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Ever have something on your mind that made you wake up and head to the shed early morning? I couldn't sleep after receiving my latest Wheel Horse so, I got out of bed at 3 AM and set out to go play with my adult Tonka toy. Figuring it would be a good day, me, my thermos of coffee, and a can of Skoal went out in the darkness. While fumbling for my shop keys a pile of iron jumped out of the bushes and threw me to the ground. After a few minutes of pain and sentence enhancers, I found myself with a torch, plasma cutter and welder surrounding me. I finally fabricated my own box scraper out of a few pieces of 14 gauge flat steel, 2 inch box and a chunk of cutting edge for my 980 CAT. Didn't realize in two hours I finally had a piece of three point equipment I can use. I'm thinking about building my own loader with a few valves and a pump from an excavator....... Inspiration comes out of the strangest places!

Hello All, Happy Holiday Season!! Sick of your not so young back screaming at you when your trying to put a non running hydro on the trailer? Screaming obsenities pushing a tractor with flat tires or dragging a project out of weeds all while trying your best not to have a heart attack? Well for about $50 in parts you can make it easy... a spare tire carrier, a boat winch, a handful of longer nuts and bolts etc... The spare tire carrier lifts winch high enough so handle clears in complete circle plus keeps strap level and above front cross member. Strap is 23 ft long and gets beyond trailer even with gate down. Get them "sick" tractors onto the trailer and on way to ER the easy way. Maybe this idea has already been done or in some other similar fashion... just thought id post to give others an idea. I bought my setup at Cabelas... I think everything is available cheaper at Harbor Freight. I work for Cabelas and my discount made it cheapest option. $50 give or take is the regular price to everybody. Tony

in life, if you are fortunate, you find wonderful "neighbors" many places -- and in your case you found CSeries Don half way across the USA -- that's the kind of person he is but also is the kind of people all across this forum - Great timing to read a story like this of "thanks" as we celebrate THANKSgiving.

Besides working in my workshop I sometimes have, or want, to make improvements to it and I figured in this topic I would take you along for the ride. First off today was installing a new door and doorframe. The old one was rotted and starting to fall to pieces, literally. My dad made a sweet doorframe out of stainless steel and I repurposed a hardwood door that came out of our home when we renovated the place. Still needs paint but should be good for a few decades I'd say. Old door with flaky paint and rotten underside. New stainless steel doorframe and repurposed hardwood door. Next up was lighting. Few years ago I got some freebie fluorescent lamps but they were old and dying one by one. Having to replace the tubes and/or starters regurarly got kinda lame. Since Black Friday is now also a thing around here I snatched a good deal one some LED units which can be daisy chained up to 20 units. I ordered six of these lamps for about $80,- As a test I installed one.. can you spot it? What can I say? Bright as day! Greetings from the Netherlands, Mark

Like the idea of getting strap up over the front of trailer. Buddy of mine put a boat trailer roller on top of trailer in center to guide and take "RUB" off of strap.

Got the tire chains on a couple days ago. Weights and plow are next.

From what I have gathered from the USA and Netherlands it's apparent that a Wheel Horse is definitely not a Koi pond, fountain, or a statue! I WILL give it a complete service front to back and occasionally mow and open area minus the low hanging branches and other scratchy obstacles. Probably not a wise idea to power wash the 30+ years of dust since damaging the decals, safety stickers and who knows what else would be blown away. I have found recently that using Rotella 30 has the vitamins and dinosaurs flat tappet engines like. Once I actually get the beast outside, more pictures are going to be taken. My only hope is that I can fit on this one!

Few things come to my mind reading this. First, temperature is a big factor. Not only your paint/spray(can) has to have the right temperature but also the workpiece you're painting aswell as the room you're painting in. Second the quality of paint varies a lot between the diy-store and the specialized paint shop. At least overhere where I live (Netherlands, Europe). Whenever I want to (spray)paint something which HAS to turn out great I go straight to the paint shop. Less critical parts I paint with the DIY stuff no problem but when it matters I'll take the pro stuff everytime. The difference is exactly what you described, paint goes on thicker, is less runny and/or sticks better to the surface, the shine is much deeper and the color is bright as can be. As an example here's a picture of the wheels on my Murray to IH 1468 project. The grey is just DIY store paint but the IH red was mixed and 'bottled' by my local paint shop. Certainly worth the five extra bucks per can in my book.

