[2020 Build-Off Entry] AK's Jacobsen Rally Tractor Build!

Yeah I don't wanna risk bringing anything out to the grandparents by hanging out there, so I've just been at home. Just taking extra precautions, haha.

I don't blame ya.

[adm]
I have put the new [-19] on your build until you are able to work on the entry again.  The [-19] gives you a pass for monthly updates until this blows over.
[/adm]

Any luck with the social distancing up there AK?

Well I'm officially back in the competition now folks. Decided to bring my build and the neccessary supplies home and work on it as much as I can.



When I went to pick it up the left rear tire was flat, which I found was due to a leak from the bead and valve stem:



So I'll have to cure that at some point, should be an easy fix though.

The other thing I did tonight was pop the carb bowl off quick because when I had this engine running it was obvious that it has some junk in the carb:





Pretty good, haha. But I got it all cleaned up nice and put back together, so I'll see how she runs tomorrow.

Glad to be back building again!!

Welcome back to the build-off!

Thanks Mighty!

Well I tried the ol' Magnum out last night and she runs pretty good now!



Pretty loud with the exhaust coming straight out of the block as you can imagine.

Also I plan on making a new dash out of steel, so I removed the busted up plastic panel:



There's a lot to work with there, so it shouldn't be too hard to make something up.

I did a little more tinkering the other day and got the leaking tire fixed up:



Good to go! Just had to clean up the beads and the rim, and put a new valve in.

Next thing I did was tackle the throttle pedal, which actually went pretty well. Didn't take any pictures along the way but here's what I came up with:





It's the PTO engagement lever from a little Ford LT-75 that I bent up and welded a bushing on to the opposite end. Pivots on a 3/8" bolt which should be strong enough, but I'd like to do a little bracing in a couple spots at some point.

Works good though! I just jooked the cable right to the factort governor likage:



Glad to have that done!

Looking good. Pretty cool throttle setup.

Thanks mr.mod!

Well I originally planned to use a gear box of some sort for the steering on this build, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything to use. So for the sake of getting it moving, I decided to utilize the stock steering gears with the setup I had planned.

So here's what I started with;



A 7/8" bore pulley with two bushings pressed in, and a little bell crank I made. The idea was to use the pulley as a pivot point mounted to the wishbone, so I cut it close to the middle so it could be welded on:



I used the original drag link, but had to make some cuts and bends to get it down lower to where the bellcrank was:



Pretty close, but it clears everything. Here's the bell crank mount tacked to the axle:



Still needs to be welded fully and braced up, but it's in place.

The last thing I had to do was add a little extension to the left steering arm, and that's where the link coming from the bellcrank attaches to.



And now, we have steering!





It's not super sharp turning, but it still looks to be enough so I think it should be fine. It's not low ratio like I wanted, but if I ever find a nice steering box to use I should be able to swap it in place of the stock setup and retain everything else. Either way I'm glad to have some steering!

Last thing I did today was weld up a transaxle pulley, used a deck drive pulley and a hub with a keyed 5/8" bore.





Worked good! Let me know what ya think!

Looks like it turns plenty sharp!  Coming along great AK.  How much pulley reduction did you have on the trans?

OH, happy Canada Day!

Definitely turns sharp enough for a crawler. Gonna build a crawling course to test this thing out on?

Thanks fellas! I can't remember what size pulley this trans originally had, this one is smaller but not sure how much.

Haha, a nice crawling trail course would be a cool idea, be good for the final video!

Yes definitely need some sort of rock crawling video......on a side note am I the only one who kinda wants to see someone take a rock crawler/bouncer up Mt. Rushmore?

Alright! If Allis can get 100,000 likes on this video he will take it up Mt. Rushmore

Hahaha, now there's an idea.

Quick update here, I got the engine pulley I wanted to use mounted up, along with the factory belt guides.



The belt setup should be pretty straight forward, except for the belt wanting to rub on the shifter due to the smaller transaxle pulley. I figured all I needed was a small V-idler to pull it the one way a bit. It should bolt to this original crossmember:



Once I find one small enough it should bolt in that hole and work fine.

The other thing I did was finally make mounts for the fuel tank and battery. Pretty simple, just an adjustable bracket up top for the tank to lean against, and an old tarp strap with a couple spots to hook it welded on. For the battery I just used an actual lawn tractor hold down and made it work:





Pretty lame update I know, haha, but I figured it was better than nothing.

Update?

Whoops, been slackin on this one a bit.

Not much new with the Jake unfortunately, haven't really had much interest in it for some reason. Been messing around with the other tractors like the Ford and the GT a lot lately and I've even been working on the MTD again, but I'm not really paying much attention to this one. I'll try to get back to 'er though, wouldn't take much to get it ready for a test drive.

Okay okay. So the Jake is back at HQ now and I've decided to go a slighty different direction with it now, wasn't really feeling the crawler idea. So instead we'll be going with a rally build!



Not a real drastic change or anything, but I'm thinking different front wheels (as pictured), higher speeds, different transmission, custom shifter, rally bumpers, etc. Still keeping the 1-link front end and the steering through, we'll see how it handles on the dirt track and make changes as neccessary.

Anyways there's my update, should be fun. Hopefully some more progress tomorrow!

I'm liking where this is going but I was digging the 21x7x8s.

Honestly, I thing you would enjoy a rally build better unless you have some rocks to climb at the farm?

Hillbilly Offroading wrote:

I'm liking where this is going but I was digging the 21x7x8s.

They ended up on my young cousin's Allis crawler and they look killer on it.

MightyRaze wrote:

Honestly, I thing you would enjoy a rally build better unless you have some rocks to climb at the farm?

Don't worry I have the 'ol GT for that, haha.