Dirty Rat - Sears

As with many projects, as I mentioned.  Two steps forward and one step back.  Gas tank removed and drained.  Next week I'll put some tank sealer in it.  Nothing big on the leaking, but was weaping around one seam and a couple bracket points.




In other news, I am going to try this chicken chow-mien tach/hour meter.



It said 5 or more winds.  I went with 14. 

Where did you get that? I like it!

I got it off amazon.  Hope it works well enough.

Here

I have 2 of the exact same ones (one in my G10 and a loose one), I find the RPMs lag and it's hard to read unless it's at a good angle but they're great for setting idle and max speed.

I have noticed that it is easier to read if it is tilted away from me.  Digitals recofigured for the tach.  New fuel line ran from the tank spot to the engine cutoff.  I tore the other line trying to unplug it.  The tank just did not want to let go.  I found a 95" belt for the smaller pulley.  96 was too large, but the 95 seems small?  I think it needs to stretch a bit.

MightyRaze wrote:

I have noticed that it is easier to read if it is tilted away from me.  Digitals recofigured for the tach.  New fuel line ran from the tank spot to the engine cutoff.  I tore the other line trying to unplug it.  The tank just did not want to let go.  I found a 95" belt for the smaller pulley.  96 was too large, but the 95 seems small?  I think it needs to stretch a bit.

 
As for the tach there you won't be able to read an LCD screen when the sun is shining on it, same reason why cheaper phones are difficult to see in the light, I would definitely tilt it, but set it in a little so light can't reflect off it...

Nothing much to report on this guy other than I have the tank off.  Looked inside and it is pretty clean.  Only very minor rust for non-use for an extended time.  I plan on maybe using some por-15 fuel tank sealant on it next week.  I'll report back on the results.  The hard part will be waiting 4 days to put my paws back on it to use it.  This time I'll put fuel in it outside the tractor and let it sit a couple days to see how it performs.

I marked up all the leaking places.

Oh, one other thing.  I'm having a bit of a belt conundrum.  95" belt is too small even as the idler adjusted all the way in.  96" is too large even with the idler all the way out?  What gives.  The local TSC and Atwoods here only have full sizes.  I've also checked multiple belts.  Lowes is just too high.  I am going to gamble and purchase a 95.5" online.  Hoping this works out.

Your 95" belt should stretch that half inch it needs within 30 mins of running around, if 96" is too long then when the 95.5" stretches you may be back to square one... I say give the 95" a chance to wear in and it will probably be perfect! I'm guessing you have no adjustment for the motor (mounting)?

*edit*  You can pre-stretch your belt by pushing/pulling on it while iit's on the machine, rotate a 1/4 turn, do it again until you've completed a couple of "laps" and it should be close.

Both belts I have on hand are already broke in "stretched".  As you said, the 96 was stretched almost 3/4" larger than the new and the 95 was just under half an inch.    The 95" will fit over the pulleys but does not release enough to clutch.  Like you said, 1/2 stretch.  That is what I am hoping for because the new 96 was almost right, but I didn't want to risk not working after it broke in.

Well you didn't mention they were pre-loved belts... lol

I just went crosseyed looking for more info on the clutch. I couldn’t find what I wanted, but I did see something.

I respectfully submit this idea.

If the belt won’t work with a half inch difference, you should rethink the clutch design. Maybe a smaller idler or a longer throw on the tensioner or an added idler so you can use a readily available belt. It looks like you have room to add another idler between what I think is the clutch idler and the engine pulley. If that were adjustable, you could use almost any belt.

Yeah, I'd hate to add more pulleys to the mix, but yeah it would make adding another belt easier.  I have about 1/2 inch belt adjustment now, but evidently 95 and 96 belts are that much different even though they should only be 1 inch.  At least with the blue Kevlar ones.  We'll see what the 95.5 has to offer.  I have a lot of clutch pulley movement, but running a bigger engine pulley takes away some of that geometry to release the belt.  But not too much.  The answer may be to move the adjustable pulley closer and to the clutch pulley.  When I say closer, I mean further forward.  From point A to X in the pic.

If I had a "proper" sized belt it should be just fine.  Ex:

The medium blue line is where the belt is now.  It is holding the clutch pulley down about 1-1.5 inches lower than normal.  The light blue line is full clutch.  The dark blue line is where the belt should ride with normal tension on the clutch pulley.  That's a lot of movement.  I just don't understand why a 95 is so tight but the 96 is so loose?  One should work.  I should go out and measure them with the tape measure.  I'll post this and get back with you my results.

Ok let me preface this with I never actually tape measured the 95” belt. I only compared to other 95” belts.

Now to my findings and boy do I have some. 96” belt has about 5 hours use. 95 belt just over an hour. Both are blue Kevlar and 1/2 wide.

96 belt came in as expected.





Came in a tick over half. We’ll call it .5 for error tolerance. Just as expected.

Now for the kicker. The 95 belt was measured 3 times to be sure. All times were the same. 





It came in at 94 3/8 each time. 

