Project Basket Case - Finishing up

Now that all the painting was done and everything was nice and shiny, the big day had arrived. 

I could finally put the tractor back together.

Reassembly in of itself was pretty straightforward. It was after all a matter of bolting the bits that I had removed earlier back onto the tractor's frame and reconnecting the remaining electrical components, mainly the headlights. 

Project Basket Case - Giving Things a Nice Coat of Paint

 

Yes, it's been a little while since the last update. This fall I started a new job which has taken a fair bit of my time as of late, and just life, in general, has been making its presence known.  In particular, I have noticed quite a significant uptick in requests for some of my laser engraved signs. So I have been spending quite a bit of time in the shop, just not enough time for writing it seems... 

Now that I have my excuses out of the way, it's now time to focus on the next chapter of bringing my basket case tractor back to life. 

Project Basket Case - The Saga of the Stubborn Wheel

 

With the engine all squared away, I now could focus on the other parts of the tractor.  One part that I had noticed when I was bidding on the tractor was that one of the rear tires was horribly cracked and in dire need of replacement.  

I did some pricing on a new tire for this size of tractor, and I was absolutely floored at the price - basically, I was literally doubling the value of my tractor by installing a new tire.  Well, I couldn't really use the tractor without it, so I held my nose and soon a new tire was on its way. 

While I was waiting for the tire to arrive, I decided that I should at least prepare for it by removing the rear wheel from the tractor, remove the old tire and perhaps freshen up the rim with a fresh coat of paint, 

Little did I know that I was in for the most frustrating part of the whole tractor rebuild.

Project Basket Case - Wiring It Up

In my last post on the garden tractor restoration, I had just finished installing the new engine and gotten the fuel and throttle connections all done. 

The only thing that I needed to do to get the engine going (and in theory, the tractor moving) was to hook up the electrical system. 

Project Basket Case - Installing a New Engine in the Garden Tractor

 

In my last post, I just successfully removed the old engine from my basket case garden tractor, which left a fairly large empty space in my tractor's front. While that made the tractor a possible candidate as a soapbox racer, I really needed to replace it with another engine. 

Project Basket Case - Engine Removal on the Garden Tractor

 Last week I dragged home an old garden tractor that I had picked up at an auction for around 100 dollars. 

In some respects, this old tractor was a bit like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. It certainly didn't look very good, but if you looked at it hard enough, you could see something that could really be something special, perhaps all it really needed was just a little bit of love. 

One thing that it did need for sure was some engine work. The tractor had a vertical twin-cylinder Briggs and Stratton engine on board that seemed to turn pretty easily and showed some signs of compression when I turned the engine over by hand at the auction.

Project Basket Case - Trying to Resurrect an Old Garden Tractor

 

Well, it started off as a desire to grow some pumpkins.  

With all of the pandemic issues that are swirling around, it has been taking its toll on the local community events that usually occur around my local area. 

One significant event (at least to me) is the local agricultural fair that is usually held this time of year. For obvious reasons, the fair is canceled this year, but to at least keep the spirit of the fair alive, the local agricultural society decided to hold a series of virtual events. 

One of those events was a competition to grow the largest pumpkin. That was something that definitely intrigued me, so I signed up, collected a few pumpkin seeds, and started growing my large pumpkin.

While it's fun to grow large gourds, the vines do take up a great deal of space in the garden. This requires a lot of tilling around the plants to keep the weeds at bay. Cultivating by hand is a bit of a chore and to be frank, I don't consider it one of my favorite things to do. 

Due to the larger than normal space that I needed to keep tilled, I figured that making some sort of tow behind a cultivator that I could pull with a small tractor would be a nice project while I was waiting for the plants to grow.

DIY Mulcher for a Lawn Tractor

 

Since I was in a getting ready for spring frame of mind, I figured that I should tackle a bit of a pet peeve of mine when it comes to yard work. 

Anytime you see a picture of someone's lawn, whether it be in a magazine spread or a TV show, you will always be greeted with images of pristine fields of green, every blade of grass in its place.

Sadly the reality (or at least my reality) is quite different. In my particular case, my home sits on a rural property that has its sewage situation handled by a septic system that has a weeping bed that expands out into my front lawn. This creates pockets of nutrient and moisture-rich areas on my lawn, meaning that while in some areas I have a lawn that grows at a normal rate, I also have areas where the grass grows like proverbial weeds. 

The issue with this comes when it's time to mow the lawn. While I have no issues cutting the "normal" part of the lawn, when I go over the turbo-charged part, I end up with large clumps of grass, making my front yard looking more like a hayfield than a lawn. 

