Just got back from an assignment, to find a bit of a snow drift across the driveway... right where Ann backs out of her parking space in front of the garage (
Mutt was sitting in it's 'outdoor' parking space, so I flipped up the seat to knock the snow off, hopped on, and fired up the Honda. I've got a somewhat poor 'mix' of hydraulic fluid in both the loader reservoir (left hand stanchion) and in the hydrostat (I know... should be HyTran Ultra, but the RH axle seal is leaking a little, and I didn't have a seal on hand last Friday night, so I poured in some 'universal' to get by)... so it took a few minutes for the hydraulic fluid to warm up enough to move nicely.
Once warm, though, it made really quick work of the snowdrift.
I DO need to yank the hydrostat treadle linkage, and totally redesign it's operation. I have about 85 degrees of swing from full forward to full back, with neutral being in a comfortable relaxed ankle/leg position. The treadle has a heel-and-toe orientation, like a heel-toe shifter on a touring motorcycle. Problem is, theres about 10-15 degrees of slop between general looseness of the linkage, and the trunion spring setup. Most of it is the sliding-slot of the sector that acts on the trunion spring plate.
They designed this linkage to work with a reasonable travel of the hand lever, but also made it so that the linkage to clutch-brake pedal would neutral the S/R lever and linkage automatically.
Since I'm using treadle, and going independant brakes for the explicit purpose of wheelspin control, having a 'neutralizing' linkage contradicts my operation. of course, I eliminated it... actually, just never installed it... back when I built this machine from parts, so it's not like I 'eliminated' it...
What I'm considering, is removing the trunion, etc., and installing a connection point right on the swashplate lever, which will go directly to the treadle through a pair of rod-end joints. I'll include a knob-adjustable centering spring (to bring it to neutral anytime there isn't a foot on it, and probably a small fluid-damper (to keep it from oscillating on it's own), and finally, a neutral lock position, to keep it from being 'kicked into gear' when it's unoccupied by an operator.
Something I considered long ago, was fitting a clutch to the driveline... basically, an in-out mechanism, first so that It could be cold-started without hydrostat drag, and second, so that it could be disengaged from 'hydro creep' circumstances when the seat wasn't occupied. The driveline arrangement then didn't really permit a practical clutch solution, but I may revisit some of the clutching ideas, and find a way to incorporate it into my flywheel-side coupler.
But for tomorrow, it'll be fuel tank. Mebbie I'll address the grille and hood a bit. Mebbie conditions will be right for a quick axle-seal replacement...
and mebbie I'll skip it and work on house-type projects instead.