2055 White resto modding “White Lightning”

:-( With warmer weather around the corner. Maybe motivation will rise!

Just think of how much fun you'll have tractoring around on it once it's done, works for me anyways! Lol

Well motivation is coming back here, coincidentally it wasn’t warmer weather (still 22 degrees murican out there or -6 for my metric friends), but rather seeing a buddy of mine’s golf cart rebuild project. Something just kinda pushed me to work on WL some more.

Went out and installed new axle bearings and seals. I need to degrease and pressure wash the transaxle case and then reassembly can begin.

Talking tires…
I found a set of OTR Dirtmasters for 100 bucks a pop. Pretty nice looking 6 ply tires. Should do well for what I want, and a 15 inch rim nonetheless. Problem is they are 29s. I have 27s now, and it’s gonna be REALLY snug if those go on. Chains if I can even run them at all, will need to get lengthened. As far as clearance goes, I can’t measure it (cause the rear end is kablooie right now, but here’s a stock photo to give y’all an idea:

Option two is this-

I can get a set of 2 for $250. They are 8 ply and will probably ride harder than Roy Rogers. They seem to have a nice tread pattern and they’re 27s so I think they’ll work just fine clearance wise. Thoughts?

Hard to go wrong with Goodyears and they look knarly!

Are those big Goodyears radials? They have an awfully radial profile.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Are those big Goodyears radials? They have an awfully radial profile.

The ones I'm looking at are bias, but these R14s also come in radials. They put them on the new Kubotas.

Radials on a tractor suck IMO, they have no give. I would definitely go for the bias plies.

I plan to buy the good years, mount them, and run them at about 5-6 psi. Should ride about like how the turf savers I have on now do. 25 years old and they are rock hard.

Da bigger da glob, da betta da job

Hmm….

It seems that I’ve hit a front axle snag here. Haven’t done anything with it yet, just thinking ahead.

I got some 3/4 cold rolled shaft free, which should be plenty strong for the kingpins on this I assume. Problem is my housings on the axle are 1 1/4. The only bushings in that size I can find are polyurethane suspension bushings, which have a lotta friction and not a lot of wear resistance. Probably not the right thing for the job.

My options are:

- Use red Loctite and put some bronze sleeves inside the stock size 1” od bushings

-Cut off the 1” kingpin and have it welded to the top of the trailer spindle and hope that holds up

- Do the redneck thing and put 3/4 flanged bushings inside the 1” flanged bushings and hope it doesn’t mess with anything. I’m going to be running thrust bearings on this so that may impact the results of this.

Thoughts?

I've been following along from the start so don't think I'm missing anything but what's wrong with the original stuff? We're talking about the front spindle/kingpin bushings are worn?

Brianator wrote:

I've been following along from the start so don't think I'm missing anything but what's wrong with the original stuff? We're talking about the front spindle/kingpin bushings are worn?

The front stub axles are 1” in diameter, and the axle beam has a 1 1/4 inner diameter tube that holds the bushings.

The 3/4 shaft was free, so I decided to use that as I’ve never once seen a kingpin fail on a GT. Everybody runs 3/4 kingpins with FELs so it’s fine. Only problem is I don’t have any bushing that directly fits in the housing, so I need to somehow piggyback bushings to make them fit.

Ah I see... obviously going from 1-1/4" to 3/4" would be the best way and the most reliable, I did a quick search and started seeing some results but maybe they're not what you're after, I'll PM you.

Got everything done on the case. Need to put new seals in and we can start reassembling as soon as I get some fresh hydraulic oil. What a before and after!

That looks awesome @Rustbucket Garage !

MightyRaze wrote:

That looks awesome  @Rustbucket Garage !

Why thank ya! I just mocked it up for some reason. Going to take it all apart again and wash one last time with a bucket of soap and water.

Went into town and bought 2 gallons of hydraulic/trans fluid from Napa. 60 dollars, so I’m definitely going to try and make sure this oil lasts as long as possible. Everything is going up, but hey, such is life.

I’m not sure, but I think that hydraulic fluid lasts longer than the engine oil this originally called for in the rear end. Last couple times I changed it after 1 year like it specs it was as clear as when I put it in. May try a 2 year cycle and see how that does. I don’t put a huge amount of hours on in a year anywho.

Got the internals in the tranny tonight. Cleaned everything out real good with a pressure washer, soap and an old toothbrush and should be good now. I may blow it out one more time tomorrow, put a towel over everything though so we should be ok. I need to put some thread locker on the differential housing bolts, and some RTV on the case halves. I made a gasket for the hydro mounting face, I was considering doing the transaxle body also but I ran out of gasket paper and I’m pretty sure I’d get too much endolay that way also.

I’m confident that if I keep this pace up I can have her running and moving under her own power in 3 weeks or so.

Excellent! I'm excited to see it live again!

Think I figured out a nice paint scheme that works with the silver, grey and blue. More will be along when it’s done.

After turning my hands approximately the color of the tin man and about all the known hours in the universe of sanding, I believe I have the rear fenders and the tunnel cover ready for a fresh coat of paint. Lot of work to fix that failed paint job, but the weather is supposed to be in the high seventies and partly sunny next weekend, so I should be able to get a nicer finish.

Tried to finish the transaxle today.

A couple weeks ago while washing it I foolishly made the assumption that the needle bearings were chrome steel, and would be ok getting rinsed off. I dried them off best I could. I came out today hoping to put the side cover on, only to find that every bearing in the side cover had rusted solid.

“Tractor fixing language” as my dads family calls it, was used a good deal. None wanted to come out, and with a couple exceptions all have this weird plug on one side. So I can’t exactly find those to replace them, I may need to get some soft plugs and use standard bearings.

Really ____ing aggravating because I dont have another 100 dollars for new bearings right now. So this is going back to last winters pace probably.

I just want ONE thing on this tractor to work right the first time. ONE. It really shouldn’t be this difficult.

Oh man that is not good at all, that's really not good!  I don't envy you at this moment in time but I do feel dreadful for you. I've made mistakes and suffered the consequences as well, what's important is to learn from it and carry on!

It sucks, but I found the bearings I need and I can get this all squared away. Just feel like I'm bleeding money now. I'm between jobs and its pretty tough to find the money for stuff. Might need to pace myself out over a couple months, but I can get her done

Well since I have everything to do it if I get some decent weather this weekend I may see about painting the rear fenders. Sanded everything smooth, now I just need to hit it with some scotchbrite to scuff it and clean it real good.

Rear panels painted! The left floorboard and fender pan came out great. The tunnel cover and right floorboard though… not so much. The gun started dripping and I got a pretty nasty glob on them. Hoping I can just sand it out and touch up with a rattle can. Metallic paint with low gloss, so top coat it with lacquer and nobody should be the wiser.

After sitting for a time period roughly equivalent to that of the Jurassic age, a thing happened tonight. Two actually.

More will be coming in the next few weeks.