Leaderboard

first parts painted with primer a split in the hoodstand welded me cleaning the chassis more parts cleaned and primed chassis and front axle painted gearbox painted after my uncle and grandad fixed a broken hi-low shift fork and and put new seals in. lots of stainless nuts and bolts from the steam rally wheels after cleaning (note I was cleaning my little brothers lawn ranger wheels too) first wheel primed front wheels painted and fitted transmission bolted on rear wheels painted with carlisle cleated tyres from Jim (Mith) - thanks to my dad and grandad for fitting them and not scratching the paint back on all fours Ewan

hurry up ! I want to get my garage back so I can start the GT14 restoration :P

A little time saver to confirm an Onan ignition module is functional prior to installing it, reassembling the engine and keeping your fingers crossed. The diagram below shows how to wire up a standard tail lamp assembly and a few alligator clips to complete the testing. All the wiring and testing can be accomplished on the bench. One Caution - DO NOT TOUCH THE BLACK MODULE LEAD TO 12 VOLT POWER AT ANY TIME. IF NO LOAD (lamp or ign coil) IS PRESENT IN THIS LEAD THE MODULE WILL BE DESTROYED. The modules I have tested so far power have all powered up with the tail light on. When the trigger ring is rotated near the "nose" of the module, one of the two magnets embedded in the trigger ring will turn off the lamp and continued rotation of the ring will pass the second magnet over the "nose" and once again turn on the lamp. An ignition coil puts about a 3 - 4 amp load on the ignition module. A standard automotive tail light will also put the module under approximately the same load and provide a good simulation of the ignition coil load. This post has been promoted to an article

Hi, my name is Ewan I'm 15 years old, I got my first Wheel Horse 18 months ago from Neil in Somerset, UK. I have been working on it for the last 9 months, here are some pictures. btw, my dad is meadowfield, my grandad is norlett and my uncle is Raider10. I have already met a few members at the UK wheel horse meeting last year. When I first got it home. It was very very rusty as it had been parked for a long time outside. most of the bolts needed a lot of heat to undo more rot the front axle was broken I have been cleaning the parts in my dads e tank belt cover cleaned up - thanks to Stigian getting there - more rust than tractor the hub set screws were snapped off hoodstand in the e tank

That is the #5010 transmission...check out this video and see if something does not catch your eye...or ear for what it might be. The video is of the #5010 trans like what you have. http://s419.photobuc...TRANNYS0015.mp4 If I was to guess what it may be, I would say that you have a worn bronze bearing or 2 in the differential housing. If they are worn enough, the play could be enough to cause the pinion gears to bind and that may produce a click. The pinion gears are strong, the weak points are the axle gears, which chip, crack and/or break. I have been rebuilding some of Jake's #5003 & #5010 transmissions. We have replaced the axle gears in a few of them, and the bronze bearings were worn out in these transmissions. Try this...put the rear end on blocks and put into reverse gear and run. You can grab either of the tires and stop it's rotation...the other tire will continue to turn in reverse. Try it with each tire. Do you have the clicking when both tires turn and does it stop when just one of the tires is turning??? With a worn bearing, the force in the trans in the opposite direction could lift a gear enough to create a binding which may come across as a clicking noise. Let us know.

why not swap rear over into the b80, not sure if the 12 hp will fit in to the short frame thought. with the trans swap you could be back up and running in a couple of hrs. then find another wheel horse with a bad motor to put the 12 hp on eric j

So I began stripping apart the $20 B-80 that I snagged on Wednesday to find that the engine starts and runs great! I was shocked...we began stripping parts and decided to try out the tranny. Funny picture below of how I rode it around my yard! Sadly, as I drove it around I blew the carb bowl gasket!! So then I got it back into the garage as it sputtered along spitting gas and began the complete pull apart. I will keep everyone updated as this will for sure be a weekend by weekend project. You can tell this tractor was kept outside...

Got my little round hood fitted with a snow blade today, it does pretty good for as small as it is, for small snow falls I'll play with this, but bigger snows I'll use the 520, the hyd lift on this is nice, I can pick the front tires up about 3/4" off the ground for good down pressure, and still raise the blade up about 6" off the ground.

