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Christmas came early. I’ve been looking for a GT1800 for some time. Finally was able to score one. Not perfect, but it’s got potential. The engine is not correct and is toast. The person I got it from bought the tractor for the engine. He swapped it with the bad engine from his GT1642. Rear rims are not correct and the drive pulley is not correct. Now comes the re-power decision. Predator 22, Kohler M16… And the fun begins.

I just got this Devere tractor and would greatly appreciate any info you have on it

@Sodaking27, Here is my 1984 Work Horse GT-1600. I think it is sweet… especially with the rear ags and the 5 ribs on the front. That high back seat doesn’t bother me either. I also added taillights where the rear reflectors were. I’m following this thread also… can’t wait to see how yours turns out !

Okay I had to do it! Here’s mine, signed by Cecil Pond and currently has 19 original hours on it.

I agree, if you can you should put it basically to original. I bought my Work Horse GT-1800 brand new in 1984. I used it commercially to mow for 8 years. Also rototilled many gardens and plowed my some of my lawn customers driveways. I’d love to know how many hours are on it, there’s no hour meter but it’s got to be well over 2000 hrs. All I ever did was change the oil excessively. This is why I’m a big fan of this series of Briggs engines. A few years ago I gave mine a well deserved restoration. @Sodaking27 I’ll be following this thread to see how you make out with yours! It’s nice to see another Work Horse saved. Here’s mine.

Similar story, different tractor...well on the way to recovery here.

@EB-80/8inPA, When the tractor is sitting there , it is a seat… when I sit in it, it is a throne…

I own the prototype 520. They were not actually factory kits. They were designed by a contract engineer, to Toro, on his own time. He showed Toro but they were not interested. He did build a number of kits and sold them to local dealers. I know him personally and he’s a wealth of information and knowledge, regarding the tractors, decks, and other Wheel Horse items.

Thank you @JCM for the kind words. I would not say what I did to my 1984 Work Horse GT-1600 was a full blown restoration but it was close… considering how the word “restoration “ can be interpreted. I did what was necessary to get it to a dependable useable condition. The 16 hp Briggs Twin seems strong so I’m happy…

Here ya go

The Briggs currently on the tractor is a 16 HP. I was informed it has a lot of oil blow by on the rear cylinder. I just got the lead on an 18 HP Briggs Twin that I will be looking at next week. I know it’s missing the flywheel. I’d like to stay with an 18 HP if I’m going to have to rebuild a Briggs.

Wiring harness, dash, cables out. PTO arm and linkage removed. Likely that won't go back on. Got the frame and transmission separated.

My GT-1848 had been repowered by a PO with the Honda GX610. I like the engine but not that they cut the hood so the "stock" muffler would fit. I'm in the process of putting a stack on, repairing the hood, and repainting the beast. Already bought some Smoke Gray paint...

Moving along pretty quick Snoop. Makin us look like slugs here Sound is difficult to capture and/or playback on the phone. That being said, the engine runs good

Maybe too much time on the internet, 😂

Love the look!! Should make that Dixie Chopper even faster.

I've got eggs coming out of my ears... literally... Difference between turkey egg and chicken egg: Don

You mean the one that points up like this? I thought about going with something like that. BUT since this is a mowing machine... and it does go underneath tree branches etc... I didn't think that would be such a good idea... I know one thing... the RLV silencer tips that I bought aren't exactly cheap. $40+ a piece... so it better sound good... Don

Well, this is the surprise that I have been waiting/working on. @Achto... you know how that muffler was rattling on the inside? Well, I wanted to go with a dune buggy look, something to that effect. I'll cut the chitter-chatter and show some pictures: To me, that looks stellar. Exactly what I wanted. I haven't started the engine yet to see how it sounds. It will probably be louder than stock... not that I care about that. Don

The black hoods had a raised plastic fender pan, but any that look low profile like this are steel

I believe that the metal Kohler pumps were castings of aluminum or some other alloy, not steel. @ri702bill? As have many before me in other threads, I'll ask why abandon the existing pump and not refurb it? Rebuild kits are inexpensive, pretty easy to install, and work pretty darn well in my experience. That said, for tractors with under-seat fuel tanks that are left idle for long-ish periods a primer bulb or an electric fuel pump may be useful for getting quicker starts.

Nice straight tractor with good tins on it. Good bones for a refurb or full blown resto like @Horse Newbie Kohler twin would be sweet.

I like the Kohler idea!! Didn't they come with a Briggs though? Nothing wrong with those old Briggs opposed engines.

What I do with engines & trannys is soak them down with brake cleaner, then blow them dry with a blow gun. Repeat this process 3 or 4 times. At this point you should be safe to paint, I choose to wipe them down one more time with a preps-all solvent. Before paint, I recommend one coat of self etching primer before painting. Self etching bites into the metal and helps your paint adhere better. Apply one coat, as soon as it looks dull apply your paint. Paint color?? Rust oleum Regal Red or International Harvester Red seem to be the most popular choices. IH red is made by many different paint manufacturer's so this color opens up your brand choices for paint.

