Leaderboard

What’s up guys! Just wanted to drop in and say hello since its been a while, and also to tell you about my latest addition to the herd. A couple weeks ago Howard (857 Horse) called me and said he remembered me telling him at the big show that if he decided to sell one of his extra 857s to let me know. I asked him for some details and a price. He began to explain in great detail, what he had done to it, and what he had fixed, etc. I asked him how much. And he continued to tell me all the things he had done, and finally, I’m like, Howard, name your price ( I had already decided I was buying it). He told me his price and immediately continued to explain the reasons for why his price was what it was, and I was like, “Howard, Howard, Howard….sold buddy! No need to explain anymore!”. He said, well “ive had like 10 of these things, and I’ve learned what to look for, so I’m just explaining that you are getting a good unit.” Whatta guy! There is something to be said about the people in this wheel horse community. I continually see integrity and kindness put on display from the members here! Howard said the same thing. He said he had always struggled to find a hobby that he both enjoyed and fit in. He said he knew he had found his people when he was at his first big show, and the wheel fell off his tractor. I wasn’t there, but he said folks swooped in and got him rolling in no time. Anyways, I had a great time chatting and catching up since we didn’t see each other at the big show this year. He showed me his rock tumblers, and educated me on how to give the super polished rocks to my kids. He assured me that they were “just friggin rocks, but when you present them to a 3 year old, you can turn them into magic.” He continued to educate me on the delivery, “The trick is, to wrap them up in a napkin, then crouch down real low, and talk in a whisper.” “These are really special rocks that have been on the earth for millions of years, and now I am giving them to you….”. I can’t wait to give them to my kids and see their reaction! Oh, I purchased a couple other things including some mower decks that will fit my new 857, and a cool little K91 that he purchased at the big show a few years ago. Not sure what I’ll do with the little motor, but for now I’ll just squirrel it away in the barn for some unknown project on down the road. Alright, back to work I guess….Anyone else ready for the big show? I know I am! Only 6 more months! Won’t be as long as it has been I hope.

Not too often you see this from the kitchen window in the middle of January.

The reason why I ask this question. In order to have room to work on Radpferd yesterday my C-145 had to sit outside all day. It was a nice day, so it was just fine out there. After I was done with Radpferd I went to start my C-145 to move it back into the garage. It would crank but would not fire. Checked the plug and it was a little wet put still fired like new. Tried some sniffin' salts & still nothing. Tried a new pug and still nothing. Then the wife shouted out the window that supper was ready and that I better come & get it or she was throwing it out. Given this ultimatum I pushed my 145 back into the garage and headed in for some grindage. Tonight when I got home from work I figured that I better find out what the issue was, as my C-145 is my snow plowing tractor. I gave it some choke, turned the key, and it fired right up in less the 2 revolutions. I took it for a ride around the block and it never skipped a beat. When I got back from my ride, my wife asked what was wrong with the tractor. I told her that it was P.O.ed that it had sit outside all day yesterday while Radpferd was getting some love and attention. My explanation may sound far fetched, but it's the only one that I have.

Decided it was time to hook up a light on the back of Big OLy. I don't know why. We don't get snow and since I'm home now I can plow in daylight. What the heck. Got this nifty little LED light from @rjg854 and a light bracket doing nothing. I got some nifty foam gasket material for a boiler laying around. A little trim and it fits right into the battery box!

Amazing what just 5 horse-power can do.

Most drilling here is done by hand , mostly with braces. However large bits such as this 1-1/2” auger require serious effort specially in very hard woods. For that there is a special brace called a Whimble Brace. It’s different from a regular brace by having the upper part longer than a regular brace. Using this brace one uses both hands to crank the bit. It creates a lot more torque and drills faster specially large holes. It is however a bit more difficult to start the hole since one is not putting downward pressure directly on the bit such as in a regular brace. It is also much larger and heavier. Once mastered, it is however indispensable.

As you may remember I started learning how to cook for the first time in my life sometime back to help my wife. It’s getting to be enjoyable now and with her guidance it is going pretty well. @DennisThornton I was also given a pretty involved cooking book which I have been reading and learning quite a bit from it . Today made Pork and Clams a popular dish from back home. It was quite a feast . I was only able to make it to the couch afterwards.

