I Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

Sweet Nate! So it was red under all that yellow...it was meant to be! Looking good!

 

Everything was red originally, including the hitch and arms. I was looking at the pictures you sent me last night so I can get it mounted up this week.

 

Got the hitch on tonight! It was quite the battle, but its there. Now to make it work...

 

A little more progress made today after working on the Fummins. I got the hydraulic pump installed. Tomorrow I hope to get the valve in and try it out!







And few more shots of the hitch and arms.





This arm is adjustable just like on a tractor.

 

Got the 3 point hitch working today! I need to either get a smaller plow or remove one of them. I don't think a CJ5 can pull a 16" two bottom plow on the plow day I'll be doing.



And I mounted the control valve between the seats. It is supposed to be further forward, but I have the 60/40 seat.

 

It has the front weight. Just too big of a plow for the Jeep

 

Got the tail lights and brake lights working! Also greased up the hitch so now it is all happy like.

 

I would absolutely love to have a setup like that. That’s so neat to see a rare setup like that still functioning.

 

Major progress made today. I found a smaller 2 bottom plow. The Jeep doesn’t squat so bad now.



I added some helper coil springs from a trencher jeep.



After installing the springs. It sits MUCH better now. It rides really hard now with no weight hanging off the back and seems more bouncy now.



Also got the pto working! I had to notch the 3” box tubing spacer for the driveshaft to clear.



And the most important addition, the varmit gun holder! I bought this mount to use on Ted, but it wouldn’t fit like I wanted it to. It works with my ruger 10-22 carbine and my favorite, the M1 Garand.

 

That garand will handle even the toughest of varmits at a safe distance haha cool setup though. Bet my ar coyote gun would fit nice in a setup like that

 

Last year, the hydraulic cylinder for the Stratton lift started to leak internally. The lift would drift down and I could pick it up by hand too. I figured the plunger seal had blown. Yesterday, I tore into it.





After degreasing it, I found there was a big snap ring holding the gland on. I was also happy to see some original red paint, so I know this is the original cylinder to the Stratton lift.



After removing the gland, there was the same snap ring inside to keep the plunger from coming out. It is a very simple cylinder, just a bunch of O-rings. The O-ring for the plunder had torn, which I knew.



The eye of the cylinder had to be cut off in order to remove the gland and replace the O-ring seal on the shaft. The rod is staked in place to the plunger.



The old rod seal (right) was very hard and pretty worn. I replaced it with a standard O-ring from my kit.



I installed the new seal with some white lithium grease.



I checked the dust seal and it seemed to be okay, so I decided to leave that. I did scrape out the gunk that had built up around it.



Then I sanded the rust off where the gland was. I was careful to not hit the bore of the cylinder.



I tig welded the eye back on the end of the rod, keeping it straight and aligned. Of course, I put the gland back on too. Monday morning, I'll go to my local rubber supply company and get the two large O-rings I need for the plunger and gland.

 

Yeah better safe than sorry.

 

Nate,
I'll put a link to this post under the Stratton information section. While you are in there, can you take some measurements and see if there is a modern cylinder that could be used if you had to replace the original?

Thanks,

 

Yes, I can do that Barry.

 

I picked up my O-rings today to finish the rebuild. I put the weird plastic spring? behind the O-ring on the plunger. The gland had no backing washers.



Lubed up the bore so the O-rings would't cut when sliding them in.



And reinstalled the inner snap ring.



For this job, a big pair of snap ring pliers are needed. I would also recommend the locking type like these.



Gland and outer snapring reinstalled.



Prior to putting the cylinder back in the jeep, I air tested the cylinder to make sure there were no leaks. I had none at least!



I put the street 90's in with thread tape and dope. After installing it back in the jeep, the hitch works great again!

 

Barry, here are the dimensions of the cylinder.

Collapsed length, eye to eye: 14 3/8"
Extended length, eye to eye: 18 7/8"
3/4" eyes
3 1/2" diameter case
1" shaft

 

The farm jeep is happy again!