I believe it was where the tractor was sold because my 1977 C-120 never had a seat safety switch. I bouight it new here in Concord, NC. It came with just the clutch and pto switch.

One thing that is often overlooked. The ends of the armature housing should be wire brushed to bare metal along with the matching surfaces on both end plates. A thin coat of dielectric grease on the cleaned surfaces will keep rust at bay till the next time it comes apart. These surfaces provide the ground circuit required. Starter motors should be done the same way.

Absolutely correct Caz. A house is more than simply a home and I do agree that although it's just bricks and timber it does take on an imprint from those who live in it. Our working class heritage here in Yorkshire means that even just as far back as my grandparents house ownership was economically impossible. Renting was all that could be afforded and it's only relatively recently that my parents in law actually bought their first home. Counting up I have lived in five houses through my life, each one a step up in size and price. We don't call it a housing ladder for nothing, you have to start cheap and work your way up. But it should really be a housing step ladder, as when you get to the top rung, often you set off back down the other side and go small again. Wife and I walked past our first marital home last week, its still only five minutes away from where we live now, and we saw the rear car port and gates were the same ones I had built over 35 years ago. I said then that I would build things to last lol. The house I was born in still looks much as I remember, only it's way smaller than my child brain tells me it was. But I could not see me being able to have lived there my whole life. Explaining to the house valuer what we had done to our current place made me realise just how much work I've put into houses over my life, all of it for someone else's benefit. But we move on I guess and leave bits of us behind in the walls we built, gardens we tended etc. Our family came from Castleton in Derbyshire, a lead mining area since Roman times. We found out that our ancestors lived and worked in a large limestone cave which the area is riddled with. It was used to make rope for lead miners and it was long enough to allow them to make really long ropes. We visited it a few years ago and the present owner, who has made it into a visitor attraction, showed us a wooden bobbin used to form ropes which had been made and used by a distant relative. Strange to think our family ran such an important business and that the things they made are still here. This is the gravestone of one branch of my family in Castleton cemetery, from1758 note the surname of Sarah, carved just a little bit too near the edge of the page lol. But lead mining collapsed and the family were forced to relocate for work, moving to the nearby city of Sheffield where they moved into steel making. They walked the ten miles or so to find a new place with no plan but to find work. So my history is written in more than one location, more than one home. I'm not sure if that makes the history richer or poorer, but it certainly makes it interesting. But the line stops here, well for me it does, we didn't have children so this line of the family comes to a stop. But my brother and cousins carry on so its not quite the end of the road from the Whittingham name. Oh, did I mention? We had our own village at some point, in Northumbria. That was first started in the mid 800s yes 800s not 1800s, so there is a lot of water under the bridge since then.... best regards as always Mick

Or, find another solution:

Man, only thing better than that would be a full blown recliner... LOL Don

@sjoemie himself... you were right, the seat is VERY comfortable. I am beginning to think that I am going to make reasons to have seat time on this machine... Don

Engine running with RLV silencer tips. Very throaty, deep sounding rumble with just a tinge of raspy to keep things aggressive. My phone's microphone doesn't do it justice, but here it is anyway... https://photos.app.goo.gl/VYxjRVKUpN4hgTKB8 Sounds totally awesome in person. I am VERY happy with it. Not many machines can have that old style dune buggy or vintage VW beatle look. I was able to capture that with this machine. As well, the machine runs great, I took it out for it's first real spin today since I disassembled. I'm still going to go back and tighten some things just for good measure. Don

Nabbed a wascally wabbit on Thanksgiving. I cleaned him up and soaked him in salt water from Thursday to Tuesday. Today, I cleaned a little more off him and dry rubbed him with Blackening Rub. I’ll set the smoker to 225 and flip him in an hour and a half. I’ve never done a salt water soak, except for the turkey. It’s supposed to pull the gamey taste out? Maybe it tenderized it a bit too. I flipped it at 1.5 hours, then went another 45 minutes. It is resting, but feels tender and good!

No seat switch in the 1975 illustrated parts list so wonder if it was considered part of the seat. It is in the wiring diagrams. 1976-77 no seat switch in wiring diagrams. Found this in the 1976 B&C 8-speed operator manual. See no mention is the 1977 operator manual.

Story of my life... @Jeff-C175... Don

That brings back memories of my apprenticeship. Spent many an hour on an Elliot shaper. Bigger model than that though. Machining large plates at low speed could send you to sleep.

Also got ahold of @Vinylguy Terry to talk about some slightly custom decals.

I started using vacuum pumps awhile ago. I made a plate to mount it to the engine in place of the stock mechanical pump. Works great. I use either Kawasaki or Briggs pumps. They are made in Japan by Mikuni. If you're going to do something like this use a high quality OEM pump to lessen the chance of having gas in your crankcase oil.

