New job, tractors!

[Handy Don 12,217]

1 hour ago, sjoemie himself said:

relocated it with a bit of hard-line

Nicely inventive solution! Make you wonder why that isn’t done more often to make the zerks very easy to reach!

[peter lena 8,625]

@sjoemie himself ABSOUTELY !  you got that ! looks like stainless steel tubing ? swage / lock ? thats like going home to me , thank you for the extensive look into your world ,  great stuff , pete

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

On 10/4/2023 at 11:39 PM, Handy Don said:

why that isn’t done more often to make the zerks very easy to reac

 

These particular rear axle grease zerks only need 3 to 4 pumps of grease a year. They're only there to keep the outer most axle seals lubricated and to keep dirt and moisture out. Too much grease can cause you to pump out the seals from the axle housing.

 

On 10/5/2023 at 12:21 AM, peter lena said:

stainless steel tubing

 

I believe this is somekind of zinc alloy but no stainless, mostly it gets used as hydraulic hard line. Pretty easy to bend by hand or with use of various body parts.

 

 

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

Tiny work update I thought y'all might enjoy. Pretty rare to see one in the wild let alone in such nice shape and working condition.

I'm talking about a Fendt GT which in this case has been extended to be able to mount a hoe implement which is 'steered' by GPS. The two large disks are the steering wheels and are controlled by a hydraulic ram and ofcourse some GPS software mounted in the cab.

The air-cooled Deutz engine sits mounted flat under the cab. All three 3-point hitches can be raised and lowered separately.

 

 

 

My job on this machine was to track down and fix an oil leak coming from under the tractor.

Turns out the person who restored the tractor previously tried to weld up a leak in the hydraulic oil tank and covered it up with bondo or liquid metal.

Cleaned all the gunk out, welded the tank, tested and cleaned it, then painted and reinstalled it on the tractor. 

[Tractorhead 9,064]

i like those din cooled old Deutz Engines.

they have a special Sound at 1/3 throttle what just they had.

 

Rocksolid Engines - as long as they have allway’s enough oil in but also quick servicable if needed.

Nice Rig

[peter lena 8,625]

@sjoemie himself  that tubing just had the dull look of stainless, worked at production maintenance , PFIZER ,Groton conn , most of our production was on food based make up ingredients , thus the food grade stainless .worked , caffeine shop, poly dextrose, HOPP 2 , miller beer , concentrate ,1, 5 gal  DEL TANGULAR , JUG MADE 25 THOUSAND BOTTLES OF MILLER BEER , NATURAL HOPPS will spoil in a clear bottle , artificial hops won't. like to spend some time on that FENDT . GT, wild looking unit , also did a lot of large glass lined vessel repair , 1500, 2000 gal tanks , saw them made in in NY STATE  , PFAUDLER GLASS. SPRAY ON POWERDED GLASS , bake it in giant ovens , up in the ceilings for heat dispersal .my working days are over , but would have liked to have been on a project with you , my final maintenance supervisor , was a retired  NAVY MASTER CHIEF. treated you like a  person , was there at 2 am too, to help on a job . good talking to you , pete 

[Handy Don 12,217]

7 hours ago, sjoemie himself said:

zinc alloy but no stainless, mostly it gets used as hydraulic hard line.

When extending the 700psi hydraulics on an Eaton 1100 to have two remotes, I discovered a nice copper alloy brake line in ⅜” diameter. Not cheap, for sure, but good value. Easily bent and working pressure of 900psi (burst at 1300 I think?). Easily bent and flared for JIC fittings. And no rust!

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

Been awhile since I posted something so I thought I'd update you.

I installed (yet another) front PTO on a new tractor. This time the tractor is a Claas Arion 640 and the PTO unit is a 1000rpm Sauter brand. Install is fairly straightforward and the unit comes with a good but compact manual.

 

This is my starting point, tractor with front 3-point but no PTO.

 

In comes the shop crane to remove the front 3-point.

 

 

Once this is removed a coupler/dampener gets installed on the front of the crankpulley.

