Working on a model of a Lindeman crawler

[Ray]

Like probably most Lindeman owners, I bought one of the little 1/16 scale models of the crawler.
These are nice models but my crawler isn't original anymore so the model doesn't match it.

I don't have heat in my garage so when the weather starts getting to cold ( or to hot ) to work out there, I stay inside the house and work on smaller projects.
Well the weather is getting colder now and doing the recent work on my crawler in the garage has given me the urge to make the same modifications on the model that I have made on the real crawler and I thought some of you might like to follow my progress.


Here is my Lindeman model.




First thing is to take it all apart.




I have put a 12 volt electric starter on my crawler and it sits right where the oil fill tube was.
So I cut the fill tube off the model and milled that area flat.




The starter will be made out of plastic and I'm turning it out on the lathe.




This is the finished starter.




I have a flexplate ring gear bolted to the back of the flywheel on the crawler and I formed a cover to fit around it.
Here I'm turning that ring gear cover out of a piece of plastic.




Because I had to remove the original oil fill tube from the crawler to mount the starter there, I had to make another fill tube for the crawler.
That fill tube for the model is being turned out of a piece of brass.




For comparison ... here is the starter, ring gear cover and fill tube on the crawler.




And here are the same items on the model.

[Ray]

This block will be the battery box and the gauge panel.
The top of the box has counter sunk bolts holding it down and I'm drilling the counter bores here.




I use a hand drill to drill a .020 diameter hole in the center of each counter bore.




Then a small nail is pressed into the drilled holes to represent the head of the bolts.
One nail is already in bottom left counter bored hole.




The bolts on the top of the box are all in place.




The rest of the details are added to the box and it is attached to the model of the crawler.
For comparison, here is a side view of the battery box on the crawler.




And a side view of the model.




End view of the crawler.




End view of the model.

[Ray]

The Lindeman crawlers had a panel on the front of the radiator with louvers that can be opened or closed to regulate the water temperature.
This louvered panel was missing when I got my crawler so I put a thermostat in the upper radiator pipe to control the water temperature.
Then I built a grille guard out of 1/2 inch round steel bar welded to two pieces of angle iron, to help protect the radiator.

The radiator on the model is a separate piece and I figured that I could use two pieces of of 1/8 inch square " U " channel brass strip and slide them in along the top and bottom of the radiator.
Then I could solder the round brass bars to the front of those two strips.

Looking closer, I see that the top and bottom of the radiator piece isn't straight across but has a slight peak to it in the center.
You can see this peak easily above and below the square part of the " radiator ".




So instead of making the grille guard so it can just slide onto the radiator from the side, I'm going to have to use brass angle strips and screw them onto the front of the radiator.
I have to use a 1/8 wide angle in order to have enough room for the screws.
The square part of the radiator only sticks out about 1/16 inch so one side of the brass angle strip needs to be cut off.
The easiest way to do this is to clamp the brass angle strip into the mill vice with a piece of wood so the endmill can cut down into the wood as I cut the brass angle back.




The two brass angle strips are then fastened to the top and bottom of the radiator with four 00.90 machine screws.




I soldered the first two brass rods onto the angle strips while they were still fastened onto the radiator.
The grille guard was then removed and clamped in a vice to solder the rest of the brass rods onto it.
I'm using a thin strip of aluminum as a spacer for soldering the rods in place.




Here is the grille guard on my crawler.




And the grille guard on the model.

[Ray]

I put an alternator on my crawler to power my 12 volt system.
For better circulation of the water thru the engine, I built a water pump unit using the pump part off a mid 60's Jeep 4-cylinder engine.




For the model, I machined these two parts out of a piece of clear plastic rod.




Here is how they look on the model.




On my crawler I have installed a sight glass on the back of the gas tank so I can see how much fuel there is.




Here is the sight glass on the model.




The farmer that owned this crawler before me must have been a big guy because the arm for the seat was bent down quite a bit.
I straightened it up and added two metal rods to the arm to strengthen it.
The model isn't highly detailed and one of the things that is noticeably missing is the spring on the seat arm.
I have added the two support rods and the spring to the seat arm on the model.

[Ray]

The model has the bump on the hood for the brush guard but it doesn't have the gas cap behind it.




So I added a gas cap to my model.