Got it mounted and tried it out, not much snow here, but enough to play in, it clears the front weight with tons of room, and with the solid lift link I can pick the front tires about 3/4" off the ground, and it still lifts the blade about 6" up off the ground. More pics in this post http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/forum/3-wheel-horse-tractors/page__prune_day__100__sort_by__Z-A__sort_key__last_post__topicfilter__all__st__30

I LIKE THE ORIGINAL LOOK MYSELF. I DID THE MUSCLECAR THING IN THE 80's-90s WHEN IT WAS SOMEWHAT AFFORDABLE. I RESTORED THEM TO SELL FOR A PROFIT, THAT'S HARD TO DO NOW WITH THE PRICE OF NOS PARTS TODAY. THE WHEEL HORSE TRACTOR ARE EASIER TO DO AND PARTS ARE EASIER TO COME BY. THE ONLY THING I THINK IS EXPENSIVE IS A NICE SEAT. I HAVE BOUGHT AND SOLD 15-20 TRACTORS IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS. I FIX THE THE MECHANCIAL ITEMS,CLEAN,POLISH AND USALLY PAINT THE DECKS. I USE THE CORRECT FASTNERS AND PLATING. I RESTORE THEM THE BEST I CAN WITHOUT SPENDING A TON OF MONEY ON THEM. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE A BUYER WALK AWAY BECAUSE IT IS ORIGINAL AND NOT JUST SLAPPED TOGETHER . IT'S ONLY ORIGINAL ONCE AND KNOWN AS A SURVIVOR AND THEH A ORIGINAL RESTORED. DO WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD. TO RESTORE A TRACTOR LIKE A CAR YOU COULD SPEND $2000 OR MORE ON IT. JUST ENJOY DOING IT, I DO. JUST MY TWO CENTS. BOWTIE IN OHIO

I had a B-80 that I was forced to cut the steering shaft below the dash housing to remove it. I then found a good steering wheel and steering shaft on eBay for about $40.00. I still have the old wheel and cut shaft hanging in the shed to remind me that sometimes, no matter how persistent you are, you will end up losing.

The first 314-8 was a 1985 model. (21-14K801) If you stand back far enough to see the big picture, it's easy to see what caused the demise of the "Classic" Wheel Horse GT..... they killed themselves. It's not uncommon to see 20, 30, 40, even 50 year old tractors still working their guts out on a regular basis. Sure - they require maintenance and some parts here or there, but it doesn't cost anywhere near the amount of an equivalent new machine. Now look at the "big box store" junk out there today. The manufacturers pretty much guarantee themselves return customers in 6 to 10 years. They know exactly what they're doing and people play right along with them.

Several years ago I built a Diesel WH by installing a Lister-Petters LT-1 into a 10-8. I just loved the darn thing. It would pull anything you hooked to it and the sound of the low speed single cylinder engine was pure music. Unfortunately the transaxle couldn't take the abuse and shucked it guts. Garden work with that tractor was a pure joy. Two things I longed for was more weight on the front to keep the tires on the ground and a hydro lift. I recently started a project that should take care of these wants. This is what I'm starting with this time. It's an electro 12 with hydraulic lift. No I didn't paint it blue. Are these WH wheel weights? This is the engine. The fly wheel is huge and very heavy. Lister told me the crankshaft weighs as much as the flywheel. That's a full sized alternator in the photo. And this is where I'm at as of this evening. I have had it running and will start on the wiring tomorrow.

Check out what came with my C-160 that I just picked up!

16 onan. Runs decent but could use a little work and mufflers. Starting to like bartering.

I am definitely going to start it. Tomorrow I am going to spin the rope sheave for a few minutes again to pump the mystery oil through the pump some more. Next I will drain that out and pour in some new 30 weight oil along with a little fresh mystery oil. I'll put some gas in the tank along with some lead additive and see if I can get it to fire up. If it does fire i'll let it idle for 15 or 20 minutes to seat the rings and let everything get warm slowly.