The driveshaft for the PTO gets connected to it. Note, just six M8 grade 10.9 (5/16" grade 8) bolts transfer the torque of the engine to the PTO unit.

 

Dampener installed and one end of the driveshaft bolted to it.

 

Other end which will connect to the PTO unit gets snaked under the radiator and in between the hydraulic lines of the front 3 point.

 

Next the PTO unit can be bolted into place and connected to the driveshaft. 

 

After that the 3 point gets attached again.

Five M16 (5/8") bolts on either side torqued to 290Nm (213 ft/lbs) keep the 3 point in place.

 

Then some cable- and hose management needs to happen to keep everything from spinning itself to pieces. Couple of zipties make sure that doesn't happen.

 

After installing a switch in the cab, plugging in an extra relais on the circuitboard, updating some software and plugging in the wiring harness we have a functioning front PTO.

Edited December 13, 2023 by sjoemie himself
Added info

[peter lena 8,625]

@sjoemie himself  planetary  gear hub drain , can definitely  relate to that set up  . when you are the fix , in related anything , you have to get inventive . looks like you will stay busy , and enjoy it too ! when my foreman changed over to a retired navy chief , made the days fly by , he was right there , to size up the issue . and made sure you had back up . what a concept , Pete 

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

Been awhile.. lots of things passed through the shop but this was worthy of sharing IMHO.

This tractor is getting a serious overhaul and the client wanted cab suspension installed. For some tractors that is a factory option, for this one it is not. 

I ordered some shock absorbers off of a similar model tractor and custom made the brackets. Note: the lower plate has received more reinforcement.

Note #2: the cab is not fully suspended but 'hinges' in the front where it's attached to rubber mounts. 

 

 

 

[peter lena 8,625]

 @sjoemie himself can definitely relate to the over building , looking at your pictures was like being in the  experimental  small  tank areas . lots of research , not only on chemical make up , but also on the  durability of the set up , everything ran flat out 24 / 7, make it last , minimize reparative failures .  see what you are doing , Pete

[Handy Don 12,217]

2 hours ago, sjoemie himself said:

this was worthy of sharing IMHO.

Frankly, something that amazes me (in addition to your workmanship 👍) is the condition of the machines you are working on. Are they so clean when they show up (owner washes them beforehand?) or does your shop clean before setting to work?

Very nice and neat job there!

I can see the cab suspension (in addition to a good seat suspension) being worth some $$ for someone operating on rough ground all day long.

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

35 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Are they so clean when they show up

Short answer: NO 

 

That being said, this is a (very) well maintained tractor which helps a lot. This particular tractor however gets the 'extra plus plus' treatment.

It is a trade-in machine and these particular models are pretty sought after. 

The new customer requested the underside of the tractor (grey parts) to be resprayed. So that's why it's good and clean.

Also the green parts where polished, it will get new rims and tyres, new front fenders. Black frame parts like stairs and battery box were sandblasted and painted aswell.

Also all the exterior lights were replaced with LED replacements. 

So basically this will be an as good as new tractor when it's done.

[Tractorhead 9,064]

10 hours ago, sjoemie himself said:

Short answer: NO 

 

That being said, this is a (very) well maintained tractor which helps a lot. This particular tractor however gets the 'extra plus plus' treatment.

It is a trade-in machine and these particular models are pretty sought after. 

The new customer requested the underside of the tractor (grey parts) to be resprayed. So that's why it's good and clean.

Also the green parts where polished, it will get new rims and tyres, new front fenders. Black frame parts like stairs and battery box were sandblasted and painted aswell.

Also all the exterior lights were replaced with LED replacements. 

So basically this will be an as good as new tractor when it's done.

 

Great job you‘re doing with the Damping.

 

Depending on the new Tractas and their Sizes of how they rising also the value raises.

The good thing is the better comfort depending on electronic gadgets, but also the Horror can be this Electronic gadgets and their Wire Harness.

Because of the massive Electronics inside a good condition is recommended.

