Project Lazarus - GT14 manual PTO - adding attach-a-matic

[Aldon 4,826]

Well I have been busy resurrecting the GT14 that followed me home when I bought the Sickle bar mower I plan to restore for my GT14 restomod.

 

It was a real basket case but the bones were good. In fact, if I was not doing a full restore already, This one would definitely make the grade. Rust is superficial. Good and tins straight for the most part and it has several things going for it that will mean it's going to stay in my herd.

 

Pulled pics from from what's in my mirror thread:

As such I have made good use of the wait time for painting weather by bringing this puppy back to life.

 

First thing was to yank the blower off as it was impossible to move the thing otherwise.

 

Then I changed out the wheels, bearings and tires.

 

Monday I totally gutted the wiring and replaced with marine grade. Ran into. Slight hiccup troubleshooting with two parts DOA. Bad starter relay and a new rear lamp misswired from factory.

 

Got those issues resolved after work yesterday.

 

Tool another vacation day for warm weather to paint rims for my other project.

 

Lots of down time so I made use of it.

 

Other indicate their GT14 gas tanks never leak. Must be that I am getting all the bad tanks. This is third one iv'e initially fuels to test fire only to have fuel drain out onto ground.

 

So inbetween painting the wheels, I pulled the nose off the beast, swapped the choke and throttle cables, modified the gas tank to grommet style, re ran all new fuel lines, filters, shut-off and reinstalled the nose assembly.

 

Those who have pulled the nose off these GT14's know what a PITA it can be. The tractor had been used primarily for snow blowing by original owner. The front brace is a weaker link and the fellow ( at least I assume it was not factory) had welded angle iron across the front. Great for strength but it blocked access to the nuts that need removed to pull the iron nose. Took an hour or more to use cut off tool to trim it back so that it retained the strength intended by the modification and still allow access. Needless to say, it turned a PITA task into a Major PITA task.

 

Took a bit of coaxing as Lazarus had been sleeping for at least 3 years based on what I understand but once I got it running, no smoke and it runs strong. I did use reuse throttle cable and it is going to need swamped for a new one.

 

I had a spare dash board painted up that I picked up from our neighborhood RedSquare vendor so that went onto it today as well.

 

The hydro on this this is stout! 

 

Needs a new throttle cable, a new seat and I am using the BKM on restoring the tunnel dash plate. The throttle linkage is funky so need to address that and I will need to drum up some attach-a-matic mid and front mounts and install. I am hoping this becomes my mower before first grass needs cut.

 

Pics when I picked it up. Just realized I lost this pic. It's in the what's in my mirror thread though. Tires shot. It had sat in a field for 2-3 years minimum. Next shot is after retread but before pulling the blower off. Next as it sat with nose dissembled. Then two pics of it as it is currently. I'll update once I source throttle cable, seat and brackets. It even has a new cigarette lighter:-)

 

Edited April 16, 2016 by Aldon
Added two pics of before resurrection.

[Aldon 4,826]

Oh, and take a look at what can out of the tank when I pulled it....

[Retired Sparky 526]

18 minutes ago, Aldon said:

Oh, and take a look at what can out of the tank when I pulled it....

    Did the neighbor's kid put gravel to the tank???   That's kinda hard for an engine to digest, right?

[Aldon 4,826]

It's not gravel and yes, doubt it will get digested by an engine.

 

I have seen others post on the forum with similar deposits but this is first I've encountered them.

 

Some conglomeration of additives or something.

[Retired Sparky 526]

So it's like gall stone in the gas tank. 

[KC9KAS 4,741]

I really like the tri-ribs on the front of the GT-14.

[wrightorchid 261]

I had a similar sort  of gunk in my tank at one time too. It was a a weird algae or sludge that kept clogging the fuel filter and lines.  I think it was from the ethanol gas that the PO had left in it.  I replaced the lines and filter, only to have them clog again.  Found the issue in the tank. 

[fast88pu 3,324]

what size and where did you find the rib front tires ? thank you

[ztnoo 2,298]

Check out Aldon's GT 14 Resto-Mod thread: http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/topic/57948-gt-14-restomod/?do=findComment&comment=536295

Message # 8

It tells the brand and size.

