Building Hydraulic Tank

[Jorville]

My brother-n-law lives about 40-minutes east of Stockton California. He has 20-acres of nothing but oak trees. He has had that splitter 2 or 3-years, so far no problems at all.:crossfingers:

I only have a four inch cylinder on my splitter, so I wonder if the tall wedge I have could cause the twisting of the beam when I get into a big ugly piece. The tall wedge works good when I split stringy Elm though.

 

[muddstopper]

I originally had a 4in cyl on my splitter beofre swapping it for a 5inch. I plated the top and sides fof the 6x6 hbeam and can still see some flex. My wedge is adjustable in height and will raise up to 24in tall. Wedge started out as a 4way and with 4in cyl it would pretty much split anything, but I did manage to stick the round a time or two in really large white oak. I put the 5in cyl on and no more sticking of rounds so I welded on a couple of ore wedges to the blade and made it a 6way. If I raise the wedge up for a 6 way split in the really big stuff, I can see a lot of flex, but if i keep the wedge lowered for just a 4way split, it isnt to bad. a 6way split cented on a 36" round is just asking for trouble I think with my setup. I have done it, but I dont try it if the round has any knots in it. I say really tall wedges with big, hard to split stuff will certainly twist the hbeam and I have used and abused mine, ( scary twist a time or two), but havent noticed any real damage to the beam yet.

 

[Mysfyt]

I kind of thought I would get gigged on the coupling guard. I wanted to do that, but I kind of need a slip roller and I don't have one. Another reason I wanted a guard is it would look more professionally built. If I can find a slip roller I will finish it. Where I used to work we had an almost complete antique sheet metal shop and there we had a slip roller. That facility was demolished so it is no longer available. When ever the machine is used I am the only one around so that should not be a problem for now.

I'm really not a safety ****, but I was just eyeing that spinning coupler below your plastic gas tank. A hole in the side could send fuel onto your engines' electrical and, well, you know.....

You could always use a poor man's slip roll, that is, an abrasive cut off wheel on a die grinder and some thin wall tube, barrel, container or anything else that has a radius close to what you want.

 

[bigdeano]

While no scale is lots better than any, wouldn't the filter between the pump suction side and tank provide adequate protection?

I don't have a suction filter or screen on it, just a return line filter.

 

[Jorville]

I'm really not a safety ****, but I was just eyeing that spinning coupler below your plastic gas tank. A hole in the side could send fuel onto your engines' electrical and, well, you know.....

You could always use a poor man's slip roll, that is, an abrasive cut off wheel on a die grinder and some thin wall tube, barrel, container or anything else that has a radius close to what you want.

I was thinking about that coupling today. I guess I would not really need to roll the sheet metal. I could just make a rectangular flat topped guard. That gas tank is a metal one from a Wisconsin engine. I got sick of their fuel pumps failing so I mounted it for gravity feed. The way this is made I could not put the fuel tank beside the engine any way, no room.

 

[BukitCase]

Jorville, sorry it took so long to get back to you - someone hit a power pole a couple days ago, end result was about 300 feet of fiber optic cable burned up and pole/transformer replaced. Finally restored yesterday afternoon late...

Thanks for the part #'s, I'm hoping they MIGHT be helpful, IF our distributors are the same - that's why I asked for the pic. My engine is a VH4D, and so far it appears they COULD have had about 7 different distributors. Mine has been updated with a Pertronix module - I talked to Pertronix techs who gave me part #'s for cap and rotor (BorgWarner C207 cap, D181 rotor) which did NOT fit.

That cap has a 3/8" wide locator tab near one of the spring clip hold-downs, but MY distributor has (approximately) 1 inch wide "notch" not quite centered BETWEEN the two spring clips (see the TOP photo, here)
Electronic Ignition Conversion Kits for Autolite and Prestolite Distributors

I'm no stranger to R&R-ing distributors and getting them back in exactly as they came out, but as cramped as my engine compartment is, it would greatly simplify what SHOULD have been simple to begin with - namely, identify which of the "seven suspects" I have and getting a cap (to replace the carbon-tracked one I have) and rotor (to replace the crusty one I have) WITHOUT having to go thru all the extra hoops.

That's why I asked for a pic, but if you could just confirm or deny that your (part # known) distributor's locator notch looks like the one in that TOP pic, that would shorten my search a LOT -

Sorry to bug you, I'm just under the gun to get SEVERAL things weatherized before winter and right now, the lift won't run strong enough to move more than a couple feet... Steve

Oh, just in case you run into a problem with your heads, here's a warning - I downloaded a pdf of the engine manual when I needed to replace a badly cracked head - the manual says to "Use a mixture of graphite and oil on the cylinder head screws to prevent them from rusting tight against the cylinder block. Tighten cylinder head screws to 24 ft. Ibs. torque in the sequence shown in Fig. 21."

To me, that sounded like NeverSieze, so that's exactly what I started to do - the second (new, grade 8) bolt snapped off before my Proto torque wrench clicked. Looking at the broken end CLOSELY, it was obvious the bolt had been stretched to breaking point.

That's when I realized I shouldn't have taken their word for torque values, because their 24 ft lbs is max recommended DRY torque value for that fastener - WET torque value is 18 ft lbs.

This incorrect info may also extend to OTHER parts of those engines, and since that engine has been used in everything from generators/welders/combines/fork lifts/ad nauseum, I'm hoping this warning keeps someone ELSE from finding out the hard way...