Mechanics Thread!

[DOOM!]

lol That's where it all starts, my man. Pretty soon, you'll be changine engines and clutches if you stick to it.

Well yeah, I still need to change the clutch disk and front-left suspension piston till I can call this matchbox a safe and efficient ride. But I haven't been working on my car alone, I just gave a hand; a friend of mine studies mechanics and he diagnoses and fixes the major stuff.
Then I gotta pass the inspection and I can finally get to fix/elaborate what I'm good at: interiors and electrical implant.

[T-Stew]

i have a 77 Chevy truck (manual), a 1961 mustang (stick), a 1992 cutlass (manual), 1999 camero(stick), 1949 early model p18 special deluxe with suicide doors (manual), a 1997 Pontiac grand Prix gt (manual), and a 1997 Chevy suburban (manual), a 1979 Chevy truck (stick), 1975 Chevy blue truck (stick), and a 1901 rat rod restored (stick).

Nice list... I'm seeing a pattern I like...

My heavy duty 6 speed

And my wimpy but adequate 1/2 ton 5spd.


Sticks all the way! Twin sticks for me actually. My two trucks ^^ unfortunately my old 78 is an auto or I'd have three... well I am still thinking about a swap there with an 80's ZF 5spd..

Personally I think three is the way to go; one old play toy, one light duty daily driver, and one heavy duty "if you can hook it up I can pull it".

[DeathBlade/13.666]

This is about as heavy duty as I wanna go, @T-Stew .

lol @Skrillex , I know the feeling. Friends like that are awesome to have. They were a great help when I was in Alaska.

[T-Stew]

@deathblade
With the open back on that I'm sure we could still rig up a 5th wheel hitch

[DeathBlade/13.666]

LOLLLL Now, now, that's now many brats, elkies, rancheroes, and bajas get messed up. People think they can hold a lot like a true truck, but in truth they only hold as much as a station wagon (weight wise).

Then you have this brat.

[battousai_ryuu]

LOLLLL Now, now, that's now many brats, elkies, rancheroes, and bajas get messed up. People think they can hold a lot like a true truck, but in truth they only hold as much as a station wagon (weight wise).

Then you have this brat.

Soooo that's what you do for fun eh Death?

[DeathBlade/13.666]

Soooo that's what you do for fun eh Death?

Mayyybbbeeeee ~.^

[T-Stew]

Nice!

[DeathBlade/13.666]

Just have to post this. Gotta show some love for these kids that did a great job. http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#...hybrid-car.cnn

[threewolves]

I don't tinker as much now, though last year I did, cause I had a 94 Jeep Wrangler, and well if you ever owned a Jeep, you know, you either need to be rich, or learn how to fix things. Back when I was in HS and in the Navy, I did a lot more, since everything I had, had a carb on it. So I was able to tear it apart and rebuild. In HS, uncle(same age as me) and I rebuilt an old 68 camaro he had gotten ahold of cheap, and pretty much brought it back to life.

[DeathBlade/13.666]

Nice, man. Jeep Wrangler's are some beasts, but when they break it's like you said. Be rich or learn to fix. Camaro's a mean example of classic pony muscle, man. There's a huge market for it and parts aren't too hard to get ahold of if you know where to go. I'd love to see some pics.

[threewolves]

Not sure if he ever took any pics of it, will have to ask him. Granted, have to remember, this was back in 87, but he might of taken some, will see if he has any. Here is a pic of my jeep when I was coming back from one of my hikes, I liked how it looked when i was coming out of the woods.

[DeathBlade/13.666]

Nice, kept it fairly stock. Doing all the rock crawling stuff is fun, but unless you do it often it's a bit of a waste imo. So I prefer stock. And I know what you mean with the Camaro pics. I wish I could find some pics of the cars and trucks my parents had for years. A nice Dodge Dart Swinger, Amatuer Race Spec MGB, Jeep Wagoneer, and a 1986 Chevy K-20 3/4 ton with the 6.2L Diesel.

[T-Stew]

So I mentioned about the clutch in my garden tractor earlier this year in this thread. Here are a couple pics of the tractor. Yeah its almost 40 years old but its tough as nails and built good unlike most of the box store mowers today. This thing has a real frame, an auto style transmission, driveshaft, etc. Its been quite useful, and I use it for a lot more heavy duty apps not just mowing. Here are just a couple pics of my Cub Cadet 1000, haulin wood (don't forget I built that much larger wagon!) and a pic plowing the garden. I've already put money into all 4 tires, a headlight kit, and some misc stuff on it anyhow, so might as well fix it up.



