Agricat crawler model-F

[jdcrawler]

When I finished the transmission clutch linkage, I wasn't able to depress the clutch with my foot.
This is the original clutch pedal.




This is the modified clutch pedal and the other parts for the clutch linkage.




The clutch pedal is re-installed.




Clearance between the pressure plate and the throwout bearing with the clutch released.




The clutch works easy enough now that I can depress it with my hand.

 

[jdcrawler]

The mounting brackets and the pivot shaft are made up to hold the steering levers.
the pivot shaft is made out of 304 stainless.






The base for the steering levers are made out of 1/4 inch thick wall steel tube.
The bottom levers are tack welded to them and the linkage rods are run back to the steering levers on the axle.




I'm using 1 inch diameter solid steel bar for the steering levers simply because I have access to a lot of it for free.
These levers are welded to the bases.




They are mounted in place.
There is a grease fitting on the end of the pivot shaft to grease both lever bases.




I can pull the steering clutch open with just one finger.

 

[jdcrawler]

Often the problem with having to wait on parts that you've ordered while working on a project is that when the parts finally arrive, you have to take apart what you have built in order to put the parts in place.
This is the case with the brake pads for the steering clutches on the rear axle.
I've had to remove the seat frame, the right angle drive gearbox, the drive chain and the steering clutch linkage.




My son had the four angle brackets made up for me out of 2 inch wide by 3/8 inch thick steel. The angle brackets and the brake pad material have been drilled and they are riveted together.




Lining up the first brake pad for drilling the 1/2 inch mounting hole in the base of the angle bracket.
The bracket is clamped to the steering clutch with a piece of 1/8 inch thick wood in between to set the distance of the gap between the brake pad and the inside of the round steel disc.




Drilling the initial hole it the base of the angle bracket isn't a problem.
With it clamped upside down in the drill press vice, I just rotate the table around until it lines up.




This bracket needs to be able to be adjusted in as the brake pad wears down and milling a slot from the 1/2 inch hole is a problem.
I can't clamp the base of the bracket in the vice like I did on the drill press because the long side of the angle is 7 inches long. I can't clamp it with the long side up because the mounting hole is too close to the long side of the angle.
So .. I have clamped two blocks in the vice and the bracket is clamped to them with a big C-clamp. The end of the long side of the angle bracket is set down tight on the table.

............................ NOTE .. this is a very unsafe way to clamp anything on a mill and I do not recommend anyone doing it this way .......................................

Unfortunately, short of building a jig to hold the part, there is no other reasonable way to get a slot cut into this part.
I'm only cutting .010 at a time and I'm plunging the endmill down thru the part with each cut instead of milling it sideways. There is a lot less force against the part by pushing the endmill down thru thru the metal instead of pushing it sideways thru the metal.




Fortunately, the slot only needs to allow movement for about 1/2 the thickness of the brake pad material so it isn't a very long slot.




Each of the brake brackets are stamped with there location so they can be put back in the correct order once they are painted.




The left rear bracket is fastened in place with about 1/8 inch gap between the brake pad and the round axle disc.




The the other bracket is finished up and mounted in place to complete this side of the rear axle.
When the axle disc is pulled in against the springs to release the clutch disc, it is then pulled up tight against the brake pads to stop that side of the track from moving. Meanwhile, the other track keeps moving to pull the crawler around.

 

[jdcrawler]

I let the paint dry overnight on the new brake brackets and they were mounted today.
The clutch springs are re-installed amd torqued down evenly and the linkage arms hooked back up.




The right angle gearbox and the drive chain are mounted back on.
This completes the rear drive assembly.




The seat frame is set back on.

 

[jdcrawler]

The operator had their feet resting up on the top of the fenders on the original crawler.




I find it uncomfortable to sit with my feet stretched out like that, especially on a seat without a backrest.
So I'm going to fix it up so my feet rest down inside the fenders, like sitting on a chair.
I've cut some pieces of angle iron and I'm welding two of them together to form a right angle.




Two of these pieces are clamped up and tack welded to form a rectangle.




This is welded all together on the inside.




Then a section of steel decking is welded in each of them to form a footplate.




These are bolted into the crawler for my feet to rest on.




They are about 6 inches below the top of the fenders.

 

[jdcrawler]

I do not have an operator's manual or a repair manual for this crawler but I do have a copy of the parts manual and this shows the parts for the track tensioner.
I'm not sure how you would get the track stretched out to the correct tension to start with.
Maybe you could chain the back of the crawler to a tree and then use a come-a-long, hooked to a tree in front, to pull the front idler wheel out to tension the track.

Anyhow .. the front end of the spring ( 125 ) hooks onto the back of the front idler wheel (119 ).
The back end of the spring slides onto the sleeve ( 120 ) and the sleeve slides onto the tensioner bracket ( 137 ).
Once you have the correct tension on the track, you lock the sleeve in place so it can't slide back with the locking pin ( 121 ) slipped into one of the holes on the tensioner shaft.
If the back end of the sleeve lines up with one of the holes, you can put the pin in the hole and you don't have to use any of the spacer washers ( 134 ).
If the sleeve doesn't line up with a hole, then you can use one, two or all three washers in between the sleeve and the pin.




