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I stumbled upon this video someone posted on facebook. I have the vhs of the commercial but it is so old it doesn't want to play. That would be me running the loader in the commercial. I have no clue who the rest of the people in it are - never saw them in my years at Toro. Denny

Hi all, starting a restoration project here before it cools down. This is my grandpa's 702 that he got for Christmas about 10 years ago. It runs but the project was put in the back burner. I pulled it out and am cleaning up it. Already have decals ordered. Wish me luck on resto number 5!

I sold a Black Hood 141 or 145 to my nephew that suited his needs. i then used the proceeds plus a bit more to buy a 314 with manual transmission. i took it to a rental property which had a steep hill in front of the house about 3 feet high and at a 45 degree angle. She is a very tight tractor and the deestone tires are in good shape. they were flexible enough to crawl right up the hill and cut that grass at the apex. My backup was a DeWalt string trimmer which was of course out of line, but that 314 saved me a trip to the store. Two happy people. my nephew has an automagical transmission mower , and i have a very fresh replacement for a go to extra. I never use a machine for rental mowing without a thorough deck clean because of spreading plantain seeds to my home yard. dad had tons of them as I was growing up and the seed stalks took only a day or so to make the yard look a mess. All the 314 needs is a jump wire to the solenoid to make it totally reliable as the seat switch safety is a bit sporadic to start the machine

Picked up this 8 popper today. Complete with starter,carb and PTO. Off of a no name 8 4 spd. in a scrapyard. Tractor was all there including the deck and it wasn't in horrible shape. Turns over and has compression. I'll get it on the engine stand in the next couple days and see if she's a runner.

Was having fun with Mason today. He challenged me to a drag race. 877 vs. 1277. It was a tie even with the lack of weight advantage he had. This pair of 1967s run good.

Or five Fireflies in a Mason jar .......

To be quite honest, the factory lights are only slightly better than holding a candle in front of you while you drive. If you are building this tractor to go fast, I suggest putting better lights on it. One example. https://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Driving-Lights-Spotlights-Waterproof/dp/B09VC57NY2/ref=asc_df_B09VC57NY2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=563658249300&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1614714086515426140&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1016367&hvtargid=pla-1707290933207&psc=1 Or some thing like these if you prefer chrome. https://www.ebay.com/itm/162222135157?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1MGRFTDCEQVWscmC1nuRF_g39&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=162222135157&targetid=1644837435483&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=1016367&poi=&campaignid=16743749222&mkgroupid=138744546207&rlsatarget=pla-1644837435483&abcId=9300842&merchantid=101685322&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrOnGxOGW-gIV7RXUAR0q9wdrEAsYASABEgIIQvD_BwE

A buddy of mine “restored” an old car that was a rust bucket. No hammer welding or any welding at all was used, just lots and lots of Bondo. One day it got rear ended and the entire bottom half of the body fell into the road in big pink clumps of failure. He was no body man!

I am sure that there will be more mouthing from both of us as long as we are alive.

This was an ASA parade in Andersen, IN. Wheelhorse leading the pack! Notice the second car is a being pulled by one and the third appears to be towed by another GT. My wife’s grandfather is on the door of the Goodwrench car. Back in the parade, my FIL and wife riding on the trunk lid…. We aren’t sure who was sticking out the passenger window.

If you lived in an area where salt was used on the roads each car's rust prone areas were well known. 1957 Chevys were known to rust out where the rear inner fender joined the body. Big old ugly semicircle! In 1963 one of my classmates came to school in the '57 Chevy his dad gave him for his sixteenth birthday. The '57s were popular and commanded a good price (nothing close to today's prices) so he was proud of it. A few days went buy and he loaded the car up with a bunch of us gearheads and we skipped school for the afternoon. While showing off for us he went over a set of railroad tracks that were elevated a foot or so at the crossing. Was he speeding, of course he was. The car went airborne a bit and we all cheered him on. A while later we stopped for sodas and as we got out there were some noticeable cracks in the paint around the wheel well. Come to find out the '57 was a total rust bucket and had been patched with a single layer of fiberglass and some skillfully applied body filler. His Dad attempted to get his money back but the used car dealer said it had been purchased for resale at an auction and was sold as is. He attempted to go through small clams court but his attorney advised him not to. We found a wrecked '57 with good rear fenders and replaced them in auto shop. The whole rear fender quarter panel from the top of the tail fin on down. We did some hammer welding but very little of the welding had to be great because it was covered by the tail fin trim or seam sealer. He also found a pair of doors in nice shape so we didn't even try to repair them. The shop teacher kept them to teach rust replacement for the next year's class. Out school didn't have a spray booth so Earl Scheib got the honor of making it one color again.

