I did it like you suggested, Gary, thanks!:thumbsup: Also, I made a slight modification so the cups are more snugly fitted around the ball. I don't know if the cam tightener provides a breakaway for the pitman attachment but it certainly did nothing for it in my experience. Eliminating it has helped give it closer tolerances and resulted in a much quieter operation. Yes, I finished those 2.5 acres about an hour ago.:cool2:
Whenever I suspect that a piece might be cast steel, I use E7018 with about 200F preheat. I welded the lift arm brackets where they bolted onto the cast axle of my Yanmar after replacing 4 sets of broken and or lost bolts in one day. Then I tacked the bolts in the other bracket just to make sure they didnt loosen and fall out. All cast steel and never had another problem with those brackets. Cast iron is much different, but you hardly find any cast iron on tractors ,except maybe the exhaust manifold,contrary to popular believe that all the cast components are cast iron.
What I needed to weld was cast steel alright. My coffee buddy clued me in on how to determine if it is cast steel or cast iron. Just touch the piece in question to a grindstone and note the colour of the sparks. White sparks - steel; red sparks - cast iron . Once I was confident I was working with steel, the rest was quite easy.:thumbsup:
They're going like scat today.:laughing::cool2:
