Tony Hoerter
New member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2025
- Messages
- 1
- Tractor
- John Deere
Hi everyone,
Longtime lurker here. I wanted to share a project I just finished that I thought this community might appreciate.
The old engine on my Bobcat 642b finally gave out. I decided to repower it with a Harbor Freight Predator 670. Everything was straightforward until I got to the worst part of any repower: getting the engine perfectly aligned to the drive coupler.
I wasn't able to find a great adjustable solution available. It's a massive time-sink shiming mounts and if it's not perfect, you get vibration that tears up bearings and couplers.
So, I decided to build a solution.
I designed and fabricated a fully adjustable engine mount on my CNC plasma table. The goal was to make a mount that could be precisely aligned and securely bolted down.
Here are the key features I built in:
· 3-Axis Adjustability: The engine can slide side-to-side (X), in-and-out (Y), and up-and-down (Z) for perfect coupler alignment.
· Pitch and Yaw Adjustment: It mounts on four 3/4" threaded rods, so you can also tip the engine to correct for any angular misalignment.
· Industrial Rigidity: It's not just a flat plate. It has 1" sides bent down to be welded to a base for incredible stiffness, preventing flex under load.
· Practical Touches: I even added holes for oil drainage so you can do oil changes without making a mess.
Here's a shot of the mount right after I cut and bent it:
On the work bench you can see the four threaded rods that allow for all the adjustment:
And here it is installed on my skidsteer.
The result was that I had the engine perfectly aligned in under 10 minutes. No shims, no frustration.
I was so happy with how it turned out that I got to thinking: I can't be the only one who hates the alignment process. Has anyone else here struggled with this when doing a repower?
I'm considering making a small batch of these if there's enough interest from other folks. It would be a complete kit with the plasma-cut mount, all the threaded rods, and hardware.
What do you all think? For those of you who do your own repowers, is this something you'd find useful, or is it a part you'd always just build yourself? Any feedback on the design is welcome.
Thanks for looking,
Tony
Longtime lurker here. I wanted to share a project I just finished that I thought this community might appreciate.
The old engine on my Bobcat 642b finally gave out. I decided to repower it with a Harbor Freight Predator 670. Everything was straightforward until I got to the worst part of any repower: getting the engine perfectly aligned to the drive coupler.
I wasn't able to find a great adjustable solution available. It's a massive time-sink shiming mounts and if it's not perfect, you get vibration that tears up bearings and couplers.
So, I decided to build a solution.
I designed and fabricated a fully adjustable engine mount on my CNC plasma table. The goal was to make a mount that could be precisely aligned and securely bolted down.
Here are the key features I built in:
· 3-Axis Adjustability: The engine can slide side-to-side (X), in-and-out (Y), and up-and-down (Z) for perfect coupler alignment.
· Pitch and Yaw Adjustment: It mounts on four 3/4" threaded rods, so you can also tip the engine to correct for any angular misalignment.
· Industrial Rigidity: It's not just a flat plate. It has 1" sides bent down to be welded to a base for incredible stiffness, preventing flex under load.
· Practical Touches: I even added holes for oil drainage so you can do oil changes without making a mess.
Here's a shot of the mount right after I cut and bent it:
On the work bench you can see the four threaded rods that allow for all the adjustment:
And here it is installed on my skidsteer.
The result was that I had the engine perfectly aligned in under 10 minutes. No shims, no frustration.
I was so happy with how it turned out that I got to thinking: I can't be the only one who hates the alignment process. Has anyone else here struggled with this when doing a repower?
I'm considering making a small batch of these if there's enough interest from other folks. It would be a complete kit with the plasma-cut mount, all the threaded rods, and hardware.
What do you all think? For those of you who do your own repowers, is this something you'd find useful, or is it a part you'd always just build yourself? Any feedback on the design is welcome.
Thanks for looking,
Tony
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