446 winter tractor repair

[Harry]

Today I pulled the snow caster off the 446 and started to disassemble the front of the tractor. I was having an issue with the starter and wanted to get it apart so I could see what was going on. Starter was grinding on the flywheel and today with most everything off that I need off, I see the starter drive bushing is worn out. While the snow caster is off I’m going to check it over with a few upgrades like a larger sprocket for the drive, new chain and chain tensioner. Hopefully get this all accomplished between a couple of vacations. Harry

[ras101]

Harry, interesting project, especially your planned upgrades of the caster.. I'm currently working on one of mine, an L46 but going even further with a complete strip down to base metal and new paint job too. Enjoy...

[Harry]

I finally got to work in the shop yesterday. I made my own center pivot for the front axle. I didn’t have any 1.5” round bar stock, so I went to the local Metal Supermarket and purchased a foot of 1.5” CRS. The cut a small piece of it in my bandsaw. Chucked it in the lathe and bored a hole through the middle. Faced it off so it was slightly smaller than the distance between the frame supports that hold the axle. I used some heavy washers and tacked welded them together for the ends of the grade eight bolt. I didn’t have any 2” bar stock to make washers and the Supermarket didn’t have any either. Assembled it and tightened the bolt just enough to so there was a little drag in the axle, no side movement noticed now. Also while the front axle was apart I installed doorman’s power steering needle bearings and washers. I started to work on installing different tires on the rims, but dinner time came and the grands were coming over to watch a movie. I was happy with the progress made. More to come with tire installation. Harry

[Harry]

Today I mounted the new to me tires. They were off a Craftsman walk behind snowblower that had a blown engine and was scrapped. The tires were on rims but I couldn’t get the rims on a small tire removal machine I purchased from HF. They had a piece of an axle rusted into them. I fired up the plasma and cut the rims. Took off the original tires from my 1976 446. Boy were they are PITA to remove. Then dismounted the snowblower tires and put them on the Case front rims. Easy to do with the tire machine. Greased the cleaned wheel bearings with a needle on my grease gun then installed them in the rims. The bearings had no inner seal so I added grease through the grease fitting on the rims. Old tires would slide in snow when trying to turn. These tires on front of 446 should make a big difference. Now on to checking out the caster before installing on GT. Harry

[JSinMO]

Nicely done Harry! I like the look of that aggressive tread.

[DavidBarkey]

Interested in your reveiw this winter on how they work for steering . No question they are a great drive tire .

[Eugen]

@Harry it's a pleasure to follow your work!

[Harry]

Blower housing inspection cover to the rescue. I went to my shop this morning and with the weather guesser predicting rain snow mix moving in I decided it would be a good time to load up the wood rack in the shop. After doing so my arms and hands needed a break. Then I thought I would finish bolting on the few guards and bolt on the exhaust pipes for the Onan. I had not put the rubber air flow connection between the blower housing and the air cleaner. In a second a wrench slipped out of my hand and into the round opening of the blower housing. I looked into the hole and could see no wrench. I didn’t see it on the engine and I knew it didn’t hit the floor. I removed the inspection cover that I just fabricated and I could see the wrench. With needle nose pliers I removed the wrench. The oil filter hole is to far back to see or remove the wrench. So had I not fabricated this opening I would of had to remove everything that I just assembled a few days ago. Now there is a ramble for you all. Harry

[JSinMO]

I see your luck is like mine! If there is a spot that is seemingly impossible for something to drop into, that’s were the wrench, socket, etc will end up! Glad you didn’t have to take it all apart.

[Eugen]

That sort of thing happens to me quite often when working on the truck. The frustration has been minimized since i bought a couple of those telescoping magnetic wands. Fishing around with that even for minutes, beats taking anything apart.