First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH DON! This man took the time out of his day to send me a Caterpillar 12 book and spent time on the phone with me chatting away one evening. It seems to me that the friendliest people are in collector groups.. seriously, I can't think of any tractor, truck, car or garden tractor show I attended that anyone was intolerable. Everyone eager to help in some way to make it enjoyable. I now have something that was recently gifted to me and will be needing help with ( hint hint C-Series-Don). Lmao 🤣. I was given a C125 that is new. New meaning that it was used for an hour and parked. This has mowed for an hour and parked in a shed since 1982. After digging in the shed moving vending machines, I finally found it. I'm actually in shock that it's real and was told to take it. What do I do with it? Sure it would be sweet to use again but I don't want to scratch it all over. Motor turns freely, tires need air, seat is nicer than my Super Duty. Not a scratch on the deck and has the grass chute. What should I do with this tractor? Parade use? Mowing? Do I even bother with trying to make it run or leave it alone? All input is welcome!

Finally got my B100 up and running. Need to tune carb if I can, high needle was all messed up. Tried sanding it back into shape. Only issue it leaks oil behind fuel pump after shutting down. I rebuild pump and it has a new gasket on it. Ill have to take apart and see whats up.

Piles of work done around the acreage today. Part of it was this project Weights are on. Chain springs on. Trina gave the cab a very good washing up.

Yup. Blanket, coat, etc... works but i use a short length of climbing rope or 1" webbing and attach cable to the tractor with a back up prusik knot on the cable. Takes no tension - Only needed if the attachment fails. In this pic visualize green rope as pulley cable and red loop is the prusik going back to the tractor. Red just loosely but securely tied to tractor. If green pulley cable fails, red catches the pulley cable before it can kill or maim... (Blankets fall off...)

Masking papers removed. I will let this paint dry for a while before continuing on with the assembly of this machine.

A Wheel Horse transaxle should have 10-30 motor oil and while you are at it replace the filter with a NAPA 1410 or WIX 51410.

We have a Belle Tire nearby, family business that started in Detroit, and they only charge $10 per tire (any lawn/garden tires) to do whatever I need - new tire on empty rim, or pull old tire, mount new one, and dispose of old one. There might be a $1 charge to dispose of an old tire. I would always look for a family business or Discount Tire type of store and see what they will do and for how much. I made a mistake and got the "really cheap" one from HF, and it's nearly worthless. The threaded vertical bar bent pretty much right away. Maybe I could replace it with a much harder steel rod, but not sure it's worth it. A while back I got the larger model second hand but looks like it was never used, for $20. Haven't tried it yet, not even sure if all the parts are there. But i's much sturdier.

When you have well over 100 tires on WHs other tractors, trailers and stuff and the nearest tire repair is miles away you gather the stuff to do it . I have the large and small Harbor Freight tire machines. The red slide hammer is the cats meow for breaking beads...The big gray device is the ultimate bead breaker but is unwieldy to use.

Brute force is one of the key element but you have to find the right brute to do it!

I know we're semi-off-topic now, but this reminded me of something that happened many years ago. My former wife and I had bought a small farm with just a small cottage house that we had intended to fix up, but it turned out to have too many issues and we decided to tear it down and start over. My best friend at the time came over to help, driving his Ford Explorer. When we had cut a lot of the studs and joists, he wanted to pull a wall down with his Explorer. Okay, not a terrible idea. But we only had a chain about 25 feet long. We lashed the chain to the top plate at one corner of the house, and to his hitch. After several pulls, it didn't budge and I told him he should stop trying.... no way. He hit it harder, to the point where his back wheels were catching air. Then all at once the chain either broke or came loose at the house end. 25 feet of chain collided with the tailgate of his Explorer. You can imagine the damage that caused. His wife wanted me to pay for the damage - I said "no friggin' way - I told him to stop and he wouldn't listen". Since then I've been very wary of pulling with chains and cables. I don't think I've heard of the blanket trick before but I will certainly be using that in the future, even with a nylon tow strap. Even that could seriously hurt someone or maybe even kill them, or cause significant damage to a vehicle.

