[sdunt]

This saga started way back in November of 2018 when the ring gear came off the flywheel: https://casecoltingersoll.com/showthread.php/81995-CCK-in-646-tossed-the-Ring-Gear-off-FLywheel

So, we towed the tractor into the garage and since we were pulling the engine off any way, we might as well:
1. Replace the Air sucking pump: https://casecoltingersoll.com/showthread.php/68618-Tiny-Bubbles-Hydraulic-suction-Line-leaking-air

2. Repair the Steering Sector gear : https://casecoltingersoll.com/showthread.php/83021-73-646-Steering-Sector-gear-and-shaft-repairs

3. Repair the loader valve: https://casecoltingersoll.com/showthread.php/82375-Fixing-Leaking-Loader-control-Valve-on-646

3. Add a Pto and Extra remote https://casecoltingersoll.com/showthread.php/83451-PTO-valve-amp-3-point-using-a-TCV-on-646

4. Add a Holding valve

5 Add power steering.

The thread will focus mainly on the power steering mod - install. One of my main things while doing this was to keep the modifications, hacking, of the tractor to a minimum. Maybe someday someone will restore it..

Plus this is essentially a prototype, if this Power Steering does not work, I have to be able to return the tractor to normal operation. So I did not modify many of the factory parts, at least not in a way that would prevent me from returning the tractor to normal operations. As it stands I should only need to re-install both factory Tie Rods and re-route the P/S oil supply to drain and the tractor will operate as before.

I have been thinking about or planning this upgrade since the discussions started on the forum back in January of 2017 in this thread. https://casecoltingersoll.com/showthread.php/54306-Loader-steering-cylinder-measurements We all tossed out many different ideas and requirements, and that discussion helped me break the process of adding power steering down into 3 areas: Hydraulic Supply, P/S Control Valve, and Hydraulic Cylinder.

One of the primary issues with adding P/S to a 646 or 644, is the need for a separate hydraulic flow for the power steering system. Case - Ingersoll used a couple of different methods over the years to accomplish this. The 648's started out with the power steering controller in the 'power beyond' line that eventually fed the loader. Which led to the P/S on that model being described a Quirky, because the P/S impacted the loader and the loader impacted the P/S

The 60xx and 7020 use a dual pump arrangement or effectively 2 separate pumps, one pump drives the PTO, and traction and a smaller pump drives the power steering and loader (also the backhoe if I recall correctly)

On the 40xx tractors Ingersoll used a hydraulic splitter valve, or more correctly a hydraulic Priority DIVIDER valve, Which is necessary to split one hydraulic supply into two different flows, and continue to provide flow to the 'priority' side when the rest of the tractor's hydraulic circuits are idle.

Consider that when the tractor is setting in neutral, the travel control is not in forward or reverse, there is little if any restrictions to the oil flow, so the oil runs around the system freely and at very low pressure.

If we simply Teed off part of that flow for the power steering, the oil, like water in a river, will follow the path of least resistance and run through the traction part of the system and not the P/S control, which means we won't get any flow or pressure for our power steering circuit.

Therefore we need a "priority divider valve" to create and maintain the separate flow for the P/S. A priority Divider valve has a hydraulic spool valve inside that makes sure the 'priority' flow port always gets 1.5 Gallons of oil per minute. Regardless of what the pressure in either side of the system is, you always get 1.5 GPM on the priority port.

Which is good and not so great.. Good in that the P/S circuit ALWAYS gets 1.5 GPM. So the steering speed and response is always the same no matter whether the engine is at Idle or WOT.

The possible BAD of a priority divider valve is that when the steering hits the stops, the valve will still try to push 1.5 GPM to the "priority flow" until something blows and in effect Deadhead the pump. The priority divider will attempt to divert all of the oil to the 'priority' circuit in order to get 1.5 GPM to go out that port.

That's why there HAS to be a relief valve in the P/S circuit, the particular valve I used has a relief valve built in. (Prince RD 405 R: http://www.princehyd.com/Portals/0/valves/valvesrd400.pdf ) If you use a different valve remember to add a relief valve that is plumbed back to the drain - tank in the P/S circuit somewhere..

