The driveshaft was sloppy and from I've read online it's expensive to replace and this one wasn't even greaseable. I discovered the parts tractor had greaseable joints after I had made a new one. Oh well. This is better. I used Spicer 1000 series joints for the new shaft. Easy to find at ag shops or heavy truck shops. First picture is a size comparison. The 4th picture used to be a v belt from a Z482 engine. Had it lathed down to a 1" shaft and slipped the 1000 series yoke on. It was later welded as you can see in the 2nd picture. It's tricky to get in place but it does work.

Not really swap related but I changed these bearings too. They were super loud and dry. Not pictured is the hole I drilled in the bottom of the front axle to grease the pivot. Doesn't need it but won't hurt it.

This double V pulley used to be a 10 rib serpentine pulley that was lathed down. Could not locate any 5 bolt PTO stub to put on the flywheel. This was easier and cheao anyway. I forget the diameter but it's about a 25% overdrive from stock so I can run at a more efficient 3000rpm to get the same PTO speed. Engine is only down to 19hp at that rpm. You can also see the air filter box and starter from the APU worked in the tractor. The filter is a common part that's stocked locally at a heavy truck shop.

Keeping with the theme of using common, locally stocked parts I went mega overkill on the fuel filter. It's a 5 micron filter. My service interval will be when the engine gets rebuilt or when I get bored. It's $10-15 or something. Lots of room to get at it from underneath. Bottom of the filter is a few inches above the bottom of the frame.

 

Now that’s a fuel filter!
Does this have glow plugs and a block heater and/or stored in a heated space?

 

More not swap related but important stuff. This little linkage guy was all worn out. The goofy stepped bolt is all worn out. Drilled the hole a bit bigger and stuffed a brass bushing in with a 1/2" bolt (the diameter of the smaller step). Also took apart the steering box to see how it worked and tightened it as much as possible. The pin on the pitman arm is pretty worn but it'll work for now.

Had to add a return line to the tank. My brother's work had leftover fuel fittings from chinese diesel powered heaters. Has an o-ring on both sides of the tank and a nut tightens it down. Worked well. 1/4" supply and 3/16" return.

"For competition use only" so you know it's gonna be fast. The rad came in an LS swapped forklift my dad got for scrap. Appears to be a chinese honda half rad. Fits perfectly and the price was right.

The APU came with this nice fuse/relay box. There is a stud at the back that powers all the fuses and another stud that grounds one side of all the relay coils. 1st relay is starter, 4th relay is glow plugs. That's what the cover said so I just went with it. I really like the location. Easy access behind the panel. The 2 bolts on the frame and the 2 bolts on the fuse/relay box bracket are the 4 bolts for the fuel filter base in the previous post. That's the best pic I have of the fuel filter location. I just realized today the filter is below the fuel level so it's gonna siphon out when I change the filter. I'll have to make sure the tank is empty when the motor needs a rebuild.

 

Battery from my sister's Beetle that got totalled. Perfect fit. There's a couple small bolts near the dash that had to be flipped around so they stick into the dash, not into the battery. The tray was moved back about an inch to clear the water pump pulley. The distance between the pairs of bolts that hold it in place. Battery wires are 4g I think. Reused old stuff with new ends. Loom only because I have 2 garbage bags full of it and need to use it somewhere.

Got a couple gauges at a local auto parts store. I like the full sweep. Don't care about the hours or amps so much. It doesn't have any power draw when running except for lights and I don't know the hours on the engine so there's not much point.

Couple holders for the gauge lines made from a P-clip I wasn't using. Gotta keep them away from the PTO engagement stuff.

Had the rad ports cut off and 1/2"npt bungs added instead to give me adjustability in my hose routing. Generic silicone 3/4" hose on the bottom and 1" hose on top.

25k BTU trans cooler. The only size they have with threaded ports. I know it's low pressure but I'd rather have threaded ports than hose clamps. The upper rad mount is the plate that used to go between the hood hinges very modified. The lower mounts are bolted to the angle in front of the PTO pulley. It's supposed to be where you'd bolt your shroud on. It's also supposed to be in a Honda so whatever.