So the clutch went out. For all I know its the original one from the 70's. I decided to put a little money into a good clutch. I've finally got it back running, and thought I'd post up some pics.

Here is what happened. Looks like the main spring broke and a couple pieces of it found their way into the throwout bearing. But you can see the throwout bearing has worn into the arm to the point it was about to wear through there anyhow. Several other spots were severely worn too. All in all, if this is really original from the 70's I'm impressed.

New vs old. The new one is custom made from a place that specializes in Cub Cadet parts for pulling competitions. I got one of their lighter setups. 900# spring (red) I think the original spring was 300-400#. Much heavier duty and longer throwout arm to put some more leverage on that tougher spring. Also billet machined steel pressure plates, and a kevlar disk. The shaft is much shorter on the new one because I am installing a gear splitter (the other thing in the right picture on the hood). It will give me the ability to go really slow for use with a tiller and things were even 1st gear is way too fast.

Had to tear everything off the front. Since I had it all apart I also had planned a front axle swap. Certain models in the 80's would fit this tractor, were heavier duty, and had much improved steering (taking like 2 feet off the turning radius). New axle is black, and I hadnt swapped the tires yet.

Mounted the new billet aluminum clutch driver. This is a 6-pin driver with hardened steel studs vs the old 3-pin driver with coiled spring pins sitting next to it.

And the new clutch going in, gear splitter installed too.

Motor back in and mated up to the new clutch.

Put to the test. Working great, however as it is a 'pulling clutch' I got to be careful releasing the clutch easy or it will pop a wheelie pretty easy now lol. I love these old tractors.

[Kaleohano]

Oh dang. I never posted an updated of the lude. I'm so sorry.

so here, the before

 

and the now!

 

Soooo the changes...

-I painted the roof and the spokes of the rims black.
-Lifted the rear of the car 2.5 inches because of it bottoming out on speed bumps due to the weight of the system
-Took the front baffle of the box out and built a new one with a much bigger port for to make it louder and retuned it from 34hz down to the stupid lows at 26hz.
-i have a new 2400watt 4 chan amp for all my highs
-ran a new zero gauge wire to the back to improve my voltage cuz the old one sorta melted... i'll be running a second one when i get a chance
ummmm
oh!
-and i installed a new clarion Equalizer


there ya go,
your "Lucas' Prelude" update

[DeathBlade/13.666]

God damn, you two (@Kaleohano & @T-Stew ) have been busy. No real update on the BRAT, but not too long ago we got a 1997 Plymouth Breeze. Not running, overheating when it was driven in, and had been sitting for 2-3 years. Well, we changed out all the gaskets on the engine block, had a blown head gasket and no exhaust gasket. Found that the Mechanic that wanted it prior to us (but couldn't afford it) took the ECM and flipped it around backwards. Changed the fuel pump and filter. Got new tires, and had ran SAE 30 oil (for Tractors, I believe) to clean up the gunk in the engine for 450 miles. 50 miles more with transmission oil in it, to really clean it up. Then changed it all for some 10W-40. Now it purrs like a kitten, and even though it was intended for me to drive. I was given my dad's Saturn SC-1. lol Gotta love how that works out, huh? I'll try to get pics up of it and the Saturn possibly.

Glad to see the Cub Cadet up and running though, T-Stew.

[T-Stew]

Thanks! Old Cubs Never Die*.
*But may require some wrench turning
I skipped quite a lot of the details, like installing and tearing it out like 3 times, and thats after I had to send the assembly back twice because it was wrong. And the final rendition I did have to redrill a couple holes twice and cut the shaft down myself. I love working on stuff but I like it to go right the first time. When I spend half a year working on a weekend project I get a bit frustrated, but in the end I think it was worth it.

My other main cub (my 129) is having some more serious issues so getting the cub 1000 finished up and running was just in time. The 129 needs a good carb overhaul and the hydrostat is all out of adjustment and some of the control parts will probably need repair (a common issue with the hydros). I've got a junk hydro tractor that I might just swap the hydros and hope it works. It also has hydraulic lift which would be appreciated for some of the heavier implements I use (plow, snowblade, rotary tiller, etc).

