Bronco 12 Special

[dtallon 320]

I now present, the "Bronco 12 Special".  I have had this tractor done for a couple months now, but have been having too much fun playing in the garage instead of posting on here lately.  I covered the build of mechanical aspects of this tractor in a previous thread. Since then, I've obviously spent some time on the cosmetic aspects of it.  

 

My concept when I started planning this over two years ago was to build a tractor that had what I felt were the ideal features of a show tractor; compact size, hydro drive and lift for easy operation, starter generator for quiet starts, and full foot boards and safety features so my kids can run it safely (with supervision).  Of course, I wanted it to look good too.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I like the way it turned out.  It's just a rattlecan paint job, but I tried to do what I could to make it turn out as good as possible.  The slightly customized decals from Terry really help too.  

 

 

Oh, and the name.  As the other thread explained, the tractor is essentially the rear half of a Bronco 14, the front half of an 8hp 4sp, and a newer 12HP Kohler that came in the Bronco, but had the S/G and tins from a 1056. I couldn't come up with a name that incorporated all of that, but "Bronco 12 Special" I felt hit the main points.    

 

 

I won't recount all the steps of the restoration, but will hit a few highlights:

 

The tires.  It seems like these threads often prompt the question, "what tires are you using?"  The rears are Carlisle 23x8.50-12 Power-Trac's.  They are mounted on Wards rims (John Deere 110/112 rims are the same I think) to tuck them in about an inch closer than the original Wheel Horse rims.  They still give me about 1" between the tire and the drive motor.  The fronts are 15x6.00-6 Vredestein's on the 8hp 4spd front rims.  I wanted to go with some tri-ribs since they were cheaper, but I thought the 3.50-6's looked too small, and the 4.00-8's were bigger than I wanted to go.  

 

 

The engine runs great, but it did suffer from the all-to-common issue of the dipstick rubber having shrunk and not holding it in the tube.  Rather than replacing it, I tried a different approach that seems to have worked.  I got some 1 3/8" wiring heat shrink wrap and put it on the rubber "stopper" on the dipstick.  It added just enough to keep it from popping out while the engine is running.  I haven't run it alot yet, but it seems to be holding up.  

 

The hydraulic hoses as I got them were functional, but one had worn through and was patched together with a doubled-ended barb union and some hose clamps.  Another hose on the cylinder leaked at the swivel fitting.  Following advice I found in a thread on here, I went the Surplus Center route for replacement hoses, with 1/4" JIC 4 hoses in 12", 18", 24" and 30" lengths.  The hoses worked great, but the same thread advised to get JIC 4 90deg fittings and then JIC 4 to 5 straight adapters to hook into the JIC 5 ports on the valve, cylinder and pump.  I just couldn't make the turns tight enough coming off the pump doing it that way. I ended up ordering some JIC 4 to 5 (1/4" to 5/16") 90deg fittings from hydraulicsdirect.com.  Even then, I had to enlarge the hole in the seat support to accommodate the longer coupler sleeve on the new hoses, but eventually it did work.  Even though the suggested fittings could have worked on the cylinder connections, I got some of the JIC 4 to 5 90deg fittings there too for a cleaner install.  

 

 

To get the air cleaner to fit with the 12HP engine under the 8HP 4spd hood, I had previously mentioned using the carb and cleaner off of a 212 John Deere.  This still was an awfully tight fit.  By accident, I found that the air cleaner from a certain model of Cub Cadet was the same concept, but lower profile to give me a little more clearance.  Both the Cub and the Deere breathed from the back side of the cleaner, drawing air from the flywheel blower housing.  Since I change the orientation of the air cleaner, I had to fill that hole and drill holes to breath in from the front side.  

 

 

What drove me to look for a different air cleaner was trying to put headlights in.  Even with the Cub air cleaner, I didn't have room for the stock headlight buckets, so I went the LED route.  I fabbed up a plate from a sheet of aluminum that covered the opening from the inside, and stuck 6x6 LED panels on.  Just going straight across the back side of the grill with the aluminum, and the lens on the front side, there was enough room in between for the LED's.  The best part is, the LED's put out more light than the stock headlight bulbs.  