Its good to note that the other port on a Divider valve is labeled EXCESS flow.. Basically if we don't need the flow of oil to make the 1.5 GPM for P/S, then its 'excess' flow and the Divider valve sends the oil out the 'excess' port, a better label might be MAIN flow.. .

The not so great of a Priority valve is that the P/S ALWAYS gets 1.5 GPM before the rest of the tractor gets any oil. You could say that when you are not steering, you're dumping 1.5 GPM of pump output to the drain.. And you are..

When I looked at replacing the hydraulic pump as part of this upgrade I installed a 0.73 Cu In pump (A 646, has a 0.55 Cu In (8.5 GPM) pump originally.. The new 0.73 pump, at WOT, should move 11.4 GPM, which is a tad much for a "16.5 HP" Onan CCKa to pull.

But the engine is not producing 11.4 GPM at 2200 - 2400 PSI.. Its producing 9.9 GPM at 2200 - 2400 PSI and 1.5 GPM at 1000 - 1500 PSI which it can handle. And, I get 9.9 GPM (instead of 8.5 GPM) for the tractor and loader.. (I find it fascinating that the 644 and the 648 were upgraded to a 9.5 GPM pump, but the 646 was forever left at 8.5 GPM)

The new pump bolted right up to the existing mount, and used the same Lovejoy coupler.

The new pumps output is the same SAE #10 sized port as the old pump. Both of the in - out ports are located in the center of the pump's body instead of the rear http://www.dynamicfc.com/documents/2016DynamicFullCatalog_Pumps_F20.pdf

The new pump has a standard SAE #12 port for the input - suction line. To get the suction line attached, I used a 45 Degree SAE #12 to 1" hose barb fitting, (# 4603-16-12 ) which is necessary to make the connection to the suction line without major kinks in the line.

The other fun part of the suction line on a 646A, is that the space between the engine's base - oil pan and the frame is SOO tight you cannot run a rubber suction hose through there.. I don't know HOW they accomplished that on the 648's. I had to re-use the OEM steel suction line.. Which had already been brazed up from rubbing on the OEM drain line.. To ensure that the line was not sucking air, I gave all the worn areas a good cleaning and externally applied a layer of JB Weld.

To create the necessary 2 hydraulic flows or Circuits, I ran the output of the pump first to the Divider valve, then the 'excess' port of the divider valve connects where the pump used to go. (More or less, I added a PTO valve to this tractor at the same time, so the output actually goes from the Divider to the PTO valve, then back to the TCV where the pump used to be connected.)

I installed the Divider valve between the tractor frame rails below and behind the engine, basically where the mid lift used to be and I reused 2 of the midlift mounting holes. Which puts the Divider valve in front of the steering gear.

(Which now all said and done a better location might have been on the inside of the right hand frame rail. The placement I used, across the frame rails right behind the engine prevents you from reaching in behind the engine from the left side.. Which makes hooking up the engine wiring a challenge.)

I only needed an 18 inch hose to get from the new pump to the input port on the Divider valve. The PITA of this brand - model of valve, IMO, is that ALL of the connections to it are pipe threads (NPT) which means you tighten the fittings, and use a hydraulic thread sealer, but you could wind up with the fitting pointing the wrong way. I got spoiled by the SAE - O ring fittings that I can align as I want and then tighten the nut - washer - O ring to seal it..

I opted for JIC #10 fittings on the Divider valves in and Excess - out ports to match the existing tractor fittings, and a JIC # 6 for the P/S - Priority flow. The input on the Divider is on one side and the outputs, both P/S - Priority flow, and Main - Excess flow are on the other side - bottom. http://www.princehyd.com/Portals/0/valves/valvesrd400.pdf

Another challenge of splitting the oil supply is that you need to route the output - drain of the P/S controller AND the output of the Pressure Relief both back to the tank. I guess one could go redneck and run the drains back to the tank filler cap….

But with a new pump and new P/S system on the tractor, I really wanted a Hydraulic oil filter in the system, and for that to be effective the filter needs to be in the return - drain line. It needs to filter ALL of the oil that is returned to the tank.. Therefore the drain from the P/S circuit needs to be plumbed into the drain BEFORE the filter.

