-= Li'l Red =-

I'm still toying with the inner shock mounts.  I mocked up an upper brace with 2 possible locations.  One is pretty nose up.  The other would requires a minor tweak to a skid plate I added to protect the rack steering.

My current full up location.


Full down location.


I'm OK with a little nose up.  Once I get the winch and bumper on, it won't look so up there.  The narrow portion of the grill makes it look more up there.

Uh oh. I see a little bitty Carolina squat goin on there. That ain't good...











Jk

I like the stance, looks good!

Bumper and winch brought her down a twinge.  Looks much better.  Almost complete!  New video update out Friday!  Trying to beat the artic air! 

Just a idea, why not cut down or make a set of spindles that lower the front a couple inches? I get the the front axle can’t go up anymore, but the spindles you have are very tall. Or do you just prefer the tall nose? Beautiful work either way

Something like that

Creepycrawler wrote:

Just a idea, why not cut down or make a set of spindles that lower the front a couple inches? I get the the front axle can’t go up anymore, but the spindles you have are very tall. Or do you just prefer the tall nose? Beautiful work either way

 I like the ground clearance, but if it does become troublesome.  (Bending) I'll definitely look into that.  I've commented in the past how long the spindles are.  Back then I didn't trust my welding good enough to modify them.  I give myself 85% success rate now.  

UGH.... I don't even know....  

Tether kill, when grounding a wire that is already grounded via switch.  Tether wire melts itself in two.  ??  I now need to check the wiring and make sure there are no other breaks in wiring. I have the larger tank so it will need removed.  Glad it was empty.  Also, it will make it easier to move it out of the way.



I hate doing digicals....  Not hard, just a pain in the rear.  Even more so, I hope the coil is not fried.

That’s a lotta smoke right there. I hate wiring too! Spade connectors especially, the things never crimp well. I’ve given myself a second degree burn from a starter stud and on another occasion I shorted a battery right next to a 3 gallon gas tank... think I must have jumped back 3 feet. I watch a guy on YouTube who is restoring a 359 Peterbilt and anytime he gets frustrated he says “(sigh) gotta love old trucks.” Seems anytime I’m doing wiring it’s always “sigh I love garden tractors.”

Sounds to my noobie mind that it’s either too many amps or too much resistance, is this a newer wire? Adding a fuse may help too, at least in preventing a smoking mess.
Anyway, hope she works out better for ya!

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

That’s a lotta smoke right there. I hate wiring too! Spade connectors especially, the things never crimp well. I’ve given myself a second degree burn from a starter stud and on another occasion I shorted a battery right next to a 3 gallon gas tank... think I must have jumped back 3 feet. I watch a guy on YouTube who is restoring a 359 Peterbilt and anytime he gets frustrated he says “(sigh) gotta love old trucks.” Seems anytime I’m doing wiring it’s always “sigh I love garden tractors.”

Sounds to my noobie mind that it’s either too many amps or too much resistance, is this a newer wire? Adding a fuse may help too, at least in preventing a smoking mess.
Anyway, hope she works out better for ya!

 


Ignorance in my part.
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I tapped into what I "thought" was the kill wire for the engine.  Turns out it was a wire to the dash controlled switch for the wench.  Brilliant me used the same color wire as the kill.

No other wires were damaged in the "event"  Glad my 2.8 gallon tank was empty and has been a while so there were no vapors.  Only loss was $12 for the tether kill.

Even though all the wires seem OK, I think I will be doing a rewire for piece of mind, and better color coding them so this does not happen again in the future.  This will delay the finish.  I was actually down to exhaust left.

As for crimping spades.  Several years ago, we were renting a house and needed the well replaced.  The people the owner had come out left his crimper behind.  I have used the fool out of them since.

