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huffy

2012 make over - finally got my seat

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huffy
quote:
Originally posted by GrincheyOne
How is the truck doing?
Kind of a sore subject, but it's fixed now.

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Talntedmrgreen
Mary, here, makes a beautiful B-series seat for less than I could farm teh job out locally. She also made my Squire seat, minus the arm rests and it's waiting patiently in the box still.

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huffy
Josh: I was actually thinking about getting a thimble and trying to sew one up myself. How do you think that'll turn out? dOd Seriously, though, I had intended to contact Mary about upholstering it. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Besides, I've still got to get the wood cut and the threaded inserts put in before I'm ready to mail it off to her. It's only about a 10 minute job, but for some reason I just haven't felt like doing it yet. BTW, how's that Squire coming?

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Talntedmrgreen
quote:
Originally posted by huffy
Josh: I was actually thinking about getting a thimble and trying to sew one up myself. How do you think that'll turn out? dOd Seriously, though, I had intended to contact Mary about upholstering it. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Besides, I've still got to get the wood cut and the threaded inserts put in before I'm ready to mail it off to her. It's only about a 10 minute job, but for some reason I just haven't felt like doing it yet. BTW, how's that Squire coming?
Mary makes the entire seat and backrest...wood, fasteners and all. All she needs you to send is a check ;) Actually, I finally had an evening to myself yesterday and did another round of painting. All I have left is the tranny and engine...everything else is bronze and beautiful! Should be ready to clean up the garage and start assembly soon.

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huffy
Josh: The seat that I fabbed is not standard size. It's customized to account for my big booty. Nor is the hole pattern the same as on a standard Allis seat. I figured the easiest thing for Mary would be for me to just send pre-sized and drilled wood so all she needs to do is apply foam and cover. And, like I said, it'll only take me about 10 minutes to make it, once I finally decide that I feel like doing it.

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Talntedmrgreen
quote:
Originally posted by huffy
Josh: The seat that I fabbed is not standard size. It's customized to account for my big booty. Nor is the hole pattern the same as on a standard Allis seat. I figured the easiest thing for Mary would be for me to just send pre-sized and drilled wood so all she needs to do is apply foam and cover. And, like I said, it'll only take me about 10 minutes to make it, once I finally decide that I feel like doing it.
I'm followin' ya know...customized comfort! :J

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huffy
Last night after work I figured I'd go ahead and tackle the hydro lift. I pulled it off an old B series that I found sitting in a junk yard about a year ago. Paid $40 for it, if I remember correctly. It leaked like a sieve and, as you can see, definitely needed a little love.


It cleaned up okay, though.




Part of the leakage problem was attributable to the hoses being in sad shape, with several chunks missing.




So I went down to a local hydro shop this morning before work and had some new ones made up. Turns out that me and the guy working there share the same last name. In this neck of the woods that means that back in the 1850's his ancestor and mine were kin folk that migrated across the ocean from Germany to cut timber. So, I lucked out and got the brother-in-law treatment and price for these. (They'd have been about $55 or so without the discount).


The other cause of the leakage problem is some worn out and/or broken O rings in the cylinder.


The hydro shop didn't have the size O rings I need, since they mainly use bigger stuff. But, my new-found cousin sent me over to see his buddy at the local branch of Applied Technologies, where I got bags of 25 of each size O ring for el cheapo. (They're not expensive, anyway, but getting a discount on anything is awesome imo). Hopefully I'll manage to get the cylinder and everything put back together this afternoon before I head out to the bar for the night. If I'm not too hungover in the morning I think maybe I'll stop procrastinating and finally clean the rust and grime off the rear rims and get them painted so I can get this thing off the blocks and have a rolling chasis.

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huffy
Well, luckily my new hydro hoses fit. And I finally got around to blasting and painting my rear rims last night. I'd been putting that one off, since I truly hate using the sandblaster. But it was the only way to get down into the nooks and crannies in those rims.




Aside from going through the motor, mounting tires, decals, and a few other things I'm really not far from finishing now. But progress has really slowed now that my grass is growing like wildfire. Oh, and the arrival of beach/boating weather isn't helping my devotion to finishing this project any.