This was a challenging part of the system to design and implement. By having a ~ 12 GPM pump I needed a filter that could handle that flow, which based on price and availability, it rounds up to a 25 GPM filter. https://www.surpluscenter.com/Brand...ga-Return-Line-Filter-25-PSI-Bypass-9-059.axd

Which is a BIG filter, not super huge, but real-estate on a 646A in the Drain line area is at a premium. AND, there are these pesky front tires that take up alot of the space where I thought I could put the filter.

The 'drains' starting at the P/S controller is a JIC # 6, and the priority valve's built in relief is a 3/8 NTP, so I Teed the output from the P/S controller in with the relief and routed both back to the main drain - return line. Which is where the fun started.

The standard drain setup on a 646A is a 5/8 ID steel from the TCV and a 5/8 steel line from the Loader valve that both arrive at a JIC #12 TEE fitting located on the right side of the 'engine compartment' below the loader valve, behind the engine (again). The 3rd leg of the tee normally connects to an additional 5/8 steel line that routes around the side of the engine and ends near the oil cooler in the front of the tractor.

The JIC # 12 Tee seemed the best place to route the P/S drain back into the system before the hydraulic filter. I was determined to not modify - hack the OEM return line, but instead replace that section of line from the JIC # 12 Tee to the cooler with the filter and something else..

The space between the CCKa's oil pan foot and the frame rail where the drain TEE is at is VERY tight, so much so that only a 5/8 Steel line could make its way out of there. My ¾ ID rubber return hose was not going to fit, nor would it make the bends needed.

Between the motor mounts, plus where the front wheel sits during a right turn and the size of the filter, the only practical place to locate the filter is right under the engine's oil drain plug. Butted up against the frame. The only way to connect to the filter in that location is come THROUGH the frame:

Therefore, I had to hack my tractor. There is now a 1 ¼ inch hole in the plate on front of the right side 'loader tower', similar to where - how the steering tie rod comes through the frame on the left side of the tractor. A carbon steel hole saw can and will make the hole. It takes time and lots of cutting Oil, but it can be done.

I wound up 'turning' the JIC # 12 TEE connector so that the 'open' end that used to connect with the steel line around the engine and forward to the oil cooler, is now pointing down instead of forward. Because the hydraulic filter is ¾ NPT, (did I happen to say I HATE NPT fitting in a hydraulic system?)

I was able to source a JIC # 12 Female to ¾ NPT 90 degree elbow (# 6501-12-12) which when attached to the JIC # 12 Tee put the ¾ pipe in a good position to attach the filter head. I added a ¾ NPT TEE to the 6501-12-12 fitting so I could combine the drain from the P/S circuit, then a 4" long pipe nipple runs through the hole I cut in the frame to the filter head.

The assembly OUTSIDE the tractor looks like this.

This can only be assembled in place, and I had to screw the filter head onto the pipe nipple before I connected the JIC #12 fitting to get this in place. Needless to say, it's a tight fit.

The output - Drain of the P/S controller, runs to a JIC # 6 to NPT fitting at the Priority Valve, then combined with the relief valve output, that runs through a 3/8" ID JIC # 6 hose and terminates at the ¾" NPT TEE in the drain line..

The last connection from the Hydraulic filter output to the Oil cooler is done with ¾ ID rubber drain line and hose barbs. To reduce the number of bends in the Rubber drain hose, I added another 4" long 3/4" pipe to the filter output, then a 45 Degree elbow puts the hose barb in about the best (not ideal) location to connect to the oil cooler. My only fear is that rubber hose might collapse or kink when hot. But it's where I can keep an eye on it. So we shall see.

PhotoAlbum: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1fbGxQfyTfoFVLku8

 

[sdunt]

646a Power Steering Controller

There are probably more P/S steering controllers types that this, but for this project I looked at 'rotary - pump' steering controllers, which is what all of the OEM CCI tractors used. And an inline 'power assist' spool valve.