My crawler has a power take off shaft on the back and the model does not so I added that also.

[Ray]

So far, the parts that I have been making are quite simple and easy to build.
However, now the items that I need to make are going to be a lot more complex and a lot harder to build.

One of the modifications that I made to my crawler was to change the drive clutch from being hand operated to making it foot operated.
This way I can keep both hands on the controls, whether steering the crawler or operating the hydraulics, and I'm able to stop or start the crawler without taking my hands off any of the controls.

The clutch is operated by this foot pedal by the left foot rest.




The linkage from the pedal comes up behind the steering lever on the right side of the crawler and attaches to a lever arm on a rocker shaft that is mounted on top of the rear plate.
The mounting bracket for this end of the rocker shaft also holds the throttle lever arm ( the arm with the red knob ).




The linkage extends down from a lever arm on the other end of that rocker shaft and attaches to the lever arm on the left side of a offset pivot assembly, that is mounted to the back of the rear plate.




A strong spring is attached to the lever arm on the right side of that offset pivot.
When the clutch pedal is pressed down, the linkage opens the drive clutch and it also rotates the spring lever arm up until it is almost at top dead center.
With the spring in this position, there is basically no pressure exerted on the pedal and it takes very little effort to hold the clutch pedal down.
This comes in handy when driving the crawler in parades at tractor shows because they stop and go a lot and I can sit there holding the clutch down without my foot getting tired.

When I'm ready to go again, all I have to do is release the clutch pedal and the spring snaps the clutch closed and holds the clutch linkage tightly in place.

You can see how well this top dead center spring pull works.
The clutch pedal is pressed down and the spring lever arm is rotated up to the TDC position. I'm taking the photo from the right side with my foot stretched out and holding the clutch pedal down with just the slight pressure from the edge of the sole of my shoe.




These are some of the parts to start making the clutch linkage.




I took that one piece of linkage with the hole in one end and the other end is cut off and I'm forming it into a " U " shape around the end of a piece of brass.




This is the mounting bracket for the left side of the rocker shaft and also the throttle lever arm and it is soldered onto a piece of brass angle.
The mounting bracket for the right side of the rocker shaft is also soldered to the right end of the brass angle.




Here is how it looks mounted to the top of the back plate on the model.




I have made up the rocker shaft and it is getting soldered together.




These are the pieces for making the offset pivot.




And how it looks when all assembled.

[Ray]

The offset pivot is fastened to the back of the model with a screw from the inside so I had to pull the model apart to be able to get to the mounting screw from the inside.




The clutch linkage is painted and fastened to the crawler model. I have also made up the throttle lever and the linkage rod that goes up to the governor arm.
The two steering levers are mounted in place as is the clutch foot pedal.

[Ray]

Lindeman used mounting blocks that had rubber bushings to attach the JD tractor motor unit to the two square crossbars that the track side frames fastened onto.
While scrounging for parts to put my crawler together when I first got it, I was able to pick up some extra mounting blocks with the rubber bushings.
I used these extra blocks to mount the upright frame tubes of the loader to the square crossbars of the track frame.




This is one of the pieces that I made up to represent the mounting blocks.




This is how they look mounted onto the crossbars for the track side frames.




The upright tubes for the loader are made from 3/16 diameter brass tube. Here they are clamped in place and ready to be soldered to the mounting blocks.




The upright tubes on the crawler have extra metal welded to the back side of them for extra support.
I have added that extra support metal to the model uprights and here is how they look now.




The loader has a square cross brace fastened between the two upright tubes.
In order to be able to get a threaded hole right in the center of the square tube, I first got a piece of solid brass rod that fits snugly inside a piece of square tube.




Then I put the round rod in the lathe and drilled and tapped it. This rod was then slipped into the square tube and soldered in place.
Angled bracing was made up and soldered to each end of the square tube.

This is the finished cross brace for the model.




This cross brace if fastened to the two upright tubes and soldered in place.




Here is the upright loader frame so far, mounted on the model.

[Ray]

There is an angled brace on the inside curve of the lower part of the two upright frames.




These are the parts for those two braces for the model.
The upper mounting brackets ( with two slots ) are also the mounting brackets for the hydraulic cylinders for the loader frame.




The angled braces are soldered to the upright frame.




