Hmmmmmmmmmm...Another Episode of "I have a torch and a welder"

[Downeaster]

Dale the Builder dropped off his log splitter for some work. Wouldn't start, ram is slow.

Based on past experience, assumed no start was bad gas/water in the gas/crap in the carb. Pulled the carb and there WAS some crud in it, but not bad. Cleaned it, reassembled, installed a fresh plug, checked for spark. Yanked on the starter cord and damn near pulled it out of the engine. VERY little (no?) compression.

Gave it a whiff of StartDamnYa and it did start but smoked pretty bad.

I had added a gallon or so of hydraulic fluid as it was low, decided to cycle the ram to see what "slow" looked like. It WAS pretty lethargic. Bumped the control into return mode and walked around to see if I could throttle the engine up a bit. When the ram hit the stops it blew the pressure-side hose right out of the pump, and pulled the threads with it.

So, after conferring with Dale, I now own it, worn out engine, blown pump and all. OTOH, everything else is usable - ram, hoses, valve, tank, frame. I don't need a(nother) log splitter, but I've often wondered if a fella could make a hydraulic steel bender out of one...

 

[Jim]

Bending steel with brute force? What's not to love.... following.

 

[Downeaster]

And I have a lovely 9 horse electric start engine handy too. Gonna check Surplus Center and see what a 2-stage splitter pump goes for.

 

[RC4MAN]

With the proper dies there's a lot you could do with it

 

[Downeaster]

Surplus Center has a pump for $90-ish (bearing in mind that ya gets what ya pays for...) and a mounting adapter for $15.

Figure another $40-ish for flexi-coupler bits to match up shaft sizes.

I like where this is headed...

One possible fly in the ointment: Suction side of the tank is down low since the original pump was under a vertical shaft engine. I'll be using a horizontal shaft engine so pump will be above the bottom of the tank unless I do a lot of cut-and-weld on the mount.

Any hydraulics folks here? Does the pump need to be gravity fed?

 

[RC4MAN]

If it's well primed the pump being a gear or gerotor positive displacement type once the loop is made it should pump fine

 

[Jim]

Any hydraulics folks here? Does the pump need to be gravity fed?

Nope. Plenty of examples of such. My log splitter for instance, the tank actually doubles as the wheel axle and the pump sits a good foot and a half above that. Suction feed works just fine on it.

 

[Downeaster]

Bad News, Good News, ??? News...

Bad news is that the engine I planned to use has a tapered shaft (came off a yard vac).

Good news is that the pump shaft coupler off the splitter is the style I planned to use on the rebuild, so I won't have to buy one of those. Perhaps one side, depending on the shaft size on the motor I come up with. Also, the pump mount should transfer if I wind up with a vertical shaft motor.

??? news is that the guy I got the splitter from bought a piece of property with barn and contents. He's pretty sure there are at least a couple riding mowers in there along with other "stuff" and as soon as he closes on the property I've been invited to paw through it and take anything I can use and scrap the rest. Hoping there'll be a usable motor in there somewhere.

Push comes to shove, I can get a Predator for <$150.

 

[Downeaster]

Progress Report

I "rescued" two 80's Craftsman riders from the barn mentioned above. One 10 horse, one 11 horse. Been stored inside for 20+ years.

The 10 horse was in REAL hard shape, engine seized, parts missing, tinwork pounded up pretty bad, all four tires rotted right off the rims. Swiped some steel brackets and the transaxle off it and the rest will go to the metal recycler next trip.

The 11 horse was better, complete, engine loose, decent cosmetically, but no deck and rotten tires. Snatched the engine and associated parts, transaxle, tierod and spindles along with the odd bracket here and there.

Spent most of a day wrassling with the drive pulley on the crankshaft. That sumbitch was ON there, but I won eventually. Carb was dis-GUST-ing but liberal doses of carb cleaner and an afternoon in the sonic boomer fixed it up. Electric starter was good without any tinkering (!) and the engine spun over good and showed 100-ish PSI of compression. Reassembled everything, drained the tar out of the crankcase and put some fresh oil in. Built a jig to hold the engine, clamped it to the workbench and spun it over. Started right up, no exhaust smoke, no scary noises. Do need to tinker with the governor a bit as it doesn't want to idle down unless I move the butterfly manually. Thinking a throttle cable will cure a lot of that.

Thus encouraged, I hit my favorite Farmer Engineer site (Surplus Center) and ordered up the engine half of the Lovejoy Coupler, a pump and a pump mount. Also ordered a new foam air filter from that place in South America.

Next step is to noodle out an engine mount adapter since the 11 hoss is MUCH bigger than the 5 or 6 horse that came off the splitter.