Offroad lawnmower

[muddstir]

Thanks fryer 1979 and stepside 83.
The last couple of weeks I've been getting parts gathered up for the wifes Firebird to get it put back on the road so I can take her daily driver (Bug) off the road and get all the problems fix on that. So for the next month not much will be happening, but still would like to get the steering connected in the meantime.

[muddstir]

I got all the cars fixed, some projects around the house done, and no more overtime at work. So I now have some time to work on my lawn mower.

I left off with adding a body lift to it so I can clear the chain case for the drive axle, and then I was headed onto the steering. But in order to get the steering connected on it I needed to have the body in it's final location. So the first body part I started on was the rear fender mount that bolts to my frame. I ended up trimming the body lift section on it to its final length and welded up the last 1in of the seams and ground them smooth.(sorry no pic of that but if anybody wants to see it I can take one later and post it.)
With that part at its final length and mounted in its right spot I could move onto the next body part.
Since I added the 5in lift to it the dash,console (not sure of its proper name) needed a filler panel made for it, so that it could have some thing to be mounted to in it's proper location. The first one that I made was wrong so I ended up make a second one


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Now with that installed I can get the dash position and mounted. But that's were I ran into another snag. With the body lift on the tractor it now puts the front bottom section of the dash in eye sight, and its not pretty at all. Its all cut up and melted, so I ended up revamping it. I made a cardboard templet of the flat inside area of it (lower dash section) and then cut some new sides out of alum sheet metal. Then I bought some 1/8 alum angle to mount to the inside bottom ledge of the alum sides for 2 reasons, 1- to give the alum sides some strength and 2- to give me a mounting point for the lower dash section onto the new filler pc that I made. With all those pcs done the only thing left to do was cut out the unused plastic on the lower dash section and then assemble the lower dash section with the new parts. (All the alum pcs will be painted black when tractor is finished)


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Then the last body part to position was the hood and for that I only had to make new hood mounts that lifted it 5 inches. So I pulled off the stock ones and went to work and bent up metal, then I used a jig saw to cut them out.


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[muddstir]

Since I got all the dash pcs fixed up I was able to put them in their correct position. I am now working on the inner support structure, this will be used for the mounting of the steering column. It will also help with saving the plastic dash pcs in a roll over.

I made it out of some 3/4 sq tubing, I ended up angle cutting it and welding it back together becouse the bender I bought does not bend this tubing like it should all it does is kink it.

This support structure is not 100% done. I going to tie the top of it in with the top of the shock mounts.

Here is a couple of pics the first one is of the frame work and the second one is with the bottom section of the dash on to show that the frame work will be covered up.
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[Restrorob]

Look'n good muddstir !


Ahhh...... Looks like you need to do some recoil repair there.....

[muddstir]

Thanks Restrorob,
the motor is going to be sent out and rebuilt, was hopeing to send it out next week but I'm having a hard time finding a good shop around here.


Was messing around with the steering today and I ran into an issue. Due to the position of the motor and the steering mount I have to run the steering shalf under the motor, not a big deal I knew that from the time I started on the steering. So I got a U-joint awhile back from my friend that came off of a car steering setup for this issue. Went to put it in use and found out that its way to big, its about 2in in dia. Called him up to see if he had anything else and he gave me the idea of useing a swivel joint from a tool set. A 3/8 one will fit almost perfect, but a 1/2in one is a little to big.

So due you guys think that a 3/8in swivel joint will work- and hold up or do you guys know of anything else that will work in its place?

Needs to be around 3/4in dia and able to bend around 60* (rough guess) I have about 2in of space to work it in.

Thanks

[aussiejohn]

Originally Posted by muddstir

Thanks Restrorob,
the motor is going to be sent out and rebuilt, was hopeing to send it out next week but I'm having a hard time finding a good shop around here.


Was messing around with the steering today and I ran into an issue. Due to the position of the motor and the steering mount I have to run the steering shalf under the motor, not a big deal I knew that from the time I started on the steering. So I got a U-joint awhile back from my friend that came off of a car steering setup for this issue. Went to put it in use and found out that its way to big, its about 2in in dia. Called him up to see if he had anything else and he gave me the idea of useing a swivel joint from a tool set. A 3/8 one will fit almost perfect, but a 1/2in one is a little to big.

So due you guys think that a 3/8in swivel joint will work- and hold up or do you guys know of anything else that will work in its place?

Needs to be around 3/4in dia and able to bend around 60* (rough guess) I have about 2in of space to work it in.

Thanks

Muddstir,

As an Australian distributor of the Borgeson product range, I have a bit of knowledge of uni joints, and one thing is for sure, 35 degrees is the maximum that they will take. If you want 60 degrees, you will need a double uni joint that is capable of up to 70 degrees. Borgeson don't make them as small as you want them, so I suggest that you modify something to make one fit.

I cannot speak for Borgeson, but I am certain that a tool box swivel joint is not the right way to go. It's your build, and I'm following it with great interest, but I felt that I should say something here. Please look for a better way that a swivel joint.

Keep up the good work.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

[muddstir]

Thanks aussiejohn for the info, I was out in the garage today and looked at the angle that I need and found that I way off. I was going off of 0* should be going off of 90* and it looks like the swivel joint will be around 30*. Here are some pics of the angle that I need and the area I have to work with.

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The motor base plate sits on the top of bent pc of metal by the swivel and has an incline backwards of 20* ish. If I modifly the base plate I will gain about 3/4 of an inch, that will put me around 3in of working space.


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[Restrorob]

muddstir,


Here's my suggestion; http://www.matcotools.com/catalog/pr...IVERSAL-JOINT/

A little pricey yes, But good quality and I know built to endure more punishment than you'd ever inflict with that steering shaft......

[muddstir]

I think I'm going to order one of these http://www.mcmaster.com/#universal-joints/=ma4gje Not sure what size I need yet, I'm modifying the motor plate to give me alittle more room.



The ones I'm looking at are called "Take-Apart Mil. Spec. Pin-and-Block U-Joints" there about half way down the page- Sorry thought my link would go stright to their page.