A bit of an update. The rear housings are now changed. Working on the front end a bit before we try to fit the cab. So before I immobilize the tractor by pulling the dash tower off, I thought I would get the new front end on and see what kind of stance it has. The plan is to get rid of the 18.4-38" rears and install a set of 18.4-42s soon. Still need to yank the motor out of the 4840 and get it installed. Plenty to do on this one as I am getting ready to paint my 4000. I know it doesn't look like much now but stay with me.
Here's a few pics so far.
Removed the front axle. I will keep this one fully intact so I can switch back if needed. It needs the cylinders rebuilt anyways and wouldn't hurt to have new hoses too. This is much easier to do with it out from under the tractor.
Below is something I acquired awhile back that didn't get used on the 6030 project. I felt it would be a much better fit for this tractor so we are giving it a go. I realize PFD has it's shortcomings, but the coolness factor goes way up when you see one. I started with a combine axle and not a tractor axle. As a result, the tires that came with this axle are much larger. 16.9-26 are a good 4-5" taller than the 14.9-26 found on the tractors. What's neat is the center cast section of the combine rear end is identical to the 4620 2wd axle. So the whole thing will pin to the tractor.
Only thing though, you will notice that being a combine axle, the axle tubes are really long and the adjusting holes are at the far end instead of closer to to drives. So I took them to a machine shop for some customization.
My welder guy made a jig to hold the final drives so he could remove the knee section from the drives. He also made a jig on his table to keep everything in position so nothing moved during the 'operation'. What we did was cut the tube away from the channel and turn it end for end and weld it back to the channel. This put the adjusting holes nearest to the drives instead of far away. The excess tubing at the far end was then trimmed. As a bonus, I had him camber in the channels 2 degrees before he welded them back solid. I have seen a few of the PFD axels sag and let the wheels tilt outward at the bottom. So I thought doing this would help prevent that.
Once they were welded solid and boxed back in with new metal, you would not tell them apart from factory.
Now for some new shoes. These are the old tires that came with the combine axle I bought and boy does this make it sit up. Once I get the 42s on, I think it will be perfectly level. Anxious to see that.
A couple more. Couldn't wait to drive it around lol. Such a blast.
I was worried the wheels might hit the frame when fulled turned, but they don't. I wanted to keep them in tight instead of pushed way out. Thinking about making this a planter tractor.
One thing I noticed when I got this tractor is that someone added a hyd. fill neck at the rear, along with a dipstick retrofitted to the normal fill location. I somehow lucked out because once I add the cab, this is gonna save me a lot of work. Still can't figure out how they managed it but it's nice because anytime you have to climb up the platform or in the cab with a bucket of hyd oil and pour it while holding the seat up, it is a major pain.
Next is trying to figure out the plumbing. Any experts on that?