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The combined forces of the allied nations turned the tide of WWll at Normandy France. Many gave their lives so we can all live free today.

We went to some of the beaches this past summer. Strange to see people enjoying the sun, knowing how much lives were sacrificed there.

Same here. I found this on marketplace...... never thinking I would ever own one. About 1-1/2 from my house. Now I have two and I am picking up a third at the big show a friend has been storing for me. and of course.... the obligatory wheel horse monster 😁

I usually have to pay one dollar for mine. That's the minimum bid at the auction. The auctioneer refers to all old exercise and treadmill equipment as cloths dryers.

Had a big weekend celebrating our churches 60th Anniversary...winding down tonight with a little relaxation out in the backlot... Decided to bring out @Coulter Caleb‘s Comanche. Got me to thinking about @Sparky and @Achto and @WHX24 that helped make this little birthday tractor happen for Caleb. Hard to believe that was three years ago already! it is a beautiful night out here tonight. Mosquitos haven’t set in yet and the temperature is settling down from the heat of the day. I can hear the birds singing all around me and I’m enjoying the great view. Thankful for God’s creation and good friends!

Hey guys, I just saved another piece of old Iron from the scrap heap. A guy that works at my shop bought a small hobby farm from a deceased family member. He tried to use the tractor but broke a belt, so he parked it and went to Home Depot and bought a new unit. Got a call and was asked if I wanted it.....as my truck was being started I got the address. I have to say the OP must have cared for this tractor and maintained it well. Their are the normal things that go bad but it sure is in great shape for a 73. Having a hard time finding the belt sizes for it though. Sure one of you know offhand what they are. Need the belt for the 48in deck and for the drive unit. Thanks guys

Remove seat off tractor and use it as a seat. It will double as a seat and rear weight. Seems like a good shape to sit on.

please excuse messy shop, but here's a rear view. Added 90# of weights per tire

My 520-H pinkie.

Had our friend @OldWorkHorse Steve around today so I could give him a hand changing the rear wheel seals on his Ariel's Flowah Powah tractor. He'd been pouring the Liquid Wrench spray to it for a couple weeks or more and the seals were pretty much not there so plenty of lube was getting in the hub. I was pleasantly surprised to have both hubs fly right off using my "spare hub as a puller" method I picked up from around here somewhere. Even better... He also gave me a hand pulling both hubs from a spare 8 speed that may end up in the C-160 Tecumseh engine tractor or as needed for whatever horse. Also from the 3 speed that I'll be rebuilding for Trina's Military Tribute Tractor. I'd been soaking the 8 speed for at least a year. Trina started spraying the 3 speed hubs a few weeks ago. All four came off!! Certainly took more effort than the ones on Steve's but it was great to see them slide out without serious issue. Here is the 8 speed on the bench, 3 speed on the floor, with the puller next to it.

For many years Normandy was on my bucket list and I finally got to visit in the fall of 2019. Plenty of writers more eloquent than me have described it, but I went home deeply moved. Next year my wife and I will be bringing 75 or so high school students there for a short visit--I can only hope that they feel some of the impact it had on me. One observation to share: as we drove through the many small villages that comprise the area around Normandy, we were impressed that nearly every public building was flying three flags: the Tricolour, the EU banner, and the Stars and Stripes.

Predator swap…

Easy one - That’s the size hitch ball @pullstart’s gonna need for his new toy hauler…

Started with going down to see @ebinmaine Eric, to fix some leaking rear seals and finished off with re painting the B-80s muffler since VHT yellow 1200° header paint don't like doing its job went with the old faithful rustoleum high temp grill paint. See how this holds up!

@squonk Kev would drop it on his foot first.

Special Wheelhorse transmission holder. VERY handy.

@Maxwell-8 Thank you so much for the pictures . Very little written about this day in the Sunday paper here. It is a shame that people do not honor the past history of the military as they use to.

Maybe a bit of a story-time: Those big concrete blocks you see in the ocean and on the beach is what is left of the biggest floating port. Gold beach was one of the 2 beaches they made a floating port. They figured to move land inwards they needed a lot of supplies. The big boats couldn't get close to the land and tranforing it over to smaller ships would be time consuming and inefficient. They made the port by shipping huge concrete fundation made in the UK float all the way to Normandy. There they would let water and rocks in making the concrete sink. Between the foundation the put 12 miles of metal bridges down. It was a fundamental port for the upcoming months and as much as 40 000 000 lbs of materials passed trough here every day. Until November of 1944. Internet pics:

If it is a damaged hi/low shift fork, you can still get that part from TORO for around $60. If you can drop the trans and put in another, you will be able to do the work yourself. The hard part is changing out a trans. If the PO has been running this horse, it is probably not a rust issue. If you can find a professional that is willing to change out a bad shift fork, I think the labor ball park is about $100 / hour. I would expect paying about 8 hours of labor. To do yourself, under $70...part and gasket. The 2 videos show building the hi/low part of your trans.

General consensus seems to be that if you can see the floor it's not yet messy.

Just picked up some weight bench weights for more ballast "stackable". I think they are going to work well

No-Name shiny side

Good coils cost money and like squonk said they are not frequent fails. here are some simple test for you to try The last one you need some kind of cheap spark plug tester.

@Porkskin When you disassembly your mule drive to get the pulleys off there are 2 spacers on that shaft. One is slightly longer than the other. Mark them before you disassemble as there position makes a difference in belt alignment.

Jay you could have used them to hold your canopy down!

That's what I was thinking @Maxwell-8 when I first saw it. @elcamino/wheelhorse I'd hate to meet the guy who installed this in a dark alley!