Thank you for providing me quick sanity! Jobs I learned today I never want to do again. Take off old Wheel Horse tires…add that to shingle roof…pour concrete foundation…replace power steering rack…etc…etc…etc…😉

Good old fashioned DOT3 Brake Fluid - use gloves and eye PPE. It softens and removes the paint and will not harm the rubber. Try some on plain coarse steel wool...Seems to be pretty complete, except for the shifter boot, parking brake lever and the LH guard over the brake. Later style shifter knob, and missing the hood thumbscrews. Deck may be a challenge... NOT a bad start at all!! Do check your lower steering shaft cast iron support and the "F" plate on the frame where the Unidrive attaches for cracks and / or damage. Did you drain the trans yet - a missing boot usually means water inside... Hitch looks frozen in place - very common. Feel free to ask questions - lots of Round Hood folks here.... Bill

Now that's downright mean Mike. But I guess Jimmy was asking for it.

I went to the scrap yard looking for any Elcamino's that the owner gave up on that I could fix in 10 minutes and turn a profit!

I have it torn down to this at the moment.

You never grow out of it either! My neighbor @Docwheelhorse and I are in our 50’s (upper 50’s for me) and we’ve been racing Wheelhorse’s and popping wheelies for the last 20+ years!

... Get a country girl's attention? A tractor. (Attract her)

A Haiku… You must attract her Any old tractor won’t do She sees red for

I read that to Trina... She says I musta done something right cuz she's got 4 tractahs now... ❤️

Thank you all so much for the kind words. Pics to follow shortly. The pallet that the machine was strapped to also had sides and a top and all of this undoubtedly contributed to saving the tractor. It has a dent in the back just below the seat. The seat is toast along with a rubber boot under the steering wheel. During the recovery I made use of a couple of trees, one at the lower end and one at the upper end. Attached pulleys to each of the tree trunks about 30 feet up and slung a cable between them, and then ran another pulley down the cable and picked up the tractor which we put spreader bars under and pulled it right up the hill suspended 15 to 20 feet in the air, kind of like 'high lead logging'. Client was quite surprised to witness an old guy put on tree spurs and skinny up the trunk of a big fir tree. Tractor is fair sized and probably half a ton. I suspect that the odorous covering all over the machine is a mixture of used hay and grass clippings sprinkled amongst the droppings of cows, horses, and most likely pigs not to mention chickens. It appears to me that the owner of the property uses the area out behind the barn as a big compost pile. Client tells me that the tractor was on the back of a flatbed truck that was parked out back of the barn and everything went over the side when the waterlogged compost heap gave way. What a machine though. It may be newer than i first thought. Has a Kawasaki v twin liquid cooled engine in it that has a short driveline that goes to a hydrostatic pump attached to a cast iron rear transaxle, very robust looking. Hav'nt figured out the steering yet but the wheel spins free so there may be some damage down there. Looks like it has a high/low range in the trans axle. I think that the deck is raised and lowered hydraulically also. I'm very happy with the find and impressed with the engineering of the machine. It is just covered in mud and dirt and organic matter. I suspect that I'll be cleaning it for days. Could'nt help but race down to the the parts store and pick up a battery and key. I pulled the plugs and peeked down the bores and the engine is really clean. I removed more water than i would like to see when I drained the engine oil. Oil came out really clean though. I'm hoping that all of that water is just years of condensation. My chest was out to here when I gave it a little shot of fuel through the carb and it fired right off for a few revolutions. Carb is spotless inside. I can hear an electric fuel pump down somewhere when the key is turned on. Once I get the transaxle and hydraulic reservoir drained and refilled I'll flush the fuel line and see what happens. PS, I just looked at the manual above and there it is. Do we call it an XI series or a 520? I'm guessing that if we come up with a serial number we can get a build date. Thanks again to all.

Boo-hiss! Don’t quit your day job

Had to clean the hose barn one fine day so the composition of the picture leaves a bit to be desired but here is most of the herd. and a few random shots.

