what are the four holes for in the bottom of the TO-30 differential case?

[dbotos]

How heavy was the backhoe? Did it have outriggers? Wonder if someone abused the rear end in the course of using my backhoe...

My quest for info on the 3780 vs. 3795 cone hasn't produced much. I talked to Timken, NTN (who bought Bower), SKF, and even Agco. Speaking of the latter, I think they need to rename "Agco Answers" to "Agco Pawns You Off On Your Local Dealer", because that's what they've done to me every time I've called them. Oh well, I'll probably just get one of the 3795s and make sure it has the right frontface radius on it. Here's a cutaway view that shows the bearing pretty well. I labeled the bearing and outer seal diameters:



My sandblaster is currently down - stripped everything off it so I could put a real hopper on the bottom. Thread about it here:

hopper for blast cabinet

Gonna get back to blasting parts once I get that on there.

 

[dbotos]

I ordered a Timken 3795 cone from eBay. Hopefully that frontface radius will be the same as the old one - will check it when it arrives and report back.

Made a little more progress on the sandblaster - got the hopper tacked on (see pics in above link) - hopefully I can get it finished this weekend coming up.

 

[dbotos]

3795 cone arrived this weekend and has a nice big frontface radius just like the old Bower I pulled out. :thumbsup:

Also finished up the blaster hopper. Pics added at original link.

 

[dbotos]

Made a spring stretcher fixture today and coated the first of three brake springs:



I wrapped the exposed threads with aluminum foil during coating and curing to keep them clean. The other two springs have kind of an odd-ball hook on one end, so I'm going to have to make a little strip with a hole in it to hold those ends..

 

[Coyote machine]

What did you use to coat 'em with? I'm not sure you have the rack tension quite right, better tighten the rack a few turns!

 

[dbotos]

Here's a mockup with one of the other springs:



Just imagine the cardboard is metal and the masking tape is replaced by a good weld on each side.

 

[dbotos]

What did you use to coat 'em with? I'm not sure you have the rack tension quite right, better tighten the rack a few turns!

Powder is Prismatic Powders' Autumn Grey. It's a pretty good match for the modern Ferguson grey. I bought a rattle can of the MF grey they sell at Tractor Supply and sent a sample plate to Prismatic for a match. The matching was free, but I had to buy 5 pounds of that powder, so I've got plenty.

I was originally going to use 3/8 threaded rods, but had 1/2 as well, so I went with the bigger. I actually have some 5/8 too, but thought that would be really overkill.

 

[Coyote machine]

Why bother with parts that will never be seen?

 

[dbotos]

They had paint on them before, so I figured I'd better put something back on there.

 

[dbotos]

Made the piece to hold the oddball ends this weekend and tried it out last night on the first of two springs like that:



The piece of flat stock that I welded to the threaded rod was one I found while organizing some of my materials this weekend. Most of the length was 1 x 1/8" cross section, but the last little bit on each end skinnied down to 1/2" wide and had the rounded end with the hole in it. I think it was a door rod from one of those Edsal steel cabinets. Or some kind of shelf brace. Either way, it saved me a little bit of work.