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God is good- I was trying to sell the 656 for funds for the Foster Kids and couldn't. THEN-I got a call for a guy who lives in South Bend about my craigslist ad. He said he was looking for an older wheel horse because they were made so tough. We talked-he saw my posts about how I had rebuilt it-and was impressed- To make a long story short-I sold it. I had a tear in my eye when it left-it had certainly come along way-from a bunch of parts in boxes to a good looking , hard working tractor. The guy even talked me out of my snow plow. Now we have our funding-and he has what he was looking for, he is the type of guy that will keep it maintained. I'm attaching some pics- His name is Don-I gave him this web-site as a place to get advice etc. Thanks a lot guys-I know you will help him as you have helped me, if he comes by. Al

Planted onions a couple of weeks ago. Planting red potatoes tomorrow. Just wanted to drop by and show off my new garden gate sign that my kids and grand kids gave me for Christmas. It was cut and power coated.

This is another one of those "family history" things I felt inclined to share. I saw the image below for the first time a few days ago. It was in a box of old slides I was going through with my mom. She and my dad (both 81) recently moved from their house of 50 years to a new, albeit smaller place and I've been helping them clear out old stuff. I know I'm biased, but I think this is pretty damn near a perfect photo. If it has a flaw, it is only that I am not the boy in it. The image shows my grandfather on a pristine Ford 8N tractor, alongside my older brother Mike sitting astride an equally shiny (although slightly smaller) mount of his own. There is no date on the photo, but my best guess puts it around 1960. To give you a little history, my grandfather came to Richmond a Scottish immigrant in the early 1930's, hired by a prominent Richmond family as the farm manager of their large estate just north of the city called Brook Hill. The property ownership dates back to 1714 and the manor house was built in 1731. Although today all of the farmland has succumbed to urban sprawl, the house and remaining acreage is still in the hands of descendents of the original owners. The house in this photo is not "the big house", but is the one my grandparents lived in. It is part of the Brook Hill property, and has it's own historic roadside marker. Appropriately called the "Toll House", it dates back to pre-Civil War times where it literally served as a toll gate when roads were privately maintained. My grandfather was a man loved and respected by all, from the farm-hands he supervised to the "old money" family who owned the property. He was a quiet man who spoke with a soft Scottish brough; quick to laugh and never had a harsh word to say about anyone. He was the kind of man who would come in out of the fields, drive to our house, pick up my brother and take him back to farm just to show him the family of raccoons or other creatures he had discovered. My brother worshiped the ground he walked on. One of my greatest regrets is that I have no memory of him. He died from cancer at the age of 63 the day before JFK was killed in 1963. I was 18 months old, my brother was nearly 8. This photo holds special value for a number of reasons. Obviously the tractors -- both the shiny, original 8N and the vintage pedal-tractor. Add that to the great period clothing, hats, red shoes, and you get an image right out of 1950's Hollywood central-casting. Because our family has never been great picture-takers, finding something like this is all the more remarkable. Finally, and most importantly, I don't believe my brother has ever seen this before. He has no idea that I have the slide, that I had it professionally scanned, that I cleaned it up in Photoshop, printed it and framed it to give to him on his birthday the 25th of this month. Honestly, I'm not sure I can wait that long to give it to him because I can't wait to see the look on his face! I'll report back and let you know how it goes. So without further ado, here's the photo: (you may need to click on it to see it at full size) And my framing job...

We got snow in Sc tonight. Had to break out the 953 and play a little. My driveway is too short for any real fun so I plowed the road.

Al, Your first three words say it all - God is Good. I've been where you are, fostered, adopted, and had to forgo some things, but I'm sure you realize you're really not giving up anything, you're actually gaining things you can't buy. Stay focused and what really matters and keep up the good work!!

I have the same problem as some of you other fellows have. A cold garage and 2 vehicles in it and 4 tractors. So I have been doing the smaller stuff at work so I can move forward. Everything has been blasted, I do that at lunch time, and primed and painted.I stay after work for awhile and paint. I have a hood over the work table for contact cement fumes and it is great for painting.Next I think I will do the front and mid mount Tach-a-matics. Not much to show for a weeks work, I no, but at least moving forward. Using Rustoleum Regal Red. Its gonna take me a long time to complete. I need to keep this a roller for awhile yet.

My grandfather passed on this past Christmas morning and I will be bringing a few of his tractors home to add to the collection. He was into the Cubs pretty strong and probably had forgotten more about them than most know. I used to share my WH projects with him and actually had gotten the SK486 I am working on now as he knew he would not have time to make good use of the engine. I have a handful of other tractors that I need to sell or part out for my grandmother and shelves of parts and Kohlers to sort. Just wish I had the space to keep it all!! Anyway...... Here are a few pics of what I will be bringing home in April. I tried talking him out of this seat for one of my WH's..... Needless to say, It will prob. stay on the Cub now!!!

