[jdcrawler]

The wheels studs arrived so I'm now drilling the counterbore in the holes for them to fit into.

The counterbores are 1-inch deep. This leaves 1-inch of metal for the studs to be pressed into and 1-inch of thread sticking out for the lug nuts to be threaded on to hold the wheel on.

The studs are pressed into the holes.

The wheel studs in the hubs are only about an inch long so I'm using these special lug nuts for the old style mag wheels to fasten the adapters onto the hubs. This will leave 7/8-inch thick material for the lug nuts to grip to.

The adapter is bolted onto the hub.

And now the 16 inch tractor wheel can be bolted onto it.
I'm pretty sure that these hubs are off an early 1930's Chevrolet. The threads for the hub caps to screw onto are 2-3/8 outside diameter with 16 threads per inch. I'm trying to find a pair of old Chevy screw on caps that someone doesn't think they are made of gold and want three arms and a leg for them.

 

[jdcrawler]

Can anyone tell me what these axle spindles are off of ?
I think the hubs are the centers cut out of larger cast wheels. They have a dust cover that screws into them.
They had little 8-inch wheels bolted onto them but it's obvious that those were not the correct wheels.
The front bearing race threads onto the axle and there is a thick washer with a 3/8 bolt that screws into the end of the axle to tighten down on the bearing race.

It has numbers cast into them and both orange and green paint on them.

This hub is off a 1965 Mustang. I have separated the hub from the backing plate and the brake drum.
One way or another, these Mustang hubs are going on these axle spindles so I can put larger front wheels on them.

 

[Vrdaddy]

Found these on ebay VINTAGE ALLIS CHALMERS B TRACTOR - STEERING SPINDLE - LH- 1946 | eBay Looks like yours , says it's for Allis Chalmers B tractor, hope it helps.

 

[jdcrawler]

Found these on ebay VINTAGE ALLIS CHALMERS B TRACTOR - STEERING SPINDLE - LH- 1946 | eBay Looks like yours , says it's for Allis Chalmers B tractor, hope it helps.

Thank you.
That is exactly what my axles look like.
The cast hubs on my axles are different from a Allis-B tractor but I think you're on the right track.

 

[Vrdaddy]

Thank you.
That is exactly what my axles look like.
The cast hubs on my axles are different from a Allis-B tractor but I think you're on the right track.

I found a picture showing a Ford N tractor with the front wheel that has hubs similar to yours , not sure if they are but they are close

 

[jdcrawler]

I found a picture showing a Ford N tractor with the front wheel that has hubs similar to yours , not sure if they are but they are close View attachment 412540

The dust cap is different but the cast hub sure looks like it could be the same.

 

[jdcrawler]

Checking the fit of the Mustang rear bearing on the tractor axle. The bearing is a little larger so just making up a sleeve will take care of fitting it onto the axle.

The Mustang hubs are put on the lathe to bore the hole for the tractor bearing race larger.

It is machined out to a light press fit on the bearing race.

Naturally, the Mustang press in dust cap is no longer going to fit so I decided that I would like to use the screw on caps off the old tractor hubs.
I chuck them up on the lathe and cut them off while the hubs are turning.

Then I face off the end and bore it out just enough so the bearing race will easily slide past it.

The end is brazed onto the end of the Mustang hub.

Then the outside is turned down a little.

I cut two pieces of aluminized exhaust pipe to fit over the hubs.

These are press fit onto the hubs.

Here are the finished hubs with the dust cap screwed into one of them.

 

[jdcrawler]

The center of a piece of brass is bored out so it fits over the axle spindle.

The outside of that brass piece is then turned down to form the adapter sleeve for the rear bearing race to fit onto.

The sleeve is a light press fit into the bearing race.

Now the rear bearing fits onto the axle spindle.

The Mustang hub can now be installed.
I discovered that the end of the spindle has cotter-pin holes drilled thru it so I found a couple of castle nuts that fit and I'm going to use cotter-pins to lock the spindle nuts in place.

The dust cap is screwed on and the spindle assembly is set into the end of the axle.

The 1965 Mustang hubs have 4-lug bolts and I have already picked up a pair of adapters so I can use regular 12 inch, 5-lug tractor wheels on these hubs.

 

[jdcrawler]

The frame is off the stands and turned right side up.

The front axle spindles are just metal to metal contact to support the weight of the tractor as they rotate in the ends of the axle housing.
I got a pair of thrust bearings that I'm going to use on the front spindles.

I need something to fit over the outside of the thrust bearings to help keep the dirt out of them.
For that, I'm going to use the screw tops off the spouts from gas cans that I have changed the spouts on to convert then from non-vented to vented cans.
Here I'm boring the top out to fit over the end of the axle housing.

