Let's get back to the metal and away from the wood!!

Going  round my shed I realised that there was one step on a tractor that I hadn't put on here.  It is on my Industrial GP that came from the Ken Reichert sale some years ago up in Ontario.  This tractor was roiginally owned by the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club - at the time the richest such club in the world.

Anyway this single little step was fitted to the tractor and it is very convenient and easily fitted.

John

That right there is the most clever and production viable step I have seen in this thread.  Well done!

JB

Actually John I don't think that it is a production step.  Close inspection suggests that it does not have a factory finish.  But I would note that this tractor seems to have been driven by a disabled man at the hockey club as one of the brake pedals has been especially bent upwards to perhaps accomodate a problem or short leg???

John

I knew it was not production, but in my opinion "production viable", meaning it could easily have been a well thought out production design.  ;-)

JB

John,

It's quite a help for getting on but for getting off not so good as one can't see the step from above!

John

John,

This is a factory fit step on my red, styled M-H 25

John

And finally, I think, on steps is the factory fit step on my French built Vineyard Pony.  It also serves as the tool box lid.

John

We have started ticking off another job on our "to do" list.  This time on my MH 55 Riceland Diesel.

Having stood and moved only occasionally in the few years since I imported it, last year it suddenly decided to leak oil from the back axle through the brake casing drain hole in quite copious quantities.

The brake housing is most inaccessible anyway under the footplates and between the wheel and the transmission housing.  The brake housing outer plate came off quite easily and it a feature of GOOD design along with it come the brake shoes.  This exposes the big cast brake drum within which they sit.  It is on the splines of a rugged shaft coming through from the transmission.  Remove a circlip which retains it and it comes off easily.  Then one can see the offending seal which has failed but one cannot get it out at this stage.  Instead one has to remove the very substantial sort of trumpet housing bolted to the side of the transmission

This housing is boldly fluted and  if I recall correctly is mounted on 8 sturdy studs with nuts.  It is easy to get at 7 of the nuts but the one located at about 10 to the hour is in a foul place.  Not possible to get a spanner on it and not possible to get a normal socket on it and turn it.  As luck would have it my young mechanic had some long sockets with him which one could just get a socket bar on to and turn a few degrees at a time.  A slow but at least positive job and we won through in the end.  Once this housing was off then on to the bench, remove another circlip at the rear, out comes the sturdy shaft and then one can prise out the seal.

I suspect that MH had a specially configured spanner for the job.  Of course it would be easy but a very time consuming and awkward job to get at it from above if one removed the footplate.

The good news today is that my local bearing man can get a new seal to fit and deliver  to my door in just two days.

Interestingly the old seal was made in Mexico.  Something rings a bell with me that MH did have some manufacturing done down there.  Would Mr Trump now allow me to import one via the US through the new wall??!!

John

This thread has been dormant for some time!  Does this mean that there have been no arising problems or that no-one is working on their tractors??

Anyway, here we have been working on one of my M-H GPs.  Trouble with the clutch action which we have attributed to gross looseness in the linkages down from the  shift/clutch shift column that holds up the steering wheel.

We got the steering column off this and then un-bolted the column itself using an impact wrench to get the studs out.  Beware of using an ordinary spanner with an extension bar if they are very stuck as it is easy to break them off

We had diagnosed a lot of play in this column and down below on the linkage rods to the gears and clutch.  Anyway we got the column out first disconnecting the linkage rods from the actuating levers on the 3 actuating arms on the base of the gear lever column.  A feat of conquering inaccessibility in itself!  

Next I had all the gear lever shaft and three actuating arms re-bushed to make a better fit on the rods that go forward to the "gear and clutch selectors" at the rear of the gearbox.  All a hell of a hassle!  Gross inaccessibility through the side ports on each side.

Then came  reassembly.  What a job!  It seemed that reassembly was more difficult than pulling it all apart.  Anyway what a devil of a job and a classic case of the designers not thinking of those who would have to maintain the machine in the future.  (Just as on today's cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Enough for now but enyonebringing a GP back to life bewaare of all this!!

John

Well - we managed to get all the gear/clutch column rebushed as well as their associated linkages - and we got it all back together again!

It was a veritable pain in the ass getting the cotter pins back in the lower linkages - 6 in all.  The side ports are to small to to both use one's hands and see what one is doing.  So fiddly that in the end we abandoned the cotter pins and resorted to short lenghts of wire which was easier to get in the small inaccesible holes.

Anyway, pleased to advise that tightneing up the whole assembly right through the gear and clutch mechanisms has cured the problems.  We had been baffled as to what was wromg with the clutch function but excessive slop in the linkages proved to be the fault.

John