Excellent! Here's my setup: Works great!!! (Pay no attention to the handsome gentleman exchanging a tractor in a Meijer parking lot...)

My father taught me the blanket trick after going through vehicle recovery class as part of the Armor Yankee Division in the US Army circa 1967

It may well be an 80, he wasn't real sure on the year.

Anything is fixable. Is it an easy inexpensive fix, that depends on the internal damage done and your mechanical ability. You can start by removing the engine from the tractor, removing the cylinder head and removing the oil pan to see what damage has been done. When a connecting rod breaks it can damage other internal parts and small bits of metal will find their way into every corner of the engine. It should be completely disassembled, cleaned and checked over by a small engine shop to see if the cylinder needs to be machined.

I will add a couple of things too what @Ed Kennell said about the bottle jack method. Have a couple pounds of air pressure in the tire to keep the sidewall from folding under, make up some small wooden wedges and place a wedge on each side of the jack after it has gone as far as it will. Once this is done rotate the tire a quarter turn and repeat the process. If the rim and tire are rusted together a bit of penetrating oil can be placed in the opening between the tire and rim and allowed to soak.

Found a little time to tinker this week, and I'm getting closer to being at a point where I can take this tractor (which I'm calling the "517-H" ) out for a test drive. Wiring harness attached to the light panel only, nothing else yet. Fender, seat and hood won't take long. Need to mount the 12v fuel pump and get this off the IV. I'm going to need to rig up a battery tray as I'm missing that, and probably fab the tunnel cover and lower tower cover plates (later).

I woke up early and was thinking about this so I looked at HF, and this looks like the bigger tire changer I have. Unfortunately, I'm missing the lever bar the guy in this picture is holding, so I'm probably going to have to make one. I think any piece of pipe will work for breaking the bead, as shown in this picture: However, for actually getting the tire bead up over the rim, the bar has a (not sure what to call it) bit on the end that you slip under the bead and spin around. I think I'll need to weld a piece of metal on the end, grind and polish it smoothly. Or buy such a tool. BTW, this tire changer is on sale for $59 right now ($70 off!). I think that's less than I paid for the cheap useless one - maybe I should just buy another one of these. Or maybe I can use the tool that came with the cheap one - it looks like this and seems to be strong enough: When I have actually been successful at breaking a bead, getting a tire off, I've either used Silicone spray or liquid, or soapy water to make it more slippery. But that stuff won't seep into an old, well-sealed bead. In my experience, nothing but brute force will get them started. This has been such a frustrating process that paying $10 per tire to have the pros do it is pretty easy to swallow.

I do not think it need a power wash. I f you like it and do not want to get it dirty take the deck off clean it by hand store it in a dry place off the ground. You can use this with a cart to hall stuff. Find an old rug and put the tractor on it to keep moisture off it. I MEAN MAN just enjoy it. Pass down to some one else when you get old.

Trina and I have had several great experiences with the folks here on Redsquare. One has been Don. As recently as yesterday.

I think we should get this thing running before we modify it to the moon and back. Let’s start with a starter generator, then see about everything else that’s been brought up.

I have used a hydraulic bottle jack. Tire under a trailer hitch of a heavy truck. Base of bottle jack on the bead against the wheel rim. You may have to put a block under the wheel to tip it enough to keep the jack from slipping off.

Get it running and use it! It’s not a “never been started NOS machine” so I would clean it up and put a few hours on it each year. Sitting doesn’t do these things any good. Congrats on the awesome score

First of all. AWESOME. What to do with a machine that was originally BUILT TO WORK? 🤔 🤔 Well I personally wouldn't let it set again.

Harvested the leaves one last time Sunday then switched over to winter mode. Need to find some wheel weights. Let it snow ❄️

I've just spent the past hour or so attempting to remove an old tire from a wheel rim - please tell me there is a method to this other than just using crowbars and brute force?? I can't find anything on a search of this forum that covers removing tires. I'm fairly certain using the crowbar technique I have been attempting (and failing) is just destroying the edge of the rim. Please help before I throw this damn thing out the window!