The rotary pump controls are a very nice solution.. You just have to find space to put them (usually under the dash) and connect them to the steering wheel. Others discovered that when CCI added a rotary type of steering control to the 648 model they had to relocate the other controls on the dash outward to make room for the P/S unit under the dash. Since I was not going to re-design the entire dash and I could not conceive of some way of squeezing that type of controller under the dash, I looked at the second type of P/S controller - an inline spool valve.

A 'power assist' inline spool valve seemed to require the least amount of hacking. There was a series of 'Garden tractors' that used these in the past, the JD 400 series tractor . It seemed like a minimally invasive upgrade, it replaces part of the tie rod from the steering sector gear to the spindle arm.

This type of controller is basically a hydraulic spool valve that fits in the steering tie rod. When you turn the steering wheel, you move the spool valve out of center and it routes oil to a hydraulic cylinder that 'assists' in turning the wheels. Once the cylinder moves the wheels enough to null out your movement the oil flow to the cylinder stops. Pretty simple 'servo' system.

To better understand how this controller worked, I purchased a service manual for the donor tractor and the relevant section of the manual is attached. View attachment JD 400 Steering Controller.pdf

The challenges of adding this particular P/S controller to the 646 is that it uses ½ inch fine thread tie rods vs the 646's use of 5/8 fine thread for the tie rods. Where to physically locate the controller to work around the front axle, the tire, and the motor mount was interesting.

After a bunch of mock ups, and rebuilding my steering sector gear and lowering where the rod end attaches to the sector gear, I was able to get the controller into a workable position.. In addition to lowering the rear of the tie rod, I also had to space the Heim end at the spindle arm down as well so that the body of the P/S control JUST clears the axle. One of the major constraints on the 646, is the front motor mount. When the steering is turned to the right, AND the front axle articulated UP on the left side, where the controller is located, the P/S controller will impact the motor mount and can flex the tie rods.

To adapt from the 5/8 tie rod size to the ½ inch size, I used a ½ inch Female, Right hand threaded Heim end at the wheel spindle with a ½ inch bolt and a spacer to center the bolt in the 5/8 hole of the spindle arm.

I made a custom 5/8's rod that is threaded 5/8 LEFT hand on the end attached to the sector gear and turned down and threaded ½ RIGHT hand - fine at the other end for the P/S controller. I opted for the left and right hand threads so I can adjust the length of the rod to center the steering wheel, or make other adjustments.

In order to make the 5/8 LEFT hand threads, I ordered a die for around $25 and threaded the rod with the die.. I also had to make new tie rods for between the front wheels which also have left hand threads on one end of them..

Once the P/S controller is in place you run a JIC # 6 hose from the Divider valve's, Priority port to the IN port on the P/S. The Out of the P/S gets Teed in with the Pressure relief output of the Divider valve pressure relief, before being plumbed back to the main drain - return line.

After that, run 2 JIC #4 lines to the P/S Cylinder.. Depending on your setup, the lines may connect different from mine.. One good thing to remember is that with the front end jacked up, you can connect an air line to the P/S controller and verify that the lines are connected correctly. If you turn the steering wheel and the hydraulic cylinder kicks back at you, the lines are wrong

Using an Air line and manually operating the steering lets you check for binding or areas the need changes for clearances, etc.

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1fbGxQfyTfoFVLku8

 

[sdunt]

Locating and Mounting the hydraulic CYLINDER

Or, May the Fabrication Begin..

All of that new found hydraulic power and control doesn't do much good, if you can't use it to turn the wheels. Which is accomplished on most tractors with P/S with a hydraulic cylinder.. Usually something about 2 inch bore and 6 inch stroke, for CCI sized tractors, although not all of that 6 inch stroke is used.

I had a couple of personal criteria for mounting the hydraulic cylinder..
1. I did not want to run it from the tractor frame to the axle like the OEM setup, because the cylinder is generating around 4,710 pounds of force at 1500 PSI. I had images of the cylinder ripping the front axle off.

2. The type of P/S controller I picked must use some kind of tie rod from the sector gear in order to function, so you can't replace the tie rod with the cylinder .

