Hydra Mac 8A (Gehl 2500) restoration... or "Oh No... What have I done?"

[vinito]

Sadly $400 worth of hoses doesn't get you very far does it? Glad most of it was sorted out easily enough.
Well, we're all waiting for the back flips

Yea, that collection of hoses seemed fine for the money when I placed my order, but it sure fit in a smaller box than I pictured. But they were all there and all correct.
OK the whole thing is together including the previously broken fittings...wait a minute, what did I just say?? holy crap the beast is assembled!! I can't figure out a good way to safely prime the lines by myself as I at least need another pair of eyes and hands to do it I think. Truth is I'm wiped out for today and though I'm sure I could pull it off somehow, I'm too sore and stiff to want to go through with it tonight. I'll have help tomorrow.
So a flicker show is a' comin'. Please just be patient with me for one more day. Of course I'm chomping at the bit to drive this thing around, but that tells you how beat up I feel tonight. It's been a long day. Fortunately just the last couple hours of it are because of the machine. This working for a living thing is starting to cut into my fun time.
In the meantime, for your perusing pleasure I offer this little photo of the battery terminal caps I drew up and 3D printed yesterday...

Gotta love grown-up toys.

 

[vinito]

Yea, that collection of hoses seemed fine for the money when I placed my order, but it sure fit in a smaller box than I pictured. But they were all there and all correct.
OK the whole thing is together including the previously broken fittings...wait a minute, what did I just say?? holy crap the beast is assembled!! I can't figure out a good way to safely prime the lines by myself as I at least need another pair of eyes and hands to do it I think. Truth is I'm wiped out for today and though I'm sure I could pull it off somehow, I'm too sore and stiff to want to go through with it tonight. I'll have help tomorrow.
So a flicker show is a' comin'. Please just be patient with me for one more day. Of course I'm chomping at the bit to drive this thing around, but that tells you how beat up I feel tonight. It's been a long day. Fortunately just the last couple hours of it are because of the machine. This working for a living thing is starting to cut into my fun time.
In the meantime, for your perusing pleasure I offer this little photo of the battery terminal caps I drew up and 3D printed yesterday...

Gotta love grown-up toys.

Without further ado:
After the video, the right side chain "inexplicably" started slipping. Further investigation showed that it was one full link too long, which is very curious. I thought I was pretty careful setting it up the first time, but I took it apart and everything was just fine other than the chain length, so I removed a link and put it back together. I guess I just missed something the first time. Maybe that was my one wrinkle?
Otherwise, the thing works just great. It's waaay tighter than before, very responsive and the drive seems a good bit faster than before too. What a pleasure to run compared to what it could do when it was all clapped out.
Some days are better than others. This is one of the good ones.

 

[vinito]

Without further ado:
After the video, the right side chain "inexplicably" started slipping. Further investigation showed that it was one full link too long, which is very curious. I thought I was pretty careful setting it up the first time, but I took it apart and everything was just fine other than the chain length, so I removed a link and put it back together. I guess I just missed something the first time. Maybe that was my one wrinkle?
Otherwise, the thing works just great. It's waaay tighter than before, very responsive and the drive seems a good bit faster than before too. What a pleasure to run compared to what it could do when it was all clapped out.
Some days are better than others. This is one of the good ones.

Boy, the video sure shows it's the Fall season here huh?
By the way, the smoke isn't anything to be alarmed about. I think I just filled a little too much oil in the engine setting it up and it doesn't take much of a lurch to get some of it up in there I guess. After I fixed the chain and drove it around for about an hour, it did seem to run much cleaner. Prolly get steadily better over time I'd guess.
Also, the loud motor I think is a function of the way my phone's camera mostly. It's not a quiet motor, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as it sounds in the video.

 

[Brad460]

Boy, the video sure shows it's the Fall season here huh?
By the way, the smoke isn't anything to be alarmed about. I think I just filled a little too much oil in the engine setting it up and it doesn't take much of a lurch to get some of it up in there I guess. After I fixed the chain and drove it around for about an hour, it did seem to run much cleaner. Prolly get steadily better over time I'd guess.
Also, the loud motor I think is a function of the way my phone's camera mostly. It's not a quiet motor, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as it sounds in the video.

Nice work! Followed this from nearly the beginning... This is almost a perfect size skid steer from using around the house- not heavy enough to leave deep ruts and tear up the grass, but big enough to lift some heavy s**t! My Gehl 4625 has worked well putting in the driveway, planting large trees, backfilling the house to a final grade, and lastly putting in the lawn, but now i could use something smaller ...

 

[Tazza]

Nice work! Followed this from nearly the beginning... This is almost a perfect size skid steer from using around the house- not heavy enough to leave deep ruts and tear up the grass, but big enough to lift some heavy s**t! My Gehl 4625 has worked well putting in the driveway, planting large trees, backfilling the house to a final grade, and lastly putting in the lawn, but now i could use something smaller ...

Great to see it running around, i was a bit concerned with the smoke, glad to hear it is clearing up as it works in/
One thing i'd like to see is a cab, i'd hate to hear you did all this work and have the machine roll or something. It does happen, and it really doesn't turn out well when it does with out a cab.

 

[bill7101]

Without further ado:
After the video, the right side chain "inexplicably" started slipping. Further investigation showed that it was one full link too long, which is very curious. I thought I was pretty careful setting it up the first time, but I took it apart and everything was just fine other than the chain length, so I removed a link and put it back together. I guess I just missed something the first time. Maybe that was my one wrinkle?
Otherwise, the thing works just great. It's waaay tighter than before, very responsive and the drive seems a good bit faster than before too. What a pleasure to run compared to what it could do when it was all clapped out.
Some days are better than others. This is one of the good ones.