They’re so simple, Uncle Jim can do it! That’s virtually all he rolls with!

I am getting old Recently retired so I have time to do nothing all day. I replaced the old fluorescent lights a couple weeks ago with LED'S so I can somewhat see again. I was working on the 953 that I HAVE OWNED FOR 2 1/2 YEARS. I noticed what looks like a patch in the block right where a rod would have known to come out to say HI! It's not causing any issues and if it is a patch somebody did one heck of a job. What do you think?

Did you speak to it nicely, say "hello" or "Good Morning, nice day isn't it?" or "My you are looking extra sharp today! What'dya say we have some fun?" What do you expect?

Here is my 857 ... First pics are of when I got it... last are as it is now. Congrats on your new Horse.

Oh boy.. this is a favorite subject with me and the old boys and the stationary engine and tractor shows. I certainly feel more 'life' in some machines than others. My old GT-1848 WorkHorse has just about zero personality, My Electro 12 will basically keep on working no matter how broken it may be at the time.. My 1968 Raider 9/12, with a NOS Kohler rope start 12hp, is the most cantankerous, miserable, cold hearted machine I own.. if there is another machine in the shed, it won't run. If I let it sit for more than a week, it won't run. If it does catch me off guard and run, something else will surely fail for no good reason. Brand new PTO bearing? BOOM. Brand new deck belt? SNAP! It went through a shed fire back in 1972 and sat for decades in the back of a building after being shoddily reassembled. I often wonder if it took on some sort of sentience in that period. However.. when it's on weekly lawn duty in the summer, it's flawless. Once leaf season comes and the GT is back in the shed, it's just .. I don't even bother to use it anymore. Wait for next season. Somewhere I have a video of my old Electro, which had a very odd shorting problem, and it would fire itself up if you got on it just right.. I swear thats not edited.. it would do that on and off for a number of years till I rewired it properly. Other machines.. My Maytag gas washing machine is surely possessed.. it will run flawlessly for days at shows, and them just .. nope. 'I don't like the man in the red baseball cap.' And it'll refuse any attempts until the interested observer walks away. Promptly come right back to life. Routinely operating 100+ year old engines is just that way though.. watched a guy nearly get launched into the air by a big Foos stationary. Just last week my 2hp Fairbanks Morse sprained my wrist cranking it over.. New Year's tradition is to fire it up every year in the afternoon, I missed it this time on account of a WH 753. It's never kicked until that day.. Who knows, I like to let my mind wander.

I remember buying my 857 from HHHOOOWWWAAARRRDDD!!! about 2 shows ago. @roadapples was guarding his flock because HHHOOOWWWAAARRRDDD!!! was out being, you know, HHHOOOWWWAAARRRDDD!!! . I grabbed one of them and took riding it around the show for about an hour. He didn't even know I had it! Finally I spot him and drive right up to him and just start gabbing like nothing was going on. Finally I ask him how much. This look comes over his face like "What are you talking about? I said this is YOUR tractor! Caught him off guard! The only way to buy.! James your 857 looks just like mine except yours has a better seat. The seat that was on mine I think HHHOOOWWWAAARRRDDD!!! had his Grandmother re-upholster!

I have an 857 that I will be fixing up!

My 2 cents is it all depends on the size of the property you want to maintain. That being said there is little argument in the saying.. " the bigger, the better" . I live in the city and have little use for any tractor of any size, but because of my love for them, there is almost always one in my garage. Right now I have a 857.. great little tractor, have nothing bad to say about it. Would most likely be able to do a lot of what a typical homeowner would ask bigger tractor to do. Maybe not as easily, but it would get it done. Now I have also owned a C-161 Automatic and a 416 - 8. There is no substitute for the 16hp Kohler. Each have their plus and minus. Automatics arnt for everyone. So if I had to recommend just one....... I would say a 416 -8 for 2 simple reasons... power and comfort. I like the Magnum engines. The C-161 I had to make a few changes to to get to my liking is the reason why I give the nod to the 416 - 8. You really cant go wrong with any of the Wheel Horse line up... just depends on what you are going to do with it. I would even recommend one of the RER, depending on the task !!!