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simple-kid
Nice!!! Wow that looks really great!!!!!dOd

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huffy
Well, after reading a couple of books about small engines I figured I'd go ahead and see if I could overhaul that old motor. So, I started on the tear down this morning. It'll probably seem funny to some of you that have done it before, but what I'm about to whip through in 10 seconds of pictures actually took me most of the day. It's slow going when you have to stop to study each little part before you take it off, refer to a book or two, take multiple pics so you know exactly how to put it back together, and clean all the grime off your hands 1000 different times so you can make lots of notes and write labels for all the little zip lock baggies you have to put each little piece in so it doesn't get lost/mixed up. Anyway, here's just a few of the 127 pics that I took for personal reference/reassembly:


Had to improvise a flywheel puller. Burned 20 minutes going to TSC to get some solid eyebolts to use. Well, okay, 10 going to TSC and another 10 going to get ice and beer to keep hydrated during the day's work.


Had to work the penetrating oil and impact for a few minutes to get the flywheel off, but once it popped off the disassembly went pretty smooth for a while.










This one looking up into the block at the guts is my favorite pic for some reason.


Luckily the piston slid out without too much difficulty. Unluckily, I found out that the top compression ring was cracked, which may explain the little bit of smoke I was getting before.




The crankshaft pic is probably my second favorite one. Don't know why.


I had to stop again to go hunt down a valve spring compressor because the one I found in Dad's tools wouldn't fit in there. That, and recharging my cooler, burned another 1/2 hour or so.


And, at long last, I got down to the empty shell


I had an hour or so left to spare before I had to meet some friends for dinner so I went ahead and sandblasted the blower housing and some other small parts. They cleaned up pretty good, though some still need a little work. These are the first parts I've used my sandblaster on throughout this whole project. I like the results I get with the blaster, and it'll get into nooks and crannies easier than other tools, but man do I hate using the thing. Having to wear that respirator and hood when it's 90 degrees out sucks. And after 2 showers I've still got sand in crevices I didn't even know I had.


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sierradriver
That looks awesome. Wasn't quite sure about the grey but with the black accent it definitely looks awesome. As far as the pictures I have a photo album of each tractor I have done kinda of a start to finish show and tell. Keep up the good work and thanks for the pictures.

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huffy
Thanks, Sierra. I've gotten mixed reviews on the gray. Most people say they like it, but some don't. When one of my friends saw it he pointedly said that the gray/orange combo makes it look like a "POS Husqvarna." sm00 I'd never thought about it until he said that. Oh well, I still like it. As for the pics, at first I was real leary about making such a long thread with so many pics. I'm real glad that I did, though. I can't tell you how many members have noticed something in one of the pics or in what I've written and sent me an e-mail, pm, etc to provide some much needed advice. Since this is my first time refurbing a tractor, or anything for that matter, I'd have overlooked a lot of issues if I hadn't put this thread and all the pics out there for the more experienced members to critique.

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rokon2813
I'm not too fond of the gray either. But I look at it this way, I've done things to my tractors that others might not like, and that tractor is yours, not mine. :D:D Otherwise, nice job and nice write-up. The ONLY one who you need to be happy with it is you.

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GLPointon
Chris I am very much a Purist, I like keeping them OEM, mainly for recognizability (is that a word?) to help promote the brand and I like the colors too... But a beautiful machine gets attention & promotes the brand too...And yours is a terrific restoration and looks awsome, I think everyone will like it dOd p.s. It DOES NOT look like a husqvarna!
quote:
Originally posted by huffy
Thanks, Sierra. I've gotten mixed reviews on the gray. Most people say they like it, but some don't. When one of my friends saw it he pointedly said that the gray/orange combo makes it look like a "POS Husqvarna." sm00 I'd never thought about it until he said that. Oh well, I still like it. As for the pics, at first I was real leary about making such a long thread with so many pics. I'm real glad that I did, though. I can't tell you how many members have noticed something in one of the pics or in what I've written and sent me an e-mail, pm, etc to provide some much needed advice. Since this is my first time refurbing a tractor, or anything for that matter, I'd have overlooked a lot of issues if I hadn't put this thread and all the pics out there for the more experienced members to critique.

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GrincheyOne
I'm at a standstill, while I wait for the weather, and parts/supplies to show up XX(. I hope to get some "sweat" out of the '69 Landlord, before I begin "harvesting" parts! Just got the front hitch parts for the Weed Cutter (sub-project), and a front counter weight, from Roxon2813 :). Still "harvesting" and selling parts from the '65 Big Ten. The left fender is heading out to Washington State, along with the S/G! The drive pulley is on it's way to upstate NY. That leaves a seat deck, and right fender w/ belt guard still here. Time to get back to packing up the shipping boxes. Hope I can catch up to Chris (Huffy)! Cheers, Wayne

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huffy
Well, I got nothing done on this project over the holiday weekend - absolutely nothing. I did, however, get a perfect golden-bronze tan while I was out on my boat. :D This morning I dropped the engine block off at the machine shop to have the cylinder bored out. It'll probably be next week sometime before I get it back. And, I'm still waiting on the carb overhaul kit I ordered to arrive so I can put that back together. So, I'm effectively at a stand still for now.

