From vertical to horizontal - proposed engine swap!?

Vigo327 · Oct 3, 2021

Congrats! I had to dig up your build thread and go back several pages to see what this thing really was. Glad you can finally use it!!

NormL · Oct 4, 2021

Vigo327 said:
Congrats! I had to dig up your build thread and go back several pages to see what this thing really was. Glad you can finally use it!!

Thanks Vigo327! The build itself was a long haul with an extended gap while I waited for the funds to finish it. I finally decided to forge ahead to the finish line. I plan to remove the restrictors in the bucket, dipper, and boom temporarily to see if they are limiting the digging power. I don't think it does but I won't know till I check it out. I'll have to take a few pix to show how challenging the digging is for this machine!

NormL · Oct 5, 2021

Here are some pix of the trenching I've done so far. Note the lumpy chunks of clay and sod. No sign of moisture anywhere in the trench. The tractor pix show some of the mods I made to get it all working. I was able to move the drive belt and all the clutch hardware above the engine platform from where it had been under it before with the vertical shaft engine.

NormL · Oct 5, 2021

I put in maybe an hour of digging this afternoon. I jokingly told my wife I would dig till I broke something. I should """NEVER""" say that out loud. I had just finished fixing something I broke for the second time. A street elbow on the cylinder for the boom was jamming up against the back wall where it is mounted and finally broke again. Easy fix and back to work. Till the hinge mechanism for the bucket (you can see it in the second pic of the above post), broke open - I think because I had neglected to properly weld the bracing between the sides of the arcing arms of the mechanism. Actually, I'm surprised it took this long for the weakness to show. I'll do that bracing better this time and give it more than a light tack weld. And no more joking about stuff like that! Those "jinx demons" have sharp ears!!

NormL · Oct 7, 2021

Here are pix of the repairs I made to the bucket swiveler. Sorry, I neglected to take any pix of the damage before I straightened things out but it took a fair bit of beating on it to bring things back in line. The first one shows what it looked like before welding in the bracing. The rest show what I hope will prevent a recurrence.

What I have to do now that the damage is repaired is diagnose what is causing the engine I just finished installing to suddenly stall. It will run fine for up to five minutes and then quit. It usually starts right back up but then stalls again. It never did that before when I used it to power the roto tiller. I've opened up the carb and there was no dirt or gumming evident but I cleaned it anyway since I had it open. I blew back the tank line in case the screen in the tank was plugged but nothing has helped. Any ideas? It's a 13hp Honda knock off.

Richard001 · Oct 7, 2021

Great work there.

Does this engine have a oil level shut-off switch ?

NormL · Oct 8, 2021

Richard001 said:
Great work there.

Does this engine have a oil level shut-off switch ?

Thanks, I'm hoping to get back digging once the rain we got overnight dries a little. I believe it does have the oil level shut - off and checked for that. The oil level is right up where it could run out if the tractor was tilted a little. If I knew where to find that sensor I could check the circuitry for a possible failure. Another thought I had was could the ignition switch circuit to the ignition module be failing and if so, what to do to test for that and remedy?

NormL · Oct 8, 2021

NormL said:
Thanks, I'm hoping to get back digging once the rain we got overnight dries a little. I believe it does have the oil level shut - off and checked for that. The oil level is right up where it could run out if the tractor was tilted a little. If I knew where to find that sensor I could check the circuitry for a possible failure. Another thought I had was could the ignition switch circuit to the ignition module be failing and if so, what to do to test for that and remedy?

Richard001, thanks for that tip. I decided to start with that and immediately found a loose wire. It came out of a small metal cube shaped device and another loose wire matching the code stripe of the first wire lead to the ignition switch box. Score!!! There was a second wire leading from the small metal cube which lead to the engine block and into what looks like the low oil sensor. There was about 3/4" of bare wire coming out of the metal cube leading to the ignition box (shrinkage due to heat?) but since it was not shorting against anything, I fixed it with good oldfashioned shrink tube. That and a new crimp on end and done. Proof that it was the cause will be once I've done some more diggin'! Here are some pix. The last one shows what I take to be the sensor.

Vigo327 · Oct 8, 2021

Im surprised that part didn't break immediately! But that's one of the things that happens when you take long breaks from projects.. you forget all the things you 'meant to do' back then or spend time reverse engineering things YOU engineered! Very frustrating moments, in my experience.

It's also one of those things our families tend to have a hard time understanding.. the whole concept of 'I know you want me back in the house, but if i stop in the middle of this im probably going to regret it later'. Know what i mean?!

NormL · Oct 8, 2021

Vigo327 said:
Im surprised that part didn't break immediately! But that's one of the things that happens when you take long breaks from projects.. you forget all the things you 'meant to do' back then or spend time reverse engineering things YOU engineered! Very frustrating moments, in my experience.

It's also one of those things our families tend to have a hard time understanding.. the whole concept of 'I know you want me back in the house, but if i stop in the middle of this im probably going to regret it later'. Know what i mean?!

Boy do I ever know what you mean!! I'm still reaping the "rewards" as I start using the backhoe for jobs that have been on the waiting list. The tough conditions for digging because of the lack of any moisture in our clay makes any weakness in my "engineering" sure to show up. In a way that is a good thing because eventually this machine will get handed down to my grandsons so the more weaknesses that show up and are fixed, the better.

BTW, repairing that broken wire seems to have rectified the stalling issue!