It just doesn't look good, and it bugs me to see winrows of grass instead of a pristine, freshly cut lawn. 

Other than hiring out a couple of sheep to spend the summer on my front lawn (the neighbors would look at me funny), I wanted to find a solution for this. 

Repairing a Lawn Tractor Muffler - A Tale of Baling Wire and Bubble Gum

When springtime comes a not so young man's thoughts turn to lawn care. 

And so this weekend I hauled my old lawn tractor out from its winter hibernation.  After giving the battery a quick charge and adding some fresh gas to the tank, I started the old girl up for the first time this year. 

I've had this tractor for about 10 years and it always provided faithful service in keeping the grass around the house nice and trimmed. 

So I was a bit bummed out when, after starting the engine I was greeted with a metallic clang and a really loud noise coming from the engine,. 

Hopping off the tractor, I immediately found the cause. On the ground, in front of the tractor, I found a large metal box - more commonly referred to as a muffler.

Wooden Garden Tractor Update - Second Attempt at the Drive Train

A few weeks back, my attempt to connect the rear wheels of my tractor to the engine ended in a complete failure. 

Going back to the drawing board I decided that trying to do a 90-degree twist in the drive belt was just not going to cut it. 

Unfortunately, this meant that I had to go with the more traditional route and have the engine drive to be more in line with the wheels, and avoid that 90-degree twist altogether.

The issue I had was that I still wanted to avoid having any moving belts as close to my limbs as possible. 

Building a Garden Tractor Out of Wood - Trying to Power the Wheels

The last time I worked on the tractor, I had mounted the engine to the tractor. Now I was faced with the prospect of attaching the engine to the rear wheels so that the tractor could actually move under its own power.

As I mentioned at the start of the build, I wanted to keep all the moving parts of the tractor's drive train as far away from my limbs as possible, My idea was to use the vertical drive of the lawnmower engine to connect it to the rear wheels with a drive belt that would have a 90-degree twist to a secondary set of pulleys that in turn would be connected to the rear wheels. 

I got the idea for this arrangement from a set of plans for a wooden go-kart that has its wheels powered via that type of arrangement.

I'm not entirely sure how successful I will with this since I am not entirely sure how the belt will stay on the pulleys with that severe of a twist, but I am willing to give it a try. 

To start the build, I first gathered up the various parts that I needed to make the drivetrain. 

Building a Garden Tractor Out of Wood - Mounting the Engine

In my last post, I had just acquired an engine for my tractor, thanks to an old lawn mower that I managed to score to free.

Now that I had my engine, it was time to install it in my tractor.

I started the process by setting the engine on top of the tractor's chassis. The idea was to position the engine as close to the front of the tractor as possible.

However, as the plans had indicated that the engine was to be surrounded by a hood, including a front grill and a dashboard, I also needed to make sure that the engine was not too far ahead, which would prevent proper air circulation around the engine.

Building a Garden Tractor Out of Wood - Sourcing an Engine

Now that my garden tractor is now able to roll around on its own wheels, I really needed to get an engine sourced for it before I can go any further.

In the original 1941 magazine article, the tractor was powered by what was referred to as a "utility motor" with no further specification on what type of motor that it was, or what type of horsepower that it needed to have.

Looking at the diagram in the magazine, it appeared that the motor in question was the fairly typical small engine of that era that you would find in your finer lawn mowers and garden tillers.

With small engines, there are two basic configurations, regardless of how many cylinders or how much horsepower it may have. A small engine could be configured to have a horizontal drive shaft (ie, the engine provides power to drive things from the side of the engine) or a vertical drive shaft (power is being provided from the bottom of the engine).

Building a Garden Tractor Out of Wood Update - Getting Things Rolling

A few weeks back I embarked on building a small garden tractor based on plans that I had found in a copy of Mechanix Illustrated from 1941.  The unique thing about this tractor was that it was built completely out of wood. 

I managed to put together the chassis for the tractor, so the next step would be to attempt to put some wheels on to create a rolling chassis. 

Building a Garden Tractor Out of Wood - Building the Chassis

In my last post, I discussed that there seemed to be a lot of neat projects published in the "How-To" magazines that were put out over 50 years ago.

While I marveled at the sheer number of cool projects that there was, I was immediately drawn to one particular project that was published in an issue of Mechanix Illustrated from the late 1940s.

That particular project was for a small garden tractor. While that in of itself wasn't too unique, what made this particular project leap out at me was that it was constructed completely out of wood (well, except for the engine and some small mechanical parts).