Introducing the Stig Special

[COMMANDO6 20]

You can't put an air cleaner facing forward?

[Stigian 1,234]

Im curious to know Ian & im not sure if it has been previously asked .

When this tractor has been built , How do you intend to paint it ?

Will it be stripped down again and painted or will you leave it as built ?

And i would love to pop down to the Shack one day to have a look at the Beast.

Morning Neil, I don't think it has been previously asked, so ask away

The plan is to build it up to the point where I can test drive it, sort out any problems to get it driving right, then park it back on the bench to do the bodywork.

Then it will get pulled apart for painting.

Your (as is any RS member) more than welcome to "pop" in if your in my neck of the woods, just send me a pm a couple of days in advance so I have time to tidy the shack a bit.

Your Engine has it's own 15Amp Regulator/Rectifier. It's on the top of the Blower Housing.

In your 12th Pic, the connector look's like there is a wire entering it from the left. If it does, I reckon it's from the B+ (centre) pin of the R/R.

I Can't remember if you said the Engine was from a Stump Grinder or something. So you may only need the 1 wire to go to your Ign Switch, then work to the Wiring diagram for your (original donor) Tractor.

You can check it by undoing the 2 bolts and looking at the R/R connection where it should have a flat 3 pin Connector Block. The 2 outer wires are the AC from the Stator and the middle one is DC B+ .

Not familiar with these Motors. I'm sure someone will be along to put you right (and me right or wrong).

If that R/R is found not to be working , I have a spare. or you can remove it and keep the original Tractor one and just extend the wiring to it. .........Looking Good for a Runner Soon !.

Regards

Howdo Richard, you sure know your electrics

Your right about the middle wire going to the ignition switch, the other wire is to stop the engine. Without trying to give too much away, the R/R seems to work ok

Good to see another update Ian,

I imagine the first video of your machine 'unleashed' will be eagerly awaited by many, myself included.

Re your air cleaner, why not do what the big boys do, I know its only a pre cleaner on my example, but I can't see why it wouldn't work for you.

Hi Rex, I had been pondering on an "external" air cleaner, your photo has given me "food for thought" (is that the right phrase?), and could be made to work..

Maybe something like this but with less coffee mug and a Raider style air cleaner..

[Stigian 1,234]

You can't put an air cleaner facing forward?

Do you mean just turn the filter around?

The oil filler thingy is the real pain, it just get's in the way of any filter I try to fit on top of the engine.

I could trim the oil filler down a bit, but it would mean I would have to remove the air cleaner to top up the oil!! Not ideal!!

I quite like Rex's Tractor style air cleaner idea, but it all depends on one thing.. Airflow..

The M20 engine came from the factory with a "sealed" air cleaner only being force fed air by the cooling fan through this hole on top of the front cover..

The carb is "fixed" so you can't change the mixture and I guess is designed to run right with the amount of air that's "forced" into it..

So my question is, will the engine run ok just sucking in air through a "normal" air cleaner rather than having air forced into it?

Of course I could always add one of these to get the air flowing

In other new's the dash panel has now gained throttle and choke controls and a ignition switch..

A place has been decided on for the battery to live...

And a very basic wiring loom has been created with the aid of Richards advice, a very old test meter, and a much newer internet page...

Which can mean only one thing.... Yep it's fire up time folks

You can view and hear all the action on my latest YouTube update below.. enjoy

http://www.youtube.c...u/0/-Vj4fRSlC_U

[Martin 2,132]

thats great news on the engine, ian.........

sounds like a winner.

really enjoyed the update vid, especially the first run with the muffler and all the smoke....

you know its probably been said before, these kohlers will run forever if you let them..... :)

[HorseFixer 2,012]

Stig, Enjoyed the No Pencil Production! Shoud Win a GRAMMY Didn't see any drinking or smoking in this video Well other than the Engine so whats up with that?

Cheers ~Duke

[littleredrider 409]

That sounds pretty good!!! I gots to get me a twin.....

[massey 118]

Congratulations on the engine Ian. Great video, these are exciting times I'm sure.

[Brrly1 1,146]

Ian, I'll bet the anticipation is killin' ya. You probably want to bolt them wheels on and go for a spin. Fantastic work. Keep it comin'

[Anglo Traction 761]

Good News Ian!, Glad to see and hear the 'Ole Stig Special' has now got a Pulse... You did good with that Motor.

Regards

[WH Raider10 17]

Ian the engine sounds great! Congrats! :)

[wheeledhorseman 574]

Great video (again) Ian

You must be itching now to get it moving and try out those tiller controls.

Andy

[Stigian 1,234]

thats great news on the engine, ian.........

sounds like a winner.

really enjoyed the update vid, especially the first run with the muffler and all the smoke....

you know its probably been said before, these kohlers will run forever if you let them.....

Thanks Martin, yep it's great news that the engine runs just fine.

And yep about these Kohlers being tough engines, the only thing missing from mine is an oil warning switch thingy, which will be fitted a some point.

