Hydrostatic Drive Foot Control

[Carl]

I actually started thinking about this before I bought my New Holland tractor. As you can see in the avatar photo of the MTD I have a FEL on it. Always found it difficult to control the gear ratio, steer the tractor, and control the loader at the same time.

When I replace the hydrostatic transmission on the little beast in 04 it came to me that it would be nice to control the hd with a foot control peddle rather than the stock hand lever.

Since it was too hot to chop on the 4' willow stump Saturday, I started to look at what would be involved. Made a trial prototype, and like it. Only I will have to figure out a detent so that it always goes to neutral when foot is off the lever. So now I am thinking about how to mount and shape the lever to do the job for me.

[jodyand]

Carl here are some pictures of my parts manual for my cub it may give you some ideas.

http://tinypic.com/70hoir.jpg
http://tinypic.com/70hoqh.jpg
http://tinypic.com/70hoxd.jpg
http://tinypic.com/70hp5d.jpg

[Carl]

Thanks Jody for the prompt reply. I am still hoping for a kiss solution. Although your tractor looks like it has as many mechanisms built into as small a volume as mine.

Does yours actually snap into the neutral position? Or does it just kinda wind up there in a smooth fashion?

[jodyand]

It has a spring that brings it back to the stop position.

[jbain]

Blacksmithman, I think it was your tractor that I saw a pedal on. If so can you give me a quick rundown on how you did it.

[blacksmithman]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/blacksmith/Close-upFootControl.jpg

My foot pedal does not return to neutral by itself. It would be nice to have that feature but I have been using it like this for a over a year and it works OK for me. I started by marking the travel of the control lever. Check the picture and see some white chalk marks on the tractor. The center mark is neutral. Have it in neutral when you remove the hand lever. I made the replacement from a heavy wall tubing. I drilled one end to slip over the shaft from the tractor. I drilled a cross hole for the bolt and added a short shaft for the other end welded in place. I made the pivot end match the correct height and installed a brass bushing I had in stock. The pivot end was made from an angle iron and a welded pipe bore out for the brass bushing. I drilled a small hole for oil. I attached this to the tractor and marked the center spot to the bracket. I removed the bolt and rotated the rod to the rear to get the full travel in reverse. I had the foot pad all ready made up. I tack welded this in place on both ends. I had to bend the rear portion of the pad about 1" so I could get the full travel. That bent part is parallel to the foot rest with very little clearance. This is a good thing because it keeps the foot from slipping off the pad. (I added a 1/2" angle v up to give a better push on the heal.) The rest of the angles were there for a better response to your foot. I welded a strap on the underside from the heal to the toe around the rod. I had to cut the brake pedal and add a bent bracket to clear your boot when driving. I hope you can understand what I did to make this foot control. The diamond plate is very good when your boot is wet. I found a small piece at my local metal supplier FREE.

[jbain]

Thanks Blacksmithman, I understand exactly what you did and I really appreciate you taking the time to type that up.

Jerry

[Dangeroustoys56]

I have a 99 murray hydro- i dont believe mine returns to neutral itself either- havent driven it enough to remeber .......

[marly]

I made my foot pedal about 10 yrs ago. I just added it to the hand lever. The hydrostatic will return to neutral by itself. it is just a little slow unless you are pulling hard. I control mine much like the throtle on a car or truck. The more you push down on the front, the faster you go. Tipping my foot back(heel down) slows it or goes to reverse. I love it and really use it hard. I have worn out two rod ends on it. I took off the brake/neutral cam on the bottom of the transaxle and use only the foot pedal connected to the hydrostat shift control lever. You will enjoy the change.

[Carl]

I decommissioned the loader on mine. The New Holland has a bigger bite. Mostly use the 990 to do garden work and haul stuff in the trailer. If I ever get my dump wagon built it will be working that too. With the garden work, disking and cultivating, The hand control works well.

I think that originally the 990 did go to neutral. The mechanism gets dirty and never had a very strong spring on it. Also the brake activating should return the transmission to neutral.

[marly]

I forgot on my previous post that mine had a friction "brake" on the hand lever to hold a set speed. I removed this thing and operate mine only with the foot control. It looks similar to blacksmithman's.