Missing a seat. Tried to fit a couple automotive seats but they're too tall. Rear tires flipped out and has wheel weights. Will be making some chains. Looks stock. Just like I wanted. And check out the very well hidden steering hoses. It got all new hoses for the steering system. Routed them much nicer. They used to be a mess. This picture was from before I started it and found out I had the steering hoses backwards so when I turned left the assist suddenly went full lock right.

Big reason why I didn't want to get rid of it and buy a factory diesel like everyone on facebook said is it has a snowblower, 2 60" decks, a blade, and a sweeper. My understanding is they're all 400 specific. Would be useless. The snowblower has new chain, new auger bearings, new chute cable which promptly fell off when testing it. The short driveshaft will be replaced with 1000 series parts since I have no idea what kind of joints those were and the dealer said they're not available. Now it'll be common parts. Just waiting on the H yoke to get here. I need to take more pics. I'm caught up and still have 3 reserved posts to go. If you want to see anything I haven't shown yet let me know and I'll add it.

 

Took a bit of a break for Christmas and started school on Jan 2 so progress slowed down.

The starter refused to kick out the gear 9/10 times. I noticed in a parts manual a mention of a bigger starter motor available. Since it will be mainly used in winter and the price wasn't really any different I got a new gear reduction starter that was in stock at a local automotive electrical shop. The owner said they see a lot better life out of these bigger ones. Everything is bigger and better built. I think it's 1.2 or 1.4kw vs the 1.0kw. Check out my temporary stainless exhaust my dad and I threw together to start it.

While I was in school my dad welded the exhaust together that I had fit up a while ago. All scrap stainless mig welded together. Not winning awards but it works. It's a bit long until I decide exactly what I want to do with it. Didn't have room for a muffler. It's kinda noisy.

And he shortened some truck tire chains to fit. It's a little harder than I thought to find chains for this size. Princess Auto has a few different sizes but none are really meant for tires this big. The tires are flipped the narrow way now.

 

Didn't have any tail lights. Found these at Princess Auto while looking for tire chains. They fit well. Cheap enough. Not wired in yet.

Princess Auto is a dangerous place to be with a credit card. But they had a light bar that looked like it would fit the front.

Fits pretty good. I left the holes on the sides so I can put a clear cover over it in the future. It's a low shallower which gives a lot more room for a fan to fit.

It has a seat now too. Another scrap part. The fan is kinda visible behind the grill. I don't have any other picture of it. It's only an 8". 10" could have been squeezed in but only realized after I had it wired in.

I was really unsure about the PTO shaft. I couldn't locate the U-joints for it. It got upgraded to spicer 1000 series parts. The splined yoke my dad had laying around. Don't know what it came from. The rest is new. I thought the driveshaft I made for the transmission was 1000 series also but it's bigger. I had to move the gearbox ahead about 5/8" so the new shaft would fit.

And here it is at home. Missing a fan temp switch so I zip tied the relay signal wires together so it stays on as long as the key is on. It warms up way better than I thought it would. Had it up to 230 before I turned the fan on. With the fan on it hovered around 195-205f which is right where I like it. The air filter is sucking right off the exhaust pipe now though. I think with that rerouted to cold air it won't need constant fan. Worst case I can pull off a side panel to help it cool off. It needs more weight. It doesn't have a lot of push for the hard snow drifts. I have to back up and hit them again pretty often. Now that I'm ready for snow the forecast is for the wind to come from the opposite direction so nothing will land on my driveway. That's the way it goes......

The Suzuki is my daily. Also diesel swapped, but TDI that time. But that's a whole 'nother project on a whole 'nother site.

 

Princess Auto is a dangerous place to be with a credit card

Us wrenching guys around here call the P A store, "The Candy Store"

I have a D782 3 cylinder in my lawn rider......

 

Reserved 6. This should do it.

 

Man, you blow up a lot of engines!

 

I blew up 1. But let's just pretend it would have died anyway. 😁

 

Love it! Anything but an Onan!

 

That's the most interesting 400 I've ever seen. Can't wait to hear how it works on the driveway!

 

I agree!

 

Nice tutorial. The next time someone wants to repower a 318, I'm going to send them here!

 

Very Nice Work, and "shade-tree engineering"!!! I am sure that the end result will be well-worth all of your effort!

 

Looks good! Now you just need to turbo it. Just out of curiosity, what is the Kubota engine model you used? I put a D722 in my JD X475.