I do not use any, and (knock on wood) have not had any problems. Any gasket stuff would work though, the permatex is good, copper coat is one of my favorites for this. I make sure the metal is clean, scrape and wire wheel brush...lightly file any burrs on the outside edges. With these older trannys, sometimes you put it together and something is just not quite right. Much easier to tear back down if you did not use anything. They never used anything when they built them at the factory, you can tell by how easy the gasket scrapes off. :)

Exactly - the main carb body is two pieces. The one-piece has the removable 'tin' float bowl. One-piece:

It is. It's also a small two-piece Flo-Jet ~ not a one-piece. There isn't even a #296103 in the price list. The information I provided in my first reply is directly from my B&S dealer book. Here it is in .pdf ~> http://www.m-and-d.c...ms4258-0679.pdf No sir, that is considered a one piece flow jet. Here is a pic of a small two piece flow jet, which most of my old engines use. Matt

About 25 years ago I built 2 snow plows, one was a V plow and the other was a one way plow. What I used for the moldboard was a 60 gallon hot water heater. I just cut it in half the long way, for the Vplow I just started cutting material out of the middle but I stopped a 1 1/2" from the top and bottom, and kept pulling the ends back until I had a 90 degree angle, welded a piece of 1/4" steel in the middle to work as a divider. On the front of that I cut a 2" radius on one end to help it raise up over the bumps in the sidewalk. Then made some push arms to push it with. For the one way plow I closed up the left side of the moldboard and bent the right side up some for more clearance. On the left side I also made another piece of 1/4" buy 2" high stock radiused to go over bumps. For cutting edges I had some worn grader blades that I cut to the right length, and made sure the holes were spaced to be centered on the moldboard. I used these for a long time after, and they always worked fine. At the present time I'm trying to get my big snow plow dealer to get me a 3' to 4' rolled piece of steel to make a wing plow to put on one of my WH tractors, hopefully this year. I've got close to 60 miles of township roads to plow for the last 34 years, and when thats done I love to play plowing and blowing snow with my Wheel Horses. I have 4 tractors that I enjoy plowing with in my spare time.

I have started to put 1/4" bolts through the terminal tops with washers and a nut. Then I take a 1/4" wing nut to put the wire onto battery and when I need to take it out I just spin off the wing nut. No need for wrenches to pull battery. I do not keep a battery for every tractor, since I do not use them all at the same time anyway. I simply move a battery to the tractor with snowblower and plow tractor in winter and mower crew in summer. I have found when the batteries are used regularily to start and run tractors year round rather than sit without working for a season they last longer. I think they need to have a draw on them (Starting tractor load) and recharge regularily to function best. I have had issues with my boat battery sitting all winter but not any real issues with my tractor batteries. I don't buy top quality but seem to run them for 3-4 years at least.

I dont know what I do is called I call em a Refresh and Rebuild mostly because how can I do a restoration when I cant even get the exact paint Wheel Horse used which incidentally in the early years of the Round Hoods came from Niles Chemical Paint here in my Hometown (still in buisness here today) I have an old 78 year old friend of mine who is retired and worked in the coatings lab and was involved in mixing the paint. I was a stern believer of using Automotive Type paint Like Dupont or PPG but the past two tractors I spruced up 417A and the 520 Snow Chucker were done with 100% Valspar. Like Kevin, I have done some modifications along the way that I feel Improved the tractor. The way I feel about it with the condition I get most of my Tractors in. Anything I do to them is an Improvement. The main thing is like has been said already is, Just Have Fun and Enjoy Yourself. Cheers ~Duke

i take the shaft out complete like you did and then take to friend to put into a press some times it take in excess of 5 tons of force to remove them eric

Those are Deestone tri ribs, I love them, the center rib is taller like a true tri rib should be, little better pic just before I put the plow on.

That blower's belt was in the outside groove and I cant say if it was the correct belt or not . I sold that unit a few years ago when I upgraded to my tall chute. I do recall when the short chute was on my C-125 that the belt would only work on the outer pulley because of the hood. Mike........

All it really takes is a plastic tank (bucket/barrel/etc) some water and a cup of washing soda (not baking soda), a battery charger, and a sacrificial piece of steel. Positive goes to the sacrificial metal, and negative goes to the part to be derusted. I believe the smokestack site has some great discussion on it as well as other threads here. Be careful not to reverse the polarity as it will damage the part to be cleaned (I learned that the hard way). Also, be careful what metal you use as the sacrificial part. Never use Stainless steel as the reaction produces Hexavalent Chromuim. Sandblasters are not cheap as well as the compressor to run one. You need a lot of air. I got a barrel blaster mostly because they were not too expensive and made in usa. Also, if you are handy, I have run across a couple of sites where people have made their own out of plywood. http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13789