I made up the two loader frame mounting brackets that go on the top of the frame tubes and also the mounting bracket for the bucket hydraulic cylinder that is mounted on top of the cross bar.




A small block of brass is machined out for the hydraulic valve body and the control levers and pipe fittings are attached to it.
This is mounted on the right upright frame tube.






The hydraulic oil filter is made up and mounted to the upright tube.






The upright frame is painted and mounted on the model.




Scrounging thru my plastic model parts, I found a pair of headlights to fit this model and also a toolbox that is just the right size.

[Ray]

The tank I built for holding the hydraulic oil is mounted underneath the crawler and it comes up along both sides of the tractor frame and in front of the front cross bar for the crawler tracks.

This photo is looking inside the right track and down at the hydraulic tank.
You can see the oil level gauge on top of the tank in the right side of the photo and the pipe that runs from the hydraulic tank up to the small gas tank on the back of the tractor fuel tank.




Originally, the small gas tank on the back of the fuel tank was used to hold gas and the main fuel tank held Distillate fuel. The tractor would be started on the gas from the small tank and then switched over to run off the distillate fuel from the main tank.
I run my crawler on gas all the time and that small tank is where I fill the hydraulic tank from and it is also the vent for the hydraulic tank so the vent is up high and farther away from the dust from the tracks.

Looking from the front, this shows the front of the hydraulic tank and the pipe going up to the small tractor tank.




Here I'm machining the hydraulic tank for the model out of a piece of plastic.




The machining is finished on the hydraulic tank.




Test fitting the hydraulic tank under the model.




The oil level gauge and the fill / vent pipe is added and it is painted.




The hydraulic tank is mounted under the crawler.




A closer view of the fill / vent lines running up to the small tank.

[Ray]

I've started Building the frame for the loader.




Checking the fit on the model.




The bucket is mounted on two flat steel bars that extend down from the ends of the loader frame. The upper part of these steel bars is formed to fit onto the side of the round tubes on the loader frame. The two main flat steel bars are reinforced by another flat steel bar that is welded to the side of each of them.
The mounting brackets for the rocker bar, that controls the rotation of the bucket, are fastened to the outside of the flat steel bars. These mounting brackets are reinforced by having a piece of flat steel welded on each side of them so they are held rigidly in place.

These mounting brackets on the crawler, viewed from the side




And viewed from the top.





To form the end of the first flat bar to fit the round tube of the loader, I first had to make this half round die block.




The die block is set on the press table and the end of the flat brass bar is set on top of it. Then a round piece of steel rod is set on top and is pressed down into the die block.




Here is what the end looks like now.




The two flat bars are then soldered onto the end of the loader frame.




The second flat bars are formed to fit and they are soldered on the outside of the first flat bars.




The mounting brackets for the rocker bar are made up and fastened to the outside of the flat bars. The two pieces of flat support bar are soldered to each side of the mounting brackets on each side. The rocker bar is fit into place.

[Ray]

The flat riser supports are cut out and soldered to the top of the curve on each loader tube.
The three brackets are made up and soldered to the bucket control rocker bar.




The support rods are soldered onto each of the loader tubes and the rocker bar is mounted back onto the front.




The four flat plates are cut out for the hydraulic cylinder mounts and the two front supports are made up from square tube.




This is how those parts look when assembled together.




And how they look when they are soldered to the underside of the loader tubes.




Then I made up the two rear square support tubes.




And soldered them to the underside of the loader tubes.




Because I have done so much soldering on the end of both loader tubes, I put them back on the model to make sure that the rear mounts haven't moved.

[Ray]

I cut out a piece of copper sheet and formed it around a piece of round brass to form The bucket.




Soldering one of the sides onto the bucket.




Here is the finished bucket.




Here is how it looks so far mounted on the model.




The outside mounting brackets on the bucket are cut out of a piece of brass angle and soldered to the sides of the bucket.






The two arms are made up that control the rotating of the bucket.




The arms are fastened to the bucket and to the two outside control arms on the rocker bar on loader.

[E.Huffman]

That's what I call talented!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looks very good!!!!

[Ray]

Thank you for the nice comment.
..............................................................................................................

The loader is painted and mounted onto the model.
The two photos of the actual crawler were taken before I put the decals on it.