You may be able to just bolt them up.  I could be mistaken but it looks like the same pedestal on 30s and 40s and the steering box or tower bolt down to the top.  But you'll still need a long shaft.

I just checked my parts books and both use the same pedestal, TGO-8859.  I've had the front off my E-4 and I can tell you for sure that the vertical shaft is one piece, and with those cast iron hubs on, very heavy.  Since you have a wide front, if the bottom end of the shaft is splined the same as the top end of the 30 shaft, then you could put a coupling between them.  Check the splines, I would bet they are a standard size.  If they are you could probably find an off-the-shelf coupling at a local outfit for bearings and drive components.  I use BDI because they have an office nearby  and my company does a lot of business with them.

I was just looking at my parts manual again.  I don't want to give you bad information.  The vertical shaft on the wide front has a bushing on the lower end and the steering arm is just below that.  There's no exploded view so I can't tell if has splines or maybe a key.  Looks like it may be too short to reach the lower shaft splines.  Proceed with caution and don't alter anything that can't be replaced until you're sure. 

Where are you in the northeast?  We get to Boston area a couple of times a year to see grandkids.  I can never be sure winter's over until May 1 around here.  A few years ago we had an Easter weekend snowstorm that left 30".  I took a chance last Sunday and took the plow and chains off the Ford that I plow with.

Here's one of my E-3s.  You can see the fenders on the second one in the back.

 

Looks like a day's work just hanging those weights.  I scanned some pages from my parts books (originals from '46 and '50).  Hope they help.  I'll send them by private message. 

Sounds like it went well for you.  Good thing you have a friend with a machine shop.  I was a T&D maker and been around machines most of my career and would have done it the same way.  I used to be able to take small parts in the repair or make new.  I retired in July but I think I'll have to get myself some machines to set up in the old chicken coop.

Small world as actually in this case I am the friend.I also work as a T&D maker in a wire forming factory(safety pins,drapery hooks,badge pins and pretty much anything else made from bending wire)Most of the production machines are designed and built in house so I'm lucky to have access to a pretty nice tool room at the end of my normal day to dub on my own stuff.It's nice to know just what I'm trying to achieve and do it myself rather then having to farm jobs out and try to explain to someone else my crazy notions.

  My 50 is a diesel but not too much different then the gas in many ways.The manual is surely worth a look.Thanks

TJ   

Hi Mike:Nice Oliver ! I'd like a Cockshutt version of one but they are to new to pull around here as an antique class.I needed some lighter hubs for my 50 twenty years ago to replace the heavy cast split ones and I got them off a 1650 parts tractor like yours yours.They are still on the wide front O removed.
You're right about me working at a saw mill.That's what I've done most of my life(so far). I started 40 years ago when 1 of my brothers bought a mill.8 yrs later I had a chance to be an apprentice machinist at this wire form factory owned by an older friend that had recently started up and was growing fast.Since I loved the idea of designing and building machines,I jumped at the chance.After about 4 years in the shop,a small,local mill came up for sale so convinced the local bank and mill owner to take a chance on me and I bought it.Then I hired a couple guys and worked my a** off to make a good living,all the time keeping the old equipment fixed til I could afford newer.25 years,2 back surgery's and a few other ailments later,I retired the mill and made a living restoring antique auto's and trucks,something I'd learned in school and done as a hobby since I was 14.A few years ago the chance came up again to work "part time"at the machine shop/factory I'd worked at some 30 years earlier as it was growing again.For a while I tried to do both,my own work and at the shop but after I'd gotten all my own promised jobs done,I devoted most of my time to the machine shop.The part time has turned into over time so I put my own work on hold for a while(it's now been about 3 years full time)I'm treated very well there and I do really like it.Kind of Ironic that I'm now building repair parts for the very machines I'd designed and built all those years ago.What goes around really does come around!
I do enjoy the less physically demanding work as my back and shoulders are shot from years of bull'en and jamm'en at the saw mills.Part of the reason I don't want to load my tractors with weights(like in the picture) the way I used to.
The years at the mill were hard,hot and cold,depending on the season but great when I was younger.Now it makes me appreciate how much easier I've got it.If my back allows me to bend enough to get my shoes on with out too much trouble in the morning,I'm good to go to work.