It finally dried out enough to take out the HG for it's maiden voyage! I shoved some dirt around and took some photos yesterday.
Regarding side load on the bearings due to the chain reduduction: I had checked into this before building the unit. The transmission has large tapered roller bearings at the input, and I doubt there would be a problem there. The bearing at the clutch bell housing is a ball bearing, but the loads should be lower at that end. My feeling is that it won't be a problem, I put in a new bearing, and with the lighter loads and limited use of the tractor, I think this will be ok. The bearing life will probably be a little shorter than without the chain drive, but time will tell.
The only other negatives so far are the noise of the chain drive......it's shorter than they recommend, therefore vibration is not dampened as much as it ideally would be. It is getting quieter and is not unbearable even as it is. I suspect that as the whole unit breaks in, it will get still quieter.
The other negative is that reverse speed is cut in half. Since I'm usually not working against a time constraint, and don't normally need to do any long distance backing, I hope it's not too big of a problem. With the rebuilt engine, there is lots more power than it had, and I may at some point experiment with a smaller total reduction if I find it's too slow.
Everything worked fine, though, during the short session I worked the tractor, with one exception: the governor is not behaving properly.......I'll ask about that in a separate message.
Here are a few photos of the completed project.
Mike
Right hand view:
This photo shows the blade tilt cylinder, and the angle insert in place. The insert will go on either side to set a fixed angle one way or the other.....pretty easy to insert:
Looks great Mike:D:D:D:D