Another Lil Truck disaster, but I am back

[amphibious drew]

I have no idea what you are talking about, but I read it three times laughing.

[patb069]

In the interests of explanation: Throughout the day, simple tasks were becoming exceedingly difficult as I was working on the machine. It started with the electric starter frying and getting red hot which burned my hand. Then I wanted to pull the chains, so I pulled the clip on the mater link, and of course, the link wouldnt budge. Then I went to the store, and bought a new key switch which matched the plug pattern, but subsequently wouldnt work. I recall saying to my machine "I can see you are going to be a pain in the balls today". I stepped away from the machine for a couple of hours to clear my head.
Then later I removed the engine to get better access to the sprocket bolts so I could begin the painful process of trying to pull the axles. To get better leverage, I actually squatted in the engine bay with a breaker bar on 1 side of the bolt and a long 9/16th wrench on the nut. As I was pulling the breaker bar which is about 25.5 inches long toward myself (pulling hard), the top of the bolt rounded and the breaker bar slipped. The result was the breaker bar letting go and whacking me in my stones with the equivalent amount of force that I was pulling with. This further resulted in me falling back and whacking my head on the Lil truck bed frame. I saw stars, twice, and proceeded to weave a very creative tapestry of profanity. I then decided I had enough, realizing that I got exactly what I said I was going to get from my Lil truck earlier.

[amphibious drew]

Just cut the bolt heads off with a wheel and them try and hammer them out of the sprockets and axles. If you can't get the bolt through and the axle off just get out the cutting wheel and then press the sprockets off after your axles are in pieces. Axles are cheap and easy to make so there is no sense in limiting your ability to have more kids just to save one.

[jpswift1]

Pat, A quick heads up for you that'll save you some money and headaches. Don't use a modern replacement ignition switch for the Tecumseh OH160 because you'll fry the ignition coil and they're not made anymore. They go for at least $150 and up on ebay. I'm not sure where to get a replacement ignition switch though. I'll have to do some research on that.

[patb069]

Thanks for the the info guys. Looks like I am going to have to cut the axles. Not my first rodeo with this task, but given the fact that info is so scarce on the granite state transmissions, or the set up, I was really nervous about cutting anything. 2 of the axles actually run right through separate transmission housings. I am starting to hate this setup, but as it stands right now I need 6 tires and rims, if it keeps going this way, 6 axles, at least 1 new wheel mounting flange, and all new bearings. That would be the way to do it right. I could probably get away with just fixing the 1 bent axle that I know about, but history dictates that the machine will crap the bed on me in the most inopportune time if I try to cut corners. This puppy was really neglected. T-20 is just way out of reach at this point.

[patb069]

Lil Truck Progress

104.jpg103.jpg102.jpg101.jpgMore progress. The L'il Truck is almost completely gutted. I am starting to realize that my biggest fear is coming to a reality. Along the line somewhere someone did a lot of fabrication work on this frame. A real hatchet job. It would appear that someone took a perfectly good T-20 frame and hacked it up to install the Granite State. I found a picture on the web of what the original Granite State install looked like and mine is nothing like it. Now I have no real frame of reference, or measurements of where things have to go. Some pieces were fabricated and added, and some of the frame pieces were cut out. (See Pics) Dont understand why someone would do this. Additionally, all of the grub screws holding the center axles to the transmission underdrives were previously removed and it looks like the holes were welded closed. I am going to have to basically cut all of the axles out and convert to the T-20. Looks like my "easy" project took a hard left turn. Does anyone have any detailed pics of how this thing was supposed to be set up, or how to remove the center axles without completely destroying the underdrive? Also, because the sprockets are alot smaller than the ones that i rember, i suspect i will have to change them as well because the gearing will be too low. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
-Pat