@Sodaking27 agree with the kohler set up , or a honda twin , also notice the opportunity to enhance your pto lever start? usually sloppy fit , add washers and grease lubricant , to firm up and make it solid / smooth . looks like a good bones unit , bens tractors , has done a lot of honda swaps , might check him out . thorough baseline see what you have , looks good , pete

The vacuum ones look just like the regular metal ones - externally. They do not have the lever operated by the lobe on the cam - they rely on the internal vacuum in the crankcase as the piston moves up and down to activate them. Same long term issue as the lever version - when (not "if") the diaphragm fails, you end up diluting the oil with raw gasoline - not good. Electric LOW PRESSUSE pumps work fine and are helpful to start a tank-under-the-seat model easier if it been sitting for a while unused... Bill

Even a new Kohler brand pump is plastic. I have not had any bad luck with the plastic body pumps. Some Kohler vacuum pumps bolt in the same location as the mechanical one does. They use the crank case pulse pressure to operate. You could use a vacuum pump from a Briggs, you just need to run a hose to a pulse vacuum location. ( block off plate for the old pump with a hose barb threaded into it for example) Electric pump you would be best to wire it to the ignition terminal on the switch or if you have a magneto ignition to a terminal that is live with the switch in the ON position. You can leave your old pump hang on the engine or make a block off plate.

KOHLER. Hands down. Not even a decision. Toss a little paint at it and you're good to go!

Like this?

Cleaning a transmission or an engine block can be a little tricky because they're made out of cast iron which is porous. Ideally they would be done with a hot water pressure washer or steam cleaner or something along that line. A lot of the time Trina and I use a combination of degreasers and brake clean and repeated motions. Asking which paint is sort of like asking what's your favorite motor oil, truck, whatever. We all have a lot of different brands we use. Our particular shop tends to stay with Rust-Oleum 2x. We've tried both with and without primer and don't necessarily see a difference in adhesion. There isn't a color dead on match to an old Wheel Horse in Rust-Oleum 2X. Rust-Oleum makes a Regal Red in a different type that a lot of folks use. The only real disadvantage we can find is that it takes about 6 to 8 weeks to truly cure. It will never be as hard as an automotive paint so if that's what you're looking for, don't use spray cans. @Achto Dan, or others could help you out there.

I no longer have any of my wonderful tractors, however from time to time I check into RS just to see what is going on. One never knows what kind of great solutions can be used on a golf cart

This kind of reminds me of a local guy, a rather "infamous" Landlord that owns numerous rental units - always getting cited for minimum housing violations. A few years back he bought a brand new Caddilac Escalade pickup, about $80K, and had a 8 foot plow installed on it..... looked a bit out of place...

I brush painted the chassis and transmission of my C-125 and its all fine. Yes cast iron is rough but can still be made to look better. I have renovated many machine tools such as lathes and milling machines over the years. All of them had some degree of filling done to the castings to even out the surface. One c British company, Raglan, used to coat the raw castings in a kind of slow curing filler and leave them in a warm kiln overnight. This allowed the filler to "run" and self level before it set. The casting was then sanded prior to painting. This was more akin to car bodywork than engineering. When I stripped a couple of Raglans down I was amazed at how much filler had been used and how poor the castings were before the beauty treatment. This is an Elliot 10m shaper which looks sprayed but was brush painted and sanded between coats. It's got a better finish than my car (automobile)

Downsizing. Next to the word impossible my most hated one. Sensitive issue around here. All of our friends have either done it, are doing it or are thinking about it. Somehow when together the conversation always goes to that subject making me very uncomfortable and outright annoyed. I was born and lived in a place where that concept is foreign to most. Rather one always lived in the same home many times one inherited or handed down from earlier generations . One’s home was not just a place to live but more importantly a place part of your history and the legacy left to you. Your hands and your work added to those same qualities so it could be left to the ones after your time on it was up. There was an unmistakable presence and outright “soul” in those places always revered by its occupants. More than half a century later I still long for and miss such place for I came here and it is gone for ever. I have however as a result of that legacy left in me recreated it here to a certain extent. I understand also that my feelings about it is also something of a foreign concept here due to economics and the common feeling of needing to move to a bigger better place. Then we need to move to a smaller better place. I have become as much part of this place as it has become part of me. When I see my son walking through it with my grandson’s and tell them about the trees that we planted together, changes we made together or so many other important facts it just reinforces my feelings about downsizing. Fortunately I do not need to do it for financial reasons but one never knows what else life brings. It’s hard to imagine myself in a new place at this point in my life when I really don’t have the time to make it part of me. It would be like abandoning a part of my life. I have been told that I put too much of myself into this place. Perhaps it was instinct that made me do so. It grew with me and I with it. I don’t regret it but would definitely regret leaving it regardless of the circumstances. Nothing would make happier to know that when we are gone one of my children or grandchildren would take it over. They would feel the soul that only a lifelong previous presence can impart. They really already feel it. The hard part however is to keep it.

Mowing trees again today with the Cat D4

Finally finished the re-assembly and attachment of the two stage blower. Everything seems to run as it should. I wish this tractor had power steering, that blower is darn heavy. Linear actuator for the chute deflector shipped today so I guess that's next weekend's project.