Stig, Enjoyed the No Pencil Production! Shoud Win a GRAMMY Didn't see any drinking or smoking in this video Well other than the Engine so whats up with that?

Cheers ~Duke

Hey Duke, happy you liked the vid... Yep much to my shame no drinking or smoking in that vid, though I do try and not smoke in front of the camera if I remember.. A smoke is good for calming the pre-camera nerves..

The engine smoke was just the oil left in the bores from me squirting some in and turning the engine by hand every once in a while to keep it turning smoothly..

That sounds pretty good!!! I gots to get me a twin.....

Yep I have to say a twin does sound rather nice as well

Congratulations on the engine Ian. Great video, these are exciting times I'm sure.

Thanks Massey, yep exciting times are here, dreaming of the first test drive

Ian, I'll bet the anticipation is killin' ya. You probably want to bolt them wheels on and go for a spin. Fantastic work. Keep it comin'

Hi John, I'd love to just bolt the wheels on and go for a spin, still quite a bit of work needed to get to that point though.. But as Garry would say, "Not long now"

Good News Ian!, Glad to see and hear the 'Ole Stig Special' has now got a Pulse... You did good with that Motor.

Regards

Hi Richard, yep it's alive.. It's quite amazing how a running engine can change how a project feels.. It's gone from a big pile of bit's of box to something with life. I keep grinning to myself about it

Ian the engine sounds great! Congrats!

Ta muchly.

Great video (again) Ian

You must be itching now to get it moving and try out those tiller controls.

Andy

Thanks Andy, yep the itching is getting almost uncontrollable now, nowt the Doc can do about it. :ROTF:

[Stigian 1,234]

I have been suffering from quite a bit of "strange machine builders block" of late, lot's of time in the shack looking and head scratching but not really able to get my head in gear!!

And then when I did work out a solution to a problem, the solution would cause other problems!! So plenty of this and this has been happening

The things that have been causing all the problems are the hydraulic rams for the 3 point!

I thought I had it all sorted in my head about how and where to mount them, raise the fender pan thingy a couple of inches, cobble up some mounting brackets.. easy....

Until I thought about how raising the fender pan would effect the front er.. fender..

The plan for the fender/s to chop a fender pan in half, widen it, then chop it in half again the other way and extend it to the front.. But using but using a bit of rear fender on the front!!

Something like this quick bit of potato shop work..

So.. If I raised the fender pan the front of the fenders would be at the same height as the top of the ducting on the engine.. Which would of been poor for airflow into the engine and looked quite naff!!

To cut a long story short, after lot's of ing I decided to mount the rams at the back.. The fender pan is going to need a little trim, but that was always going to happen fitting a 3 point on the back..

With the rams sorted I now needed a place to mount a rotating bar for the 3 point.. That was much easier I'm glad to say.

Starting with the bare bones..

Add a bit of angle..

Weld em together..

Drill and tap new seat bolt holes..

And bolted back on.. The back section is taking shape as well.

Clamped up and read for welding.

A view from the back..

And a photo for Duke

More clamping action, this time one of the side bit's going on.

Not complete but getting there

The 3 point pivot lift bar thingy will live about here.

For some reason I didn't take any photo's of the finished raised bit, instead have a pic of the base of the new fender pan thingy..

The reason it got bolted on was to try and help me work out where to put the hydraulic valve control thingy.

Taking a break from the project, "Grizzly" Garry turned up on his quad.

So we could change it's oils..

Please note the high quality oil catch vessels

[Stigian 1,234]

HHmmm... Why did it sign me out of the forum while I was tripeing the last post

At least the rather handy "auto save" feature managed to save most of it..

Well... After lot's of ing I decided to mount the hydraulic control valve under the dash panel... About here in fact..

As my plan of building a gas tank to fit in that space wouldn't work now, I thought I would see what else would fit in that gap.. Like the battery tray which almost bolt's back in it's original place..

It will do once a bit of trimming has been done.

The new gas tank will be moving to this spot below the engine and behind the front left axle.

A second gas tank will be going in the other side, but for now a gas can is a handy fit.

A test fit of the battery, just enough space above..

The bit of angle clamped on the chassis is to simulate the inside of the fender to check if there is space to get the battery in and out.. Only just!!!

With the battery tray bolted in it's original position on the chassis I could see it was a little close to the drive belt!!

This did kinda confirm to me what I had already had doubts about.. The engine is not quite in the right place..

It's very hard to get a photo of how much it is out, but it needs to move 1/4 inch to the right side.

[JimD 3,345]

Enjoying the updates Ian. It's really coming together now.

[AMC RULES 37,130]

:flags-wavegreatbritain: Congrats to all the "Team Ian" blokes!

You would never know that motor has seen twenty years go by without fire in the hole.

Ian, whas that ol' Kohler repainted red at some point? :scratchead:

[Stigian 1,234]

Moving the engine is an easy job, I just need an extra pair of hands to help me move it.. So it can wait a while..

So I thought I'd better get the hydraulic valve mounted..

