Colorado Melons

To maximize my available space utilization, I wanted to incorporate the entire steering mount / dash panel into one assembly with the braces I had made for installing the front sheetmetal body, but with all the projects I’ve been working on during this last week I ran through a full spool of welding wire and will have to run out tomorrow in the AM before I can finish this piece that was only in my mind before today. 

In need of the small pillow-block bearing you see holding the steering shaft/wheel to the dash panel (click images to enlarge), I stopped by Whisler Industrial Supply (aka: Whisler Bearing) today on my way home from work with the the rusty steering shaft in hand. I got the usual "Can I help you?" from the counterman when I walked in.

Well you know as well as I do that you never know if a counter person in a parts place will be more of a help or a hinderance anymore. Like when you walk into the auto parts store and want spark plugs for a 350 Chevy or 302 Ford and the kid needs to know, "Automatic or Manual Transmission?"… You know right then that you know his business better than he does, but you want what you want so you deal with it or go down the road next time, appreciating all that much more when you find a real professional.

The man that I bumped into today, Dieter, Outside Sales; is just such a professional, not only knowledgeable in his business, but also helpful, informative and courteous. The kind of old school approach to Customer Service you don’t find all too often.

Since I have the U-joints from the original PTO shaft, to move the steering from its original "driver’s side" location from when this was a truck to the center more like a tractor, all I needed was the one small part, but Dieter took the time to make sure I was getting exactly what I needed, treating me like a valuable customer. 

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There are Ford tractors. Why not a Chevy tractor?

Knowing GM, if Chevy made a tractor they would’ve used the same off-the-shelf parts they use for everything else. The only difference between a Chevy truck and a GMC (besides the additional $1500+ for GMC) is the rebadging & trim. Firebird/Camaro. Cavalier/Sunbird/Skylark/or load down the anemic 88hp with heavy accessories and call it a Cadillac Cimarron.
Note: It’s a shame Generic Motors ever got their grubby little hands on “Cadillac”.

So if Chevrolet went into the tractor business, building four-wheeled work-horses from their already existing pile of schtock – unlike the two-wheeled tractors made by Harley – they might’ve looked something like this:

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I showed all the parts I used to make the tractor fuel tank in a previous post and the pieces for the brackets were included in the beginning of that write-up. Today I was able to get around to making those brackets.

I started out by taking the 2″ flat and bending it to match the inside of one of the four ”J” pieces cut from 1/4″ plate, welding it in place as I went along.

Then I took that assembly and welded the other side of the 2″ flat to another one of the “J” pieces. Like so: (notice the persuader)
 
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The tractor still needs a fuel tank and I haven’t been able to find something I like that fits. There’s space between the rails in the back but I want to leave that for PTO drive and some other accessories. Since the only other available space is to hang it on the outside of the frame-rail in plain view, I wanted something that didn’t look like a piece of pressed tin.

Here’s the parts I’ve put together:

• 12″ Pipe 20″ long – it’s every bit of 5/16″ thick O  
• 2 – 12″ circles cut from 1/4″ plate (tank sides)
• 2″ NPT short nipple (filler neck)
• 2″ pipe cap (filler cap)
• 4″ x 1/4″ x 12″ flat (drilled for filler neck, sending unit & vent)
• 1/4″ pipe x 2″ & 1/4″ elbow (tank vent) more in picture than actually used
• and an old Chevy sending unit w/ fuel pick-up tube
  
• Flat stock and “J” shapes cut from 1/4″ plate in top picture are for the mounting brackes

Cut a 12″ x 4″ rectangle hole centered in the side of the pipe for the flat connection plate:

Yes Ken, it would’ve been easier to just drill some holes in the pipe for the filler neck & vent and be done with it. It would’ve been even easier to strap a jerry-can to the side of the tractor; but it wouldn’t have been quite the look I was going for. :-)

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Just drove it out of the garage this evening… not anywhere near done, but being under it’s own motivation sure helps mine.

Not under it’s own power, but at least its not on blocks anymore.

‘ still a long way from done, but will probably wire ‘er up first to be able to move it in-and-out of the shop at times.

Neither Front nor Rear mountings are done at this time:

When looking at the photos of the front, you’ll notice the piece of
2″ ID Mechanical Tubing welded to the center cross-member, under the
radiator. This is for the front oscillation pivot. The visible square
tube (2″x2″x1/4″) on top of the axle will bolt to the axle using the
original bolts for the leaf pack. I will weld a bracket from this
square tube to another piece to create the pivot.

The rear frame is cut-out (C’d) for the rear axle and will have 2
1/2″ x 1/4″ flat bent in the shape of the “C” and welded to the inside
of the frame. Additionally, I will take another piece of frame – from
the 7′+ section standing in the rear of the garage – and “C” out of top,

slip this piece in from the bottom and bolt to the outside of the frame
and lower edge of the frame… somewhat hard to explain without being
able to use my hands to talk.

The wheels were definitely a trick with a lack of machine tools at home. Low-buck, but here’s what I did:

1. I took the Schrader valves out of the valve-stems to insure all air
   was out of each tire figuring the heat might make the air expand too
   much.
2. I then took my dividers and slid one end around the 4 1/2″ hub hole
   with the other end set to create the necessary diameter center to go
   inside the 16″ wheel.
3. I “rough cut” the center out of the wheel with the torch.
4. I set the axle up on saw horses and bolted a jig-of-sorts made from
   angle to where the leaf springs mount on one side. My hand grinder was
   band-clamped to the jig so as to place the grinding wheel up against
   the edge of the rough-cut wheel

   center. A stop was used to prevent me from grinding away too much material.

5. Bolt the wheel center to the axle hub and rotate by hand while running the grinder.

The 16″ Pickup Truck wheel are actually riveted together. The bolt
center is riveted to the “ring” (for lack of proper terminology) in 4
places with 3 rivets each. I left the rivets in, but cut the “bracket”
part free from the center. This allowed me to weld only to the riveted
bracket instead of the rim ring. My wheel is now assembled exactly as
the original except with a welded center instead of a one-piece stamped
center.

After doing the first, I tried cutting the center out of the
wheel with a jig-saw and metal blade… Slower going at first, but with
copious amounts of oil on the blade while cutting, it definitely made
short work of the finish grinding.

The dropped axle could create ground clearance issues on certain
terrain, but it’s what I have to work with at this time. Although our
yard is not flat by any means, there’s nowhere I can high-center so it
should work for me.