These are the parts for the tensioner for one side of the crawler.




And how they fit together.




I only have one of the locking pins and it is bent out of shape so it wasn't holding the correct tension anyway.




Obviously, I'm going to want a better way of tensioning the track than what I have here.
So .. the first thing to do is get a small hole drilled on center of the shaft on the tensioning bracket.




Then I cut the shaft off and clamp it up on the drill press.




The center is drilled out and the tap is started for a 1 inch thread.




The thread is finished with the larger tap bar.




The bracket is clamped on the mill and the old weld for the shaft is machined off.




A piece of 1 inch threaded rod is screwed into the bracket and locked in place with a jam nut.
Then a thin jam nut and a regular nut is threaded onto it and and the spring sleeve is fit onto it.

Here is the comparison between the old pin and spacers method of tensioning the track and the new tensioner with a threaded nut that can be tightened up to tension the track much easier and more accurately.
This will also hold the tension better.

I did not weld the 1 inch threaded rod to the bracket so it would be easy to replace if I should have to.

 

[Toomanytoys84]

Some of the old track equipment we repair uses a threaded take up similar to that.

The “upgrade” was a grease taken which works much better. Pump it out, tension the track, insert shims to hold the idler out then release grease take up.

 

[jdcrawler]

Starting to work on getting the tracks on.
The inside track rail is bolted to the crawler frame.
Before I can bolt on the outside rail, I need to put in the two lower track rollers that fit in between the two track rails.




My buddy at Napa matched me up with sealed bearings with the correct inside diameter to fit the roller shafts but the outside of the bearing is 1/16 inch smaller than the bore in the roller.




I have some old brass bed tube that is 1/32 thick so I'm cutting off some of it for a shim.




The brass tube is smaller than the bearing so it has to be cut so it will fit around the bearing.




Setting the bearing and the brass shim into the bore of the roller.




The bearing is a light press into the bore and onto the shaft.




All four rollers have new bearings now.




The new bearing is a little thinner than the old bearing and fits down into the bore farther.




I chucked a 1/2 inch washer in the lathe and drilled the center out to the size of the roller shaft.




This makes a perfect spacer on the shaft.

 

[jdcrawler]

One of the mounting holes in the side rail is egg shaped.
So I have turned down a piece of brass to fit into the hole.




Then I welded the hole up around the brass plug.
The brass is removed and the weld is ground down smooth.
The guy I got this crawler from had bought four new roller shafts back when you could still get parts for these crawlers.




It took me a little bit but I finally realized these side rails will be much easier to assemble if I do it off the crawler.
The bottom rollers and the upper brackets are bolted onto the inside rail.




The nuts threaded onto the shafts for the rollers on the inside rail have a lock nut tightened down onto them.




The outside rail is then bolted in place.




The assembled track rail is bolted back onto the crawler.




The tensioner spring and the front idler wheel are mounted in place.




Here you can see the access to the adjustment nuts for tightening up the track.

 

[SimplyRad]

Can you adjust the tension of the track once the track is on?

 

[jdcrawler]

Can you adjust the tension of the track once the track is on?

Yes. That is what the adjusting nuts on the end of the spring are for.

 

[fherter]

I think what he was asking was, will you be able to get at them when the chain is in place.

 

[jdcrawler]

I think what he was asking was, will you be able to get at them when the chain is in place.

Okay, I misunderstood the question.
There should be about 5 or 6 inches between the nut and the underside of the track.
I have this wrench that is just short of 6 inches from the inside of the notch for the nut to the end of the handle and it fits the nuts perfectly.
I've had the wrench hanging on my wall for a long time and have never used it before.
I may or may not have to modify the handle to make it work.

 

[fherter]

Sounds like that will work. Wouldn't think it would need much adjustment once it is done.

 

[jdcrawler]

I have this narrowed Ford model-T radiator shell and I have decided to use it on this crawler.




I have formed a piece of Sheet metal for a hood that fits the contour of the model-T shell.
I also bent a strip of sheet metal in to an angle and then formed it to fit the contour of the hood.




This piece fits to the inside of the hood.




And it has been welded in place on one end.




The hood is set in place so I can start to make mounting brackets for the back end of it.




A upright mounting bracket is made for the hood and two stainless rods are fastened in between this bracket and the shell.






The hood is set back in place.

 

[jdcrawler]

I've made up an end plate out of 1/16 inch thick steel for the back of the hood.





The formed edge at the back of the hood fits down over the end plate.




I went to Lowes and bought a pair of painted door hinges.




These were modified to form the hinges for the side of the hood.




This is how it opens.
I was going to have the exhaust sitting straight up.
To do that. I will probably have to extend it out farther to clear the hood.
Instead of doing that, I'm thinking of taking the extension and the outside 90 degree fitting off. Then turn the 90 degree fitting on the end of the manifold down and run the exhaust down and out thru the bottom of the frame.
From there, I can turn it and run it straight out the back of the crawler.




The other side of the hood has two " Jeep " style, spring loaded hood latches.




