Some weeks ago something was badly wrong with my morning coffee. After the breakfast I went out and the grass looked too long and lawn-moving exercise was awaiting. I started to think about drive-able lawn-movers and then the next thought was that am I able to build one by myself?

After some brainstorming I came to a conclusion that it would be possible to build. Then some time passed and actually the lawn-moving issue was solved since my dad purchased a robotic lawn-mover and the housing company where I live purchased a better more traditional lawn-mover (but with battery power) that was nice enough to use.

Everything seemed fine, but I was not able to drop the idea to build my own tractor or a kind of big garden tractor. The business case for the build is at least to my dad being able to do snow plowing easier and I’m able to tow what ever I need at my garage from one place to an another. Ok, I admit that the last reason is quite lame, but the first one holds better. 🙂

The DIY Tractor idea has matured to a state that I just couldn’t resist start working on it. The idea was to purchase some really cheap front wheel driven car where I will take the engine, gearbox, electricity things, etc… Basically all what makes the car move. After studying a bit what car to purchase I come to a conclusion that some small Ford which engine has timing chain instead of belt and it needed to have proper fuel injection system. So I ended up acquiring Ford Ka with Endura-E 1.3 engine (based heavily on Kent engine) from the local scrap yard:

Someone had crashed the front to something and at least cooler was broken and some electrical connectors as well. But at least this was a start…

Since it would be just too boring to be happy with front wheel driven or rear wheel driven car I had decided to make it 4×4. 😀

Basically the idea is to rotate the engine and gearbox 90 degrees so that the drive shafts will work as power output for front and rear diffs. Those diffs will also work as reduction gears so that there will be enough force and the tractor will not go too fast.

I already had two 4×4 Sierra rear diffs which I thought I could use. One which is a bit worn out and another that is at good condition that I have planned to keep as a spare for my Sierra. Since I did’n want to use the better diff which I had planned to keep as a spare I acquired rear wheel driven 1.6 CVH Sierra diff  (same 3,92 ratio) from a guy very close by where I live. He had keep that stored for some future project which he had then decided not to do so it was available very cost efficient price. At the same time I also got two cardan axles and drive shafts:

 So now I have all the major parts acquired and hopefully now it will be mostly work to make the DIY Tractor as reality. There are still some minor parts that I know I will need, but those can still wait until the project reaches proper state for them.

So this is the starting post for this insane project. More to follow soon… 😉