HI, Everyone!!! A BIG THANK YOU to Kraig for posting these. Angel did her best to try and get them sized correctly and then send them to Kraig. (She's the BEST!!!)
Dennis F. Look on the floor on the left side. That is Hy Tran. (The little light brown spot.) The tractor still has the battery that was in it the day it was delivered to the company after refurbishing and updating the paint and decals. The tractor once unloaded from the pickup was literally driven to the elevator and through the office area to the elevator and then to its first spot in the original basement museum area.
Next picture from the bottom shows how they moved the dash pedestal to the left so the steering column wouldn't interfere with the driveshaft. The CJR is to honor Charlie J. Ricketts (his project).
KENtuckyKEN. If I recall correctly the rearend is all gear. Since the only parts usable were the axles and housings, rims/tires, brake, the way Mr. Ricketts explained it to me is this. He was a hydraulics/hydrostatic propulsion engineer. He had to take a "quick study" course in mechanical gearing and final drives to design the rear drive. I recently met a gentleman that remembers ordering the gears for the tractor so they were custom made for the tractor.
Look closely at the frame in the 8th from the bottom picture in the area just below the hydro. You will see where they literally welded that piece to the frame.
This gets interesting with the engine. If you notice the paper on the top of the hood is copyrighted with information provided to the person about the specs of the hydro. This person states on the paper that the engine is a Kohler 7 hp engine.... Okay.... I'll leave it up to everyone here to tell me what engine it is. (Remember how I stated there were TWO Cub Cadets with two different types of hydros and the other Cub Cadet kept the original 7 hp engine. This one was updated to the 10 hp Kohler because IH was introducing a ten horse Cub Cadet.) This is the paper that must be available when the tractor is put on display away from the company. You can see how they shimmed the grille to accomadate the bigger engine and the plate for the engine mount.
Another retired engineer told me that poor little tractor was really beat up from the rigorous testing and numerous wheelies they did with it. Mr. Ricketts had to literally rebend the front spindles.
The pictures were taken during the company's 40th anniversary celebration last month. to get the underneath picture I ilterally laid down on the floor in front of a lot of people to take that picture. Although I didn't do it that day, I have placed myself in the "driver's seat" very gently and careful to not scratch anything. Talk about a WOW!!! feeling sitting on a neat part of IH history.