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Wooohooo!! Well after 7 long & hope drifting years iv finally done it I found me a WHEELHORSE! I'm in the south, those of you that don't know (all of you above the mason-dixon line) looking for a garden tractor, well it's like trying to find a grain of salt on the beach. I first had my interest peeked 8ish years ago when we went on vacation in northern TN. While up there, there was a guy who had 2 cub cadets parked in his yard, one with a sickle bar mower and one with a hammer knife mower on the front and I thought that was so cool. Fast forward several month's of digging and reading and I had made my mind up, my tractor had to & was going to be a WHEELHORSE no matter how long it took to find it! The days turned to weeks the weeks to month's and the month's to years......welp.... that's that it's not in my card's, I guess i'll just have to go green. My hunt slowed down to a crawl, still look but pushed to the back burner, better yet put in the far corner of the attic but still hoping that one day I will own a garden tractor (didn't matter what color at this point) although not very hopeful. Then one day I'm on market place and I see an ad for a 314H hmmm bet facebook has tricked me again, then I look at the location and its in my town.....wait just a min..... that's just a half mile up the road from me, so I click the ad. I start reading it "vintage toro mower for sale don't know much about it I think it will run just needs a carb and some wiring" but I cant tell much from the pics but what I can tell is that it has been sitting under a pine tree for a pretty long amount of time. I send the guy a message and set of a time to look at it, the next day when I got off work I make a B line to his house (on the same road I live on, I know right) and to the back yard we go. He tells me that the older guy he bought the hose from traded him so work for the mower and he didnt know much about it, but the PO had put a briggs carb on it and it was bogging down when engaging the pto is what the PO told him. (i will be posting more pics and when I do you will understand this next part better). I'm standing there looking at it as he's telling me this and I lift the hood and he points and tells me "that is the briggs carb he put on there I think if you replace that it will run" what he was pointing at was a huff-n-puff that had been put on to do away with the OEM pump. So by now I'm glowing inside, and I ask him his price he tells me $200 but if i was really interested he would do it for $125, I ask him if I can think about it over the weekend (this was on a friday) he say's thats good with him. I come home and immediately find this place and after digging on here I new right away I was going back and buying that thing monday! I head to his house monday after work money in hand, but before I hand him the money he ask me "yall own the NAPA store in the next town over with the tire shop right?" yes sir we do "can yall mount some tires for me?" yes sir we can "if you will mount & balance 4 tires for me ill just trade you out even". I shook his hand and the deal was made, that was at the begging of september and after some looking over the tractor reading on here and waiting on parts, I got it home last week (i had it at my shop at our napa store). Sorry for the long post everyone!!

All it took was a new maechanical fuel pump and a spark plug

Excellent find, and Welcome to Red Square. I think the 1st thing I would do...take an air hose and blow off all that pine straw. That mower deck looks brand new.

Removed the deck from the 312H. Yes, I cleaned and oiled it Pete. Then installed the tiller and tilled the horse manure into the gardens. Then took the tiller off and installed the 48" blade. The 312H will be used for warm weather snow removal. The 520H with heated cab and 54" blade is ready full time for the cold weather duty. Hauled in some wood.

My 1968 Commando-8. Just brought her back to life after being out of commission for almost a year

Well, just checked out your cleanup pics on the hydro and it does not even look like the same tractor. Excellent work. To complete your initiation into the club we would have to gather up enough members to head to @Pullstart 's to get on the school bus toy hauler, pick up the goat and head to Mississippi. This being a long holiday weekend the goat may not be available. WELCOME to the club @Southern_Secret

Great deal on a nice tractor. I have a 414-8 and love the thing. It has all the power you need and then some! Thanks for the pictures and you are starting out right, cleaning it and prepping it!

Nice to hear that you did your research, set a goal, and had patience to see it come to fruition! Congratulations. I'm sure you'll discover some more surprises as you bring that colt back to life but underneath all that dirt and grime is a real worker that'll give you a lot of satisfaction to bring out. Please be sure to keep us posted with pics of your progress. And WELCOME!

To Good luck in your adventure and most importantly take your time in cleaning it up and going over everything going forward and not have to back track because you skipped over something later on. @peter lena would be all over that, I am sure he will chime in.

And the finished product. Works great. Just need to fab up a quick linkage out of some flat stock that will be bolted in place of the orange strap.

Aaannnddd Maine....

@Pullstart down here in the south we've been known to engineer a thing or two.

I think the 314-H might be the best all around in the lineup for the time. Smooth power from the Kohler and the Eaton 1100 with hydraulic lift to boot. That machine will handle about anything you throw at it. Paint looks surprisingly intact. Nothing a little compound and buff can't fix! Well done!