I was at his 50th birthday party. He was pretty sloshed and started ragging on the Packers. So I started busting on him calling him a Fair-Weather Queenie fan. He drops his drawers showing his tat (along with Big Jim and the Twins) to everybody that was there! :jaw:

This is a picture of a seat-pan that came on a used 18 Automatic >> This is a picture of a seat-pan that I purchased, thinking it would work for an 18 Automatic seat cushion and mount as you can see there is only one set of the 4 square holes in a larger bolt pattern. I am wanting to know if anyone can tell me what model this seat-pan may have been used on? P.S. It is a crinkly black finish that the previous owner said was original Wheel Horse paint. I think the pictures that I have seen of 18 Automatics were red seat-pans.

40 is when I needed glasses. 50 is when everything else started to go. You've got some time...but not much. Happy Birthday. Hope you have a great day.

First of all, check with Terry the VinylGuy. www.redoyourhorse.com. Once you have determined that he has the decals you want, make sure that the size is such that it will cover the area where the old ones will be removed. If everything is okay, try removing the old ones by heating them with a hair dryer, lifting a corner, and slowly pull them off. You may find that the paint under the decal looks better than the paint on the rest of the hood due to fading. Clean the surface with mineral spirits, let it dry, then apply the new decals.

I've followed this restore almost the whole way through and not commented but may I say how amazing and educational watching a true master at work! Cheers to you Duke many times over!!

Now if this was a 1969 Chevy Camaro ZL-1...then I would have everything part back to complete OEM. otherwise these are "drivers" or AKA "workers"

Seat wasn't bad at all but had Carhardt bibs and several layers on. Funny how when the little Horse started to get stuck....just put my feet on the ground like Fred Flintstone and away we went. Neighbor down the street had a 4x4 Kubota with blade and was spinning all four tires trying to push the side walk. Just laughed when I went by...wife said "what is so funny" My response..."all that money and can't push a little snow".

You're a Wheel Horse preper. You never know when it's doomsday for the old engines so it's always nice to have a back up. I guess you could always run the new engine in it and save the original.

As the saying goes "To each his own." ask 100 people you'll get 100 answers. I have a 655 done up about as close as I can get it to original but with SS fasteners and I am not ashamed to admit that I drive it around all year get dog crap on the tires and scratches on the hood, about a week before the MI show I drag it out give it a good bath and touch up the scratches. From 10 feet it looks great get any closer and you will see the worn and bent steering wheel, wrong dash decal, never did do the rims, a little rust on the hub caps and the deck sounds like hell. But it is still my baby and a trailer queen in my eyes. I also have a few others that go from workers to wrecks to rollers with no engine or non running and a ratty old puller. But the other tractor I bring to the show is my C-125 worker that is more of a C-175, it's ugly, mean, and nasty but boy is it fun to drive around all weekend. Will I ever turn it into a trailer queen..Hell No! And if you try to judge either one I'll probably tell you where to go. Point is this hobby is too much fun to get all technical and the documentation for such probably doesn't exist. Toro can't even track any of the serial numbers cause someone tossed the records out years ago if they were even kept at all. Each dealer did their own version of prep and installed options after they left the factory, and it wasn't as if they were made in the millions like autos or even close to the numbers that the more popular of farm tractors were. They were a smaller regional manufacturer with no distributors out west and in the deep south, yeah they made em under license in Europe but they didn't have the following or backing of a JD, Cub, or Sears. For a company that started out in a garage and was eventually buried and died under corporate greed it is amazing that they are collected and restored at all to the degree that they are now.

Wouldn't it be nice to see an NOS RJ right out of the box without a single scratch on it? I'm afraid that every single supposedly correctly restored RJ out there would certainly be "over restored" if such a thing as an NOS RJ existed to compare all the rest to. I'd be willing to bet the farm that the paint jobs out of the factory looked like crap compared to what we see now at the shows that are supposed to be "restored correctly" (or even just an average paint job by today's standards.) Who is going to want to do a sub par paint job to try to copy how it was done back in the day? I can hear the comments from onlookers already, "man whoever restored this could have done a much better job on the paint job! That is what is great about Wheel Horse's and the guys and gals who own them. We don't get our undies all tied up in a knot if something isn't just so. Ask a Wheel Horse guy what color red is the correct color and more than likely he is going to tell you to paint it red and it'll be close enough. As far as points judging goes, no thanks. A guy can do a real nice job making everything on his tractor original and as close to the way it came out the factory's doors as humanly possible, rebuilding all components himself along the way, BUT, if he paints the tractor himself and he lacks the skills to do a killer job on the paint he'd fail miserably if there was a points system at our shows. And that would suck in my opinion. Fact is, most cars that are judged at car shows were painted at a body shop and the owners probably took out a second mortgage to get the work done.