I have been watching this write up from start and its awesome to see it finished, you did an amazing job!!!! I have the same engine in my little gehl and i have a tailpipe i made to point the exhaust out the back and it helped with the noise, otherwise it was so loud in the cab. Plus on mine it was blowing right at the hydraulic tank and didn't want the heat going there.

 

[vinito]

I have been watching this write up from start and its awesome to see it finished, you did an amazing job!!!! I have the same engine in my little gehl and i have a tailpipe i made to point the exhaust out the back and it helped with the noise, otherwise it was so loud in the cab. Plus on mine it was blowing right at the hydraulic tank and didn't want the heat going there.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the support.
It's cool just to have the burden shift in my brain to the necessity of plugging away on it yet another day to deciding whether I just want to play around on it or maybe work on it a little. There is still a long list of wants to do to it such as the ROPS, quick attach, gauges, making clamps for the lines to replace the zip ties, beefing up the auger bracket, making the hoe work and attach properly to it, etc. I'm sure there's no end to this kind of stuff. But all that falls between one evening and a week per project - a far cry from what I've had to deal with thus far. And none of that is urgent stuff which would render it "grounded" for more than the hour or two it would take to attach things.
I was thinking along the same lines as your tailpipe thing Bill. I've already re-directed the muffler toward the rear, so I could pretty easily attach a pipe to extend it a few inches and direct it downward at the end. That's on the list too. And of course that would probably be a ten minute project to attach it once made. Soooooooo cool to have the machine at this stage now.
After work today, the grass needed mowing badly, so first I did that. But then I fired up the Hydra Mac and worked on one of my gravel drives for a while. What a treat! Probably a half hour of my absolute newbie experience and the driveway looks a whole bunch better. It's neat to think that on a whim I can just use this machine and accomplish in just a few minutes what would take hours and likely injury to do otherwise.
But the best thing? Now I can drive the machine outside and out of the way to clean up my filthy cluttered mess I've created in the garage. Holy cow guys! It's difficult to walk through there at all right now save for a couple narrow aisles of semi-flat floor space. I've never let it get so bad before, and I'm over 50 !!

 

[vinito]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the support.
It's cool just to have the burden shift in my brain to the necessity of plugging away on it yet another day to deciding whether I just want to play around on it or maybe work on it a little. There is still a long list of wants to do to it such as the ROPS, quick attach, gauges, making clamps for the lines to replace the zip ties, beefing up the auger bracket, making the hoe work and attach properly to it, etc. I'm sure there's no end to this kind of stuff. But all that falls between one evening and a week per project - a far cry from what I've had to deal with thus far. And none of that is urgent stuff which would render it "grounded" for more than the hour or two it would take to attach things.
I was thinking along the same lines as your tailpipe thing Bill. I've already re-directed the muffler toward the rear, so I could pretty easily attach a pipe to extend it a few inches and direct it downward at the end. That's on the list too. And of course that would probably be a ten minute project to attach it once made. Soooooooo cool to have the machine at this stage now.
After work today, the grass needed mowing badly, so first I did that. But then I fired up the Hydra Mac and worked on one of my gravel drives for a while. What a treat! Probably a half hour of my absolute newbie experience and the driveway looks a whole bunch better. It's neat to think that on a whim I can just use this machine and accomplish in just a few minutes what would take hours and likely injury to do otherwise.
But the best thing? Now I can drive the machine outside and out of the way to clean up my filthy cluttered mess I've created in the garage. Holy cow guys! It's difficult to walk through there at all right now save for a couple narrow aisles of semi-flat floor space. I've never let it get so bad before, and I'm over 50 !!

I was thinking about installing some gauges next, partly because I may have thought of a good way to make it very simple. My previous plan was to install them in some kind of box under the canopy, but after looking at the pedestal which houses the control levers, maybe it would be even better to put them inside there. There's ample space for the guts to fit behind the sheet metal as well as enough space to fit 3 or 4 gauges in a spot that's easy to glance at.
The previous instruction panel had a strip of warning labels in the same spot, but we don't need no stinking warning labels! Here's a picture of the top of the tower with the area in question circled, then the inset shows how it looks now after being blasted and painted, which honestly looks kind of bland now anyways. I was thinking of ways to re-do the instruction chart and I can still do that. But are there any reasons to not put it here?

The obvious "maybe not" is that facing up, rain water or dust & dirt might be an issue, but soon I'll have a canopy covering it and it will likely be stored inside a garage in bad weather - because if the weather's bad, I'll just wait for better weather anyway, right? Other than that possibility, it seems like a pretty good place for gauges.
Any thoughts?

 

[tholkesvig]

Nice score on the back hoe attachment! I can think of a lot of uses for that thing!

Hello I'm trying to follow your footsteps on my gehl 2500. Do you still have the PDF for the hydraulic pump bracket and how you brought the motor up? I could really use a downloaded format. I pulled the old onan motor out. Got the predator motor. A maintenance man at work said he could make it if he had your file. I guess we have a plasma table somewhere at the plant he can run your plan in if I can get it? Thank You In Advance, Thomas [email protected]

 

[tholkesvig]

Nice score on the back hoe attachment! I can think of a lot of uses for that thing!

Vinito, for some reason I can't click on your post it comes up error. That is why I'm trying under Brad. Hopefully you see this?? I'm trying to follow your footsteps on my gehl 2500. Do you still have the PDF for the hydraulic pump bracket and how you brought the motor up? I could really use a downloadable format. I pulled the old onan motor out. Got the predator motor. A maintenance man at work said he could make it if he had your file. I guess we have a plasma table somewhere at the plant he can run your plan in if I can get it? Thank You In Advance, Thomas [email protected]