Lets see, we will need a solenoid operated choke, a vacuum operated starter motor cut out so that if/when the engine starts it will not continue to turn, an engine kill relay connected to a motion detector to shut the engine off when you screw up and don't put the transmission in neutral. and a law firm kept on retainer to get you out of jail when the inevitable unforeseen accident happens. Other than that it sounds like a great idea!

In 2019 at the first Meet n Greet early Saturday morning I went to start the 312-8 and nothing. Had it out the day before washing and waxing, dried it off with the air compressor and put it away. that is the first time since 1989 that my favorite tractor would not start. I pulled 4 more out and lined them up and when @Stepney Spenser showed up, He's always the first one here I mentioned it was dead, he reached down between the battery and grabbed the ignition switch and off it went. It always has started since then so why mess with it. The only thing I can think of is they spend 2/3rds of there life in the garage and were peed off because Company were coming and maybe better looking ones were on there way to the event. ?

My wife gives most machines credit for personalities. I do not or at least I didn't until I brought Little Ugly home. It has been a machine that is rock solid dependable. Best I can tell it is like a rescue puppy that knew the next stop was the scrap yard.

Tractor Envy Syndrome (TES) is generally experienced in Green and Yellow tractors when in the presence of a , but can be felt by a neglected when it is ignored in favor of a queen bee or trailer queen. The only known remedy is to show the neglected a lot of live and TLC. Fortunately for you the C-145 only made you suffer for one day. The tractors in the "CARS" movie were suffering from TES which made them easy targets for Tow-Mater and Lightning McQueen when they went out tractor tipping.

Ahhh lets back up here abit .... when the heck did I say you could retire Squonk!?! You ain't 62 till the end of next month so you ain't collectin SS yet. Digging up them mason jars in the back yard are we? I know you ain't flipping tractors for beer money unless you want me to low ball you on that Power King.... bet he's got a table set up on a street corner selling plug wires to buy a bottle of Thunderbird fellas! NAPA prolly wants you back 'cause you was good at wiping starter grease off the counters! Fine... retire while the rest of us slobs gotta work yet ..... Fine... I'm turning this thread ino a show us your cracked & repaired block then! What you laughing about @oliver2-44 ....... your K91 crank you been pining for may come out of this motor!

I believe it Dan! Putt Putt quit running on a day that @PeacemakerJack had his crew over. I feel like he’s been neglected as there were so many projects this past year, but has always started 1 pull. That day, the kids were all cruising around, Jada on Putt Putt, it just shut off. I could pull and pull but no @pullstart. This is where he died, we pushed him back to the barn after the photo shoot!

What's the fun in that?

He told me he thought mine was # 2. I can't talk to him on FB. Every time I respond to one of his posts he calls me Steve or Dino! Never mind my name is right there on my post!

Here is a 312-8 I bought a few weeks ago. It was listed on MP for $350. I needed a deck ant 42"sd looked pretty good in the pictures. I went to see it in hopes of buying only the deck, but the owner wanted to sell everything. After pointing out the missing throttle linkage, chopped up wiring, loose steering, missing, missing drive belt RR, frozen choke, and missing drive belt, We came to a $225 price. About what I would pay for a decent working 42" SD. I rewired, repaired steering, and replaced all missing parts from my" parts buckets" The deck is good and runs quiet and the 301 starts easy, sounds good and idles down nicely. I will make it a plow tractor and give it to my son Mark. He has a green Chinese tractor with a snow blower that he says is useless. I have a good 48" blade and long frame in my junk pile and I found this red neck axle bracket in the junk that I will use after I make some serious modifications including adding a weight rack.

I have the same problem on a 241 that I believe the rings did not seat properly. 10 over bore job. I didn't run the motor under a heavy load as recommended for the first hours after the build so I blame it on that. Mike @prondzy says hook a fresh motor up to a plow and work it and I believe him.

Following this thread- because there is no better feeling, sound, and smell of a freshly overhauled engine lighting off for the first time!

