Challenger MT265B POWER SHUTTLE BOT MOVING

[Harry in Ky]

Another trick that can help. You still have the starter installed (as shown in photos) so you can temporarily hook up battery cables, then using a jumper wire or remote start button bump the starter briefly multiple times while pushing things together. That seems to work well for me. The jolt can help in getting splines to self align and things slip together easier then just turning the motor by hand.

 

[coopedup]

Another trick that can help. You still have the starter installed (as shown in photos) so you can temporarily hook up battery cables, then using a jumper wire or remote start button bump the starter briefly multiple times while pushing things together. That seems to work well for me. The jolt can help in getting splines to self align and things slip together easier then just turning the motor by hand.

I had put the starter back in to do a compression test. But I did consider bumping it over with the starter to get it back, I don't have a great battery so I would have to rob peter to pay Paul. Or rather return peters battery that I stole for Paul. If I get a good battery back for it and find my remote start trigger that would be a great solution

 

[Harry in Ky]

You don't really need a good battery. You just want to jolt the engine slightly. No need for it actually turn over. A two second bump repeated until splines mate up is all that's required.

 

[coopedup]

well I had to take care of a few things yyesterday all at the same time but after about an hour of running around the garage, I got the tractor back together. I had it perfectly lined up already I just needed a better method of pulling the tractor halves together. found some longer bolts and worked it back and forth while bumping the starter and it went right together no issues. still have yet to hook up anything else so there is still a lot of work to do but I think it should only take me a couple more hours not including putting the front axle back together

 

[Harry in Ky]

Again, we all make choices and are often limited to the resources on hand. The "longer bolts" technique (while sometimes effective) has been known to produce more problems than solutions. I don't recommend it in most circumstances. I use a cable come along to pull the halves together. It can apply enough effort to close the gap but if done properly it's not enough to do any damage. Tightening bolts can apply a lot of pressure on mismatched internal parts causing issues you don't realize until you're (supposedly) all done and ready to start it up.

 

[LouNY]

I have always used longer bolts with the heads cut off as alignment pins/rods, a few times I've had to remove them by cutting short pieces off while working sections together.

 

[coopedup]

Again, we all make choices and are often limited to the resources on hand. The "longer bolts" technique (while sometimes effective) has been known to produce more problems than solutions. I don't recommend it in most circumstances. I use a cable come along to pull the halves together. It can apply enough effort to close the gap but if done properly it's not enough to do any damage. Tightening bolts can apply a lot of pressure on mismatched internal parts causing issues you don't realize until you're (supposedly) all done and ready to start it up.

I guess my description was quite poor, I put longer bolts in that bottomed out in the threaded holes, and I used a short pry bar in between the head of the bolt and engine flange to prevent binding from cramming the bolts tight. This is the working back and forth I poorly mentioned until I got to the point where the normal bolts got enough engagement and I used a 6in 3/8 drive ratchet at that point so I could feel any resistance.

 

[coopedup]

I have always used longer bolts with the heads cut off as alignment pins/rods, a few times I've had to remove them by cutting short pieces off while working sections together.

Yea this is basically how it worked out for me, they still had the heads on them but I was able to use them to nail the alignment. I have made guide rods for rebuilding one of my milling machines, as I had to pull a 200 pound gearbox out of a hole in its housing and there is not a way to just pick it with a crane so sliding it out got it to the point you could throw a sling on it... or man-handle it onto the workbench ha. I am not working on the tractor where all of my tools are so I wasnt able to machine proper alignment pins I would have preferred that but I looked through some of my boxes of new hardware I hadnt yet put away and found the longer bolts

 

[Harry in Ky]

I guess my description was quite poor, I put longer bolts in that bottomed out in the threaded holes, and I used a short pry bar in between the head of the bolt and engine flange to prevent binding from cramming the bolts tight. This is the working back and forth I poorly mentioned until I got to the point where the normal bolts got enough engagement and I used a 6in 3/8 drive ratchet at that point so I could feel any resistance.

You're right, that's a better explanation. As Lou stated headless bolts used as guide dowels can be very helpful. Sometimes it's really the only way to make things work. I have a couple boxes of them in various sizes and lengths, in standard, SAE, and metric. No matter how many I collect it never seems to be enough.