A Story About "Allie", The 1953 WD

Fixing the shifter is one of the best things I did to the wide-front 45.

I will be using the original rods that came out of the WD engine that was already running. 

before:

After:

It may not be your favorite pie, but its an honest pie! 

it's all good here. 

The 45 is going to be ready for work or show. Your giving it a new life.

When i did my shifter repairs (There is a thread on here somewhere) I encountered a lot  of the same issues of worn components. When I finally got the shift lever in I found it had worn the ball and socket allowing the ball to set down lower, which was allowing the bottom end of the shifter to have interference. I added material to the ball to raise this back up. Yours may not be that bad?  Actually the socket was what was worn but it was much easier to add material to the ball. 

I also had the square pins on each side. and made custom sized and fitted pins. 

Must say that the improvements your making will last another life time!

 Good work and documentation.

Regards,

 Chris

before: 

After punching out the dents with a body hammer. 

After body filler for the low spots: 

After 2 coats of primer. 

I also got the word back from the machine shop for the engine. Block is .002"-.003" low between cylinder 3 and 4. rest of the block is in good shape. he will deck it flat again then shave the liners to make it the correct protrusion. should be aiming for .003" or .004". I will then send him over the crankshaft for measuring and cylinder head for a valve job and flatness check. 

I also worked on getting the first bolt I broke when starting my disassembly. The exhaust pipe pinch bolt. I drilled and re-tapped the hole to 7/16 coarse thread just for simplicity. 

i cleaned and rebuilt the belt drive. pulled it apart and checked everything over. a nice couple of photos of the "live" belt setup. still do not know where it came from or what it was used for, but it is super simple and effective. check it out. 

It looks to be an allis part of some sort. stamping is indicative of Allis-type. it works well for sure! slowly getting things cleaned up and put back together. as much as possible anyways.. once i make some headway with the frame rails (next free day) they will be installed then i can paint the tractor again with all the new parts and pieces installed and prepare for its final assembly without sheetmetal. 

I did have a pre-requisite that i wanted it to look as factory "in place" as it could as well as be between the frame rails and not externally mounted. I was originally thinking of a ford power steering pump and gear but after extensive searching for something to work, I was stuck with a right hand drive unit to mount between the frame rails. since i am in canada, right hand drive parts are hard to find and i wanted to stay away from an uncommon source in case something breaks in the future. 

Here was my solution. 

This was an ELECTRIC power steering pump from a 2007 saturn Vue SUV. these use a one piece steering shaft that fits in line of the original steering gear. it uses torque sensors to provide steering assistance but without the worry of leaking fluid or hiding another reservoir for nobody to see. PLUS.... the unit is very small. It will fit in the spot between the engine and bolster with plenty of room to spare. the bonus part is if the fuse blows or there is a malfunction, the unit will default to an "off" position and the unit will return back to manual steering. these units use 10AWG wire to power them from the battery, they also draw about 60 amps at full lock. it seems like a lot but with the newer technology of 100+ amp alternators we should be just fine running it off these tractors. 

keep your eyes peeled for installation once the bracket is made up and this setup is painted persian orange!