John Deere 330 Tractor

This has nothing to do with the Camaro, but it's a cool project anyway. Here I will attempt to attach a front-end loader to a recently acquired JD tractor. The FEL came with the tractor, but is not made for this model and has never been attached to it.

The finished product in action.	Trying out the rear blade after a snowstorm.

It's a 1986 330, the only year this model was produced. It has a 3 cylinder Yanmar diesel engine putting out 16 hp.

It came with rear wheel weights that will come in handy for Winter driveway clearing duty.

One of the drawbacks of the 330 is that it only came with one set of front hydraulics. At some point I might try to add a second set.

The engine is water cooled and runs like a top.

It has a rockshaft in the rear. I have no idea what that is.

These are the loader supports after a cleaning and repaint. They were taken down to metal and treated with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator before painting.

This is the loader arm, with Donatelo the cat watching for mice in the background.

The hydraulic control for the loader looks to be in good shape. It will get new paint.

First mock-up of the loader in my crowded basement shop.

The hydraulic control painted and installed.

The bucket is rusted through in one corner, but that can wait until Spring to have a patch welded in.

This is the hydraulic pump for the loader, and the 2 pistons for the loader arm.

Like a dumbass, I didn't take 'before' pictures of the loader, so now I don't know which hydraulic connection is the input and which is the output.

I wasn't able to figure out how to get the pulley off the hydraulic pump, so an hour with the hacksaw freed the old bracket.

The hydraulic lines are test fitted before being sent out to have new ones made.

The new hydraulic lines are finally done! I primed and painted them with Eastwood's Clear Zinc to keep them looking new.

The soft hydraulic lines are also being replaced.

It won't be easy to make this look neat.

Some pipe clamps were used to make new stand-offs for the lines.

Better weather means that it's time to start figuring out how to mount the loader frame.

Some brackets I had laying around will be used to mount the back of the frame.

The front will be bolted to the tractor frame if I can get a hole drilled through this 1/4" steel.

Some tweaking will be needed to keep the brace from hitting the motor cover.

Since the set screw wouldn't come out of the pulley, I got a new pulley from Grainger. They didn't have one with a 7/16" hole to match the pump shaft, so I'll have to use a brass shim.

The rear mounting brackets are tacked in place to allow for fitment of the loader arms.

I welded some nuts into a piece of pipe and might use it to mount the loader brace to the front.

Working on a bracket to hold the hydraulic pump on the front of the tractor.

Curse this short attention span! Was at the Deere store picking up some filters and saw some JD green paint. Picked up a spray bomb and now look what happened. Have to stay focused...

When 2 projects collide.

After a few hours of cutting, welding, grinding and swearing, I've come up with a bracket to hold the hydraulic pump.

Now I have to find a way to mount it to the tractor frame. I'm thinking of just welding it in place.

The bracket is modified so the pump belt can be adjusted.

Some bracing was added to the pump bracket to keep it from flexing.

Finally time for a test fit. Of course the belt is an inch or two short. Still have to figure out how to keep the bracket from tilting under load. Don't think the single bolt is going to hold it in place.

The skies have cleared for the first time in what seems like a month, so it's time to get back to work. Most of the loader is assembled for final fitment.

The fit is pretty good.

I'm starting to think I might actually be able to make this work!

The racking of the frame is evidence that the fitment has a ways to go.

It's going to be a tight fit at the controls. Not much knee room on the left side.

So I finally get the whole thing back together, fill it with hydro fluid, and try to operate the loader. Nothing. No movement at all. Spent a while troubleshooting before discovering the pump worked counter-clockwise and I needed it to run clockwise. So I went to Northern Tool and got a suitable replacement.

The new pump is bigger than the old one, so a new mounting bracket will have to be fabricated.

This bracket will allow the pump to be adjusted up and down for the belt.

It might be easiest to re-use part of the old bracket.

After measuring and fitting, it looks like the 'ears' of the old bracket will work.

Just need to add some bracing to the back. Some 1/2" angle iron should work.

The new pump is huge compared to the old one.

The pump bracket is complete and painted. I wanted to clean up the welds a bit, but the grinder stopped working.

Here's the final product installed.

Next thing to do is shore up the front mounting brackets. It's been suggested that these aren't going to be strong enough under load.

I took a piece of steel that was removed from one of the rear loader brackets and cut it in half to use as supports for the front mounting brackets.

Finally got to play in the snow!

Next up is a Sears sleeve hitch and grader blade that I found for $50 on Craigslist

The sleeve hitch didn't fit this tractor, so I bought a 3-point hitch from Ruegg Mfg.

Using parts from both, the plow was rigged up.

The hitch kit from Ruegg is a work of art. It was of very high quality and only took a few minutes to install.