Homemade tractor build video

I got a few requests for a build video on the homemade tractor and since I'm stuck home on quarantine I have time to do it when I started the project at first I wasn't taking any video but I took a lot of pictures and I put some of those still shots together into a video to show the build process so here's the finished tractor or I'm sure there'll be some fixes and improvements along the way but right now it's pretty much done and I just have a carry-all I threw together real quick on the back with some of my tree climbing equipment my dad's homely tractor was my inspiration to build my own tractor this tractor does a lot of heavy duty work that's too much for a lawn mower sized tractor and through my build process whenever I was stumped on how to do something I'd called my dad up and say how was it done on the little yellow tractor this tractor was built in the late 1950s by my grandfather the tractor has done a lot of work through the years and it held up really well it was also used for recreation as you could see in the pictures this is a beat-up old 702 wheel horse I found on Craigslist I used a few parts from this tractor the foot rests as pedals the seat pan the steering wheel but the major component that I use from this wheel horse tractor was the transmission the rear end for the tractor is a Ford 8.8 inch limited slip differential that I removed from a mid 90s era Ford f-150 in the junkyard the engine is a cast iron briggs 16 horsepower engine had spark and good compression this was another Craigslist find the tractor uses two transmissions to gear it down and give gear options this Ford Model A car transmission I found on Craigslist the front axle spindles and steering components come from a 56 Chevy half-ton pickup this was my grandfather's pickup junked in the woods and I spent a lot of time playing in it when I was a kid and was happy to have it as part of my homemade tractor I assembled the tractor from back to front starting with the rear end first step was to narrow the rear end here you could see the rear end with the tubes cut off I used a piece of cold rolled steel and some custom made bushings as a jig the jig along with some clamps held the tubes in place to be reweld 'add I asked my dad to do these welds for me these welds needed to be really strong and needed to be able to hold the oil in the rear end and since my dad's a much better welder I asked him to do it here is the rear end after it was all welded back together next I welded the original brackets back on in different position to mount the rear end to the frame I couldn't find anyone locally to resupplying the shortened axles so I sent them to Idaho to Dutchman axle to have them re-- splined i reassemble the with a new clutch pack and new bearings for the wheel horse transmitted got all new bearings and seals when I reassembled it I didn't include the differential or axles I also cut two axle tubes off the transmission case for the Model A transmission I got new bearings and seals these gears showed some where and had some pitting but a new set cost $900 so I decided to reuse the old ones the Briggs & Stratton engine was in good shape but not running the carbon needed to be rebuilt I cleaned up some carbon with the head off and replaced the head gasket once it was reassembled it started right out frame members of the tractor are three by three by three a single iron I cut and bent and welded them to fit under the tubes of the rear end to connect the drivetrain from the Ford 8.8 inch rear end to the model a transmission I had to come up with a customized u joint I cut the end off the driveshaft from a Ford f-150 and disassembled a model a u joint that I got on eBay I don't have machining tools so I had to do the cuts by hand and just eyeball it to keep everything true I used to grill to heat things up and then they let them cool slowly after the welds to minimize warpage next i mounted the model a transmission to the frame I'm really happy the way this u-joint turned out even though I had to eyeball everything it came out nearly perfect I hope it holds up a heavy-duty roller chain connects the wheel horse transmission to the model a transmission to mount a sprocket on the model a transmission I use part of the clutch plate from the Model A and drilled some holes and mounted it to a sprocket that I got from Granger bolted together now power can be transferred from the roller chain into the splines of the Model A transmission he used a pillow block bearing in place of the pilot bearing for the transmission to keep everything running true I welded together some pieces to mount the wheel horse transmission to the frame and allow it to move up and down in order to adjust the tightness of the chain here it is mounted in place with the chain for the purposes of ground clearance I had to flip the front axles upside down from the way they were mounted on the truck because the angle of the kingpins I needed to cut the ends of the axles off and reweld them back on at a different angle I cut the xl2 whip and welded it back together in the middle it's mounted on a one-inch shaft that goes into pillow block bearings and serves as the pivot point for the front axle I bought trailer to serve as the front wheels of the tractor in order to get them to fit on the hubs of the Chevy pickup without a lathe mounted the hubs and the vise made a simple holder for the angle grinder and ground them down to the right diameter then I drilled holes that the room attack the lug bolts in place so I don't have to hold them with the wrench when I'm taking the wheels on and off the front wheels have a positive camber to make it easier to turn with the manual steering box I had to make some custom cuts and weld to mount the tie rod I ran the tie rod out in front of the axle the way you see on a lot of old-fashioned tractors to maintain the range of motion of the axle pivot I also mounted the tie rod as high as possible to maintain ground clearance tie rod was set up to utilize an acraman angle with steering the tractor uses a belt slip clutch system this is the clutch pedal and linkage a heavy-duty spring keeps back tension against the belts with this atv wheel bearing as an idler pulley when the clutch is pressed down the tension is released you here's the clutch pedal mounted in place this piece of sheet metal serves to keep the belt from going round when the clutch is depressed so the belt doesn't grab the idler bearing runs in between the Briggs engine and the wheel horse transmission it's a tight space it's hard to get a good view of how the setup works the steering box is from the late 60s era of Mustang or Mercury I took it apart and repacked it with fresh grease once we assembled everything worked tight and smooth the steering box has mounted in place beneath the wheel horse transmission had to lengthen the steering shaft luckily it turned out to be the same diameter shaft as the tie rod and I had some left over from when I narrowed that so I welded the two together because of the splines on the steering box and the angle at which it's mounted I had to make a custom pitman arm things got really complicated at this part of the project because of how tight everything needed to fit I had to use a relay lever to connect the drag link to the steering and for this I used the hub from my 99 Honda Civic that was left over from a recent repair this piece holds the steering column support as well as providing a mount place for the gas tank I've been a piece of heavy sheet metal to match the shape of the wheel horse hood and then welded them together with some supports underneath and some bondo to smooth out the rough welds because I didn't want to have to maintain a battery I made the tractor a rope start and for this reason I made the lower portion of the front grille removable here's the bracket that holds it in place this grille is also part of the wheel horse tractor you I made a custom mount with the spring from a bicycle to mount the seat from the wheel horse the brake pedal mounts under the frame and pulls on the emergency brake cables from the f-150 I have a separate video on this this is looking down at the brake pedal after it is mounted in position I bought a category one three-point hitch kit for a Kubota to set up a three-point hitch on the tractor works either with the hydraulic jack or a hand lever I have a separate video on that too this is a frame that I set up to mount the top link and the lift arm for the three-point hitch here's the lift arm and top length mount in place I added some foot breath I have it an arm with the brake pedal for a parking brake for the final finishing touch and either knob for this shifting liver I turned down a piece of hickory on the drill press and then epoxy did it on top of the model a transmission shifting lever the whole project took just under two years working after working weekends there were a few times where I felt really stuck and would take off a few days or even a few weeks until I got the ambition to get started again I had to skip a lot of the little things to keep the video to a reasonable length hopefully I included all the big picture stuff though

Channel: Jesse Alt

Views: 97,345

Keywords:

Id: Ictchi-8O8I

Length: 14min 33sec (873 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020