Here's it's original mounting bracket with the bodywork off cut that was sliced off to fit the battery tray.

The off cut is the right size and shape but a little thin..

As ever a quick dig through my "might come in useful" metal box produced this..

Chop chop weld weld..

It fit's in well.

Add some more metal.

That looks better..

One last check before it gets welded in... Will the lever when fully back hit part of the gear shifter linkage when it's fully forward??

No.. Close but no collision

Lot's of hole drilling and plug welding later it's in..

My thought should of then turned to getting the hydraulic rams mounted.... Instead I found myself thinking about drive belt tensioning..

Even though I have plenty of these pulleys kicking about the place..

They are a bit on the big side for the space they would have to fit into.. I also just can't bring myself to fit plastic pulleys.. Just doesn't seem right...

But I do have a stack of these bearing about the place..

And some steel bar....

I feel a cunning plan coming on :D

[bowtiebutler956 650]

Awesome update! :text-datsphatyo:Thats quite a frankenhorse your biulding there. I like it, very creative.

Matt

[Ole MN 11]

Thank you again, Ian for a good read this morning.

[meadowfield 2,570]

Good suff Ian, I bet theres a video update to come too... :D

[Stigian 1,234]

Awesome update! :text-datsphatyo:Thats quite a frankenhorse your biulding there. I like it, very creative.

Matt

Thanks Matt, yeah she is a bit of a mixed part Wh

Thank you again, Ian for a good read this morning.

Your welcome Brad

Good suff Ian, I bet theres a video update to come too...

Funny you should say that....

Uploaded to MooTube this very morning..

I can't work out how to do the embedded link thingy so the little YouTube window show's, so you will have to click on the link below chaps

http://www.youtube.c...u/0/em0SGbhWWZQ

I've been having a "lathe" day today, partly because I need to make some drive belt tensioners and partly because it's been a cold day, I'm out of logs, and the lathe lamp kicks out a fair bit of heat

Anyway starting with a bit of the steel rod that made a guest appearance at the end of my last post..

In the lathe it went for a bit of shaping and a tad of drilling..

One done.

The idea is these two bearings will fit on the shaft..

And when slid inside the outrigger (despite this hurriedly taken photo) they will press down on the drive belt.. Well once I've cut some slot's in the outriggers so the tensioner thingys can be bolted in place..

Have done one of these tensioner thingys I though I might as well start on another..

Ta-daa, that's the front tensioners sorted

[COMMANDO6 20]

Very nice. I see you're getting there. :handgestures-thumbup:

[COMMANDO6 20]

What's happened? I had to click on the load more topics button to find this thread!

Have you done any more work on the tractor?

[Stigian 1,234]

Hi Guy's sorry for the lack of updates over the past 3 weeks, It's been rather busy shall we say..

Have you done any more work on the tractor?

You might say a bit has been done

Ok Chap's, this is a rather big update, I might not manage to get it all posted tonight, but I shall give it a bash

At the end of my last update I left you with two belt tensioner thingys made, so naturally the next photo will be....... Yep all four finished tensioner thingys.. The bearings will be fitted when the tensioners get installed in the out riggers..

While in the mood for lathe work I decided to crack on and make the bearing block thingys for the 3 point.. So under the power hacksaw went a block of steel..

While that was cutting I had a think about how to fit a brake pedal.. A scribbling on the side of another small slab.

The idea is this block will bolt around the bar the normal WH brake pedal slides onto.

More on the brake pedal in a bit as the bearing steel has now been cut in half.

An "arty" photo of one of the blocks in the lathe.

A close up.

The almost finished bearing block. It just needs some mounting holes and a hole drilled for a grease nipple.

The small groove inside will help the grease flow.

Ta-Daa.. Two bearing blocks done and roughly in the right place..

The way things are looking the 3 point linkage won't be ready by "test drive" time... But I can live with that

The odd part has started coming in for this project, including this new ignition switch!!

The only reason I took a photo of it is this is the first "new" switch I have had to buy... None of the recycled ignition switches I have, have quite the right connections for the engine!

Right, back to the brake pedal.

To make the pedal from the block of steel the first job was to trim it down to size in my favorite metal sawing machine..

I thought I would try a "panning" video shot of the block being cut.. My "hi tech" idea of strapping a tripod to a chair and move it around every few min's didn't really work and the footage was so bad it has been deleted!

The only photo I took of the block being cut came out quite bad as well

To cut the block width ways I needed to weld something extra onto the block so the power hacksaw vice could grip it..

If the bit of box welded on looks a weak.. You'd be right.. Two strokes of the saw blade ripped the block off the box!!

With something more suitable firmly welded on, cutting continued.

Of course not wanting to miss the chance of some more video footage out came the video camera only to find it would only record for 8 seconds at a time before shutting down!!

After a bit of ing I worked out the camera's "anti shock save the HD data" was kicking in from the vibration of the power cutter.. So....

One cushion later the problem was solved

[wheeledhorseman 574]

Good to read another update - keep 'em coming

Andy