Additional Bearings Arrive

Talk about fast!  The four additional 8504-RS bearings I ordered yesterday arrived from Dallas today via UPS.  So we are now ready to go with the mower deck restoration.  Have called my small engine guy to see if he can pick the parts up and put the spindles back together with the new bearings.  Then we just have to reconstruct the deck.  "Just..." somehow, that doesn't sound like what's going to happen.  But let's hope there are no more major delays due to missing parts.

Also found out today that license plate screws would work perfectly to hold down the mower deck covers (which cover the moving belts and pulleys to keep grass and other debris off).  So just need a few more of them and I am set.

Two steps forward, let's hope none backward.

Ordered More Bearings

Found a bearing house with exactly what I need, the 8504-RS bearing that is 1.7805" OD, .75" ID and just over 9/16" wide.  Ordered four more, to finish the Bolens 1455 mower deck off.  Have learned from my bearing experience to wait until I take the bearings out from the Bolens 1250 mower deck to determine what they are before ordering new ones.  So we are on our way, bearing wise, and hope to move forward on the mower deck in the very near future.

Pressed a Bearing In

Went out to the garage tonight to compare bearings and contemplate the two (expensive) ones I bought yesterday that didn't seem to fit.  I couldn't push them in with my fingers and they didn't want to go in with some persuasion from a hammer.  But an idea came to me.  I put the bearing housing with the bearing in my workbench vise and began closing the vise and the bearing pressed right into the housing.  So I don't have to exchange the two bearings after all.  Will order some additional bearings now that I know the correct size is right about 1.78 inches.  This has been a humbling experience in terms of how critical ten or twenty thousandths of an inch can be.  That's not an experience I've ever had before, so am going to chalk this up as a net gain. 

Picking Up More Parts

Went on a lengthy trip to Austin today.  Bought a 1 5/16" diameter metal tube to replace the motorcar trailer towbar.  Will have to cut an inch or so off it, but was lucky it met the minimum length needed.  Also picked up a 1 7/8" diameter metal tube eight feet long.  I am going to mount that across my 40-foot section of track at the top of a pair of 7-feet high posts and use it to hoist things up with (such as lifting the engine off the Bolens 1250 tractor and placing it onto the motorcar trailer).  My plan is to run my 12-foot trailer with the Warn winch as close as possible to the tractor and then play out the cable up and over the tube seven feet up.  After securing the load, I would lift it up using the winch.  At least that's the plan.

Also bought two more bearings, but now I'm thinking they are still too large.  The fellow took micrometer measurements of the old bearing I brought, but I can't press them in and can't get them in with a hammer.  So probably will have to exchange them.  Found another bearing house that seems to have a slightly smaller bearing (O.D.) so that might work.

Picked up a "Quad-Ring," which is sort of an O-ring on steroids, for my Bolens 1455 tractor since the parking pawl continues to leak hydraulic fluid out past the O-ring I installed two weeks ago.  Hopefully that will fix the problem, if not, "Ray" at Capitol Hydraulics said he has a "polyseal" that might work.

Also bought a piece of 17x24" aluminum sheet to create a Red Flag sign for working on the Capital Metro Railroad when speeders might be arriving at my location.

Got a lot of other errands accomplished as well, but none relating to the rail-mower project or RPI.

Also tried my Warn winch, which hadn't been working lately and it worked for 10 or 20 seconds before just clicking the relays.  That says to me there isn't a problem with the winch--the problem is the battery is probably worn out and needs to be replaced.  So will have to get a new one if I am to keep using the winch, which I need to pull my speeders onto the trailer.  Am thankful I don't have to diagnose a balky winch, though.

Working on Motorcar Trailer

I removed 12 bolts from the trailer today and replaced them with longer ones so I could tighten down the nuts properly.  Then I tightened about 40 or so bolts, leaving a few loose that I anticipate we may have to work with in the process of mounting the tractor and mower deck.  Also worked on one of the trailer towbars.  The original bar was broken in half and I tried to salvage it by sleeving it inside a larger tube and using clevis pins.  Of course, the whole contraption was wobbly so I took Leland's advice and ground the weld off the tab on it.  The tab, which bolts the tube to the motorcar frame when the tube is installed, came right off.  All I have to do now is get a 1 5/16" diameter tube the right length and find someone to weld the tab back on.

Was frustrated as usual by the high winds which prevented me from spraying the mower deck and various other parts I have been wanting to paint.  Seems like every weekend for several weeks we have had a lot of wind.  But it can't keep up forever.