 

All that typing and I didn't even mention the engine model. 😒 It's a D722. Your thread is what led me to accept the smaller displacement motor. I was aiming for d902 or d1102 or similar sized yanmar. Turbo has been tossed around but I don't know if I really need to. A k03 from an early TDI is dangerously close to bolting right onto the manifold. 1 hole needs to be ovalled. But the hood gets in the way and I'd rather keep it stock looking as much as possible.

 

Awesome project. I love the sleeper Restomod look. I used a newer style seat with ZTR seat suspension for my 400. I wanted to use some sliding mechanism as shown, but it made it too tall and i didnt use it. Super comfy now. BTW, with the wheels in wide position, they will be wider than your snowblower's clearing path.

 

I saw a similar seat at princess auto yesterday but with arm rests. Might be something I do later on. For now I'll look for a freebie.

I did measure and the tread is pretty close to the snowblower width but the sidewalls bulge out. I may try adding some scoops on the side to get it a bit wider. I like the look of it this way. Or look for a wider 2 stage?

 

After much waiting I finally was able to use it. Right after I got it home it didn't snow or blow any drifts for a month. Then it did snow a week ago, but the tractor didn't start. Fuel froze and the lift pump is weak. Even diesel 911 couldn't get it going. Today we got some snow and I could finally try it out. It starts kinda hard for it only being -3c. PTO belt kept slipping, sometimes the blower would completely stop. Coolant temp got up to 230f and seemed to stabilize around there. Fan was going constantly. Don't have my switch hooked up yet. No traction at all. Back end keeps pushing sideways when there's resistance making me back up, straighten out, go again. Kinda annoying. Doesn't blow very far. Don't know what the engine RPM is yet. I think I'm spinning the blower close to stock speed. Need to make the chains X shaped maybe? Definitely needs more weight. Leaks fluid out of the blower lift cylinder(s). Every time I stop to adjust the chute angle it left a mark on the ground. Still a lot better than a walk behind that doesn't self propel properly. Even went and did my neighbors driveway since he keeps doing mine without me asking. That'll show him.

 

You might check that the glow plugs are working, and make sure you wait for them to heat up before trying to start the engine (if you haven't checked them already and aren't waiting).

The hour meter is useful for tracking ongoing maintenance, even if it hasn't logged all the previous hours.

 

That model 50 blower is heavy, you need good ballast, mine does not do well with 40 lb wheel weights alone. figure out the PTO belt slippage issue and do the rubber “Flapper Mod” for the center Auger paddles and it will toss that snow far. You’ll solve those other loose ends no problem. Good luck.

 

Merc is right. Flapper mod and you can re-gear the chain drive to have it spin faster to match your engine speed. IIRC from the threads I have read about the gear change I believe you go one tooth bigger on the drive gear and one tooth less on the auger gear.

 

I have realized it needs more weight. That will be dealt with next season. I didn't realize how bad it would be.

The flapper mod has been done. I heard of it before this project was done.

My PTO pullies are already 25% faster than stock but the actual engine RPM is still unknown. I may regear the chain drive. We'll see. I can change the 90 degree gearbox from 1.25:1 to 1:1. Or flip mine around and really spin it. But I don't think I have the power for that much.

 

Had some issues with it sputter and dying on me a few times in summer when I let some nieces drive it around the yard. (lots of uncle points). Had a feeling it was the lift pump. It was stuck when I originally got the engine and I think there was a seal or 2 broken. They were all hard and not doing much. $240 later I have an OEM lift pump. Huge difference actuating it by hand. New one makes noise and has resistance. Blocking the out port it builds some pressure. Old makes no noise, has no resistance, and no pressure. Runs much better. More power, less smoke, no sputtering, smoother. Also runs cooler. Likely more from moving the intake away from the exhaust. Stayed at 190f today instead of 240f like last year when it couldn't work as hard because the belt kept slipping. In summer I borrowed a photo tach and it was at 1050 idle, 3450-3500 wide open. That's where I set it by ear in spring. The throttle position I used for actual work was 3000. All exactly where I wanted. When I checked it with the tach it was sputtering and smoking when wide open. I'm thinking from the bad lift pump. Didn't think to try it wide open today and see if it's better. I assume it will be. Got the rear PTO case to throw on as weight. Planning to fill the rear tires with RV antifreeze too.