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Mighty Man

10K views 34 replies 20 participants last post by  twowheeler63 
#1 ·
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Got the Mighty Man home today, got a few pictures, and took a few notes on its details. Its a heavy beast using lots of cast parts. The clutch is a sliding system, where the engine move back to front on a set of tapered key ways. The rims are split ones, dont think ive ever seen a GT on split rims. Also the ring of the split is galvinized. There are no lug bolts holding the wheels on, only a cast dust cover, over a plate with four bolts going though it. The wheel weight are the strangest one ever. i call them short end tables, as they have little legs on the back. The orginal engine for this tractor is an AB Wis. I have a stuck one here, so maybe i can get it going and revive this machine. If not its still cool to look at.
 

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#4 ·
Very interesting looking 2 wheeler. Hope you can get your AB going for it. Too bad, I had a sweet running complete correct AB on a show cradle, couldn't get $50.00 for it at last yeears engine shows, finally "gave it" [$25.00] to a young kid looking for his first engine to take to the shows....
 
#8 ·
That's a nice machine . Those rims look like they just welded angle iron onto truck rims , ( I'll have to remember that ) Is there any history around on that brand ? Al
 
#9 ·
There is a lot of history on them at the Tacoma,WA library. The company Marine Iron Works built them from 47-55. There appears to have been 3 models. In looking on the net i have found people with a serial # as low as 3 and ones in the 3oo's. My is supposed to be 2355, but i havent looked at it yet. Enter Mighty Man in a goggle search and youll find a bunch of factory pic's including one of the assembly line. Theres even a snow blower ran by its own engine mounted to the front of the tractor. There is very little info on the company as far as what happened to them. Not sure how one would date the machine other than by a group of yrs. Most of the tractor group postings for them seem to be back in 06 or before, so im not sure where the ones went to that were out on in the public view. If the serial # thing is correct, then there should a couple thousand of them out there some place. If only 10% survived there should be a couple hundred still around. One guy claimed to have six of them.
 
#13 ·
Finally today got an engine running for this machine.
Been playing wirth it for several weeks trying to figure out why it would only fire 1 to 4 times when i pulled the rope. I think i set a new record cleaning the carb several times over, thinking i wasnt getting enough fuel. This afternoon i got out a suburban and chain smoked the engine to see if i could get any adjustments to the carb made or see something else. It still only fired once in a while and then started to backfire out the carb a little, decided it was a valve so i took the head off and watch the motion as a turned it by hand. Right off i saw that the piston wasnt it the right place when the impluse clicked, so i took out the plug to the side gears and sure enough it looked to be 180 at of time.

funny thing was this engine was dirty on the outside and the bolts to the mag had grease and dirt built up on them, but the inside of the head looked like someone has cleaned it with a scrapper and the valves also. Put it in time, and back together, pulled the rope ,3 spins and it took off like a champ. No smoking , no hunting , just smooth running. I didnt even have to choke it.

Now i can move forwards with the next stage of the restore......the driving it around part, and maybe some plowing if i can get a little shine on the share.
 
#16 ·
Ok, after blasting the tank and fighting a fuel leaking sedimnet bowl, we went out and took a few of running it in the garden. This is probally the first time in the 25 yrs that it has run on its on power. Wheel Tire Plant Vehicle Automotive tire
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Nothing fancy just a pass down and back. looks able to go in about 3", but the adjusting screw in frozen up right now and i'll deal with this in the next phase, of blasting, repairing and repainting. Todays test was solely for the purpose of testing the drive train and clutch function. All testing done at half speed, but then again wide open is only 2800 rpm's for this motor.
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#19 ·
Well its been a fun project but its almost down to the end now. Going to be taking it down and show it off in Kentucky end of the month. Have to get the air cleaner painted and make up some kind of an exhaust system, but other than that its ready to roll. I thought i was going to get a little plow time this weekend, but we decided to have a couple of inches of rain over the last 3 days.
stiil have to think on wether to paint and mount the 140# of factory weights it came with. Not even sure how the attach them yet.

after the meet, i might get to finish off the detailing of the engine, then have to find some place to store it this winter. I used to have lots of room for that, but everytime i redo one, it seem to take up all the inside room. Seems a lot easier to just let them be unpainted and let them sit around.

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#24 ·
i paint all my stuff with Vansickle paint in a spray can. After cleaning thepart, i use an acid primer, then i put on the final color. I dont really count the coats but most stuff gets two or three. I'm not going for the show car finish, which wouldnt have been found on any garden equipment any way, as most were dipped or sprayed moving down a line.
 
#25 ·
The wheels are fairly unique to the machine. Dont remember ever seeing any other split rims on angle iron spokes. The rims must have been a left over from some war project, as that what this company did before the tractors.

i havent had must handle time yet, but they are rubber coated and feel nice against my hands so far. I'll let you know how that went after Dan's plow day.

Went to the Harley shop today and got a side pipe off a wrecked bike, to make the exhaust out of. Should be interesting.
 
#26 ·
We plowed with it for the first time today in its full working mode. Right off the bat it went straight to china, but never stopped moving forwards. I got the crank turned back up and it went a little better. Only plowed a couple of round, as the grounds wet from the several rains over the last few days. Supposed to rain most of the coming week, so this might be the only test I'll get before Ball hollow.

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Spent most of the afternoon making up a front weight, and a gauge wheel. I'm thinking i'll need them as the plow was hard to lift out at the end. The tractor was hard to steer and control the depth both so hopefully the gauge wheel will make it simplier to use. I dont really like to add stuff to the tractors thats not factory, but i also want to be able to work it a little.
 

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