3. The other spindle on the right side for the tractor is not long enough to put an arm on it either..

4. I didn't want to reduce the ground clearance of the tractor by hanging the cylinder under the frame or axle.

Because this is a LOADER even CCI moved the steering tie rods to behind the axle to safeguard them. I was not crazy about putting the cylinder out in front of the tractor.. If I did it would need some kind of protection, even if only a covering on the rod so dust and dirt is not being sucked back into the system. I had considered adding a 'bumper' in front of the cylinder, but just did not like the idea.

While I was working on design I picked up a 2 x 4 tie rod hydraulic cylinder that has a 5/8 rod and was already threaded ½ fine on the end of the rod. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the cylinder does not have clevis mounts on either end.. When I received it, it was setup to be bolted down via a plate on the rod end.

When I studied how far the tie rods on the 646 move when steering I found that the travel was about 3 1/8 inches (I have 5/8 Heim ends on the tie rod which may limit it a bit) Hmm, I have a cylinder that wants to travel 4 inches and I need to move the tie rod a maximum of 3 1/8 inches, sounds like a job for a lever..

In my mind because my 2 inch bore cylinder produces over 2 tons of force, I wanted the cylinder to hit its end of stroke instead of the steering hitting its end or some kind of stops I fabricated. I figured that the cylinder was better able to handle hitting its limits than the steering system, which was never designed for P/S in the first place.

Coupling the desire to keep the cylinder off the front of the tractor and the need for a lever to reduce 4 inches of travel to 3 1/8 inches, I started looking at mounting the cylinder between the frame rails under the engine. My tractor does not have the front belt clutch and I don't know if I'd ever use it, Also previously I removed the mid lift cylinder and mounts. So I had a fairly clear space..

But the need for the 4 inch to 3 1/8 inch conversion in the movement just made things really complicated.. As part of attempting to design this, I realized that I could fit the cylinder I bought vertically under the hydraulic reserve tank in front of the engine and more directly connect it to the steering tie rods that are located right below that area.

To eliminate the 4 inch to 3 1/8 inch conversion, I started looking for a cylinder with a 3 inch stroke instead of the 4 inch I had. During my research I stumbled upon a surplus cylinder with the comment;" the stroke could be increased if the internal stop was removed" ??? Hmm, So I can shorten the stroke of the cylinder without any heavy machining? Just add a block, or in my case a piece of a 5/8 ID brass bushing, to the cylinder rod? Cool, so now I have a cylinder that fits under the hydraulic tank, and it moves only 3 1/8 inches, so all I need is a 1:1 lever to go from the vertical cylinders movement to horizontal movement of the tie rods.

Locating the cylinder and lever mechanism in the front of the engine under the hydraulic tank, where the clutch would have been, means I can connect the hydraulic cylinder's action into the tie rod between the front wheels. Which keeps the steering force inline with the axle.

I designed a lever that transformed the vertical movement of the cylinder to a horizontal movement that connects to the steering tie rods in the center. The Fun part was sizing the lever mechanism so that it was as large as possible, but it also did not hit the frame.

The design lead itself to attaching the cylinder at the rod end and letting it move back and forth as needed under the tank. (which later turned into some REAL fun..)

I sketched out the lever design and necessary pivot points on graph paper and transferred the critical points to 1/4" thick plate steel. Once the plates were cut out, I match drilled both plates and tapped holes as needed.

I have a supply of 5/8" id by 1" OD Brass bushings that are 2" long that worked out perfectly for this.. The lower pivot point has 2 - 5/8" Heim rod ends stacked side by side, which makes for 1 1/2", add 2 layers of ¼ steel plate and you are at 2" wide assembly for the "lever" arms.

I ran 2 pieces of ¼" thickness 1 1/2" angle iron across the frame as the main supports for this and added ¼" plate hanging down below the angle irons for the central pivot to attach to. This assembly sits on top of the two hydraulic tank support brackets. Which added more fun because the front edge of the angle iron cross pieces landed in the center of the front bolt hole for the tank support bracket. I had to add a scrap of ¼" iron to the front of the angle iron so the bolt sat on something the same thickness.