These are a tight fit onto the axle housing and here you can see how the thrust bearing is exposed by itself.

The gas cap dust shield is pushed down over the thrust bearing to protect it from the dirt.

As you can see here, the dust shield grips the axle housing and does not rotate with the axle spindle.

The thrust bearing makes the axle spindle set a little lower from the axle housing so I have to cut that much off the underside of the upper steering arms.

These steering arms have a 1/2-13 threaded hole in the back side of them. A regular 1/2 inch bolt screwed into the hole and tightened down on a dimple in the side of the shaft of the axle spindle to lock the steering arm in place.
I could see where these steering arms had already wobbled back and forth and wore the dimple out to the sides.

I have drilled a .390 diameter hole partway into the shaft and I'm turning down a grade-8 allen bolt to form a pin to fit into the hole in the shaft.

You can see here how the allen bolt will thread into the steering arm and the end of the bolt will tighten down on the end of the hole in the shaft to lock the arm in place.
This mount is not going to wobble loose or snap the bolt off.

The two steering arms are fastened onto the axle spindles.

 

[jdcrawler]

The steering arm is bolted to the frame.

And the two tie-rod arms are fastened to the spindle arms.

The ball is bolted onto the end of the steering arm and the two tie-rod arms are fastened to it to form the socket around the ball.

Originally, these two halves of the socket were bolted tight together with a washers held between them. This made it so that the ball had some slop inside the socket.
I bolted the two halves together without the washers in between them so the ball fit snugly in the socket. This worked out alright until I tried to make a full turn to the left or right. Then the ball and socket started to bind up a little.

To correct this, I used longer bolts with springs on them to hold the two halves of the socket together.
Now the ball and socket fit together snugly and there is enough flex so they don't bind up on full turns.

 

[jdcrawler]

Working on fitting the wheel adapters onto the hubs. The lug studs in the hubs had to be shortened a little so they stay below the outside surface of the adapters.
One lug stud goes all the way thru the hub flange and the adapter.

The back side of the adapters has slots milled into it that the head of the special lug studs fit into.

The adapter is bolted onto the hub to convert it from 4-lug to 5-lug.

The 12-inch front wheel of a Farmall cub fits onto the hub now.

The front axle is ready to have the wheels installed. All I'm waiting on is for the grease seals for the hubs to show up.

The 8.00x16 inch rear tires are mounted on the tractor.

Outside to outside width of the tires is a little over 4-foot wide.

There is about 3-inches clearance between the side of the tire and the chain sprocket on the rear drums.

 

[jdcrawler]

Interesting project today. Checking out the old model-T radiator that I have and It isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Small leak in the center of the front about 6 inches up in the core ( you can see a shiny spot of solder ).

Two leaks on the back lower left side.

And a small crack in the top tank.

I was able to solder the crack in the tank up completely and I was able to solder up the spots in the core to where there is just a some small drips. I'll run some Bars-leak, powder pellets in the coolant and that will seal up the small drips.

This radiator was built in November of 1926 so it may - or may not - hold up once I get the tractor up and running. These " Honeycomb " radiators were built with thicker brass in them then what the factory straight tube radiators had so they do last longer.

The cost of a new, stock model-T radiator is around $800 to $1,000 so buying a new one is out of the question.
If this one doesn't hold up, I'll pull the top and bottom tanks off and find a newer car radiator that is about the same width and solder these tanks onto it.
That is how I built the 3-core radiator for the model-T with the Hemi engine in it. The core is from a 1953 Ford truck and I put the top tank from the model-T radiator onto it.

 

[jdcrawler]

 

[jdcrawler]

The early Chevy dust caps arrived.

 

[jdcrawler]

Starting to fit the engine into the frame.
I have it sitting off center a little to allow more room for the steering column and pedals.

 

[jdcrawler]

Starting to clean up the model-T rear axle and I think I found out what color the tractor was.

A wire brush in the die grinder is handy for getting the scaly rust off.

The axle is then sprayed down with a rust inhibitor.

I need to shorten the input shaft on the axle as much as I can so I can get it up as close as possible to the back of the transmission.
The parts for the input shaft are removed from the axle housing.

The back portion of the enclosed driveshaft housing is shortened about 1-1/2 inches and the outside is turned down so the grease seal cap will fit back onto it.

Then I cut the splines out of the center of a driveshaft yoke.

The input shaft is shortened about 6 inches and the end turned down to fit the driveshaft yoke.

A hole is drilled thru the yoke and the shaft for a 3/8 allen bolt.

