NEVER OBSOLETE! JUST RARE AND ENDANGERED!

[Anonymous 42]

First off I’ll try to keep this word short and picture long.

This is a story about a tractor, not just any tractor, but a Gravely tractor!(a rare and endangered species of tractor from the days when tractors ate men! No stop, forward drive, to either run someone over or impale you to the seat or lucky enough to sweep you off the tractor, no ROPS (rollover protection) however the brushog has a sheer prevention clutch that may or may not stall somewhere on your femur after it chews down the tibia.

Anyway I made some lasting repairs to some obsolete parts, parts the paleontologists that possess them want a small fortune for!

Never give up, never surrender, work smarter, not harder!

Here’s a picture before hand, couldn’t figure out why it quit running every time it reached max operating temperature, Vapor lock? Vacuum leak? Coil? Condenser? fuel-pump? What?

Time to start trouble shooting and finding the answer.

First thing I found addressing an exhaust leak (and though, that’s my problem!) the manifold heats up and sucks air loosing manifold vacuum and bypassing the carburetor, same symptom as vapor lock! That’s gotta be it!

Wrong!

Found out later the obsolete coil was shot and the condenser not much better. Not to mention the engineers located it next to the exhaust with a makeshift heat-shield to separate the two by only an inch. That and the intake and exhaust are of the same cast with only one bolt holding it down between the two ports The Onan CCK-B has separate manifolds to solve that this engineering disaster.

The problem at hand, and I had thousands of feet of abandoned roadway to brush-hog back before the dreaded WINTER! It’s been 15-20 years since I did it before by chainsaw and saw-blade trimmer, the s~~~ always grows back!

Here’s a chunk of 1/2″ plate I scrounged up to make an adequate repair on the rare and endangered man eating dinosaur part!

Fortunately the intake was planed flat by the designer making a sandwich possible without shimming. First bolt’s first, one at a time, that way you can trim the holes to fit in case one’s a little off, it doesn’t spoil the whole basket of apples, especially if it’s amplified by each miscalculation, you’ll end up with s~~~ that doesn’t fit or has large elongations.

I wanted the center bolt that holds it all down to be an untrimmed perfectly tight machine fit, I reamed it to the 9/16 Bolt shank.

I used Vaseline and a center punch to mark the holes one at a time.

The last hole and biggest hole you can make a mistake on (and throw it all away) I used the manifold gasket lined up over it’s drilled bolt holes.

Trusty furnace cement for a great high temp seal! Thin, not thick like a sandcastle!

Manifold repair complete.

Test run shows acceptable temperature to avoid warping. Over 500f is where the real trouble begins! It’s steel mated to it’s tighter molecular brother cast iron (much tighter grain), different characteristics.

Now to figure out the real problem, runs great but still dies after warmup. Ignition test showed no spark, another dinosaur part held sacred by those that have collected these fossils many years ago!

Back into my bag of tricks!

Got a Harley Davidson coil and mounted it under the seat brace away from all the scorching heat, being that the coil needed a resistor to stop it from burning up on constant 12v, I had to add a resistor but starting was a little hard from the drop in coil voltage, so to solve this problem I wired the starter solenoid to a relay switch that would send full 12v while the key was held in the start position and back to resistor when the starter is disengaged. Starts perfectly! Runs good!

The final improvement I made was adding rollers to the engine guard/attachment holder, it kept getting stuck on the damnedest things like stumps, rocks, boulders, logs, even the road climbing an embankment! Now it rolls off without having to walk a half mile to get the Tow-Truckster and winch it out, now I just find a stick strong enough to roll it off by prying with leverage, damn thing almost weighs 1,000lbs with the Hog attachment! You don’t want this machine getting a hold of you! It even has a factory (un-shielded) PTO drive shaft! Get your loose clothing or long hair wrapped around that is it’s really gonna twist your day apart!

The rollers have needle holes drilled in them for greasing with a needle grease gun.

This was fresh paint a month ago! I’ve been taking it for a long walk and feeding it twice a week! 20 years of overgrowth here on MG-Tower Mini Farm is measurable by the tonnage, and thanks to Tractorsaurus I’m not measuring it with a broken back!

I have four of these CCKA engines three on gravely tractors and one on this 1964 Miller stick welder I paid 200 bucks and got it running strong and perfect! Also EMP resistant to 10mt in spite what OldBill says!

TLDR; Fixed lawnmower.

[Greg HondaParticipant 6406]

Nice!

I love bringing old tech back from the dead too. I admit though, that you are far more skilled than I.

Good job

It's Time to get Wise

[Anonymous 42]

Greg Honda wrote:

Nice!

I love bringing old tech back from the dead too. I admit though, that you are far more skilled than I.

Good job

I disagree about “skills” the motivator is “DESPERATION”, and that drives “skills” off the charts!

I have 6 boxer engines all antique, 4 Gravely and two Cushman Trucksters. all the ignition wires are old, hard, and leaking voltage, the Cushman won’t even start in the fog!

I always calculate costs and find out the cheapest and most efficient bang for the long range buck.

instead of buying replacement wires at a premium I purchased a 100ft roll of 7mm copper core ignition wire for under 40 bucks (not including the boots they’re separate 15 bucks for enough contacts and boot ends to do an 8 cylinder.

Under 55 bucks delivered! One set alone (2) cost anywhere between 20 and 35 bucks. The whole roll with ends cost me less than half price compaired to the cheapest replacements from China.

I got a premium USA made brand new (not old) quality rubber and copper wire.

I’m rewiring everything and have plenty for other projects that need old fashioned ignition wire.

I let my friends know that have antiques that may need ignition wires.

I have a few other antique engines 2 stroke and 4 stroke with magnetos I haven’t even considered!

Shopping already paid for itself twice over and quadruple stockpile to spare!

It pays double, triple, quadruple to be a cheap motherf~~~er!

[bladeParticipant]

I like the time machine better . No f~~~in way you could fix a flux capicertor to that tractor

THE PLANTATION HAS NOW TURNED INTO THE KILLING FIELDS . WOMAN ARE NOW ROLLING CAMBODIAN STYLE .

[Anonymous 42]

blade wrote:

I like the time machine better

Me too, but with a name like blade and here in the B.C.F.C. Outback you of all people could appreciate the business end of a shaft drive brush hog! Bush country no more! Flat, smooth, usable!

Welcome to MG-Tower’s Minifarm/18 hole mini-golf-course! 300ft line drive from hole 3 to hole 4! If the ball flies too low or too high and hits the power lines, god help anyone passing bye!

[RusskyParticipant 13503]

I thought “gravely” was an adjective before I scrolled down for pictures

proud carrier of the 'why?' chromosome

[Anonymous 42]

They’re “gravely” in every way!

Quote:

best of craigslist >Gravely Dog Eater Snowblower Attachment

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/isp/5309538248.html

Gravely Man-eater saw-blade attachment:

Gravely finger loping attachment, doesn’t have to be running, just handle it wrong, stumble and loose all 5 fingers!

GRAVELY: For the man that doesn’t mind getting lost in his work one piece at a time!

[RusskyParticipant 13503]

that should come in handy in case of liberal zombie apocalypse

proud carrier of the 'why?' chromosome

[Anonymous 42]

I like the way you Russky’s think!

I was thinking more along the lines of triple chain flail attachment! High for the heads, middle for the torso, and low to snap them off at the knees! 52 inch swath just like their mower deck attachment!

Front mount with mud blood guard and windshield wipers so you can see who you’re mowing!

[Author]

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