Nick's Very Own Scrapheap Challenge

This has been a bit of an obsession with me for a lot of years. The various components are - a 2cv engine and gearbox, 'tractor' wheels from a potato planter, jockey wheels from a hay turner, an axle from a Vauxhall viva.

Hydraulic pump and motor with tank and valves, steering wheel from a mini clubman, assorted sections of heavy steel and a liberated seat from an educational establishment. It was being thrown out, honest.

To get this project to work, narrowing the axle was key to making it a 'mini' tractor.

The axle dismantled and cut.

Preparing to reconstruct.

The narrowed axle casing rebuilt.

Preparing the chamfer prior to cutting the half-shaft. The purists will squirm at the lathe work, but it got the job done.

Plan A was to butt weld the pieces of the half-shaft together. However, I was encouraged to consider boring up the centre of one piece and to turn a spigot on the other, fit them together and weld in the chamfer. with my lack of lathe experience and poorly shaped turning tools I found turning carbon steel to be a 'challenge'.

So, plan A it is.

The welded and dressed 'new' half-shafts

belt and braces, well at least sleeved, just to make sure!

The wheel centres need to be adapted to accommodate the different axle and wheelnut studs.

wheel inserts finished. You can't see it now, but the welding was a bit iffy - could be an issue in the future!

New tyres - d'ya think?

1/2" unf high tensile as replacement studs. the originals were so corroded you couldn't make out the thread.

Dry run/mock-up call it what you will. Sort-of looks the part.

First stage of the chassis design - mounting the axle.

Possible mounting position of the hydraulic motor. It looks a bit like a torque tube but Vauxhall used this diff 'extension' to locate the suspension. If you look closely you can see the remains of a bolt beneath the drive flange.

It's all getting a bit tight in there!

Rebuilt axle in its very basic chassis. I'm sure that will change.

Ooh look, shiny bits!

…. and back to reality. Coincidentally, my ebay replacement arrived as I was typing this. What were the chances of finding a diff cover for a '70s Vauxhall Viva the very week that I went looking? Very lucky find!!! Otherwise it would have been a tedious job fabricating a very basic replacement cover to mount onto the bolt flange.

And now for the front end! the other wheel is seized on to its axle - a bit of heat and a big hammer, or take it to the smiddy and gently press it off.

The big hammer won in the true spirit of Scrapheap Challenge!

And now for a bit of finesse, the construction of the pivot for the front beam axle. The chassis is lying on its back by the way.

With the stub axles separated from their agricultural donor it was time to weld them to the bottom of the king pins. And that was fun! With the diameter of both the axles and the king pins being about 22mm ( 7/8") it was time to screw the amps of the welder way up! Oh what a glorious sight through the welding mask, this large puddle of molten metal wallowing about whilst knowing it is not going to burn through the component parts. Aaaahh.

The stub axles connected to the king pins, the king pins connected to the beam axle, the beam axle connected to the pivot bearing, the pivot bearing connected to the chassis, I hear the word of the Lord ...... (?) Please note the jaunty camber angle between the stub axles and the king pins to bring the contact point of the tyres with the ground more likely to coincide with the extended line of the king pins. Ooooh, awfully technical for a scrapheap challenge.

A case of too much articulation. If left like this the chassis will interfere with the steering connecting rod, so what I did was to create a crank on the short steering arms. More high amp welding. The result may be visible in later photos.

Wheel refurbishment; the tubes were bonded to the rims with rust and could not be recovered whilst the bearing cartridges seemed serviceable. They are the dumpy things towards the left of the picture.

You might just be able to see the cranked steering arms but, Hmmm, the engine looks too big for the chassis especially when you compare it to ..

oh oh, what's this an interloper, a distraction? Oh no, it's a Yanmar YM1100D, with four wheel drive, three point linkage and PTO drive. As you can see, it needs a LOT of work but it will always just be a restoration whereas my 'challenge' will be a 'creation'. Go on, smile.

If anyone out there might have implements to suit this Yanmar that they no longer need, or that require some TLC, please get in touch (grass topper, rotovator, plough).