With everything re-assembled, the input shaft is about 9 inches shorter than it was.

 

[jdcrawler]

The model-T has a driveshaft housing with the driveshaft rotating around inside it.
At the rear axle, there is a large roller bearing that fits inside a bearing housing and rides on a case hardened sleeve that fits onto the driveshaft.
There is a thrust bearing in front of this roller bearing.
The pinion gear fits onto the end and is held on with a nut.
The driveshaft is pinned into the U-joint on the back of the transmission to hold it up against the thrust bearing.

While putting this cut off section of the drive shaft together, I realized that there is nothing to hold it up against the thrust bearing. When the tractor isn't running, this input shaft can move in and out and it is only pushed up against the thrust bearing by the force of the ring and pinion gears meshing together at the angle.

The model-T relies on the long driveshaft being held in the U-joint on one end and the roller bearing on the other to keep it from wobbling.
With the short input shaft being held only by the roller bearing, there is enough slop so the shaft can wobble around a little along with being able to move in and out.

So I have decided to re-engineer this input shaft assembly.
1960 Chevy front inner wheel bearings are just the right size to fit snugly over the hardened sleeve.

The outer race on these bearings are a little smaller than the bore in the model-T bearing housing.

I made up a sleeve out of a piece of pipe that is pressed down into the bearing housing.

It is then welded thru two holes in the housing to make sure that it never moves.

Then I put it on the lathe and start machining the counterbores for the Chevy outer bearing races.

The Chevy wheel bearings now fit into each end of the housing.

The thrust washer is removed from the input shaft and a piece of steel tube is put on there in it's place.

The input shaft in now supported by two tapered roller bearings.

 

[jdcrawler]

The two holes in the driveshaft yoke are welded back up and smoothed down.

The input shaft is cut to length and pressed into the yoke.

Then the yoke is welded to the input shaft.

I have left the input shaft long enough to leave room for a spacer washer to go on it. This way, if I need to adjust the length later, I can change the thickness and location of the spacer washer.

These are the parts for the old oil seal.
There is a felt seal with a steel washer that is slightly concave to force the center of the felt tighter around the shaft.
This is all held in place by a brass cup that fits snugly over the end of the housing.

As you can see from this photo of the rear axle when I was cleaning it, this oil seal didn't work very well because the underside of the axle was coated with gear lube.
a lot of the leakage would have been caused by the input shaft being able to wobble a little and move in and out.

Looking thru my box of oil seals, I found a pair of matching seals that fit nicely on the end of the yoke.
One is on the yoke and the other is sitting on top of the housing. They are a little larger than the opening in the housing so I'll have to machine that for them to fit.

The hole in the housing is opened up and the two seals are installed. I know that one seal will probably be enough but I have room for two so why not put them both in ?

The bearings will be lubricated by the gear oil in the rear axle but I went ahead and greased them before I assembled everything anyway.
The mounting flanges of the two housings have RTV sealant spread on them.
The nut is tightened down on the pinion gear and has a cotter pin installed.

The new input shaft assembly is mounted back onto the rear axle.

 

[KennyP]

Better than factory!

 

[jdcrawler]

The driveshaft is assembled and bolted onto the back of the transmission.

The rear axle is setup on blocks on the die cart.
The cart is pulled up to the back of the frame with a ratchet strap and the axle is lined up to the driveshaft.

I clamped bars to the side of the sprockets on the rear hubs and quickly discovered that the two alignment bars were wider than the sprockets on the axle by about 1/8 inch on each side.
I had measured the width of the rear hub sprockets when I assembled the rear end to make sure that they were the same width as the sprockets on the axle so I'm a little confused as to why everything isn't lining up correctly.

Come to find out that the two rear hubs are out of parallel just a little bit. It doesn't hardly show up when measuring across the front and back of the hubs but when I measure across to the lugs on the tires, the front measurement is about 3/8 inch narrower than the rear measurement.

You can't see the difference in the tires, front to back and the sprockets being off 1/8 inch at about a foot out from the center of the hubs isn't going to effect the chain drive at all.

The axle mounting bracket on the right side is leveled to the frame and the axle is set so there is a good 1/4 inch clearance between the driveshaft U-joint and the frame.
I'm ready to start making the two pieces that will extend the frame out the rear for the axle to bolt onto.

With the mounting bracket on the right side level, the mounting bracket on the left side is out of level by about 1/4 inch front to back.

The mounting brackets are welded to the axle housing with this one weld so it will be easy to cut thru that so the bracket can be rotated to level it out.
However, I wont do that until the frame section is welded in place on the other side and the axle is bolted securely to it.