[Aldon 4,826]

Vredsteins. Miller Tire is where I got mine.

[Aldon 4,826]

Got a few more things done to Lazarus. Tunnel plate is redone. Installed a seat....until I can source a new one. Borrowed from my other project. New muffler. Changed the oil. Rain and serious wind started and prevented me from getting hydro fluid and filter changed this evening. Cleaned up the decals. Not looking bad for a 250 dollar initial investment....... Mostly spares from my other projects up till now. All the knobs were missing and I had plenty of parts from the two I have disassembled to make this one whole. It's going to need some engine tweaking which is not currently one of my honed skills. If I can get the governor right, I'll get the attach-a-matic brackets on Laz and prepped for mowing.

 

[ztnoo 2,298]

Mr.T,

What is the model #????.......that will tell us the year of manufacture.

[Aldon 4,826]

Tag is in great shape. Also the dealer tag. All Sesons Equipment Inc, Scotia NY.

[ztnoo 2,298]

Ah yes.......1971.

Really strong, defined stamping on the VIN tag. It's not unusual for a least one of the digits to be marred and thus in question, or completely obscured. You have a nice tag there Mr. T.

Excellent pics, btw.

 

What's the tag on Resto-Mod say?

[Aldon 4,826]

No tag was on it. But I believe it was a 70 or 71 model. Steering wheel, lever styles solid nose etc point to later rather than early model.

[Aldon 4,826]

So in between everything else this weekend, I did a couple more tweaks to Laz.

 

tuned the carb and checked to make sure governor was set properly.

 

The tractor was provided with a belt cover. 

 

No no way it had been on that tractor in years if ever. The manual PTO was completely in the way obstructing clearance.

 

Even with the PTO rod and pulley assembly removed, it would not fit. The bottom belt rail was unable to slide in and was hitting the parking pawl lever assembly. I went at it for 30 minutes or so just to make sure I was not going off half cocked and took a cut off toil to the very end of the belt guard. Removed 3/4 of an inch. Rounded it off so no sharp corners and viola! 

 

Taking this his opportunity to install the 9/16-18 bolts from rear of hub so I can mount tires with lug nuts. I am recycling the rusty abused nuts I got with the wheel weights. Sandblasted the rust and painted the nuts. Just to prevent rust welding the wheel to the tractor.

 

next project on this tractor is to try and figure where in frame to install mid mount attach-a-matic brackets. Has anyone done so on GT14 or other large frame tractor that can offer advice?

 

[Aldon 4,826]

Got a bit more done today.

 

Installed the lug bolts, tires and lug nuts.

 

And the PO had an incorrect hydro filter on it. Went ahead and changed that as well. 

[ztnoo 2,298]

Getting the lead draft horse prepped.

I assume this is your mowing machine, in the short term?

[Aldon 4,826]

Yup.

 

I started a thread on attach-a-matics.

 

If I get some good feedback it will for sure get me mowing with this puppy in next 2-3 weeks. Twofold purpose though as I plan to modify the resto-mod as well and it's nice to have a Guinea pig.

 

But I will have to focus on the resto-mod exclusively once weather turns to get it done for show.

 

My back up plan is to use the tired C-161 to mow...

 

 

 

[ztnoo 2,298]

Well, you have back up.....I don't.

I'm feeling a little bit vulnerable at this point like maybe I need another mowing option.......if my front line defense let's me down.

[Aldon 4,826]

Indeed. The unreliability of my first horse due to age lead me to do my complete tear down and resto-mod so I could have a reliable beast of burden.

 

i know once I'm done I will keep at least one of the back ups. Not sure if I'll fall prey to the addiction and gather more:-)

[Aldon 4,826]

So it's starting to warm up here in the Adirondacks. Likely have to start mowing in 2-3 weeks.

 

As such, since it was really nice out I took day off of work and determined to get Lazarus set up to be primary mower. My C161 is too needy and needs its own restoration at this point. Too unreliable.