The last thing to do was to mount an arm at the back of the hood to hold it open.




This is spring loaded so it locks in place when the hood is opened.




It folds forward when closing the hood.

 

[jdcrawler]

Like most of my tractor builds, this one has the Farmall dash box mounted to it.




These are the parts for mounting the gas tank.




The base fits behind the engine.
You can see here that the corner of the exhaust elbow is only a little more than an inch away from the gas tank.




Here's how it looks with the tank fastened in place.




There is about 3/8 clearance between the gas cap and the underside of the hood.




How it looks from the outside with the hood closed.




Of course the build wouldn't be complete without one of my liquid sight gauges to show the fuel level in the tank.




This has a sediment bowl with a shutoff valve that shuts off the fuel to both the carb and the sight gauge.




This is the fuel line going to the fuel pump.




I have made up an aluminum heat shield to fit between the exhaust and the gas tank.

 

[jdcrawler]

Remembering what the shifter and mounting bracket looked like before.





The original front part of the bracket wouldn't fit because the angled part hit the steering arm.
I cut that part off and used another piece of angle iron to move that surface out farther to clear the steering arm.




The bracket that the shifter box fastens to is shortened and welded onto the new angle bracket.
The back corner brace is re-shaped and bolted in place.




The shape of shifter handle has been modified quite a bit.
This is the neutral position.




All the way forward position.




And all the back position.




The shifter handle has been bent in for clearance for my leg.




The shift linkage is hooked up.

 

[jdcrawler]

Okay .. change of plans again !
When I first started working on this crawler, I wanted to put a front end loader on it so I went looking on the internet to see what was available.

Because this is about the same size of the bigger garden tractors, I was looking for garden tractor loaders for sale and I found two within about an hour and a half drive from me.
These both had a 4 foot wide bucket which would work well with my crawler being 3 foot wide but I ran into two problems.
#1 - the inside width between the upright posts that attach to the tractor were only around 30 inches wide so that would be a problem.
Also, after getting some closeup photos of the loaders and size dimensions for the upright posts and the loader arms, I realized that these would not be strong enough for this loader.
With this crawler having twice the horsepower than the regular Agricat and weighing much more than the average garden tractor, it will put much more force on the loader and the garden tractor loader frame just isn't strong enough to suit me.

#2 - the price was $1,300 and 1,800.

The width of the buckets on the regular tractor loaders that I looked at are 6 or 7 foot wide and the inside width between the uprights and the loader arms run around 4 to 4-1/2 foot wide so they would take a lot of work to make one of them fit.
Also, the price for anything that was within reasonable condition was $1,500 to $2,500 range.
That is when I had decide to forget about a loader and just use this grader blade that I already have.




A couple of weeks ago, while casually looking thru Marketplace on Facebook, I saw an add that had just been posted about an hour before for this front end loader off a midsize utility tractor for $600.
It was only about 45 minutes from me and after getting some dimensions from the seller, I bought the loader.

The rams on three of the hydraulic cylinders are in very good condition.
The ram on the left side of the bucket has a lot of small fine pits.
All four rams were coated with grease.
All four cylinders are 24 inch long housings.

I will have to shorten the loader arms but it looks like I won't have to do much ( if anything ) to the width.
Everything is plenty strong enough to handle the force of being mounted on the crawler.






The bucket is about 54 inch wide so that is only 6 inches wider than the garden tractor loader bucket.




The inside width between the loader arms at the top of the bend is around 37 inches.




The inside width between the top of the upright post is around 35-3/8 inches.




The inside width between the bottom of the upright post is around 36-1/2 inches.




The loader frame needs to attach to the outside of the track frame rails on the crawler.
These are around 36 inches wide to the outside of the rails so this loader is already just about the right width to fit.




The outside width between the fenders is around 35 inches so they will clear the loader arms.

 

[jdcrawler]

The battery is tucked down inside the frame and it is set on a piece of 1/2 inch thick plywood.




The amp gauge and switches are assembled into the dash plate.




There are two fuses mounted on the inside. One is for the positive power feed coming in from the battery and the other is for the headlights.




Back when I was planning on using the grader blade, I was going to have the muffler come straight out from the side of the engine. After I had gotten the loader, I couldn't have it coming out the side because the exhaust would be blowing on the hydraulic cylinder as it went up and down in front of it. So I had then decided to have it sitting upright or pointed down thru the bottom of the frame.

I went looking thru my collection of mufflers and came up with this little gem.




As you can see, it has a nice heat guard around it and the exhaust port holes are on one half of the side of the muffler so it is blowing out the side and not straight out the end.




I put a piece of pipe on the lathe and machined out the inside of it.
This also has a 5/16 nut brazed onto the side of the pipe.




This will now fit over a piece of 1-1/4 inch pipe.




The 1-1/4 inch pipe is screwed into the end of the exhaust manifold.




And the muffler slides over it.
The muffler is held in place by a set screw that is threaded thru the nut on the side.
This lets me rotate the exhaust ports around so they aren't blowing back at me.




I've also got the throttle lever and the choke cable mounted on the back corner of the hood.