Gave the Mule a bath -- UP Date --

[UN Hooker]

I think it's time I updated the original thread to show where I'm at in restoring the Mule.
After pressure washing everything I could get to, I made a mental list of the things that needed attention so I could get it to the point I could use it to see what else I would change to my liking.
The first thing I did was pull the vertical pin on the center pivot and split the machine in half.  When the pin cleared the lower bearing step, tiny pieces of the two large needle bearings just rained out of the hole--NOT good.  Slid the rear half back and looked in--bad.  Flipped the tub upside down and looked in the bottom, real BAD!!  At this point I decided that using needle bearings in the vertical pin was a bad idea.  The forces exerted on the vertical pin would destroy this type of bearing in short order.  So, to fix this problem, I torched out the bearing housing and started building a new one.



 

Being nose heavy, I tack welded a piece of box tubing across the top of the blade.


I removed the vertical pin, rolled the tub back and flipped it over to see how bad the bottom was.


This is what the bottom of the housing looked like.  The thrust face was all chewed up from the broken pieces of the rollers.  I welded a piece across the remains of the bearing shell to drive it out.  This is the point where I decided to make a new housing for a different type of bearing.



I cut off a piece of 5 inch dia. stock and started making the new housing.



Finished honing the ID to fit the new pin.  Then welded this back into the tub.
Oops!  Last two pictures got reversed.



I welded up both thrust faces and pressed in a full-length bearing made from AMPCO 660 material.

To be continued.     UN

[logman81]

Looks like a project!

[tantoy]

Nice work, so you going to cut out the old bearing housing tube on the back section of the skidder and replace with that?

[UN Hooker]

Yes, and that was the easy part of the job, the steering cylinders and mounts were a bit more challenging.
   UN