 

In preparation for the long day's wrestling match, I decided to get the tractor up off the ground a bit by making use of these wooden pieces I use along with my HF motorcycle lift.

 

I removed all the old style attaching system. Then using the C161 for reference came up with a battle plan. Luckily one of the prior owners had beefed up the front by welding a piece of 1/4 or 3/16 steel across. Ordinarily that front piece of steel is too flimsy. The side to side strength on GT14 is the 2 cross pieces that are fore and aft of the axle pivot...thingy...lol that's my scientific term. So I had good set up for the front attachment. 

I had procrastinated a bit starting this thinking it would be a real challenge determining where the brackets for mid mount should go. The frame mounting holes from the old style bracket  lined up so I made the assumption that they were ok. I believe they will work well.

i don't really like the rear discharge deck but it's the one in best shape at moment. I am going to install a restored 48inch side discharge on the GT14 Restomod. Have new old stock deck shell and an older deck which I'll pull spindles off of but that's a project for later this summer.

Deck lift works. Clearance is good. I will need to add a spacer which I picked up tonight to gain some clearance space for belt to clear the nose and fuel line. Only problem with this set up is that it will require a very long belt. I can't recall how long the belt was when I had it on the C161 but I am guessing 88-90 inches. Pretty sure that's close. It is way short. I ran a string and measured 115 inches with mule fully retracted. So I plan on ordering one online around 116 inches. May take a couple attempts and send backs. Tractor supply only had up to 107 inches. I ordered side frame pulley bracket like the C195 uses. I have a C195 style mule. If bracket arrives, I may try this route as it would be more in keeping with the original style GT14 system. In short, I am better than 90 percent there.

 

For anyone thinking about doing similar, note that the mid mount brackets I used are from the C105 parts tractor. So narrower than the Large frame like C195. So frame on GT14 is about 5/8" wider than the frame on C105 so I needed to mount bracket on the inside rather than usual outside of rail and also used 2 grade 8 washers between rail and bracket to center the mid mounts and make the bracket function just as it did on C105.

I am pleased with how it's coming together functionally. The deck is a lot easier to attach using this set up than the original method.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Aldon

[ztnoo 2,298]

Mr. T.

Well, I'm all eyes and ears on this mod because my original GT 14 deck (the mounting actually) just plan sucks, and in 35 years of owning this tractor, I singularly have had more trouble with the deck mounting mechanism than anything else. If you've got more pics, throw them in here, please. Obviously you've been thinking about this and scoping it our for a long time. Looks pretty d@mn good so far to me.

 

Curious: What's that long spring on the right side of the gas tank???  What function is it serving???

 

btw, the home brew 2x work platform is pretty impressive and substantial. At 6'4", more height would suit me better. Do you contract and deliver them???

 

z

Edited April 16, 2016 by ztnoo

[Aldon 4,826]

I way over built those lifts. Way too heavy to move around easily. So no. No delivery. And contracting is out since I spend way more than I would ever make on them.:-)

 

There are two types of retaining systems I have experienced on these GT14's.

 

The type on Lazarus was on 3 of the 4 I have personal experience with.

 

I hate it. It's a flimsy heavy wire contraption that is a total pain it the ^~€|€|*

 

It seems that everything is fine until after 50 years you have to pull the gas tank and nose off. Then there is a spring that due to rust and age falls to dust in my hands. That silver spring was just a replacement spring I happened to have in the junk drawer. Not ideal but free.

 

The system I will install on the resto-mod is the better type in my opinion. It's a steel strap with a nut and screw at mid top side to add retention. 

Edited April 16, 2016 by Aldon

[Aldon 4,826]

I understand why with the older large frame tractors and later the C195 they went a side frame mounted pulley. On older tractors both pulleys were in the side one in front of the other with a mule contraption in the fore but also on the side frame. On the C195 they went with a mule but only one pulley in front. The mule impedes full turning capacity. I am not yet decided on which route I'll take. As I rarely turn at the sharpest angles. I am leaning towards the dual front pulley mule and 116ish inch belt for Lazarus and may try to go the C195 style on Restomod.