Snow removal tractor input

[jjsmith]

Mike do a search for qa42a. I did last night jus to see what id find since I recently acquired one, and found some nice pics of an electric chute rotator made from an electric power window motor. With a little ingenuity there's actually not much to it.

 

[mpatterson]

Here we go with that searching thing again. I knew I shoulda stayed in school longer! Will keep trying. Any of you sponsors out there sell this "upgrade"? After all, better to keep your money local.

 

[dfrisk]

Mike P. - The bracket for the chute rotator is welded to the right side of the chute, be tough to move without a welder.

Several people have put elec. rotators on and really like them. Dave Kirk did a real nice write-up on his he did years ago.

 

[mpatterson]

Anyone happen to know when Dave wrote about his set up? Have been looking through the vault under the sand box topics. Have yet to find it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[proessler]

Mike , if U have front hydraulics U can go that route for chute turn. Steve Blunier has pics of his setup...

(Kraig ?,Help)

 

[mpatterson]

Have not been fortunate enought to stumble upon a hydralic set up yet for the 782. Might have to see about the electric motor set up though.

Just wondering, some of you have added other lights to your cub, whether its on the cab or on the side of the grills - just how much more lighting can a cub handle? I know your not going to use it all the time and its only switched on when the tractor is running, but can these tractors charge up the battery enough & run the lighting ok? Only asking because the cab I bought has the blue rotating light on the top, two nice 2"x3" (give or take) white flood lights on the top, as well as two tail light/marker lights on the back. Mind you the rear lights only take little peanut bulbs, but the flood lights on the top are decent lights. Think the old man had a couple on the back of his regular sized tractor to use when he was plowing. I don't need to fry my battery the first time I use them.

Cab insulation kits. For those of you who have a solid cab, do you have the foam liner inside them to reduce noise? The one I bought has it in the ceiling, just wondering if I should be looking to pick up some more for the floor boards as well as possibly finding a way to attach it some to the posts between the windows to cut down some of the noise?

Supposed to pick the blower up tomorrow - hopefully it works out. Definately will be ordering up some upper linkage arms to prevent taking out my grill. Heck, that was the one reason I bought the parts tractor was for the grill.

Seen on the web a guy used power seat motors out of a car to run his chute and deflector - not a bad idea if you could rig it up right. But again, there is more power needed. I guess it wouldn't be too bad since its in short bursts.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Mike, chute rotators:

Chute Rotators

My #2 125 has a full size car battery installed so it can handle the extra lights and the strobe light.

 

[proessler]

There is a replacement 4411 headlite in LED/ Grote par 36 (Trilliant #63821-5) that I was considering a while back but at $100+ each I passed!...

 

[dfrisk]

PAUL - I'd RUN... not walk away from those lights too! I don't think I've spent $100 for lights for all my CC's & Farmall's combined in my whole life... until I bought a new combination rear work/tail light for the M from OEM Tractor Parts. A complete new light, probably imported but still looks like the factory lights was $135. I seem to remember the tractor had a rear light decades ago but it didn't get moved onto the new batter box seat mount. The old light was probably in a bucket or box of junk that sold for $5 at Dad's last sale.

I'm not a big fan of most LED lights, they look very brite, but don't really throw a lot of light it seems, plus they're very directional. They seem brite straight in front of them, but get off to the side a bit and you can barely tell they're on. SON put LED parking/turn signals on his '93 Lightning a couple years ago.

A lot of guys on the other forum are converting their big IH's to HID lighting, and are happy with the results. That's even more money! And I don't think a CC has enough elec. capacity to run even one of them.

 

[mpatterson]

Kraig, thank you for the link to the correct time in the vault, I was only off by like 4 Years!

Will throw this out - what a "intermittent-on toggle switch"? Is that the type of toggle switch that at the rest stage its in the center position, then left would be one way and right the other? Not sure the correct terminology for switches - sorry. Is there a way to rig these motors up so that it will run into a stop at the end of the stroke either left or right. Only reason behind this is that fancy wave washer and setting that up, do you need a degree to do that? I might blow a few brain cells figuring that one out!

