What do you do when your jeep is torn apart, the weather is super nice, and you REALLY want to go offroading? Take the antique tractor through the woods trails and crawl over stumps, haha! I gotta keep my rock crawling skills finely tuned so I'm ready when flossy is back together.
That's a great Simplicity garden tractor '56. They sure don't make them like that anymore. I see where folks are taking lawn tractors and turning them into overlanding rigs on line. It looks pretty fun, but with no suspension, I don't think my back would like me very much after while. Then I saw where they are doing demo derbies with lawn tractors too. Nope, I'm good just watching the videos.
I restored one of those Simplicity garden tractors for my brother many years ago. Cast iron and steel, Kohler engine. They definitely don't make them like that anymore!
Last edited by bmorgil; 04-16-2025 at 03:10 PM.
It's a great little tractor, only 9 horsepower, but it will pull basically anything you put behind it (including that CJ5 that broke down one time...) It still runs and works, and never has any issues, it just keeps on going. This one has a Briggs engine, which has way more cast iron then any 1 cylinder should ever have, but you can't kill it. To prove your saying of "they don't build them like they used too" we have a modern simplicity that dad bought new. I think it was about 400ish hours on it when the engine had so much blow-by it barely ran, then blew up and caught on fire. But even before that, with it's "23 horsepower" and about twice the size tractor, the old 1964 tractor starts easier, runs smoother, and will pull 10 times as much. You can't beat the old iron!
While I have some down time as I wait for the block to come back. I decided to address the issues I previously had when trying to run the overdrive. So I was told my issue could lie in the transmission. The output shaft of the transmission (Which the overdrive rides on) has about 1/16 inch of movement fore-aft. I read it should be less than 0.005". So I separated the t-case from the trans, and found the rear transmission bearing, is completely loose on the shaft. Since it's supposed to be pressed onto the main shaft tightly, I'm thinking this may be my problem.
At a quick glance, all the gears look okay, no rust, or pitting. And only minimal wear, nothing crucial. I got the minor rebuild kit from KW. I'm not going to go crazy with the rebuild since the engine took way more then I had expected. So I think I'll just do a simple bearing change in the trans for now. See if that fixes the overdrive issue, and go from there. Then later on I can do a more complete overhaul, and rebuild the transfer case. But for now I want to not have too many pots in the fire, and mainly focus on the engine. I just want to do the simplest fix to carry me a little while longer, and to eliminate one variable as to why the overdrive won't work.
I don't know if I'll ever run out of things to tear apart on this little jeep, haha! But now I get to try transmission work, this will be fun...
The t90 is apart! Everything went smoothly, and didn't even take too long, this things pretty simple inside. Looks like I'll be replacing the countershaft inside the cluster gear, it's got some wear. And the thrust plate on the cluster gear looks pretty bad. Other then that, and the normal wear on the unsynchronized first gear it all looks pretty good. The 2nd and 3rd gears as well as the shift collar look fine!
One thing I did notice, the input shaft is not very tight in the front bearing cap that the throw out bearing rides on. There's no bearings in this, but I'm wondering if it should be a tight fit?
Looks like someone made their own locking tab for the countershaft and reverse idler, compared to the new tab on top.
Looking good 56"!
The input shaft is not a tight fit inside the sleeve that the throw out bearing rides on. The input shaft has a good deal of clearance inside. The locking tab is definitely a "fabrication".
I'm scared of transmissions - a phobia of mine.
How do you hold all of those needle bearings in place when you put it back together?
Thank you, that makes me happy, because I saw it was loose, and thought I would be replacing that. So that is great!Originally Posted by bmorgil
I'm sacred of everything, when I first got flossy I didn't want to touch the distributor for fear of messing something up. Well, I'm a little ways deeper into it now, then taking the distributor cap off, haha.
The needle bearings look like they will be a good test of patience, that's for sure. I've watched plenty of videos, seeing everyone's techniques, so I think I'll be able to do it!
Last edited by 56willys; 04-20-2025 at 10:57 PM.
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