[c] [24] RROD’S 414-8 BUILD

Mrs. Rich spent a few hours on the WH today, getting familiarized with mowering activities. The WH seemed very friendly to a beginner rider, and the clutch was plenty smooth. The governed oppy makes it easy to not worry about throttle and just focus on your clutching fundamentals.

Per rules, your tractor is technically complete.  Would you like to say that, but continue building your tractor?  You have posted plenty of video's of it working.

Let me know and I'll mark your topic.

I know it’s complete, I just need to get around to making a video of it to show it. I do have much more work planned, so there will likely be another completion video when voting comes around.

Good video showing how smooth the clutch is. Those last keepers I added seemed to help plenty.


Hopefully I can get the swept axle mounted soon and see how much it helps the front end weight situation.

Had a rim spin in one of the bighorns. The valve stem is in there somewhere. Looks like I need to get serious about beadlocks.

That valve stem is still in the tire somewhere, it’s holding air at least!

Got a running board from  @Creepycrawler back at GER, finally got around to putting it on. Also mounted up a medium-high back seat that I got at the scrapyard yesterday for $10. I’m usually a low back guy but I’ll give this high back a go.

Little detail that can make a big difference. If you’ve ever had a throttle cable get sticky with grit you’ll understand why a rubber boot might be a good idea for a throttle cable.

Josh Rowe was having some carb problems on his tractor this weekend so he rode the 414 in spaas creek. His wife Jessica was even on it for a bit. Tractor did fine but seeing him on it made me realize how high it sits in the front. Looks like I’ll have to drop it down soon.

Dropped the front end an inch. Had to grind one of the top corners of the axle a bit to get it to clear inside or the mount. Seems to sit better. Need to reset my bump stops now I guess.

Took her out today for the first time with the front end lowered. Feels a lot better in the steep stuff. These tires are kinda flat and boy do they hug some rocks. Need to get some bead locks done so I can more safely run them this way.

Finally got the itch to start working on the swept axle swap. The old grease on these spindles was set up like cement!


Bit of heat and WD40 did the trick to help wrench them out


The quality of this casting really isnt on par with the straight axle. The hole here is in the right place- it’s just that the casting is out of wack. Doesn’t completely surprise me on something long and skinny like this, warp is to be expected.


I cut the stock tie rod arms down and made my own new ones to match wheel horse steering geometry


This was a neat little setup that turned out pretty nice.


Welded them on, drilled the holes in the mill after everything cooled. For anyone wondering, the tie rod hole on a wheel horse needs to be 90* to the spindle and 3-1/8” out from the centerline of the spindle.



Now to switch over the bearings in the front wheels to ones with 1” bore, and maybe make new tie rods. Oh, and the front axle will need a spacer in the mount, its about 7/8” shorter front to back than a stock WH axle.

Got everything done up. This axle is about 7/8” thinner in the middle so you have to make up for that with some kind of spacer in the front axle mount. I put the spacer in front of the axle to lessen the angle of the tie rods some, sort of have them closer to perpendicular to the frame.


Due to limitations inherent to the geometry of a swept axle, she doesnt turn quite as tight as with the JD straight axle, but still plenty good. Still better than a sears. The extended wheelbase, now around 47-48” seems to make the tractor a lot more stable on hills due to the weight of the front wheels being farther ahead, and hopping tall ledges, due to the front wheels being further over the ledge, making the tractor lean back less with the front end perched high.

Still haven’t decided if I’ll pull the fluid out of the front tires. I would like to keep this tractor somewhat mild for the ol lady to ride with me.

Mrs Rich rode the 414 at Canmer today with me!


She actually managed to bend one of the 3/4” solid bar tie rods. I guess she’s learning from me!


I got a little seat time on it myself


Had a little oops  pcv hose puked oil all over me, that could really use to be routed differently or into a catch can. Tractor was fine though!

Got some tires set up on my other rims with no fluid. This thing is crazy light up front now, it wheelies better than the lawn ranger. Still turns easy too without skating the front end.


Need to get some bumpers on this thing now so i dont rip the fenders off and whatnot.

Oppy blew out the sump gasket and puked a bunch of oil. Luckily i caught it before it was too late.


Crank is pretty rusty. Sump is nasty too. Was really expecting better with how clean this engine was externally.

There’s still actually some crosshatch visible in these cylinders. Check out the meat on the cylinder wall too! I think it could use bored out some


This drain hole was broken out around the edges by the PO and the pipe nipple was only screwed in a thread or so. If i realized that i would have fixed it sooner. Ground off the rest of the boss and tapped the hole deeper with a 3/8-18 pipe tap. Lots of thread engagement now. After this i cleaned everything good and sealed the sump back up with a new gasket and thin layer of ultra black. Had to be careful not to use too much and block the oil pickup passage.


While the engine was out i figured i may as well upgrade the steering shaft bushing up front, like i did on the lawn ranger. It’s in the lawn ranger thread somewhere if anyone is looking for more detail.


Just gotta grind off a bunch of the flange bearing casting and drill holes to mount it in there. Well, that’s besides the nightmare of moving around wheel horse steering while being too lazy to disassemble it fully.


If i do too much more to this thing then mighty’s gonna have to take out out of the complete category

Added this lock collar so i can shove the steering gears together and hold them tight with the lock collar. I used this instead of the bearing set screws because they’re a pain to tighten in this location and i don’t trust them to hold much anyway.


This is a picture of a cat with a cigarette and i just think he’s really chill for that


The bearings in the idlers were getting a little crusty so i drilled out the rivets and replaced the bearings with some brand new NTN 6203-LLUs. They are automotive grade bearings so they should last a while.


As of now everything is back on the frame, just waiting to be hooked back up.

Really wasn’t planning on riding the 414 at GER but i got a wild hair and decided to unload it and screw around. It’s a ton of fun with no fluid in the front tires. Wheels up anytime you want. The zip tied governor spring helped that some lol. I wound up trail riding it more than any of the other tractors.


I did get a little too rowdy once and the tractor absolutely pancaked me when it flipped back. About broke my leg hahaha. It seemed to bend in some way it shouldnt when it happened but its just a bit sore now so I guess I’m ok. Damn that thing is heavy when it comes down on top of you! Tractor wasnt even bent up, guess i caught it.

Glad you're ok!

Thanks mighty.

Really need to get some bumpers on this thing, had to give  @Hot Lap a push every once in a while when we were towing him back after he popped a belt. Had to be careful to not get into my grille lol.

Oh I didn’t even realize John was a member here! He said that was the first time Charlie Horse ever had to be towed back.

Back on topic, I still have no idea how you rolled. We were figuring out how to get my tractor back to camp and about 10 feet away we just heard WHAM as you dump the tractor over lmao

Jason (Tennessee Mountain Homestead) said he watched me dump it back over on me. I was screwing around and just missed the clutch and straight up ate sh*t lol. FAFO comes to mind. Hey, that was a great night ride though!!!

@Hot Lap: “you gonna quit f-ing around now??”
Me: *hobbles over to sit down* “yeah i think im gonna quit f-ing around now”

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

@Hot Lap: “you gonna quit f-ing around now??”
Me: *hobbles over to sit down* “yeah i think im gonna quit f-ing around now”

This is EXACTLY what came to mind lmao. But you had already sat down, laid back against the hill, arms over your head when you replied

Just a reminder @RichieRichOverdrive. I have you unofficially marked complete. When you want it to be official, please post it and I'll tag the post.

Feel free to throw the complete mark on this build mighty; the most i may do to it soon is throw a bumper or two on it.


#Complete24 - MR