@ebinmaine hey thanks again for the helping hand! Once muffler is fixed and paint touched up,, I can add a horse to the completed list and hunt for my next project.... always have to have 2 going at a time!

Like the special shape hole in the bench!

Weights and rear tires off and buzzed with a wire wheel. Everything went smooth...tractor was well utilized, but evidently maintained. Now to go cool off!

@squonk It appears to be the weighted item that your wife attaches the chain that is in your nose to when she has to leave you home alone. Are you now wearing socks with pockets? Where the heck was it on the tractor?

Little more E6000 on Dugs seatback logo, use the old heat gun to remove old traction tape, bit if wire brushing, and install new foot board traction assist coverings on Dug...removed his navel appendage(hadnt really messed with the Tachmatic much before, slicker than greased owl snot in the rain!) now ready to start pulling tires and weights for painting!

Please bore us

Yesterday Trina and I met up with friends to go hike Stone Mt and Burnt Meadow Mt in Brownfield Maine. Nice leisurely paced hike to help warm up the hiking muscles and start getting back in shape. Here's a link that shows all the stats: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/burnt-meadow-mountain-trail Burnt Meadow Mt is well known for a great caloric burn and good views. Being within a 1 hour drive of several metro areas it's also VERY popular. Here's a few pics from the Photography Department taken on @WHX24's camera. Off in the far blue distance is Mt Washington and the rest of the Presidential Range Here's a Rufous sided towhee. Not super common in the area. Shown here is the range we live on as seen from the top of Burnt Meadow. We're about 2/3 of the way down the far side where the arrow is. More various....

How big are your feet?

I did all of them. 876, brought home March 08, 2021 Seems I lied. I brought the 141 home on Oct 28, 2020 Casper The 656 I brought home Nov 20 2020 Brought home the 125 Mar 28, 2021 The 175 is patiently waiting it's turn. I brought it home May 09, 2020 The first Massey I inherited from my Father In Law. I did that in 2017. I can't find a before pic. It's hiding in this computer somewhere. The 2nd Massey I brought home Sept 09, 2020 The John Deere I have had for a while. Just painted it Thursday.

It's such a nice day, I decided to drag all the tractors out and wash them. I don't know how they get so dusty and dirty, just sitting in my storage area. I got my first Wheel Horse last November I think. I had been searching for one for a while, but everyone thought they were selling gold bars I guess. Then the 141 popped up for $200. After that, they started falling out of the sky, and landing in my garage. I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but I really like to drive Casper (656) and the 876. I even pushed the `25 outside, It still has that big gaping hole in the middle of it. Waitng on the block. I The 175 is buried a little deep in the shed, waiting it's turn. Of course the other kids got jealous, so I had to take their pic. WARNING! If the color green offends you, look away now. There are a couple more green ones, but they were taking a nap.

Saw these at the Mentone show Saturday.

Tore this oversize Binky off of a tractor. It was used as a wheel weight. I wanted to send it to @elcamino/wheelhorse but it's too heavy! 125LBS!!! Besides he couldn't lift it onto the hood of his ELC without popping a suspender. Makes a nice hood ornament. Wonder what it was originally used for?

Trina spent some time wire brushing her hood today. Top and sides are down to bare metal. We also were able to get the engine to fire again. Not quite running right but it's headed the right direction. Thanks to @OldWorkHorse Steve's help we were able to get the hubs off the transmission. Sooooo I figured since it was blazing hot 🔥🔥 outside I'd dig into the gearbox. First thing was obviously the dreaded hitch pin. I pulled the C-clips out and massaged the pin back and forth a few (or a dozen) times with a hammer and a couple chisels. Eventually it came out. Next on the fun agenda was the input and brake pulleys. Brake pulley slid right off once I removed the C-clip. Input pulley. Fought. Me. All. The. Way. But I won. I planned on disassembly and cleaning at the very least and today had noticed that it has a bad wheel bearing. Looked like perhaps someone tried the old school "rope seal" method. Who's to say if or how long it held but it was falling right out today. Good news is that the axle is still in good shape. Note the differential bolts. 4 holes. 2 bolts. And they were floppy loose. Well I found them in the bottom of the case.

I have. It’s a good time! @Jake Kuhn lives right there somewhere... If we weren’t so busy getting ready for the Big Show... and a few graduation parties in the mix... we’d probably go.

We have been busy getting tractors ready for the show, but had to do some maintenance to the trailer...had a window leak that ruined the plywood, so we fixed the wood and took the window out and put it back in and siliconed around the window. Had a small leak in the roof too we sealed up. Got all the tractors running but one and that is because it needs a battery. So we are bringing to following: 1. Custom Trike (raffle tractor back in 2016) 2. Original unrestored GT-14 3. 657 4. 68 Lawn Ranger 5. 420 LSE 6. Toss up between 401 and 701 (if we bring either of them...may leave at home)

They don't weigh 125 LBS! You could hang this off the front of your flatbed truck for BALLAST!

Shame you don't have 2. I can just see them riding around at the show

Progress!...

I think the correct lubricant is graphite. WD-40 is not a lubricant, it is a water displacer. 3 in 1 or any other oil will collect dirt and gum up.

Just came up in me: check where the cable was cut. I fit is still perfectly round and not pinched. Have had the same happen to me. Or maybe you clamped it down to hard? Those cables new, should not need any lube to be easy to push and pull

Predator swap a success! Bit of fine tuning but she really goes… Gotta adjust clutch - wheelies are not my thing anymore… Also gonna need tie rods… one came off and the zip ties are nice - they’re black so they match the hood - but I’ll do it right, I guess, if I have to… Good tie rod sources out there? Looking for options…

Literally picked them up and put them in my truck. Free for the taking.👍

Side shot from a John Deere... 🥳