Earlier this year, I bought a B-112, of which the deck needed some welding. I put it away in a shed as a future project. A few months later I saw an ad for a compatible NOS deck (5 of them, actually). I picked it up August 18, and believe it or not, it sat unopened in my garage until 15 minutes ago. Going as far back as when I was a little kid, I don't recall ever opening a Christmas present with as much anticipation, followed by happiness with what was in it, as I did today. The manual was printed September 1979. Do you think I should mail in the registration card? I'd hate to void my warranty!

Here’s one from a few years ago, since then I think I’ve added three more.

So I'm thinking this is going to end up being a lowered toy. Not 100% in tractor form. Just for cruising the neighborhood, around the yard and maybe local town celebrations..

That is one of the most correct 702's that I have seen ! Excellent!!

I power wash and scrub the tires then apply a coat of Miller tire paint.

@squonk I thought you and Randy had quit going dumpster diving. He he

Those 314’s are better than a goat! Love them and all they can do! At 45 you want to mow downhill! Just ride back up with mower off!

Back in the 1980's, my FIL ran a repair garage and every once in a while, a decent used car would come in for service with a "For Sale" sign on it. We would occasiinally buy one; I tended to the body work end, my FIL the mechanical. We bought an insurance case for parts - a very low milage, 16,000 mile Chevy ran great, but that was totaled when a chimney fell on it. Used the lower section of the RF fender to repair a rotted one on a similar model. Cut the 2 fenders and hammer welded the 2 parts together - took a bit of time, but the result was very good.

Gopher Patrol !!!

So those holes behind the plug are transfer ports..... Generally there will be 3 on most carbs. If you look closely, there are usually located at the throttle plate, and they act as sort of an accelerator pump, because most of these carbs do not have that pump. They are located just after the throttle plate when closed, so when the throttle is cracked, there will be fuel enrichment for accelerating up to high speed...will prevent a stumble when throttle opened. they are tied into the circuit for low speed idle mixture. That circuit is 'vented through the face of the throttle bore.... if you look head on at the carb, it's usually the smaller hole, with a small brass insert in it, on the same side as the welch plug. So after I boil out a carb and clean those transfer ports, Replace the welch plug and spray carb cleaner through that vent..... Look through the carb at the throttle end, with the throttle open and you can verify 3 small streams of spray (the low speed jet should be installed). Then your sure to be ready for action.. GLuck, Jay

Here it is on a 500 Special I had. Who knows... if I ever show up for a plow day I will be prepared.

I like the short ones. Right now all I have is a 1075, an 856, and a 875. The bottom plow and trailer are part of the collection because the decals say they are.

hammer wields are stronger, too. Hammering the weld as it cools introduces compressive residual stresses in the material.

there’s something about wheelies and funny faces

There's showing of and then there's @Pullstartshowing off Am only a little jealous of all the above groups of machines So far I only have one WHEEL horse: And I guess my gf sorta tries to play along aswell, just doesn't have wheels.. nor a steering wheel for that matter..

Here's a couple of pictures of the bottom tab area. Before: After:

Single or dual?

Over my 72 years, I have dabbled with automotive body work from time to time. Back in the early 1990's I took a night school course in auto body. I learned a bit, but lots of things have changed since then. In 2009 when I decided to restore my B-100, the bug again bit me and I watched hours of YouTube videos on how to use hammer and dolly to remove dents. I found it fascinating, so i bought a set. Fast forward to 2018 when I bought a project 701 at the WHCC show. This is what the hood looked like. It's been over 4 years of working off and on with my hammers, and I think that I'm finally ready to put some primer on this thing.

@Mickwhitt A friend recommended that I take the Sewer Tour on a visit to Paris some years back. I found it fascinating and not as smelly as I'd expected. In fact, after a few minutes you become unaware of the smell. However, others near you later that day may notice that you have a distinct and unusual "air" about you!

Yep, that is the "tractor half" of the mule for the deck in the manual @gwest_ca posted. The other part of the mule is on the deck itself. The setup worked only for the one deck only for a few models.

Part of the mower deck?

A couple of the AC air handler units at my church were being replaced so that got me to thinking about what I could do with the old blowers. Made up a frame work welded to a mule drive, measured up the correct size belt and it worked great.

Ahhh thats the one you were telling me about. Good luck on the tiller you ain't getting mine! Me thinks they were made for other tractors too so broaden your horizons. What the heck would we do without Greasy Pete around?