As has already been said, part of the fun of this hobby is in the work of "restoring" the tractor. As has also been said, "restore" seems to have many different meanings where GTs are concerned. I make some modification to each and every tractor I work on. This is partly due to a lack of OEM parts here, as well as a tendency to think I can somehow make an occasional tiny improvement to MY tractors for MY use. Some of my machines are what I consider highly modified, but I try to make the work look at least "correct" for the style and use of the machine at the time. In my opinion at least, until some type of cash awards start poppoing up for shows (which I hope NEVER happens to our hobby), then my restores will be to MY personal satisfaction first and foremost. If someone else likes it, great! If not, that's OK by me too. That's not to say I haven't asked others for their opinions, it just means in the end that I have to be happy with the outcome of my work. If there are any "Wheel Horse Police", they can go fly a kite. As a side note: I've seen many restorations at the PA show, and many of them by far exceed the quality of work the factory produced. Better paint, better attention to detail, and far better hardware and components than any that EVER rolled off the assembly line. Personally, I think it's a testament not only to the skills of some of the collectors, but the love for these little tractors as well. I think such things as this are far more important than someone elses idea of a "perfect restoration". In short, my opinion of a benchmark restoration is the one that makes YOU the happiest. Paint it whatever color you want, make any changes you want. In the end, YOU have to look at it in your shop and get a case of perma-grin. What others think can be icing on the cake, but if you don't absolutely love it- what's the point of doing the work?

I think I know what's on your mind on this issue. Some people take more time and research as they rebuild their tractor than others do to make them as original as possible. But there are few "chalkmark guys" in the wheelhorse world. Some paint, others powdercoat, some stainless fasteners, some zinc. But it seems nobody gets anal about a tractor unless it's really rare, then they typically leave it alone or fix what is nessassary. The attitude is different, this is supposed to be a fun hobby and not become a job with ISO standards applied. If WH tractors were judged by some absolute set of "factory" standards dictated by "experts" , then me and my tractors would not apply.

I am doing one right now and I will not follow any strict guidelines. I have nothing against anyone who does however. To each his own. I just want it to be clean and look good to me. I did a 67 Chevelle 20 years ago and did it the same way, to suit me. I cloned an L-79 version that I had when I was young. Again I say, I have nothing against the purist who wants to do it the way it came off the assembly line. In fact it is good that some choose that direction for the reasons you gave. Its just not the way I want to go.

Most anything is alright as long as you don't paint it Green & Yellow.

Or you can go totally of the wall the other way and do something like this

Here's where my head is at...... People need to quit over-thinking these tractors and have fun with them.

hears mine. click on the pic to watch the video

Here is a pict of my snow team.. Raider 10 whit blade going to order me chains to it.. and a 312-8 whit tall shoot blower.. here is a pict of the chains im going to order me..

here is my c141 automatic with a tall chute blower, 140 lb wheel weights on the back. (this is the one that was giving me trouble during the storm saturday all is well now) this is a 314-8 with a 42 in plow. put the front weights on for this storm, help steering alot also have rear wheel weights, 150lb of suitcase weights and then another 30 lbs of plates on the plow to scrape better. you can just see the plates in the picture

Nice to see it in action Duke, even if it was light duty. Matt :flags-texas:

it looks great all completed and at work. you did a great job

I guess it didn't take long running wide open to keep enough snow in it to blow.

Here is another idea. This is the muffler setup I put on a Charger 12 I restored a few yrs. ago. I never smelled when I got off this tractor. The muffler was off a Cub Cadet 122. I agree with Kelly, a stack setup can look good if done right, most times they aren't though.

hey i bought a wheel horse 520-8 out of state college this is what it lloks like now