 

 

 

Not willing to leave well enough alone with the headlights, I went one step farther and integrated some amber strobe/blinker lights.  For fairly cheap, I got a roll of cut-to-length amber LED strip lights and mounted a couple strips on the outsides of the headlights. They still fit behind the front lens, so unless they are lit, you don't know they are there.  I wanted a similar, clean look in the back.  It took me a while to come up with something, but eventually I found a motorcycle tail light that had integrated turn signals.  It sticks out farther than a stock tail light, but that is mainly to incorporate a license plate light that points downward, which might be handy for shining some light on the hitch.  The light used a single ground wire, and the strobe controller I had required individual grounds for each blinker, but it wasn't too hard to modify the circuit board to add individual grounds.  I mounted the controller on the plate under the gas tank, easy to reach but not obvious that it's there.

 

 

 

 

I wish I could say it's perfect, but I do have a few lessons learned that may eventually bother me enough to make me fix them.  

 

The transmission drips.  Since Toro discontinued the 5999 gasket, I had to make my own and I think I used the wrong material.  The 1/64 felt-like material I used I think wicks the Type-A trans fluid just enough to create a very slow drip.  It's so slow, it's not a big deal, but eventually may bother me enough to try a different gasket material. Even if I did fix it though, the lift cylinder drips too, and I don't think there is anything I can do about that other than try to find a different cylinder.  

 

The muffler leaks.  The muffler is a will-fit Gravely replacement off of Ebay, and after running it a little it has soot marks coming out at every seam.  Not a big deal on a working tractor, but I want this one to look nice.  I like the looks otherwise, so may eventually have to try a higher quality version.

 

 

All in all, I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  I didn't get it done in time to take to any shows in 2015, but look forward to making it to a few 2016 shows with it.  

 

 

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

WOW , what a great look Tractor . A lot of work and thought went into the finished product.

[Terry M-(Moderator) 2,176]

I like the way you built it....Very Nice

[RedRanger 1,468]

Agree it looks great!  I'd love to have that seat for my 867 too.  

As for the soot on the muffler, just paint it black.

Edited January 5, 2016 by RedRanger

[KC9KAS 4,741]

Very nice look custom Wheel Horse!

Thanks for the photos.

[AMC RULES 37,141]

Neat build, and nicely documented. 

[Ed Kennell 39,019]

Really nice....thanks for sharing all the ideas and the  great pictures.

Customs are the theme at the Big Show this year.     We would love to see it in Pa. this spring.

[TDF5G 2,069]

You did a good job, it looks great.  The LED headlights are cool!

[oliver2-44 9,903]

It looks great

On the muffler you might try caulking the leaking seams with black high heat caulk like used on wood stoves, then paint it black to match the caulk

Home chepo doesn't carry the high heat caulk, you need to go to someplace that has pre standing wood stove and fireplace stuff.

[SylvanLakeWH 26,099]

Nice job!

[bds1984 1,451]

What tires did you install on the front?  I've been looking for some ribbed tires for the front of my C165 I refreshed last summer, since I'm kind of over the ag tires and I don't really care for the tri-ribs.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

2 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

It looks great

On the muffler you might try caulking the leaking seams with black high heat caulk like used on wood stoves, then paint it black to match the caulk

Home chepo doesn't carry the high heat caulk, you need to go to someplace that has pre standing wood stove and fireplace stuff.

I have found the black high heat caulk at Lowes

[WNYPCRepair 1,923]

2 hours ago, bds1984 said:

 

What tires did you install on the front?  I've been looking for some ribbed tires for the front of my C165 I refreshed last summer, since I'm kind of over the ag tires and I don't really care for the tri-ribs.

 

 

 

On January 5, 2016 at 10:01 PM, dtallon said:

The tires.  It seems like these threads often prompt the question, "what tires are you using?"  The rears are Carlisle 23x8.50-12 Power-Trac's.  They are mounted on Wards rims (John Deere 110/112 rims are the same I think) to tuck them in about an inch closer than the original Wheel Horse rims.  They still give me about 1" between the tire and the drive motor.  The fronts are 15x6.00-6 Vredestein's on the 8hp 4spd front rims.  I wanted to go with some tri-ribs since they were cheaper, but I thought the 3.50-6's looked too small, and the 4.00-8's were bigger than I wanted to go.  

 

 

 

 

Very nice work, great looking tractor!

[dm148300 3]

That is a thing of beauty! It makes me want to start stripping down my '73 8hp, but I need it to push the (not so much) mountains  of snow this "blizzard" brought (maybe 2-3" here). I was really looking forward to pushing some this weekend too! Anyhow, fantastic job! Love the tire choices!

 

-David

[squonk 41,598]

Awesome Job!