Watch "Zip Tip Starter Generator Testing" on YouTube https://youtu.be/FHAMSuyo8Owhttps://youtu.be/FHAMSuyo8Ow used this the other day took all of 30 seconds

Thanks. @lynnmor I'll fix it... I did the washers on the motion control lever at top of transmission/ cleaned , filed flat, like you said and the motion lever at the steering column stays where I put it now...can't thank you, @WVHillbilly520H, @953 nut, @ebinmaine, @squonk, @gwest_ca, and all the other horsemen enough...you fellows have a wealth of knowledge...makes it fun to fix Wheel Horse's...

another tractor... I never get tired of looking at.

Instead of buying 10 tractors a month, brand new trucks and campers, I don't owe a cent to anybody. Got enough cash to get by until SS kicks in in March .

I had a friend pack 4lbs of hamburger into a diff to quiet it down so that he could get a better sales price on a car. I would have hated to be the poor soul that had to open that rear end up to fix it properly.

Not sure about that . . . the winter here in FL was much colder than last year. Bring on the warm

Put my tread grip on my running boards to day on the 520H

Only $16,000. I'll order a his and hers.

I used the "I was blind, now I can see" method. A blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while!

Oh I ain't touchin it! Unless maybe I drop a 16 HP Thumper in there!

If it works don't ____ with it!!!

It's all about traction and torque. 20 wheels and 7,500 lbs.

Yep, it's been another mild winter around PA (because of global warming). You may have been right about not needing our snow blowers much anymore. The Amish over here have been plowing and fertilizing as well; the smell has been in the air. Maybe we'll have an early spring. I'm ready. Jim

You took it for an hour and he didn't notice, that is fantastic! What a nut! I think you got tractor #2? Mine is #3 (You can check under the seat pan) He numbered all of his tractors for some reason. Hahaha. By the way he hasn't logged on because he says he forgot his password. So I explained to him over facebook messanger how to reset it. You should call him and give him crap about not being on redsquare.

I'll eat (or try) about anything. I draw the line at toe nails.

Wait a minute! My 65 power king has on, a starter/gen... a that had been outside for at least 5 years and no problems!

Ok! I’m not gonna mess with it! I promise!😀

@Maxwell-8 @Brockport Bill That 312-8 was a 1986 with the K series engine not the magnum and was a sweet tractor. A friend that I sold it to around 20 years ago just passed it on to his brother. The 86 lives on. A few more before and after pictures for you.

Lol thoroughbreds indeed! I'm a pit pony, plodding along regardless, strong, reliable and mostly kept in the dark. 🤣 All my male relatives have big bellies and I'm fighting against getting one. I don't drink, don't smoke and try to eat well. Im reasonably active and do yoga 3 times a week. More importantly, I'm happy. Makes the world of difference to a long life.

I brought Radpferd in for some surgery today. I went through the transmission when I built him and thought that the gears look ok but obviously I thought wrong. With in the first 10hrs of run time he started rejecting 3rd gear. When ever I would pull on the throttle it would jump out of 3rd. I've had the parts to fix it since Jim's plow day this year but have been too busy to fix the issue. Today, after I disassembled the tranny I see that the 2nd/3rd gear has gotten much worse. The old one next to the new one for comparison. I also noticed that the gear on the input shaft had suffered some damage. After digging through my 5gal pail full of tranny gears, I was lucky enough to find a good input shaft. The one on the right is the one that was in my tranny. The first test ride after reassembly was very satisfactory. While in 3rd I worked the throttle from idle to wide open several times and the shifter stayed right where it belonged.

I pushed a tiny bit of snow with Thirty Five and dragged in this 953 carcass too. That hand crank 24 hp. Kohler is destined to fit in there some day!

3, 4, and 500 series can be hydro or 8 speed gear drive. Some hydros have hydraulic lift and usually have the stronger Eaton 1100 tranny. Hydro tractors with manual lift usually have the weaker Eaton 700 tranny. Cost can vary widely based on condition and implements

Got the hood & grille back from painter today. hood needs wet sanded one more time and another coat of clear applied. Dropped off a bunch more parts for paint.

everything green. Snow has melted over night Snowman had to leave Still in my exams Didn't got any seat time Projects start Wednesday!