Bigger Blade and a Question

[cschannuth 3,816]

I finally tracked down a larger snow/dirt blade. Progress pics below. It's in pretty good shape so I took it apart to freshen it up a bit. It's a 54 incher and it has the wear shoes that are still in good shape. To save those I had a buddy fab up some different shoes to save the originals.  They're not the same but will work the same.  I have the blade and springs in for blasting right now. 

 

Here's my question. I'm sure I've seen someone on here replace the solid wire that connects the trigger to the blade pin to change direction of the blade with flexible cable for ease of install/removal. I've searched and can't find the post. Am I dreaming or is that on here somewhere?

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by cschannuth
Clarity

[Racinbob 11,044]

I can't say it's on here but probably is. A length of 1/8" cable and a couple of crosbys work great.

[Ed Kennell 38,022]

I have used garage door cables.  They have a loop swaged in one end that ban be attached to the trigger lever  and the length adjusted at the triangle with a small cable clamp.

BTW, I don't see your triangle?

       I searched unsuccessfully for the thread  you are looking for.

Garry will probably be here soon to locate it though. 

[cschannuth 3,816]

 Here's a couple more progress pics. I'm actually going to use the solid wire for the bottom and some garage cable for the top link and triggerjust like you said. I think it's gonna work out OK. 

 

[obone 142]

Would love to see close ups once you get this done and tested. I just took mine off and had to remove the nut. Looked it up in the manual it says you have to lift the right side or unbolt the handle. I want it to be a fast swap no tools no lift. 

[cschannuth 3,816]

37 minutes ago, obone said:

Would love to see close ups once you get this done and tested. I just took mine off and had to remove the nut. Looked it up in the manual it says you have to lift the right side or unbolt the handle. I want it to be a fast swap no tools no lift. 

 

 Here's what I ended up with. It works really well. I probably need some better way to attach the cable on each end but this was what I had on hand and could come up with. To remove the blade now all you have to do is pull one pin and lay the handle over to slide it out the front of the tractor.  Sorry for all the pics but I can't remember what I already sent. 

 

[pfrederi 17,665]

Hard to tell for sure but did you "saddle a dead horse" on the lower end???

[cschannuth 3,816]

5 minutes ago, pfrederi said:

Hard to tell for sure but did you "saddle a dead horse" on the lower end???

 

Haha.  I don't know if I did or not because I don't know exactly what that means. 

 I just ran 1/8 inch cable through the hole in the bottom plate and into the hole in the trigger handle and used two cable clamps to secure it . 

[pfrederi 17,665]

I was always taught when you use cable clamps the saddle goes against the running cable the u bolt goes against the dead end tail. (Hence don't saddle a dead horse)

 

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by pfrederi

[obone 142]

Can you please explain why putting it on backwards causes the cable to break? (Hope you don't mind a sub question in your thread)

Edited April 26, 2017 by obone

[953 nut 55,075]

23 minutes ago, obone said:

explain why putting it on backwards causes the cable to brake

The "U" bolt is concentrating all of the force on one of the cables rather than distributing it more evenly.

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

@cschannuth, wonder if the cable from the xi series blades (79355) would work for you? And did you know you can get crimp on thimbles for the cable at the hardware store so you put a clevis on the cable first then crimp on the thimble and don't have to use the u-bolts.

[cschannuth 3,816]

34 minutes ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

@cschannuth, wonder if the cable from the xi series blades (79355) would work for you? And did you know you can get crimp on thimbles for the cable at the hardware store so you put a clevis on the cable first then crimp on the thimble and don't have to use the u-bolts.

 

I like that. I'll have to check when I'n in town.  Thanks. 

[pfrederi 17,665]

But Crimpers (like teh one in the background) cost 50-60 bucks if you don't have one

Edited April 21, 2017 by pfrederi

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

Craig, this might make things better too a crimped on stopper after a clevis has been installed, Jeff.

1 minute ago, pfrederi said:

But Crimpers (like teh one in the background) cost 50-60 bucks if you don't have one

The one in the Zoro ad can be crimped in bench vise and if your into street cars/hot rods and made up a set of custom spark plug wires the hammer and vice style crimper works too.

[cschannuth 3,816]

Finished assembly on the blade. It turned out pretty decent. I'd say it's about a 10 footer but it's mechanically sound and should do a nice job. 

 

[cschannuth 3,816]

On April 21, 2017 at 10:20 AM, obone said:

Would love to see close ups once you get this done and tested. I just took mine off and had to remove the nut. Looked it up in the manual it says you have to lift the right side or unbolt the handle. I want it to be a fast swap no tools no lift. 

 

See the pics in the previous post showing what I ended up doing. The local auto parts store had a crimper I borrowed. It worked well. 

[Shuboxlover 478]

Craig...GREAT job on the blade!!!  Looks a little nicer than when it left Nebraska

[cschannuth 3,816]

18 minutes ago, Shuboxlover said:

Craig...GREAT job on the blade!!!  Looks a little nicer than when it left Nebraska

 

Thanks, Tyson.  It had good bones so it cleaned up pretty well. 

[T-Mo-(Moderator) 4,496]

Craig, looks good and nice idea on the cable.  And being a 10 footer is better than being a 20 footer.  Most of mine would be at least a hundred footer.

[obone 142]

cschannuth can you get another shot of the lower part of the cable showing the connection? Very nice job. Kind of makes me wish for snow kind of.

[cschannuth 3,816]

This shows the connection. The only difference is I used a crimp connection like I did on the trigger handle instead of the cable clamp shown.   Let me know if you need anything else. 

3 hours ago, T-Mo said:

Craig, looks good and nice idea on the cable.  And being a 10 footer is better than being a 20 footer.  Most of mine would be at least a hundred footer.

 

LOL. Thanks. 

[BigRedGrizzly 229]

On 4/25/2017 at 10:12 PM, cschannuth said:

 

See the pics in the previous post showing what I ended up doing. The local auto parts store had a crimper I borrowed. It worked well. 

Hey Craig... Sweet job on that plow. I’m planning on overhauling mine as well after this winter. However, I’m in need of a new wear bar immediately. I was wondering if you could let me know where you got your set up. 

[cschannuth 3,816]

5 hours ago, BigRedGrizzly said:

Hey Craig... Sweet job on that plow. I’m planning on overhauling mine as well after this winter. However, I’m in need of a new wear bar immediately. I was wondering if you could let me know where you got your set up. 

 

 I used something similar to the item in the link below. I used my old worn out wear bar and sandwiched this new bar underneath it.   It works very well and has held up OK so far. 

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F262298134974

[Sarge 3,463]

When I rebuilt the big blade for the D - I used the Easy Adapt clevis rod ends and solid rod . Threaded the rod to 1/4-28 and bent it to fit the curve and angles of the handle and used the rod ends to give it some adjustment . The through pin on these clevis ends uses a spring steel snap clip that is attached to the pin , pop that spring clip loose and pull it off - then I can remove one hair pin clip and take the handle completely off and out of the way . Some of the linkage on these blades make it a pain to get the attachment on/off the tractor - this solved that problem with the huge 56" blade clearing the front axle easier . There are also wedge type cable clevis ends available , but they are not exactly cheap and you'd need 2 of them .

 

https://www.mcmaster.com/#2447K13

 

 

Sarge