Locating the cylinder & lever assembly in the center of the frame meant that I had to create new 2 piece tie rods between the front wheels. The OEM tie rod measured 20 inch from hole center to center. Once I factored in rods with Heim Rod ends on both ends I came up with needing 2 - 5/8" rods that were 7 ¼" - 7 ½" long.. I threaded each rod right hand on one end and left hand on the other end so I can adjust the rod lengths for toe-in, and centering.

One problem I ran into was binding of the Rod ends at the wheels. I had used standard hex headed 5/8 bolts, nuts and lock washers to attach the Heim ends to the spindles..

The new center pivot on the tie rods, causes the rods to angle up in the center about ½ inch when at the limits of the steering.. The large 5/8 bolt heads and the nuts I had under the Heim ends caused the rod ends to bind before I got to the steering limits.

When I was figuring out where to locate the P/S Controller, the head of the bolt on the left hand Heim end was really close to the hydraulic lines and I thought I should replace that with something thinner, like a Carriage bolt. Well, now with the Heim ends binding, I needed to modify the attachment of the Heim ends at the spindles to allow more movement.

I had seen special 'Heim End Cone Spacers' that are turned down so that they don't interfere with the ball on the Heim end. Being that I have a metal lathe, I used some 5/8 carriage bolts and turned the heads down, removed the squared section and then cut some "1/2 inch" water pipe to make spacers and bolted it back together.. Now the Heim ends clear the bolts and spacer so I can turn the steering completely from left to right.

One area that I did NOT prototype well enough and pay attention to is how much the top end of the cylinder rocks as it cycles through the arc of the lever, because of where I located its pivot point in relation to the lever's arc.

When I first attempted to reassemble the tractor and I installed the Hydraulic tank supports I found that when I turned the wheels the top of the cylinder tipped so far over that it hit the left hand support (the one on the muffler side) and I could not turn the wheels all the way.

Back to the graph paper to see how I can modify the design. I had to move the pivot point of the cylinder mount over 3/8" so the pivot is more in the center of the lever's arc, which changed how far the lever moved the tie rods left and right when turning the wheels. I fixed the cylinder hitting the mount, but I still could not turn lock to lock.

Next I worked out where the attachment point for the tie rods had to be moved to in order to correct the movement. Which involved welding closed the existing holes, adding onto the one edge of the lever and drilling and tapping a new attachment point on the lever.

I also had to cut a notch - relief in the one side of the lever so the Rod end at the front center didn't bind:

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1fbGxQfyTfoFVLku8

 

[sdunt]

Alternatives to this Design and Lessons learned while building all of this

Now that I've constructed all of this mechanism to connect the vertically mounted cylinder to the tie rods, and making custom tie rods, I am seriously reconsidering the decision to NOT put the hydraulic cylinder in the front of the tractor. I've got 75 to 100 hours into building and debugging the setup. Building this a second time should go faster, but the lever mechanism, tie rods and rods ends is complicated to construct and assemble. Installing the cylinder as I did under the reserve tank also means that I have to dissemble a lot of the tractor if that cylinder needs to be serviced. And of course I have no Belt PTO on the tractor and can not have one. There is about 3/4 of an inch space between the side of the cylinder and the head of the flywheel bolt.

One of the things that additionally held me back from putting the cylinder in front of the tractor was the fact that my 2 x 4 cylinder just fit in between the brackets that are welded to the front of the frame, with no space left to attach the cylinder to the frame or to the axle.

A 2x4 hydraulic cylinder's body will pretty much fit in between the frame right in front of the pivot pin. If we reduce the barrel length of the cylinder so the travel is 3 1/8, the cylinder would fit so that we have room to either attach one end to the frame or better yet attach it to the axle.

Cutting the barrel down leaves you with a longer rod, which helps. Because, you're going to need to extend the rod far enough to connect the cylinder to one of the spindles.

To connect the rod to the steering with a minimal of hacking, I would extend the bracket that the Tie rods connect to on the back side of the spindle out in front of the axle on one side. This would provide an attachment for the Cylinder.