So what your saying Dennis is that the lights that are on the cab are likley okay to be run by the 782 (without seeing them that is)? Not sure that I would want to sink anymore $$ into this cab yet until I see for sure it will work on my 782. The more I look at it and scratch my head, I might have myself a cab for a Super.

Only say that because of the lenght of the floor boards. Need to retreive the 782 from hidding to be sure. Then I will be in a pickle if I have a Super cab and no Super to put it on! Can't imagine putting the 982 on snow duty!

 

[jjsmith]

Yes mike you are correct on the switch. I'm currently in the process of building one myself. I'm not going to use a "stop" left or right since I'm using a power window motor which has a built in circuit breaker. At least that's the plan. If I have to ill probably use bolts as steve b did. I think the hardest part is goin to be fabbing up some sort of cover. On the other hand my dad does hvac and is very skilled with making things out of sheet metal....

 

[mpatterson]

Joseph,
Is the power window motor strong enough to spin the chute when its cold and possibly a build up of snow and ice? Not doubting you, just do not know how strong those motors are. I have the old manual style crank window still on my truck!

Don't have that fancy "power" stuff on my truck.

Kraig,
You posted a picture of Steve's blower set up for us earlier in this thread and he had the upper linkage "flipped" over on his 149 - but I see in the vault posting where he is showing us his hydralic set up he has them flipped back over the "correct" way when attached to his 782. Do you know if he has ever mentioned if the "correct" was was better for the grill clearance or did it make much of a difference. I am asking Kraig this, but Steve, your more than welcome to answer as well as others. Just curious which is better way if one worked better or not. I do like the idea of the hydralic set up, but that's not an option for me at this time. Definately think I will look into the electric motor idea. Will have to see if I can make a trip to the junk yard before the snow flies. Off the wall question - is there an easy way to see if the motor works in the junk yard before bringing it home? Can you use a smaller 12v battery to test it, or does it need to be grounded or something to test them? Only thinking this way cause I'd rather make one trip do. Not sure I want to take the guys word "Yes it works, heck there is nothing wrong with that part, you will be up and running in no time!" Yeah, SURE!

 

[jjsmith]

I think it should be strong enough. I know I've been pinched a few times by having fingers in the wrong place when testing a power window. I'm going to take off the chute and clean up and lube the part that it turns on real good in hopes to avoid as much friction as possible. And if it should prove not up to the task I have plans to make a new manual rod simlar to that of a model 450 in that the end will have a "crank" of sorts instead of using the factory rod for it.

 

[mpatterson]

Well, the blower is home. Have yet to look it over good, or try fitting it onto the 782. MAN, these things are small! Looking at it compared to my walk behind blower, the auger is not very large around. Not saying it won't work, but just odd to look at. Blower is in good shape though and really hasn't been abused that's for sure. Missing two of the four finger gaurds in the chute, but hopefully get two pieces of rolled steel stock and bend to same profile as the others. At least the little clamps are still there to hold them in place. Now if I can just get the "honey do list" whittled down some to take the time to set this up for winter.

 

[dtanner]

Mike Patterson
Those power window motors have a two wire connection , so grab the plug to make the new wire up.Since they are a two wire one is power and the other is ground to battery.They have more than enuf power to turn the chute on a snow blower.I have the motor here but have not installed it on my 450 YET .

 

[hydroharry]

Mike - just found this thread and see you just picked up your QA42A. I loved using mine on my 1450 when I lived in CT.

Kraig - Oh Great One - Keeper of the Photos - how bout posting those 3 pics of me throwing snow on my driveway. If I recall correctly they were from a March snow storm and the snow was really heavy and wet, but the thrower still did a great job.