Reminds me of my Wizard incident. And the MM incident. Makes me wonder what incident(s) will happen this year. Hopefully none.

hey it happens sometimes, me and my brother set his craftsman on fire when the carb flooded and it back fired through it catching the gas that had spilled from the carb, i panicked and instead of shutting off the gas i pulled the fuel line which dumped even more gas on the flames

Well guys I am on a slow down, not a stand still. With these cold temps I had to portion off a chunk of the Garage for the outside pooches. I don't want them to suffer the cold. I was monitoring temps in their partially heated space in the building. They dropped much lower than I would like once the wind picked up blowing in their doggie door. I've got a nice 52 degrees going in the Garage while it is 17 degrees outside! Don't know if I will have a vid out this week, but I am trying. I can say I am about 85% complete.

OK guys, I sucked it up and wrapped this week's episode up.  Should be up after midnight.  Not sure which timezone.

Well guys, the update is complete.  Weather isn't allowing me to get it out and shoot some video.  I would LOVE to get it out in the snow.  We have our outside dogs cooped up in the garage.  Our garage door is facing the north so I would rather keep the nice 52 degrees I have been able to keep for them in there.  In the mean time, I made these I think neat stats images of Li'l Red!

Nice! Its like baseball cards but for tractors!

Some people collect baseball cards, some collect pokemon cards, but the real MVP's collect atltf cards!

You mind if I post them on the ATLTF insta mighty?

I don't care...

Little slow here but with the new stance there I think we should call her Big Red here on out. What do you think there @MightyRaze

Final update? We'll see. She's still bogging a bit. May need some more carb work.

Little frustrated with the engine.  Although I've never had 12 inch wheels on the tractor, I should still be able to spin the tires and not bog down so much.  (Video when I cut over to the other side of the front yard.)

I see the Ohio guys running single clone engines ripping away in the slush and mud no issue.

Not sure if it is the carb, highly likely.  Still not right with the valves, possibly.  Sparkalators not right, definitely.

I did pull the trigger for a new sump gasket for the 21HP OHV Twin just in case.

You and me both with engine problems. Sounds like compression is good from the video. Those carbs are awful for not running right from what I’ve heard. Could there maybe be something up with the governor? I am not sure being I’m new to small engines, that is just from my frustrations from the wonder that is the vanguard. Hope you get it figured out ok.

I've never had any issues from rebuilding carburetors until that dang techumseh came along.   But yeah it definitely should be able to spin those tires with no issues.......my 8 hp honda spins the 25s on brutus with no issues.

Any of your clutch pulleys or tensioner pulleys tight or froze up? I had that happen on my dads hustler, the bearing in the tensioner pulley locked up and the belt destroyed that plastic pulley. It didnt make any noise and I didnt smell anything just felt like it was down on power.

Is the transaxle easy to turn? Idk just trying to name things off. I'm sure you have already checked over everything but it sounds and looks like its running good when it's not under a load. I'd pull a plug and see what that tells you, might help with carb adjustment.
The brakes ain't on are they?  .............sometimes I wish it were that easy.

Got to thinking... is there maybe a gummed up jet somewhere? Also could it maybe be that one coil wire is bad? Just a thought that I had. Don’t have any more cause thinking hurts too much for me

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

You and me both with engine problems. Sounds like compression is good from the video. Those carbs are awful for not running right from what I’ve heard. Could there maybe be something up with the governor? I am not sure being I’m new to small engines, that is just from my frustrations from the wonder that is the vanguard. Hope you get it figured out ok.

Both brakes are good,  rolls fine.  Trans turns fine.  All idlers are new and spin great.  No belt drag.  Pulled a plug and it looked perfect.  Not wet or oily.

Pretty certain this is a case of taking a shortcut to "Send It.." is coming back to bite me.  When I had the engine apart, the valves were acting a bit weird.  Let me explain.  On the compression stroke the valves sealed tight on both sides.  On Top-Dead-Center they didn't seem to seal good.  That logically doesn't make sense to me.  The cam inside looked fine.  Anyway, I figured since it seemed to seal on compression stroke, I sent it.  

So...

I worked over the engine this afternoon.  I found my compression and leak test kits.  I hate to go on, but left side engine I was getting 45psi with leaks.  Right side I got 32psi with major leak.

I knew I should have did a valve job.  I hate pulling valve springs.  I have a briggs tool now, so this should be easier.  I guess I have a new project.  Should I screw up, I do have a couple engines to pull new valves.