Leaderboard

What do you think without giving anything away. Got to keep 'em guessing. Ignore the crap welding. I was trying a gasless mig welder for the first time.

The 48" deck on my 1973 Allis Chalmers was needing some attention and new blades. While it was off I dug out in the barn and found I had three other decks for this tractor as well, another 48" and two 42" decks, one of the 42" decks was like new except for a wobbly center pulley that turned to be a can of worms. The previous owner/mechanic had used an air ratchet to install the top pulley on the center spindle and ended up cross threading the nut, keeping it from drawing up tight. This caused the key way to waller out the groove in the arbor shaft and ruining the shaft. Since they stopped making parts for this in 1974 I was lucky to have some extra decks and one even had a fairly new center arbor. I have three of these rare Allis built tractors and fortunately I acquired some extra parts and implements. I refurbished the 42" deck this week and will start on the 48" deck tomorrow. After taking these decks apart and cleaning/sanding them they get a coat of OSPHO, which is one of the best rust removers/reformers ever made, then two coats of etching primer with hardener and two coats of industrial enamel with reducer and poly converter hardener. Not bad for a 44 year old mower deck.

This photo shows the chassis on 4 wheels, still with the first style front hubs and with new tyres fitted. Tread wrong way around I know, wheels just roughly mounted. The front tyres are 9 x 3.50 x 4 made for mini motor cycles fitted to the Bolens 4" hubs. The 9" tyre was better proportion wise than the 10" previously fitted although I have not been able to find an inner tube with a straight valve. The bent valve finished up hard against the rim when inflated. A little mod later improved things. No photo of this yet. The height difference of 2:3/4" between the engine and gearbox shafts can be seen. Just by chance an old Picador double bearing found at John's had the same C/L's and with a slightly cut down base was a perfect fit. Now what to use to transmit the drive from top to bottom. Sprockets and chain from old mowers were dug out. Most were too large to fit between the frame or were double sprockets. The smaller sections were cut off and after trying various combinations things started to look workable. After trying various chain lengths, too short or too long, a cut down mower tensioner was fitted but didn't look right. Another sprocket was found which fitted between the frames but had the wrong ID. This was bored out and welded to the gearbox sprocket ( thanks Chris ) after mounting the pair on a suitable size bolt. After this, the existing keyway in the small sprocket was used as a guide to file out the larger one. The result was a nice tap fit on the gearbox shaft and key and also after altering the chain did away with the need of the tensioner although this could be refitted later.

Got a surprise this morning. Five days ago I asked Titch for some graphics for the trailer. This morning they arrived. I wasn't expecting them till sometime next week. Very pleased with them and pleased with the excellent service. Top marks Titch.

I wouldn't bring it Norm, there might not be room on the trailer to take it home