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Talntedmrgreen
That thing is gonna rock when it's done! I had a similar weekend to yours Chris. Lots of sun and hot, hot, hot on the boat. Not a darn thing got done though! :o)

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GrincheyOne
Chris, I emailed you some info on 1/4 turn fasteners. It is interesting that there is a "cage-nut" receptacle. When, you asked about "T-bolts" I thought it's over! Chris is done with his project. Cheers, Wayne

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huffy
quote:
When, you asked about "T-bolts" I thought it's over! Chris is done with his project.
Wayne: I'm nowhere close to being done. I should get the engine block back from the machinist today or tomorrow, and then it'll take me quite a while to figure out how to get it back together again. Then I've still got to get new tires and get them mounted, get decals put on, etc, etc, etc. Plus, since the weather's been nice I haven't really been working on it much. It may be fall before I get around to finishing it, but we'll see.

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huffy
I got my engine block back from the machinist Wednesday afternoon. The .020 piston and rings are no longer available for the 12hp Briggs. So, at the suggestion of Dave Tenney, I had the cylinder bored to accept a new 14hp piston/ring/connecting rod combo. That took some extra machining, but Thirlby Auto bored it, cleaned it, and primed it for an extremely reasonable price. And thanks to Dave Tenney, I got a pretty good deal on the new piston and other components. I finally had a chance to work on it a bit last night, so I started by lapping the valves and putting them back in.




After putting the new rings down in the freshly bored cylinder and checking to ensure that the end gap was on the money, I put them on the new piston and installed the new connecting rod and then slid it all down into the beautiful new hatch marks in the cylinder.




I can't do much more with the motor right now because I'm still waiting for the new crankshaft bearings that I ordered to arrive. So, I switched gears and finished rebuilding the carb. It came out looking okay, and hopefully I got everything back together correctly and won't have any major problems getting the adjustment fine tuned when I'm ready to fire up the motor.


I'm also still waiting for my new rear AG's to arrive, but the new front tri ribs and tubes showed up a few days ago. Unfortunately I marred up my newly painted rims pretty bad trying to mount them. So, I put them back in the box for now and will have to re-paint the rims. I'm going to concoct a tire mounter to use next time instead of my bars, so hopefully I won't scratch up the paint as bad.


It'll be a few days before I work on this project again. It's Friday, and the weather's beautiful, so when I leave work in a few minutes I'm headed to my boat to set sail for my place in Boyne City for the weekend. Boats and bikinis beckon, so the tractor must wait.

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bnolte
Just wondering, did you discuss engine balance with the machinist? My concern is that the new piston/rod is heavier than the original, so weight would need to be added to the crankshaft counterweight. Crankshafts on Kohler K-series engines are basically the same for the K241, K301,and K321 engines, except for the fact that the higher horsepower engines have fewer/shallower holes drilled in the counterweights. While my experience is with Kohler rather than Briggs in this horsepower range, I would think that Briggs would have to worry about similar concerns over balance. I am not sure how much of an issue this is at the RPMs we typically run these things at, its just my $.02.

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Chris727
Nice work! The crankshafts are interchangeable for the 12 through 16hp cast iron briggs. No flyweight grinding is necessary.

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JimDk
Nice job. I have been following your engine overhaul with interest. I have a couple of worn 12 hp blocks, and I can see a 14/16 re-bore in my future. You should have a strong engine when it is complete. I have visibly compared 12 hp and 16 hp heads, and the 16 seems to have a larger combustion chamber. I suspect that you will gain some compression by using your 12 hp head. We'll be waiting for a test report when you put it to work.

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huffy
I only had a few minutes to work on this last night, but I managed to get a bit more assembly done on the engine and put the final coat of primer on the block. I'll paint the block tomorrow, let it cure until the weekend, and then bolt on the remaining already-painted parts.








I also managed to get my new front tires mounted, and the races installed. Hopefully I'll find a few spare minutes tomorrow to get them on the tractor.




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DaveTenney
Lookin' good! Starting a newly rebuilt engine is one of the coolest things a guy can do... Dave

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