I know electric log splitter = homo :!: and normally I would agree, but hear me out on this one . . . I have a regular fireplace that we use every weekend. I used to split all my wood (pine, oak, locust) with a borrowed 3 ton wood splitter and then split down from there (for kindling and such) with and axe. After damaging my concrete garage floor and wood deck while splitting, I decided to try an electric wood splitter after much research (didn't want to hassle with ANOTHER engine to maintain for the little I use it.) Most all the splitters in the 4-6 ton range are jap made. I found the best deal through Sears for $240. It arrived TRASHED by UPS . . . I could tell from the outside, so I started to take pics as I unpacked. DO NOT BUY THIS SPLITTER . . it's a POS. I dropped it off at Sears and said "give me my money back" which they did. No they don't stock another and Yes you can reorder in the same crappy shipping container . . .no thanks. The ironic thing is I walked into The Christmas Tree Shop (Harrisburg, PA - my wife forced me) a few days later and found this little gem on CLEARANCE for $199. It was a nicer model, came with a 4-way splitter, one-handed operation and worked GREAT!!!! I would not try to split wood to heat my house with this, but it worked GREAT on 14" long logs as big as 20" diameter! Trust me, I'm a "there is no replacement for displacement" guy, but used within it working capacity, I'm impressed!!! I stopped at Home Depot an Harbor Freight the same night and your not spending less than $299 there (and for a lesser model at TS - the model they have on their website is not what they now carry in PA). One of the best $200 work saving toys I ever bought. I know there are a thousand opinions about 35 Ton big dog engine powered hydraulic splitters . . . I've used them and know they can split even something as hard as a coal turd produced by Nancy Pelosi, but if need some occasional, you may want to look at this :)

Yea I know, aww crap! Last Saturday my computer lost the ability to connect to the internet. I've been jonesin' for a whole week to get back on here. Talk about withdrawal. Man oh man. I got nowhere with a repair guy and had to buy a new puter. I got a Gateway desktop with 500 gig hard drive and 4 gb memory. Not top of the line but a pretty nice little unit for a guy on a budget. It uses windows 8, so I'm learning how to use a computer all over again. Way different from XP. It should do everything I will ever need out of a computer. Wish me luck! :ROTF:

Trouty, I am sure the hole already exsists. All K model Kohlers have all the same machining. There might be like a 3/16 freeze plug there but that would be the only thing. Take a punch and drift it thru. No drilling necessary

I change engine oil every 25 hours. 30W during most of the seasons and 10W-30 in winter. (below 0 degress is then 5W-30) I live in Pennsylvania and have access to this oil: http://www.penngrade1.com/ I use this due to the added zinc. It really works well I read in my 1075 manual that hyrdo oil and filter is to be changed every 500 hours or every 2 years.

today i took the engine apart the rest of the way, pulled the backing plate &crankshaft. one of the ballance gears felt a little loose so i removed them both. the loose one a needle fell out of it so following the advice of other members they will not be going back in. the crank looks great & measured right so it doesn't need turned. next friday ill take it to the machine shop to have a valve job, guides, & hone it to .10 oversize. then put everything back together. these blackhoods are growing on me!

Sorry to hear of the loss of your Grandfather. Its good you have these Cubs to help keep the connection going. My Grandfather died three days after I turned 22. He and I were very close. I never knew my Grandfather on my Dads side of the family. Anyway I see there are some other RS members who like Cubs also. Here is mine. It is a 1975 IH CC 1650. I have a 50" mowing deck, a snow/dozer blade, and a pair of IH wheel weights. It does need a repaint, but mechanically it is very sound. I had the K-341 rebuilt Summer of last year, and rebuilt the entire front axle, king pins, 1" spindle upgrade, everything. It could use a repaint, but thats not pressing right now.

got the transmission back together yesterday

I have used Lucas products but I am not sure they are any "better" or different from most other additives and lubricants. Maybe better promoted through NASCAR circuit and speedshops but you have alternatives!

Al, you are a good man to give so freely from your heart as you did. God will Bless you in many ways for you act of kindness. Now I hope to see some threads of your C-125. Van

If the trigger is good, you could sell off the trigger and probably finance your upgrade to a standard coil ignition setup.