Just a quick, (Terrible sketch), of one way of fabricating a reduction gear assembly. The lower shaft can turn inside the upper shaft by fitting a “spigot” bearing or bush, as on a transmission / engine connection. The upper “shaft could be a suitable size piece of tube with steering wheel attached. The gears could run in bearings/bushes fitted to the mounting plates, which can then be assembled using appropriate spacers and bolts and nuts. Assembly then bolted to underside of dash if there is room. Doug.

he's the cause of my deck being upside down covered in oil! lol

With the fuse holder being knackered and the air cleaner top turned 180 degrees, it would best be left for a professional to buy, me for example.

Essentially the wires that go to the idiot lights serve no function other than providing power to the idiot lights. If you follow each wire back to the switch or sender it gets an input from, cut it off and remove it you are done. Or you could just wrap the connector from the idiot light board in electrical tape and move on with the rest of the project.

All tucked away in the stable. Waiting for the next adventure. Near to far, left to right. Trina's 867 Pigpen. My '75 C160 Automatic. Her 657 Pony. Her 856 Military Tribute Tractor, Millie. My '74 C160 8 speed Cinnamon Horse. Feel free to post your own!!

Starting getting the snow plow read for the rj58. Not sure if its the proper plow, but it appears that it will work fine

And North Kakalaki...

That happens in the Midwest also !!

If you now cut a 1 1/2" - 2" piece off the end of that so you have a C clip, they work great for locking the lids closed on the big trash/recycle bins. Keeps the varmints out! And I have as many 3" PVC pipe pieces anyone wants.

A friend gave me this idea. We both have gravel drives. He slit a piece of 3" PVC length wise. Took out about an inch wide. It snaps right onto the wear bar. He did this on his Speedex and he says it works great and doesn't dig into the gravel. If it doesn't work no big loss.

Well there’s a riding mower I haven’t seen yet! to the club and great work on the clean up!

I purchased it. Thanks for the input!

Thanks for the input... that's basically what I'm trying to do with this tractor. Fixing or improving one thing is leading to lots of other things that is pushing out the painting of the tins I was planning this winter. No problem though, I'd rather get it reliable before making it pretty. Tightening up the steering led to a broken steering block (thanks @Handy Don)! But, I put a flange bushing in the top part of the steering shaft (almost done with that) to tighten everything up. I bought a cheap carb that is not very good so I ordered a Kt17 Carter carb rebuild kit. That's how it's been going, but I'm enjoying it because it's fun for me (usually) and it's improving the machine

Been there done that and already got a three ring binder filled

Great Story and great Progress ..Congratulations!!!

Here’s a few lineups of ours. The Senior that Uncle Jim’ driving… it’ll come back home to MI some day, he just doesn’t know when

Group Side Shot.

I went deer hunting today for the first time in 20 years. I was in one of my dad's stands in a small hollow on land owned by a family friend. It's not a good spot for one to just walk by, but a lot of them go in there when hunter activity gets too much on the hills around. Got there at a little after 6AM, went up the stand, about 5 minutes later I went back down to sit on the ground until day light, because the stand put me above the tops of the hollow and in the wind. Heard a few shots around 7, went back up into the tree. Around 7:15 I remembered why it's been 20 years since I went deer hunting, and went home.

Just to get this somewhat back on topic

I agree 100% ---And I'm unanimous in this

Great story with a fantastic finish. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy....

As hard as I tryed it just wouldn't fit! hahaha

Excellent find!! As it says in the thread linked by @Maxwell-8 above I have a horse here that I wanted to create a permanent usable checklist to follow for repairs, diagnosis, maintenance. Take a look see at that thread and even print it out so you have a paper copy if you like. Follow that from the top down and check off all the things you've already done and remind yourself of the stuff that you need to do. You'll have yourself an absolutely fantastic worker there.

Great story....Great find. The tractor and the deck really look excellent. The ll00 Eaton Hydro also. You can find all the manuals in our manuals section. to the

... Don

@ebinmaine every time i look at a wheel horse wiring set up , I cringe at its faults , regularly use wire wrap or cable wrap to contain my rewire work , also eliminate tight binding / chafing areas with bolt or screw on cable mounts . basically just go wire by wire with solid improvements . also use electrical lugs for multiple hook ups , also a very solid grounding spot gain . personally would not put up with a chronic wiring issue , too many other reliable set ups to use . like I have said , " you have to be fed up ,with a problem ,to make it go away " . you are looking at what does not work . change it out , if you want to . just my experience , pete

Also.....those boards are live all of the time...with NO fuse between it and the key... Something to ponder...maybe add one if you are replacing.. just my .02 cents... John

I'd add that ALL the wires that go through the metal shelf below the board should also be wrapped. Maybe they were at the factory. They were bare and exposed and chafed through to a short circuit on the 417 we have here.

Just got the 312-8 back together tonight.

Well… the first “trailer” was a little tykes wagon… circa 2017… sorry no pic… but the first official car of the SL&WHN RR was Christmas 2018… Humble beginnings…