Hi Graham,

Unless I'm mistaken the dims you give calculate out to 9.906 cc. Small, but with sufficient ratios in the transmission it should move itself.

You do know what FIAT stands for? (Fix It Again Tony!)

just kidding….had friends growing up with FIAT 128 and X1/9 cars. Lots of wrench action on those, but great fun and very cheap, used.

Looking forward to the trattore agricolo build.

JD

Hello Jeff. Good evening.

Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (meaning Italian Automobile Factory of Turin).
See ***LINK*** please for more complete information.

Regards
Dias Costa

Hi Jeff,
The discrepency is in the number of cylinders. The picture looks like four cylinders to me.

Les.

Its a pity all the photos on the net have it with a bonnet, shame to cover that engine up.

Gray have you not considered rolling the rims and soldering/welding in the web of the tee? standard traction engine model method

Edited By JasonB on 13/12/2012 08:07:13

Yes the all steel wheels do make things a bit easier than having to buy or cast rubber. Being as I like hit & miss engines I did take a look atteh IHC Titan drawings that Reeves sell but they leave quite a bit to be desired. Galloway also made a small tractor that used their engines and that is a slight possibility for the 1/3rd scale engine castings that I have but more likely a saw rig.

MEB has featured a couple of nice US style tractors which may offer some inspiration like this John Deere.

I'm sure the engine will give enough power to turn the wheels with the model up on blocks which is likely to be the best way to display it rather than trying to ride behind.

Keep us posted of progress.

J

Hi Graham,

What about building a wagon for use with the tractor, with a box or barrel load to hide coils, battery, maybe CDI unit etc for the ignition? That way the scale appearance of the tractor would not be compromised, and you would get the reliability of full size ignition components.

A set of points or a timing sensor can probably be hidden in the engine somewhere, and shielded wires from these components to the wagon would not be too obtrusive. Two low voltage wires from the engine (ground and ignition timing pulse wires) and one high tension lead from wagon to a scale distributor on the engine would do the job I think. If CDI was used you may need one more low voltage wire. Is Jan Ridders cooker igniter a continuous sparking unit? you could also use a buzz / trembler coil continuous sparking unit in the wagon and run a high tension lead to the distributor. That way there is one wire from wagon to engine and no points are used. Cattle prods and some Model T cars use buzz coil style continuous sparking units.

Just my $0.02.

JD

Is it just me, or does the clutch look a little undersize?

In many USA built tractors (the ones I am much more familiar with) a heavily built large diameter clutch is a main selling point for durability in hard service with unskilled operators and high torque engines.

Thanks for the pic – very interesting!

Looking forward to watching the build.

JD

Hi Gray,

A fascinating prototype. You rear axle section is an interestingcontrast with how the Fordson was arranged.

Neil

Hi again,

The Fordson bevel was splined to the shaft, but its hemispherical back appears to have been 'cupped' by the differential housing (a dome-shaped casting on each side of the worm wheel that held the four pinions. A split ring stops the shaft pulling out of the bevel, but I can see nothing that keeps the bevel in mesh with the pinions .

Ah confound it! The cross section is very poor but now I see a spacer (that I thought was a space) between the bevel and the inner bearing.

Neil

The rad looks great Graham.

I know what you mean re jumbled lines when making construction drawings for your own use and not necessarily to share with others – perfectly useful to you, but often gibberish to others. Mine are similar.

On the rad, is the whole circular crankcase cover / lower rad tank housing filled with coolant, or just a small tank area below the rad core filled with coolant? Will the rad have a soldered tube core, with small tubes flowing vertically? Or do you plan to use commercial pre-made rad core material for rebuilding car or computer rads?

Thanks for posting, JD

Hi Graham, been quietly following along waht a fantastic project, have you considered writing it up for the magazine ?.

Stew