 

problems can occur not only on worse maintained Machines

but it is easier to find problems in well maintaines Machines independing from gently to massive troubles,

so a well maintained Tracta is a 1/2 a bet.

 

 

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

About time I post an update here. I've done a BUNCH of jobs in the meantime but did'nt take pictures of everything so here are some highlights I guess you could say. 

 

First a John Deere 6310 which came in for maintenance (which I did) and respray of the 'bodywork' aswell as the rims. The painting was outsourced but I did the (dis-)assembly. Did'nt take a lot of pictures but here's the endresult. Became a nice tractor.

 

 Next up a Kaweco silage trailer. Came in because of steering issues with the rear axle.

 

Turns out that on one side of the axle the clamps that should hold the leafspring to the axle came undone.

The picture below shows the spring in the correct position (far side) and where it came loose (near side). 

 

Leafsprings off. That's a 1-1/4" dia. pin by the way.

 

This caused the wagon to crab walk while driving.

After I inspected the machine some more I found multiple cracks in the frame, probably because of the axle situation. For reference, the beam with the arrow is about 6" high.

 

New clamps were ordered and installed and several cracks were welded. Good to go again.

 

To be continued..

[Handy Don 12,217]

5 minutes ago, sjoemie himself said:

Very clever sping design. Compact, a straightforward mount, and readily adjusted (and kept tight ) at the clamping block

Edited June 13 by Handy Don

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

Small update from my dayjob.. first a rather special tractor that is fairly rare, even aroud here. It's a LTS/Doppstadt Trac based off of the famous/well known/iconic Mercedes Benz MB Trac. These came about after Mercedes stopped producing these tractors. The Doppstadt version never sold as good as the MB version.

Around 500 Doppstadts were made versus 40.000 MB.

 

 

Another interesting job I did was replacing the valve seals on a Claas Arion 620. The exhaust gas recirculation cooler on this tractor got plugged up by excessive oil leakage via a few of the valve stem seals. Apparently a common issue on these engines despite only having around 1900 hours on it.

The engine in these tractors are from the Yellow and Green kind (sensitive subject, I know).

Two challenges arose.. for starters I have never (dis-)assebled an engine which was supposed to run again after I was done with it.

Second challenge was.. eh.. you'll see 

 

This is where I started.

Already pulled a lot of the turbo, exhaust and exhaust gas after treatment stuff off in this picture and getting ready to lift the cylinderhead off.

 

Pulling the cylinderhead was NOT the plan.

See something wrong with this picture?

 

That's (the head of) a tiny camera sticking out into the cumbustion chamber!

We decided to take a peak in the engine through the glowplug holes to rule out damage on to the rear piston and/or valves. Well, the camera went in like butter but was never going to come out in one piece 

The moveable head which has a protective liner got chafed and got stuck in the threads of the glowplug hole. Even worse, we borrowed the camera off a shop in town.. that was not a fun telephone call but luckily they took the message well.

 

Anyway.. the quick valve seal job changed into taking the head off to get the camera out and changing the valve stem seals on the bench.

One by one, cleaning up the valves and seals and reinstalling them in the correct position.

 

Cleaned up the block, mating surfaces, cylinder bores and pistons.

 

Head all done and ready to go back on the block.

 

Torqueing down the head and checking plus adjusting valve lash.

 

Head on, rocker cover, exhaust manifold and EGR cooler fitted.

 

Turbocharger back on, particle filter cleaned and reinstalled. Lots of other small parts.

 

Other side finished aswell.

 

Nothing left to do but fill up all the fluids. Filling the coolant up it turns out I missed a small plug in the EGR cooler. After all this came the momènt súprème of starting her up for the first time. I was a bit nervous but it actually started on the first try.

Took it out for a testdrive to check for leaks and see if everything worked as it should. Also to get the engine up to temp for the PTO/engine dyno.

I'm happy to report everything checked out really good and it made around 155hp on the dyno without any leaks. Pretty pleased with how this all went back together.

 

Thanks for watching and reading.

Greetings from the Netherlands, Mark 

[Treepep 564]

Thats a BEAST