Got rental mini excavator and skid steer delivered a week ago Friday at our Ky. property to get started on our driveway. We've been clearing trees, digging stumps and doing dirt work to get the driveway roughed out since then. Lost Tuesday to rain, Wednesday 'cause the red clay was gumbo mud, Thursday was Thanksgiving. I've actually gotten further than I expected. I'm about 300 feet into a 700 foot driveway. Got the first of several culverts installed yesterday. Picture is looking back towards the road: The next couple hundred feet are all side hill. Kind of difficult to do with a skid steer. A dozer with a 6 way blade would be really handy here. Unfortunately, renting one requires a rather large short term insurance policy. However, I think I can get the job done with a box blade with ripper teeth on my 8N - it will just take longer, much longer. Plans for tomorrow are to install the 2nd culvert and start dropping trees for the next couple hundred feet. Will also dig as many stumps as possible, as the equipment will be picked up on Monday. Edit - Sunday got rained out for any dirt work. Red gumbo clay again. I did cut down 6 or 8 trees to clear the way for the driveway. Got 3 chopped up before I ran out of daylight.

Well, where are all the pictures of your safari trophies?

While in skilled hands, the "Blue Wrench" can cut steel as good as a plasma cutter. All about the know-how. Otherwise, it is just known as the "Gas Axe".

Sounds like rebuild time. It is stuck in the engaged position and won't retract. Been acting up a while but lubed the shaft and seemed to help but now stuck. The shaft also seems wobbly. Thanks for the info and help. I picked this up and it has a loader on it and the guy said it was a C-141 The seller said mid 70's and I have a C-121 that I have the tiller on and that is I believe a mid to late 70's from what I was told. Trying to learn as I love these old little tractors and not a lot of them around here in California where I am at. Like I said in the beginning when I joined Kinda of a newbie so appreciate all you folks that help out. Told the wife before I get to old I would love to go to one of the WheelHorse rallies that I have seen back in Pa. I believe. Again thanks for all your help.

Got the shopping done and will soon be getting into it fingers crossed!!

So far I have gotten an actual Kohler carb kit, air filter, spark plug, points, condenser, plug wire, rear end oil, Rotella 30 engine oil and new fuel line and filter. Will get it out and ready in the next few days! Thank you all for your input and plan to use it possibly one time this year just to exercise before winter ❄️. You have sealed the deal for me and also, the woman of the house approves!! I can have as many tractors as I want as long as she gets a few too.... Better marry this one sometime. But then that's what notorized prenuptial agreements are for!! LMAO 🤣

Thanks all for the advice. I need to spend some time looking at the engine manual and probably youtube (and this forum) and work out how to get started on taking the engine apart - no experience with engines (tractor or otherwise) but I'm fairly handy and a background in engineering (unfortunately only electrical!) so hopefully I can get somewhere with it. Luckily I have a second C165 so I will have to be extra careful to make sure I don't damage that one. Will report back when I find out what the issue is.

The flywheel on an eight HP Kohler is smaller than the one on a fourteen HP. The number of teeth and diameter of the Bendix Drive is also different. The starter on a "Big Block" (ten HP or more) will be the same as a fourteen HP.

The C Series 125 should be a 1980. Do you have any pics to show what you're working on? If it's a 1980 C125 Hydro it should use motor oil.

I have heard of people putting chevy small blocks in tractors so why not. If you have the time and money go for it. It will be a big down grading though.

Beautiful time machine right there.

You really have to decide how much it means to you to not have scratches & chips!

I have a manual tire changer to break the bead. Sometimes standing on the tire will pop the bead. If its a front tire a large C-clamp or wood bar clamp could be used,

Great score and I agree with the gentlemen above me; run it! Maybe don't run it like you stole it (which you kinda did considering what you paid ) but run it for sure! Greetings from the Netherlands, Mark

Making a little headway on rat rod Suburban. Transmission bolted to frame. Still gotta get engine placement correct.

Couldn't get the steering tow out to set right so I made a new set of adjustable tie rods.