Mike, there are alot of things to look over on the thrower. I wouldn't worry about the finger guards in the chute which you mentioned. They actually tend to attract the snow so you will want to put your fingers there and you are NOT supposed to anyway. But you should NEVER leave the tractor seat with the thrower running anyway. As for what to really look for, I see Charlie mentioned the little drive sprocket and drive shaft. That can be a problem area. I really recommend tearing the whole unit down and doing a thorough inspection of everything and a reasonable restoration if you have the time before snow. The paint needs to be good or you will have some trouble with snow sticking. Slip Plate (graphite) paint is good but I never used it myself since I didn't care for the color or that it does wear off over time, more so than good paint. All the mechanical things are just as important if not more so than the paint. That small chain sprocket tends moves slide side to side in the holder it's mounted in, and I always liked shimming it up with brass shims to keep the chain aligned with the main drive sprocket on the auger (It slides side to side as you raise and lower the thrower and puts pressure on it). Also, allowing it to slide side to side causes it to "cut" into the mount where the needle bearing are located, and it can wear right thru the casting holding them in place, but I think Charlie sells those parts if you need them. Also, I restored at least 6 of these units over the time I lived in snow country, and everyone I picked up had the set screws loose on the drive shaft. This can really mess up the keyway and shafts it mounts to (the small sprocket shaft and one of the gear box shafts). If either is bad you can probably get a new keyway cut into them rather than replacing the shafts themselves. Do to the age of the thrower I believe it's a good idea to disassemble the right angle gear box and make sure the bearing, shafts, keyways and both gears are good. Of the units I went thru I only ever had a couple bad bearings which is suprising since the outer bearings don't really get greased from the gear box operation - which is also why I like using the FAQ recommended 75% gease and 25% oil when refilling the box. It's hard to describe how the box itself is designed but you'll see when you disassemble it (an inner and outer bearing for each shaft). The auger can get really worn down if the chain is not kept properly tensioned but it can be replaced as well. The chain itself needs to be in good condition, not all froze and rusted up. The bearings on the auger are really hard to check without disassembly. You can tell pretty good how they are when you have the chain removed. They are pretty easily replaced (it's the same bearing lock used on the mechanical PTOs on the front of the tractors). They are not expensive and are not greasable so I always replace them. About the only other thing mechanical is the gear wheel for rotating the chute. These can get sticky and rusty on the inside shaft so I always disassemble and clean them good, greeze'm up and reassemble. When you remount the gear wheel assembly make sure you take a little extra time aligning it - otherwise when you try to rotate the chute it wil jam in the chute holes. Good luck and have fun throwing snow. I always loved it}

 

[mpatterson]

Don T,
Lets get to it! Then you can post a play by play installation thread for all of us who want to install one. I like the couple that I have seen so far. I would have thought with the amount of snow you can get in just one storm in the East, that would have been right up there on your TO DO list.

Harry,
Now that is usefull info for those of us who have never used or been around a QA42 blower. Thank you! Now I just need to get the time to go over the new attachment and see if there is anything wrong with it. I am sure I will have to replace something on it. Kinda normal with the age of some things, but at least we all have something useful when we are finished with them. Not like some of the crap you buy now a days!

I will let you know how I make out once I dive into this one. I will certainly be a learning process.

 

[dschwandt]

Dn and mike, All power window motors that I have ever dealt, and they are all Chryler motors, the 2 wires are for the directions and they ground through the housings. So you may have to run a 3rd wire dedicated to ground from the mounting bolts of the motor back to the frame.

Dave S.

 

[hydroharry]

Mike - I should have re-read my posting for grammatical corrections. I think you get the jist of what I was saying. I should have also mentioned checking the cutting edge. It's not very substantial but is reversable. If you're going to use it on asphalt you'll want to keep the skidders set so the edge is about 1/4" to 3/8" off the surface. I always like to weld a shoe to the stock skidder. If you decide to weld the shoe to the skidder make sure you keep it towards the outside of the skidder so it doesn't interfere with the housing or when you install the skidder you'll discover you can't lower your cutting edge close to the ground surface. If you look back at Kraig's pics you'll see his skidders have the shoe welded on. Can't see if his shoes are offset towards the outside of the skidder. Oh, and Kraig mentioned your flights on the auger. They do look pretty good to me as well. If you have any that are dinged out of alignment you can use 2 hammers to straighten them (1 hammer in each hand and pound on it between the hammers at the same time). Also have a good look at your paddles. I believe you have the 4 paddle version which some say work better than the earlier 2 paddles versions but I don't know. The auger is welded to the paddles and often the welds will break loose so make sure those are good.

 

[kmcconaughey]