[Finalist] [24] Mighty's Marshal

OK, you talked me into it.  I'm replacing that bushing too.  LOL.

Probably a good idea, I always thought those steering setups were a pain to get out of the frame even when the tractor wasn't fully assembled.

@RichieRichOverdrive  "Stringy drill chips don't pull through a shop vac well" That reminds me of the time my mother accidentally sucked up my sister's crochet in the shop vac.
 That was a lot of yarn.  But that's a story for another day

MightyRaze wrote:

OK, you talked me into it.  I'm replacing that bushing too.  LOL.

That didn't take a whole lot of convincing! Lol. Lookomg good there @MightyRaze!

The red 90° welding magnets with the big hole in the middle do a good job at keeping drill shavings at bay although can be a bit of a bear to clean off after just FYI.

Brianator wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

OK, you talked me into it.  I'm replacing that bushing too.  LOL.

That didn't take a whole lot of convincing! Lol. Lookomg good there @MightyRaze!

The red 90° welding magnets with the big hole in the middle do a good job at keeping drill shavings at bay although can be a bit of a bear to clean off after just FYI.

Like I mentioned, trying to do it right the first time.  No short cuts that I have to go back over later.  Unfortunately I really dislike replacing this bushing in the past.  You have to install it from the inside out.  It will be fine though.  While I am at it, I plan on lengthening the steering rod and but on new tie rods with heims.  Truly working from the ground up!

I have a large 90 magnet and yes it is a bear cleaning shavings out of it!  LOL

MightyRaze wrote:

Unfortunately I really dislike replacing this bushing in the past.  You have to install it from the inside out

FYI, Easiest way I have found to change it out is to use a socket with an extension running through the upper bushing hole.

Ugh...

I got a new bottom bung for the gas tank. I went to grab it and noticed it has a split tank. I guess it had water set in it and freeze at some time it appears. 2 options, take redneck's tank, which I will probably do, or get a new one. I figure a new one is $$$ so Redneck's it is.

All bushings now replaced in the steering column.  I'm going to start rebuilding that.  



As mentioned, I just use a socket with an extension to set the new bushing.

Starting to take more shape now!!

Steering looks real good now that it has the bronze bushings in it now. Your making some real good progress.

muddstir wrote:

Steering looks real good now that it has the bronze bushings in it now. Your making some real good progress.

Thanks  @muddstir!

The steering is solid in that location now.

Little more progress.  This seems like a good stopping spot for the weekend.  I have some steering parts coming Sunday Maybe I'll get the tie rod and steering link completed then.

Newer Craftsmans lack fender stripes.  Playing here on how I like them.



I'll be honest... it is growing quickly on me.

That paint looks great. how do you work around the humidity?

ranch king pro 08 wrote:

That paint looks great.  how do you work around the humidity?

I've only painted a couple black parts, all the greys are original and will be kept original.  Actually too cold to paint.  :-) It just cleaned up really well.  LOL.

A little taste of things to come!



Going to be a beast finding a new seat for this thing.  I guess most seats no longer use the single 1/2 inch bolt anymore.  I wish the original wasn't rusted through and wasted.

I am probably going to use marine seats on my mowers. You have to watch out and get ones suitable for 300# and not the cheap 200# ones. I am looking at ones 18" wide with high bolsters so I do not slide off on off camber riding. Which is the main reason I left the mower deck handles on mine, something to grab onto. Probably get a clearance seat from Overtons or Sportsmans Guide. I did not really like the cheap ones at Surplus Center, as I prefer a dark green or black.

I really love the Murray style seats.  Unfortunately they do not have the center bolt provision.  I could drill and weld in one possibly.  I did drill out some new holes for the seat on Red Bandit to bolt to the fender pan.  There are options, but I may have to bite a bullet and make one work.

In the video, I mentioned not too happy with the tie rods.  Glad they were not too much money, as I am planning on ditching them.  They are stainless steel and not even fine threaded.  I have already pulled the trigger on removing them and going back to the original tie rods, but with heims instead of the ball joints.  The left handed heims won't be here until the weekend.

I did find an MTD seat plate in my stash-o-parts that looks to be a direct bolt up to the existing craftsman bracket. It also does away with the center bolt and works with the fender springs.  This could very well be the option I need.

>  They are stainless steel and not even fine threaded.

I do not think I have seen tie rod ends that were coarse threaded.  Kind of hard to make fine adjustments with coarse thread.  Maybe it has to do with how hard it is to cut SS compared to plain steel?

No idea.  I thought they would be thicker and more durable looking.  Instead they are about the size of a pencil then that goes down pretty small for the heim.  Definite weak point.  One stump, rock, rut and I'm certain they would bend/break.

I know exactly what you're saying about the heims, I got the same ones and also don't have much faith in them to last. The ones with the bronze insert are much better and usually greasable as well, I'll stick to those from now on myself.

The heims themself like on the steering link I will say have been pretty durable for me. These weak looking tie rods, the heims that came on them are M6 coarse thread.  That's really small for a 4-5 hundred pound tractor.  I'm going back to the 3/8 hardened rod.  Should that not work, I'll go up to Suburban sized.  They should work fine though.

On a side note, this is where it stands right now.  I'm going to walk away for a few days.  It's starting to come along quickly now.

I never stopped to think about how that’s a two piece hood bolted together. Pretty neat!

Love that stripe job.

While I have walked away from the tractor out in the garage, I did decide to tackle repairs to the dash.

One of the bolt points was broken and another cracked.  I thought about it, and figured some jbwelded pieces of metal would do the trick.

Just dropped my first good $$ on a seat and front tires.  Maybe in a week or so when the weather returns to a little nicer temp, I'll put them on.  The seat will go direct to the tractor.

The next big purchase and hopefully the last will be the rear tires.

Also, found the cup that goes around the steering shaft that needed fixed too.  It's all glued and drying.

Here is a little teaser.  Something there hidden in plain sight.



I have been strugling with the ammeter.  I'm not a 100% fan of it, but nothing fits the square in the dash.  So I did a LOT of searching and found that these voltmeter ammeter combo's seem to fit in the factory ammeter frame.



Pic is upside down, but you get the gist without turning it over.



OH...

Since I am terrible at holding a secret.



And half the wiring is done.