and running for the first time in probably four months, so I threw a battery in 'er and, with a little cheat in the carb, she was purring away!



Gave 'er some fresh gas and let it run for a bit, then went for a little ride.



Been a while since I've driven it so I just went slow for a minute or two, haha. I didn't really hit any good spots because it was later in the day, but I did a little screwing around and ripped around a dirt circle in the pasture.





Tried to get a picture while the dust was still in the air but it didn't work out too well, haha. But anyways she still works great, forgot how much fun the little thing is actually.

Glad to have 'er going again!

Good to see ya back on the other rigs!  How's the suspension holding up on the Ford?

Thanks Mighty! The Twin I-Beam is still holding up very well, the handling is very nice even for a rather top heavy tractor.

When you get your front end flexing good. Does your front want to toe in or out?

No. The crossover steering setup I did a long time ago cured that problem, the pivot point in the middle allows for full travel without any change in wheel toe.

Quick little update on the ol' Ford here, she's still running and driving great, and gets out and about quite regularly. Nothing really new I guess, no problems other than a limit chain I recently snapped. Still need to fix that, haha. But here's a couple off-road pictures in the meantime:









You can see the ol' limit chain just hanging there, talk about your poor maintenance.

So anyways, she's still here. Just been slow on the updates.

Looks like a fun time there on the Ford! Good to see it again!

Thanks Mighty! She's a real fun machine for sure. I should really spend some time on it and get maybe a rear bumper going and stuff like that. Maybe that'll be the next update!

Got a few more off-road pictures of the ol' Ford yesterday, so I figured I'd share them.











She doesn't have as much ground clearance as my main rigs, but it's still a real fun tractor to wheel.

How is your I beam holding up? Looks like it's working well!

Ever since I revamped the whole front end on this thing some time ago, I haven't had a single issue other than the occasional fastener coming loose.

Well I guess I lied about not having an issue with Twin I-Beam. Got a little rowdy trying to drift through the icy forest and smacked into one too many trees:



Turns out I actually broke the axle beam itself:



Instead of just bensing it back and welding up I figured I'd put patch of 3/16" steel over it to brace it up:



Welded up, and painted even!



All back together and everything looks good:



So not too bad of a break really. Luckily the radius arms are solid enough to hold up to hitting trees and things, never thought about the actual axle breaking though, haha.

Anyhow, I'm gonna check everything else out and see what needs fixing or reinforcing while I'm at it, then it's back to the trails!

I think you broke it. Good job on the repair. I like gussets and fish plates and reinforcing on stuff like that.