DMK, looks like both of us will have some yellow paint marks on the driveway this summer. I'm going to try my hand at a 102 and 107. 10hp will the smallest engine I ever used as a worker. We will see if the savings in gas money to cut the grass will justify the effort to refurb these two.

Hey it's me again going to make a suggestion but I would omit that coil and the rest of the parts to the electronic ignition and get the plunger, points, condenser, coil point cover and everything else that you will need. You'll be a Happy camper that you did. There's the small piece inside the flywheel shroud (trigger) that cost alot, somewhere around a $150 if not higher. Like I say only a suggestion

The loose hood is a 56 hood has the toggle kill switch . I would say the tractor is not an early 58. The rear hitch is not the crude early made hitch. The hubs are a late 5 bolt hub not associated with any ball burners. The clutch-brake linkage is rounded not square. Hard to tell if there is numbers to the right of the shifter . If it dosn't have numbers it still could be a early uni drive. Still a very nice save have fun with the old girl!

You have a earlier production 58... I would not call it an "early version" though. Other than the no date code tranny center section and the seat, the rest of the tractor is standard RJ58. The rear hubs are later 60's production 5 lug. The hitch is not the four piece band iron. As most people forget, the Pond's built these tractors with whatever was on the shelf at the time the tractor was actually being put together. So, miss match parts between model years is not uncommon to find. Don't get me wrong though, you have a very nice RJ and it should be restored.

Saving horses, does not mean you have to save them for yourself, or put any money in them. We have a great network here and a ton of members that are looking for that one horse to make whole. I think it is a team effort. If one falls in your lap, and you don't need it or can't use it, show it in a post and see if it can go to a good home. Promoting this hobby is priceless. Ten years from now...someone will join Red Square and talk about how he got his first horse from some guy that saved it from scrap. :woohoo:

I too like to use Toro if I can, because Mike is right, we want to keep them in business. I only mention the other places, because I know a lot of the members are not that close to a dealer and may not want to wait to have a piece ordered. It seems my Toro dealer has to order everything for my early Wheel Horses and it takes at least 2 days. I hope they do not go out of business because I bought a spring or a wood ruff key from Tractor Supply...we want to keep these guys in business also. Sorry, I do not have a spec on this spring. If you have the part number you can try plugging it in this site and see if it is still available... http://www.rcpw.com/search/?quest=1533&search=Search

Just a suggestion! Don't add wings to the lift. My first lift had a narrower base than the top and it was kind of dangerous. Was ok if you didn't lean or shake it to hard. I would suggest making the base close to the same size of the top. Your other option could be to add swing out stabilizers that would add some stabilization when it was up in the air.

Early 60's roundnoses and the C-series. No wonder you don't have any snow Steve, it looks to warm out! :ychain:

This morning about 11am JayInNC delivered to me his recently "Saved From the Scrap Pile" late 80's model 310-8speed. It was a rolling chassis when it rolled off the back of his truck, but by 4pm it was running and moving under its own power. I had a Magnum 10hp Kohler engine sitting in the back of my shop just taking up space. It was originally mounted to a 310-8speed, and it had the carb, muffler, PTO, everything needed to bolt and go into the roller. The engine started right up and settled down to a smooth idle. There is of course some detail work to do, but nothing major. You know stuff like replace a headlight, tube the front tires, install a throttle cable from a parts tractor I have, stuff like that. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow and post them here asap. Jay hung in there the whole day with me, and made it so this was a get it running in the same day project. Thank You JAY !!! :bow-blue:

well with the freezing rain & sleet today i was in the shop cleaning up & the c165 started talking to me. so i took off the hood, engine shrouds & head. the bore measures 3.74 . it has a standard piston but also a little ring ridge. so this one will get a .10 oversize bore . i can wiggle the piston in the bore. i hope the crank is good. . does anyone have a 16 hp air cleaner hat they want to get rid of? having run without the air cleaner prob. took out the rings. the shroud has some stress cracks where the coil bolts to it but all the k341s i've had are the same way. v them out weld them up& add a reinforcement plate on the inside. Jay

i really like the look of the black hoods. They look brutely. My C-175 is my main worker still has the original KT 17 in it although it did just start puffing smoke on start up, watching the oil level and hoping to keep the old girl purin. Nice pair you guys scored their and a great price that's what I paid for C-175 ten years ago. Way to go!

I built one to fit a WH tractor out of a walk behind broom. I bet a broom would work real nice and quick for what you need to do

I have two of them a 1955 and here is my 1956 that has been restored top to bottom!

Yep he was axeing me about an RJ-58 El-manuel but I dont have a spare Yep had to get the head out of my ARSE on the footrest thingy that is the only way to go! Thanks again!