Will be going into Austin on Tuesday, April 19, the day after tax season, to get a bunch of errands done, including buying a new tube for the trailer at a metal shop, and getting bearings to fit the mower deck bearing housings.  So we will be moving ahead.  April 23 is the next RPI work session and I will attend that.  Then April 30 Frank Glatzl will come over and help me with a variety of tasks in permanently restoring the Bolens 1250 to operational status.  We will have to think about how to remove the hydraulic transmission.  Frank may also bring over two u-bolts crafted for the motorcar trailer towbar.  Couldn't find them anywhere and I sure did look hard, on line and at a couple of places in Austin.

A lot left to do but the logjam will begin to break since I will have plenty of spare time after tax season is over.  I actually have quite a few returns on extension that I will have to keep working on, but it is will be at my pace and I can devote more time to the RPI projects. 

New Date for Tractor Repair Session

Frank Glatzl and I agreed the other day to get together on Saturday, April 30, to work on the Bolens 1250 tractor to be used for the rail-mower project.  Once tax season is over on the 18th, I am going to do some of the relatively easy work, installing uncomplicated parts in preparation for the 30th.  Plus I will take the Bolens 1455 mower deck bearing housings into Austin and try to find bearings to fit them and get that mower deck operating.  That would enable me to at least use the 1455 tractor to mow the wye and ROW up at Llano and Kingsland.  Our next work session is April 23.  I anticipate we will need to do some lawn mowing by then because the region got some rain this past Sunday night and that will get the grass growing. 

Setback on Mower Deck Renovation

Not so great news the other night.  My small engine guy calls to tell me the latest set of bearings I bought on e-bay don't fit either.  Just too big to be pressed into the mower deck bearing housing.  That means I will have to take the housings down to a bearing house in Austin--after tax season ends on April 18--to get bearings fitted to them since this internet purchase thing just isn't working out well at all.  Am going to meet with him this weekend to try to figure out if there are any other parts problems with the spindles he is re-assembling for me.  At least when this project is done, I will know all there is to know about what goes into the mower decks.

Mower Deck Renovation Underway

Painted the bottom of the Bolens 1455 garden tractor mower deck "Regal Red" by Rustoleum this afternoon.  Then I wirewheeled the top of the mower deck and primted it.  Didn't have time to spray paint it, but am satisifed it would only take another hour or two to finish it.  Here are some photos:

First photo is the "before" picture, then the newly-painted bottom and finally the primed upper portion.  So I will spray-paint the top later this week and declare it ready for re-assemblyy.

Progress on Bolens 1455 Mower Deck

Wirewheeled the bottom of the Bolens 1455 mower deck today and then primed it, so it is starting to look mighty good.  I will use the 1455 to mow the wye at Llano and along the RR right-of-way since it has the 10-ply tires that will resist puncture by miscellaneous RR hardware.  I wirewheeled it in 2010, but it needed extra work done and got rusty in the meantime.  Had to remove some old hardware so we could strengthen various areas by welding.  My small engine guy welded on a plate over an area that was looking iffy.  Plus he created some plates that will be bolted on between the lift arms and the deck, providing extra support.  What worries me is that I thought this deck was in pretty good shape.  If it needed that much work, will the Bolens 1250 mower deck--virtually identical--be salvageable at all?  Stay tuned.

Also unscrewed the parking pawl bushing on the 1455 to replace the O-ring on it.  About 4-5 quarts of new ATF came out with it, but I had an oil basin so I caught it all.  Then picked up a new O-ring at Tractor Supply, put it on and re-installed the bushing and poured the ATF back in.  So far no leaks but I already know, from looking at the diagram in the parts list, that I actually also need something called a "Quad-Ring" also to go on the bushing.  Apparently a Quad-Ring is a special type of  O-ring that does an even better job of sealing.  So have queried a company that reportedly carries them and will see how much they cost.

Picked up a used gear box for my decks on E-bay for only $86.00, including shipping.  My small engine guy tells me the gear box is susceptible to being damaged when the blades hit a rock or impediment, so am trying to anticipate trouble.  The price was lower than any other I had seen recently so I snapped it up.

Tomorrow will be grinding off the tab on a pipe from the motorcar trailer.  I pieced the pipe together using a larger diameter tube and clevis pins, but it wobbles.  Leland told me he could weld the tab onto a tube of that diameter so I might bring it down to him, or get it done locally.

Bought a whole bunch of bolts and lockwashers.  Noticed that my supplies were getting low, so I decided to pick extras up at McCoy's.  That way I don't have to run over to Tractor Supply or Home Depot whenever I need a particular size bolt.  Of course, these were all coarse, not fine, threaded.

My small engine guy picked up the bearing housing, bearings (6) and a used jackshaft and should now be putting the spindles back together so we can reassemble the 1455 mower deck.  That is why I am cleaning it up and priming and painting it.  I will try to finish the job tomorrow, so the deck is ready for reassembly.  Will be painting it red, to keep it in the original color.  With proper care, it ought be to good for another two decades or so.

That's it for now.  Will post photos of the 1455 mower deck after it is painted tomorrow.