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What
I know about it so far:
It's a Windolph 'B' crawler, probably from the 1940's. It has
a single cylinder Briggs and Stratton engine (iron block) and
is missing it's ID tag. The transmission has three speeds forward
and one in reverse, and uses a dry clutch that fits a spline
coupler on the engine. The hydraulic system has been added to
the tractor. It has a seperate clutch and brake for each track.
8/5/2001: I located Dodge PT, the current version of the company
that origionally made the clutch for this crawler. Hopefully
they can lend a hand with parts.
8/9/2001: Dodge sent me to a company named Mecco and it looks
like they should be able to make the piece I need. They are a
manufacturer of clutches and requested that I mail them the parts
I have and they will try to duplicate them. I'll post here if
they are able to supply clutch parts for these old tractors.
8/10/2001: I pulled the top cover off of the transmission and
found out why the tranny origionally only appeared to be a single
speed unit. Someone put one of the shift fork rods in turned
180deg so that the shift lever can't engage it. The tranny is
reportedly from a Crosley car, and this unit has a lot of surface
rust and pitting in the gears. I pulled the rear cover off of
the differential/steering clutches and everything looks okay.
There was water in the bevel gear section, but the gears look
good, almost no corrosion. The clutches look fine except for
a bit of oil on one.
8/11/2001: Well, I finally tore into the transmission. With it
removed, the tractor rolls around quite easily on it's tracks
(you can just push it around.) Obviously something is seriously
bound up in the tranny. First job was to strip the shift forks out of the tranny cover. I rebuild the
forward gear shift fork (before, after) and the shift lever by welding them up a bit, milling
the notch back into the shift fork, and carefully reshaping the
end of the shift lever. The next problem is getting new ball
detents for the shift fork rods. The origional ball detents are
seriously worn out. I figure I can just use a pair of ball bearings
with a new spring and it should be good to go. Every single bearing
in the tranny and driveshaft is worn out and the seals are shot.
The real
problem is the splines where the rear end pinion shaft joins
the transmission. The splines are sharp and almost gone. I'm
not quite sure how I'll replace those. I'm hoping I can cut the
bad splines (male and female) off on my lathe and have new ones
TIG welded on. We'll see.
8/12/2001: I was able to knock the pinion gear/shaft out of the
rear end by using a dull punch and big hammer, just took a bit
of tapping. The transmission is completely apart now (1, 2) and pretty
well cleaned up. Here are all the internal parts layed out how they go together
(input shaft on the left, output shaft and pinion on the right.)
At least one of the bronze bushings will have to be replaced
and there appears to be a fair amount of gear wear. A couple
people I checked with said the gears will probably be fine as
long as I don't jamb it into gear when it's moving and so forth.
Just have to take it easy. The tranny output shaft spline looks
fine, so only the connecting collar and pinion shaft are worn.
It looks like it'll rain, so I retapped all the rear cover mounting
holes and bolted it back on with a little anti-seize on the new
bolts, and duct taped over the pinion hole to keep out the water.
Some genius had used a rectangular gasket on the rear plate that
only seals around the bevel gear, and the plate is supposed to
be flat, so that gasket put a bending load on the plate. No wonder
oil leaked into the turning clutch sections (that are supposed
to be dry, i.e. no oil.) Some day I'll have a shop of my own
to work in.
8/13/2001: I contacted Moore Machine and Gear and the gentleman
there said they could manufacture whatever I need for the gearbox
and rearend on the crawler. The next question is price. I'll
take some more detailed photo's of the rear pinion shaft and
coupler and have them quote a price on that. I may just send
them the transmission and pinion shaft and have them go through
everything. I know both of the gear shafts in the tranny are
worn out.
8/17/2001: Shipped the broken clutch pieces off to Mecco. I'm
curious to see what they can do for me as far as replacement
parts go.
8/19/2001: I tried to use my AC garden tractor to jockey the
crawler around and park it out of the way. It was barely able
to budge the crawler, spinning it's tires instead. I had to resort
to using my Ford
truck
to move it. Then I figured out I could use a big crescent wrench
with a tiedown strap to disengage one of the track clutches.
After that, it was MUCH easier to turn the thing around. It tore
up the ground pretty good too. I think it'll have tremendous
traction when it's up and running again.
8/30/2001: Just got a call from Mecco. They can make a new brass
throwout collar and splined drive piece for the clutch. $275
all told. Not cheap, but the project moves forward.
12/24/2001: Just got the clutch parts back from Mecco. They did
outstanding work! I highly recommend
them, but be prepared for a wait (my parts took about four months.)
They didn't just machine the parts out of brass stock, they cast
the pieces out of brass and then machined them. The parts look
factory stock, which is important when trying to restore a piece
of equipment. They made both the brass throwout collar and the
splined drive ring. So...big part left is to get the transmission
replaced/refurbished.
Mecco's contact information is:
Mecco Edgemont Clutch Co.
P.O. Box 52373-T
Tulsa, OK 74152 0373 USA
Tel: 918-583-3060
Fax: 918-583-3080 |