Uh….. that’s over a 2 inch difference!  No wonder the issue. We’ll see what the 95.5 measures when it comes in. Also blue Kevlar. I chose slow shipping for a discount as this week is filled with plans.

Watching…

As for the tach you mentioned. I also bought a digital one, only rectangle. actually i bought two. i put one on the beast but as @Brianator mentioned it lags. I wish they made an analog tach that you could wire into the coil some how to get a good response and be accurate.

OK, new belt! Got it today. The 95.5"

Measured a tick over 95 5/8. Going to call it 5/8 for error tollerance.



Right now it is PERFECT! If it stretches the .5 inch, I'm back in the 96 territory that is too big. This tells me, If I found a 95 that was actually 95 and not 94 something I would be good. I'm going to roll with the 95.5 and when it streches out that .5, I think I will change out the adjustable pulley from a 3 inch into a 4 inch that I have on hand. Just need to make a belt guide for it. Before the B/O is over this will probably happen.

Got my LED bulb for my rear light fixture.  Seems to work well.  Same brightness it seems as my incandescent but much fewer watts.  Got it off Amazon.  Was supposed to come from China (wasn't paying attention) ... but ended up coming from Kazakhstan!  Took about 3 weeks to get here.





Pic of the belt installed.  Forgot to send one earlier.  Excuse the boogers on that exhaust.  LOL.



Got my Por15 dumped in.  Doing my timely rotations.

Neat, I like LED bulbs. Another (hibernating right now) hobby of mine is refurbishing old flashlights. LED bulbs and good batteries make it fun.
So, what color is the fuel tank liner? Years ago I had a Bronco tank lined. The stuff was white and worked perfectly.

It's silver!  I've heard people having good luck with it.  When I drain the excess here in a hour or 2 I have to let it sit for 4 days to cure.  That's OK, I won't have time Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday to do anything.  I think that is part of the burn out is all the stuff right now needing to be done.  Mon-Weds can't be helped.  After that, I see some free time.  I'm ready to get my test run in!  I had hoped to have done that this weekend, but the leaky tank put a kink in that.  It's OK, I have lots of time to get that done.   

Oh, and I typically keep all good idlers from scrapped or parted machines!

I honestly having a hard time getting over that paint scheme, I just noticed you had track shoes on her, is this not going to be much of a mudding rig?

Yeah, I got dirt track tires on it.  Not much mud really to play in here in Oklahoma.  If I do want to play with some mud, I'll break out L'il Red.  With these tires, I don't care if I am on dirt or asphalt. I can easily enough put on some mud shoes if needed.  My future plan is to eventually put 4on4 or 5on4.5 hubs around this beast so I can swap tires on the fly.  That's kind of a phase 2 update I have already planned for this tractor.

MightyRaze wrote:

Yeah, I got dirt track tires on it.  Not much mud really to play in here in Oklahoma.  If I do want to play with some mud, I'll break out L'il Red.  With these tires, I don't care if I am on dirt or asphalt. I can easily enough put on some mud shoes if needed.  My future plan is to eventually put 4on4 or 5on4.5 hubs around this beast so I can swap tires on the fly.  That's kind of a phase 2 update I have already planned for this tractor.

Oh, okay, do those tires work okay for trail riding or is there not alot of that in OH either?

TechnoChicken wrote:

Oh, okay, do those tires work okay for trail riding or is there not alot of that in OH either?

They should work great on trail riding.  Just not mud, at least nothing more than 3-4 inches deep.  Then again here in Oklahoma we don't really have much mud.  We have mostly red clay that gets really sticky or slick.  The groves on the tires are pretty deep even thought they are dirt track style tread.  Not too much in the way of trails here in OK that you can get a mower on.  I do have 3 that I would like to check out that are open should I find a trailer that I can get a second tractor on.  My Daughter likes to ride as well.

MightyRaze wrote:

TechnoChicken wrote:

Oh, okay, do those tires work okay for trail riding or is there not alot of that in OH either?

They should work great on trail riding.  Just not mud, at least nothing more than 3-4 inches deep.  Then again here in Oklahoma we don't really have much mud.  We have mostly red clay that gets really sticky or slick.  The groves on the tires are pretty deep even thought they are dirt track style tread.  Not too much in the way of trails here in OK that you can get a mower on.  I do have 3 that I would like to check out that are open should I find a trailer that I can get a second tractor on.  My Daughter likes to ride as well.

3-4 inches is pretty good anyhow, the only trails we have down here is an old railroad track that's now a municipality owned hydro service trail, however, it's gated off and it has signs that say no motorized vehicles, so I plan on making some trails on my property in the future.

Well, apparently my leak was in the bottom center of the tank. (mostly)  You can see the spot in the middle in my arrows pic.  (note none of the arrows point to the actual leak)



Yeah that circular area that looks like the leak.  LOL  Yeah, it appears the por15 wept through that hole and sealed it off.



Tractor is all assembled back together.  Now I need to look into making a gas pedal.