So, been very busy lately and hardly even had time to work on the tractor let alone take progress photos. But roughly, here's how it has been in one quick update...
Tuesday, July 17th - I got the engine pulley back on! And finally found belts that would fit (after running around to several different stores buying and trying out and returning multiple belts...) It was a royal pain I was not expecting!


Has anyone had any luck with the Dayco belts at Advance Auto Parts? They are like an off-white color and I think are some type of synthetic material belt for use on lawn and garden applications. The problem I seemed to have with them was that the correct size belts (according to the parts manual for my tractor) were too short, or at least these belts didn't have enough play and stretch in them to fit properly. The belts would slip on, but for instance with the
PTO belt, it was so tight that the
PTO would be engaged all the time even when it was disengaged! The idler pulley couldn't move over to engage the belt either because there wasn't enough "give" to the belt.
So, I returned these belts and got the next size up, which were an inch longer. Now these were TOO LONG!! They fit around the pulleys but now were so loose the idler pulleys would engage them fully and there would still be slack in them! How in the hell can one inch make that huge of a difference? So, I had to return those too! Advance didn't have any other belts besides these for me to try, so I bought the belts pictured above at Napa. They are the correct length according to the manual, but are made of real rubber it looks like. So, they fit better, have more give, and look like they should operate properly (I hope). I'll update once I fire this back up when it is done...
(Also, seems like the pulley went on a lot nicer this time after cleaning it out. But, it still went on pretty tight and I had to do some gentle tapping with the rubber mallet to get it on. It seems tight enough and with the set screws tightened down, I highly DOUBT it will move around at all when it is running.)
Wednesday, July 18 - So, in the meantime, here is the progress on the fenders and hood so far:


But, as mentioned in my last post, due to the heat and humidity recently, there was some problems with paint running and not drying properly...


I know, it looks like s%#& and I'm not happy about it!!! But at least it is on the inside of the hood so you won't see it. I doubt I can try to clean it up at all either without ending up having to strip it back down to bare metal again...

I even sanded down the top of the instrument cluster on the tractor and painted that as well. I'll do the black part once the white dries and I can mask it off.

I also got two coats of
MF Red on the right rear wheel already and put it back on. The left wheel is pulled off and is the next to be painted. Can't have mis-matched wheels now, can I? The first wheel came out really nice:

And the back side as well:

... despite a few runs as well due to the humidity -


The deck is coming along as well.... More pics to come in the future of that as well. Got the pullies re-assembled and the belt on it along with the transfer gear box. It looks pretty good (even though it's not in its original green color...) The belt tensioner spring I got was WAY too short and tight to work though. I couldn't even get the belt on because it was too tight! So, I had to swap it out at Lowe's for a slightly longer and smaller in diameter (and easier to expand) spring that seems to work fine.
I'll keep the progress coming, so long as there is any!!! lol!
Edited by MailmAn, July 18, 2012 - 11:02 PM.