Ben's Elec-Trak

[Christ]

OH, don't get me wrong, I wasn't suggesting that whatever leaked out wasn't gear lube, I was just hum-hawing at the idea that it would have had gear lube in to begin with.

Like I said, I've seen a few - very few.

[bennelson]

It runs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrl5_zmCZB0

[orange4boy]

Ah, the joys of full torque at 0

You haven't really done a wheelie until you rear battery box actually hits the ground and you are climbing up the front of the tractor to try to avoid flipping over. And 36V is not enough to restart your heart either. Ask me how I know.

Great to see it running! Electric rules.

[I B RACIN]

nice work on the restore, I have never seen one of those.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

and you are climbing up the front of the tractor to try to avoid flipping over.

I mowed a bit of lawn today. I scared myself a little when I put the tractor into gear while pointed UPHILL! Yipes! I think I got the front wheels a foot off the ground!


I have a leak around the left drive axle. Looks like I will have to remove the transmission (again!) to take it apart and replace that seal.

Oh, well, the more times I do something the more I learn about it.
The tires do look really good though!

[bennelson]

Work on the transmission!

Since today was a meeting of the Milwaukee Electric Car Club, I took my transmission with and brought it to the meet.

The Steves helped me take the transmission apart. Ok, they did most of the work. I watched, learned, and took lots of photos.

I am glad that I hosed down the transmission bolts with penetrating oil the other day. It made a huge difference in taking everything apart.

Oh, I also learned that I added WAY too much oil before. That was messy to drain out....

Here's the tranny when we first got it open.


The bronze bushings around the drive shaft was very worn. To get at the other side drive shaft, we would have to take out all the gears inside.


We used a long piece of pipe to pound the bronze bushings. (That's one thing I didn't get a photo of. My hands were full of pipe and hammer!)

I took photos as we pulled parts, and we laid them out left to right on cardboard to keep track of them all.


Once we got down to the driveshafts and differential, it was easy to see that there was quite a bit of wear.


We even took the differential apart to take a look inside. Would it be possible to make new driveshafts? Yep, we could do that, but would have to spine the ends, and do a bunch more work. Rain was threatening, and in the end, we decided it would be best to simply reassemble everything.


We reused the bronze bushings from the outside (which were less worn) for the inside position. I am going to buy new bushings for the outside, as well as new oil seals for around both driveshafts, the pulley shaft, and brake shaft.

Re-aligning all the parts to get it all back together was a bit of a pain. We also gasketed the stick shift and the main case seal.


I hope I can still install the outer bushings and oil seals without pulling the whole thing apart again. If I have to, I have to, but for now, I kinda needed to get the whole thing together so at least I wouldn't lose any parts!

As it was, I DID have to consult one of the digital photos to make sure one of the parts was in right. (Which it wasn't!)

[Christ]

You've got a buddy with a lathe... have him weld and turn the axles, it'll be cheaper than getting new ones made. (Weld the low spots so they're high, then turn them down to the "proper" diameter.)

That transaxle looked really clean inside... seems like for as much wear as there was, some metal shavings should have been... well, everywhere!

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by Christ

have him weld and turn the axles,....... some metal shavings should have been... well, everywhere!

I was wondering about the doing that to the axles.
We are working on getting the Milwaukee MakerSpace up and running in our actually rented location. When we do that, we will have the lathe, welder, etc, etc, all permanently set up in one location. Maybe once that's done, I can see about fixing the axles that way. My friend who usually does the lathe and welding work was gone by the time we got down to the axles themselves.

For the shavings:
When I drained the oil, there were bronze flakes EVERYWHERE. It was like I was panning for gold. I was glad to see that the wear was from the bushings and not from the gears!

We wiped down all the parts nice and clean before reassemby.

When we opened the transmission, several people commented that it looked like a really nice transmission. It's very beefy, cast iron case, all needle bearings inside, and an actual differential.

[Christ]

That differential actually reminds me alot of my first drag rig... I snapped the spider gears (the smaller ones that transfer power from one axle to the other) the first time I let the clutch loose. Instead of replacing the rear assembly, I just welded 16 bushings around one side gear, and 16 pins around the other. Bolt that puppy back together, and you've got a lincoln locker.

[orange4boy]

Great thread as usual, Ben.

Originally posted by Christ:
Personally, I can't stand using those kind of tires, but then again, I'm always trying to pull stuff that's heavier than the tractor, too. I prefer either bog tires (knobbies) or ATV off-road service tires. Of course, I don't really care about my grass, either. I drag cars and junk across it all the time, and drive my truck into/out of my yard like it's a driveway!

AHA! My next set of Electrak tires will be a set of those then. Chains are a pain.