Good progress a couple of days ago and today with getting the steering control valve mounted. It was pretty unusual that my first idea that I built actually appears to have worked.
Now I'm waiting on hose and fittings so I can connect everything. Also a little bit to do modifying the pump mount if needed for alignment, making mounts for the filters, and covers to clean up the holes in the day.
Here's the "finished" item....
I made this bit to bolt to the nice solid base where the old steering box was bolted down. It gets bolted in first.
And this bit to slide into it and mount the steering valve.
When they slide together the inner tube is secured in place by the two M14 that can be accessed from the side. Plenty of space for hoses straight off the bottom of the valve and down through openings in the existing brackets.
The front edge of the new steering wheel ended up about level with the original steering wheel and 40 mm higher - that was actually planned.
Here's a pic that shows the relative alignment of the steering wheels with the mounting bases lined up.
I cut a section out of the dash to clear the steering valve to allow the dash to be easily removed without needing to move the steering valve. This just needs me to remove and extra new panel on top of the dash first.
I first looked at the brackets that secure the lower edges of the dash, but decided to mount from the same point as the original steering box for two reasons:
- Very solid. I could probably lift the tractor with the lower mount tube.
- It made it quite easy to get the location of the new steering wheel where I wanted it.
Pretty happy with how this worked out, even for a version 1.