Sounds like you've been busy too on the '97, nice that you were able to get it into good shape.

@Kaleohano that setup look pretty clean. I see you got some new rims too, I like the black rims. Been wanting to put black rims on my truck for a while (and do a complete black out) but 4 rims and new tires are a big chunk of change, especially for good all terrain E-rated tires. And a few other things I'd also have to do for the black out. I've been putting it off, but the factory tires are just about shot.

[Kaleohano]

@Kaleohano that setup look pretty clean. I see you got some new rims too, I like the black rims. Been wanting to put black rims on my truck for a while (and do a complete black out) but 4 rims and new tires are a big chunk of change, especially for good all terrain E-rated tires. And a few other things I'd also have to do for the black out. I've been putting it off, but the factory tires are just about shot.

i'm very happy with the system right now. Pushin 152db at 33hz.
and Yea, stuff like rims and tires ain't cheap. I managed to save a good bit on the tires by going with 17s instead 18s. But still, even with my connections, the set of rims and tires ran me about 1400. But i know from watching my old man pay 2k for a set of e-rated tires for his F-350 that 1400 aint sh*t compared to what you'll have to pay lol.

[DeathBlade/13.666]

lol Yea, All that work and I end up getting the Saturn. It wasn't too bad... We found that someone have tried to do what we had done before it sat for 3 years, but they screwed it up bad by not installed the exhaust gasket and sliding the head on over the head gasket (ruining the head gasket for that engine).

Do the hyrdos match on the junk tractor? Hope it works, but how much would it run you to just get new hydros?

As for the 1000, I know what you mean by skipping the screw-ups details. One of these days I've gotta start rebuilding the EA71 that I've got as a spare for my BRAT. Might as well seeming the Hitachi carb I have was already jetted for it and not the EA81.

[T-Stew]

Do the hyrdos match on the junk tractor? Hope it works, but how much would it run you to just get new hydros?

Sorry I missed your response earlier.

All IH built hydro cubs (1966-1981) have interchangeable hydros I believe. They hydro itself I am sure is NLA and besides, they are pretty robust and rarely fail. John Deere used the same hydros too I believe (but better controls and linkages). Its the control/linkages whatever you call them that wear out. There is a trunion and a few springs and stuff that all work together like a governor to control the unit. The springs wear out, and the brackets and pivots and such wear. Here is a pic of an example, there are some writeups on the repair so I should be good.



And the rest of the control parts have lots of wear points usually:


Note: These are all external to the hydro, they hydros themselves are built like a tank and usually going strong after 30+ years.

The junk tractor also has a ported hydro with hydraulic lift. I just need to swap the parts into it, and that will give me hydraulic lift on my rear 3-point / sleeve hitch, mower deck, and front mounted implements like a snow blade or snow thrower. That will be very welcome! Even with the spring assist I put on it things like the snowblade I have to constantly raise and lower with the manual lift really wears out my arm!

[DeathBlade/13.666]

Damn, That's nice. Getting much more than just a hydro out of the junk tractor. Hope it works out for you, though I don't supposed you can get John Deere controls and linkages to make the new/old hydro last longer, or is the junk tractor a John Deere?

[T-Stew]

I've pulled lots of parts of the parts tractor. The rear tires & wheels are what went onto that wagon I built earlier actually. It is the same series as my one I just beefed up the clutch in, and also shares most all the same parts from my hydros as well. JD controls are very different, I dont think they could easily be made to fit the cub but I dont know that much about them. The hydro repairs above are pretty well documented so I shouldnt have a problem. The parts tractor might even have good hydro control since it wasnt used in like 10+ years, so I might just be able to use those parts too when I freshen up my 129.

Was going to take my cub up to the families farm over the last weekend and do some treestand maintenance for the fast approaching deer season and also cut some firewood but the wife had other plans so we stayed home and pretty much accomplished nothing. Got to get a bigger road trailer though... my 6x10 isnt cutting it now with the garden tractor and the wagon I built. Plus want to be able to haul more wood back home anyhow.

[DeathBlade/13.666]

Gotta love free parts that work, huh. Hope it works out for you.

lol I know what you mean by getting nothing done, I'm still procrastinating on the EA71 engine rebuild. From the sounds of it, you may be looking at needing a 20x40 or something, sheesh. How much do you really need to haul?