I wheeled and dealed with a friend of mine for this. It has a slant six Chrysler and 727 automatic in it.One of the biggest rear axles I've ever seen in some thing this small with a big reduction gear box hooked to it. We used to tow aircraft with these things and I never paid them any attention.Hour meter says 287.http://www.flickr.com/photos/studebaker-terry/

Cool! My first encounter with a way smaller tow motor than yours was using it to shift a fully loaded train car on a track inside an old Navy warehouse... I recall it could jump the front wheels up a few inches starting out in third. Way slow top end but monster tourque from a standstill.
Doc

My plans are for an FEL and backhoe on it. Plenty of room up front for a pump and the thinnest steel on the thing is the rather mangled hood.It's 14Guage. The rest is at least 1/4" or better. It has springs on the front that will have to come off and axle will have to be put on a pivot. But for now it's a $350.00 paperweight until I get the time to get it sorted out. Oh, by the way, it only weighs 5000 pounds. That's a lot of paper!

Yah, the little tug I encountered back in the early seventies had a 1/2" plate steel chassis. Made for ramming (pushing) things.
I had myself thought about using a tow motor as a tractor base, but all those that came up for auction I was outbid on. Good luck on your project.
Doc

Doc....Thanks I'm going to need all the luck I can get. I just took the master cylinder off and it was full to the brim with water. Now I remember why folks buy new stuff. Good news is that the piston is stuck all the way down and didn't let the water into the rest of the system. Hope to have it running tomorrow night, but go is no good without whoa!
Terry
The link and pictures came out OK I guess, I'm new at that sort of stuff! T

IT LIVES! Spun in a new set of spark plugs and it started right up. My son spent most of today tracing wires and putting them back where they should be. Got the alternator back on and hooked up, fan belt on. I'll mount the radiator tomorrow, hook up the tranny lines and see if the tranny works. Then I get to try and get the #$$$%&* parking brake on the tail of the tranny loose!
Terry

Congrats! If the engine is similar to mine, then its about 100 hp.

UPDATE! After installing radiator and hooking up the trans cooler, I was able to let BIG UGLY (my son named it) idle until it warmed up. The tranny shifts,finally broke the e-brake loose by bumping from forward and reverse. No oil or coolant leaks. Managed to get the master cylinder apart, despite all the black goo it cleaned up and is ready for install. Took the left dual off yesterday, cleaned up the brake drum and wheel cyl. Found out that those 6.50-16 18 ply tires are HEAVY, which desturbed the nest of arthritis demons in my right shoulder. This caused a very restless night so after I get done here I'm going to pile up in the recliner and see if I can get some sleep. No work on the tractor today! The first test drive is not far away!!!!
Cheers!
Terry

Great! Glad to hear it, you deserve rest now.

My oldest son got the other set of duals off for me last night, the drum needs some persuasion but it's getting there. I just have to be reminded once and a while why they disabled and deemed me unemployable. The problem is my mind still thinks it's a teenager. I'm getting better at that though.
Cheers
Terry

Got the drive shaft bolted back up last night and got the other drum off. My son has been helping me with the heavy stuff. We have the old girl starting up on the second crank, it's probably one of the easiest cranking slants I have ever owned. Need to make a decision on what I'm going to do for a cooling fan, might just bite the bullet and get 2 10" electric ones new. My wife fusses that I try to adapt and reuse so much stuff just to go buy something. Her logic is that we saved around 8 to 9 thou on the new tractor she was wanting me to get I should be able to get 100 bucks worth of fans. *Sigh* But that takes all the fun out of it.
Terry

I took a tug tractor like that, made it go backwards and put a forklift mast on it. I get lots of use out of it.

My plans are for a backhoe and loader. At least thats my story and I'm sticking to it
Terry

I have 1000 pounds of weight on the back (what used to be the front) of mine for the forklift, so, a loader would balance a backhoe pretty good.
The frame on mine is inch by 5. You will be experienced at sharpening bits when you are done. A good skill to have.

The "Old Guy" in a machine shop I worked at years ago showed me how to sharpen drill bits. I don't like to buy the coated split tip bits because they need special stuff to grind them. They sure drill nice when they are new though.
The only thing is that the front axle has springs which would have to go. Haven't got under it yet to sort that out. Did yours have a huge weight on top over the back wheels and did you ever take it off? I'd really like to pull mine off to check out the rear axle oil and paint in there. I was wondering how heavy that thing is. Gotta get busy and see about that right brake, will post updates

Old guy I worked for in a machine shop showed me how to sharpen drills, too. I'm glad he took the time to.
I bought a "green wheel" to sharpen carbide lathe cutters and such. Seems soft. I dunno why it works where the other ones don't.
There was about a ton of 4 inch square steel bars above the drive axle. I took them out. When we tried to weld on that steel, it was mostly slag, welded awful. Just made for weight, I guess. I kept the springs on the steer axle. My brakes on the drive axle don't work good either. I work on them once in awhile, think I have them fixed, then give up. Forklifts never have brakes, do they?

I remember well the first time I drove the old blue forklift at the plant. No one was around but myself who knew how to work the darned thing. So I hop on and head down the ramp (the plant has ramps all the way to the roof)THEN....as I was heading for the far wall at a great speed...the boss lady yells..."I forgot to tell you....the brakes don't work!!!".
I don't miss that fork truck one bit.

Gang, there's nothing like wall coming at you at a speed faster than a wall should EVER travel to get your undivided attention

IT DRIVES! My son and I backed BIG UGLY out of the garage turned it around and backed it back in....under it's own power! Electric fan is on the radiator, throttle linkage has been fabricated, now all that's needed is some way to shift it and mount the seats. And replace the rusted out freeze plug that showed it's stuff tonite. Might as well pull the dang manifolds and get brass ones and do it right. Did I say somewhere that I like rusty stuff? Yeah, just not freeze plugs. By the way, lay your fears aside, the breaks work REAL good! E718.....My weight is one big slab. The reason for turning the thing around was so I could get the engine hoist to the weight. It was all the crane could do to pick up the weight set on 2 tons and it would not roll, I had to move the tractor! I don't belive I will put that thing back on. Maybe build some sort of box and put sand in it, or smaller blocks of steel. THat might be a good place for a hydraulic tank. Same guy that sold me the tractor has rounded up a bobcat that has had an engine fire. The guy that owns it is a freind of mine that just wanted it for scrap. Don says the arm cylinders, arms and dump cylinders are OK and has a bucket, forks, thumb etc. You guys KNOW where I will be in the morning!

I call it my forty-five minute rule... Meaning I usually spot deals like that on average of about forty-five minutes after they're gone.... sigh...
Doc