I think it is possible to place a 3/8 x 2 flat iron parallel to the existing tie rod bracket and extend the arm from the back of the axle out in front with no welding or modifications to the tractor. If we run our new flat iron along side of the factory tie rod bracket, on the inside of it, the new piece can run under the axle and come out in front of the tractor.

To not hack the tractor and weld things on, if our new piece of iron has a tab welded onto the bottom at 90 degrees, so that it runs under the tie rod bracket, we can drill a hole in that added tab and use the rod end's bolt to hold things together at that end. Moving forward, to where we pass the axle, we should be able to run a 'U Bolt' under our new bracket and around the axle and use that to hold and clamp our piece securely to the factory bracket. If our new bracket is the same length in front as behind the axle the movement of the free end of it should be 3 1/8". The same distance the tie rods move.

I have not prototyped exactly how the cylinders rod needs to be extended and attached to this new bracket, but the cylinder's rod is going to need a dust cover. Why not give the cylinder a real cover?

Standard thickness "3/4" water pipe (Schedule 40) will fit inside standard 1 inch water pipe, if you file out the weld on the inside. One piece of ¾ pipe combined, or running inside 1 piece of 1" water pipe should make a nice telescoping cover for the cylinder's rod, and would make a fairly tough guard for the rod.

With a loader there is always the problem of dumping a log, or stump or rock on to a pile with the loader, and having that rock, etc roll back down the pile right in to the front of the tractor.. If that rock is large enough and hits the P/S cylinder or cylinders rod in the right spot, that's the end of your power steering. Therefore protecting that cylinder and rod are very important. And part of the reason why I opted to put the cylinder inside the tractor.

Hopefully my experience can inspire others and hopefully reduce how much time someone would spend fabricating this the next time. The Tie Rods and things I can take measurements of, and the lever I would hope could be redesigned to somehow make it simpler to manufacture..

What Else did I forget to say about this build? There is a more complete Photo Album on google, each photo should have comments that I added describing what it is etc: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1fbGxQfyTfoFVLku8 You may need to click on the info icon A circle with an 'i' in it to be able to read the entire comment I added to the photo.

What else do we need to document to make this more complete?

 

[Bob MacGregor]

WOW, lots of great fabrication!

 

[sdunt]

I got back into the tractor to do some hose re-routing and snapped a picture of what the hole I made in the frame for the drain line that runs to the filter looks like:

 

[Harry]

Scott that was a great article and explanation of your fabrication. Thanks for sharing your project with the members. :clap:

Keep the Peace :trink:
Harry

 

[sdunt]

Update on P/S: Some repairs and modifications we did while we were swapping the short block into place.

1. Replace the rod seal for the P/S cylinder that I trashed when I had the cylinder a part. Not long after we started running the P/S we had a leak from the P/S cylinder rod. When I had the cylinder apart and the rod out to add the spacer, I stuffed the rod back in from the WRONG side and damaged the rod seal. (this is a 3rd party cylinder, you're not going to find or use that part in a standard CCI tractor) So we had to replace that. The worst part of that job was how do you stuff a 1" OD seal into place through a 5/8 hole in the cylinders gland assembly?

What you're looking at is the gland for the rod of this 3rd party cylinder. I stuffed a wooden dowel rod up in there to help keep the seal from slipping down through the hole as I was trying to install it.. Once that was replaced, I took the cylinder rod apart the CORRECT WAY and feed the rod through the seal from the outside like is is supposed to be so the new seal is not damaged and it does not leak anymore.

2. Another area we were having leaking issues with was the P/S drain lines. Previously I had brought the return line from the P/S controller back to the divider - splitter valve and then run from there to the drain line:

The hydraulic hose from the P/S controller screwed into the bottom of the Iron Tee on the right. As the tie rod with the P/s controller moved forward and back it rotated the hose and broke it loose such that it was turning. And, when the tie rod was all of the way forward it hit the hose as well.

So, we rerouted all of the drain lines to a Tee under the tractor that combines both drains and feeds them into the drain line:

Which meant we rerouted the drain line at the diverter valve as well.

The P/S system still works very well, now it does not leak..