A couple of notes on the install:
- My first attempt at preventing the crank coupler from sliding forward off of the rubber bushings was to use longer bolts with wide rubber washers to hold the coupler to the crank pulley while still allowing for flex. This was a massive disaster as when I rotated the engine with the starter, two of the longer bolt heads caught the casting in front of the engine, broke, bent, and jammed. It took me 8 hours to disassemble the front of the tractor, remove the intact bolts, cut through the remaining one, and extract it from the pulley with an easy-out. The rubber washers in the spline recess worked perfectly and was a good deal cheaper.
- Because the hydraulic tank is built-in to the loader, if I want to remove the loader and run the engine I'll need to remove the pump as well or it would be running dry. Because the pump holds the coupler on the rubber cushions now bolted to the crank pulley, if I remove the pump I'll have to remove the coupler shaft and coupler disc as well. This is a labor intensive process and as such the loader is now not easily removable. If I had a tiny hydraulic tank that I could plumb into the pump when I remove the loader then removing the loader would be a lot easier.
- At first I tried to use a quick-connect coupler for the suction line as well, trying to preserve the loader's quick attach character. However, I eventually realized that standard quick connect couplers are only rated for pressure connections and not suction/vacuum. My loader would work fine when I first started it but after a few minutes of operation it would be almost completely unresponsive. The suction line quick connect coupler was allowing air to be sucked in past its seals and causing the fluid to foam. Eliminating the quick connect immediately solved the problem. I replaced it with the ball valve I mentioned earlier so that if I shut the valve I can disconnect the suction hose from the pump without the tank draining out through it.
- The tank has a ½" NPT drain plug in the bottom. If your tank was never used that port is likely plugged with a plastic shipping plug and not an actual steel threaded plug. The plastic shipping plug will need to be replaced with a flush allen head ½" NPT plug. The pipe threads on mine were badly rusted and I had to cut them deeper with a pipe tap to get the plug to seal, even with 4 or 5 wraps in yellow, gas rated Teflon tape.