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I bought a 551 Suburban with no engine. It came with a belt guard. 551's came with a Tecky which is a big nay- nay here at The Wheel Horse Plaza / Fake Chicken and Tweety Bird Ranch. Got a K90 from @formariz but it's different enough that the belt guard wouldn't work. Maybe if I slotted the frame and moved the engine back farther. But I hated the belt slap noise the RJ's and Suburbans have when releasing the clutch. Plus @wallfish did such a yeoman's job in the blistering heat crafting some wire guides I wanted to keep them. So it was time to make a belt guard. I found a belt guard in my basement years ago. I have no idea where it came from or for what it was. It looked pretty crappy. Somebody in NC needed a guard so I gave it to Richard @953 nut to bring to NC from the show. Well that meet up never happened. Richard gave me the guard back this year. I thought great, More scrap! I got thinking of making a guard. This crappy looking guard metal was pretty stout and I'm no metal smith. So let's have at it. Using the belt guard I got with the tractor I sized how much I needed to cut out. Made lots of noise and cut the guard with my 4" grinder with a cutting blade. I put a dab of grease on the crankshaft to locate the approximate location of the hole needed. Using my very large Horror Fright compass I located the distance from the center of the crank to the rear mounting stud for the guard and drew an arc on the guard. A dab of grease on the stud and the rear stud location is approximated. I used the same procedure to locate the front mounting hole. Test fit the guard. It fit but it looked like it needed something. After consulting with Bear's @ebinmaine and backyard hammer mechanics we decided on rounding off the front. I also decided to round the rear some. Enclosing the edge would take some welding so I had to take it to my friend Bill the welder. He discovered this guard was galvanized. Never knew WH did this. He got it done the next day and I trial fitted the guard Prepped ,painted and installed.

Ready to head out on a little road trip. No more than got there and the local Elgin wildlife greeted me. Did our unload, reload thing and this ended up following me home. Safely parked at her new home.

Hey all, new to the forum as I just bought my 312-8, my very first tractor. It will be here Mon morning. It won't get any use until we move to VA in a couple of weeks but I just couldn't pass it up. I hope I did good, paid 900$ for her. Did I do alright? I will probably have a ton of questions for you guys, I hope you all are patient. Thanks, Jim

My little bit of goodie haul. Also sold that blue go Kart thingy (pictured above) that was made from adapting a little 2 stroke bicycle engine (donated by @Sparky a couple months ago) to a TSC pedal cart that was bought for my grand kids many years ago. It's fun to drive but a little bit scary as it would easily lift the front tires off the ground when throttling up fast. Real fast steering end to end and a hand brake. It was bought by another old man after I talked him into taking it for a test drive. He came back with a huge smile on his face so we shoehorned it into the back of a RAV4. Hopefully he didn't hurt himself after getting it home and going FWO with it.

1974 C160-8 Tecumseh Horse under construction!

Hey @stevasaurus pretty good combo I'd say.

I waited 40 years to get another Shepherd. Today my wife found her for me. She's 12 weeks old! My dachshund was not impressed. She has been pouting all day...

Third and final “test” mowing with this Magnum 14 (she ran great). Now to decide its fate.

These two are in the Sandwich Range NH just north of Lake Winnepesauke. The water views below are Squam Lake. Total was almost 6 miles. Near 1600 feet elevation gain. The woods are just as fascinating as the tops. Old colonial area filled with stone walls and at least one long forgotten cellar hole. Big attraction for these two is that the tops have steep boulders to climb and Percival has a cave to go through.

Thank you for the birthday wishes. I started my day with my son and grandsons changing out wheel horse transmissions then went to another grandsons birthday party at the river. Came home and tested a hydro transmission for 953nut and finished the day watching grandkids in the pool. Great day for Grandpa.

Goop all-purpose. You’ll need about 1/2 oz.

@Achto sorry it took me so long to get these pictures been busy with a elderly family member. I think this is what @jeremi3210 is referring to. The 6 speed (small) gear on the right does not have the gear teeth machined all the way to the end like the 8 speed gear on the left. The teeth on the end of the bull gear will need to be beveled slightly so they doesn't bottom out

Did he come out of the house or the bushes?

Here you go. Currently it’s not operational. This thing drove for the first time in 15 years this past week. I have yet to tinker with the hydraulics. Although I’m timid because I’ve never worked on hydraulics before. I picked this thing up for $150. Score!

Made some time for this again today. The plastic steering shaft cover on every other C160 I have here is ONE piece. The shaft on this one has two small pieces. This tractor may be original and different from the others or it may have been apart. I lean towards the latter. There are several things that have been changed in comparison to its brethren here. I decided to try to save the plastic if possible but not get to obsessive. Good thing because the top piece was wrecked during the cut-off process. Per suggestions above I cut a notch slot groove slice in the steering wheel hub. A few appropriate whacks with a couple punches and I was able to use a 3 jaw puller to remove it. After that I set to reversing the "adjustments" in the wiring done by a PO. This is how the PTO switch was bypassed. Add tape of course. Then I removed a glass tube type fuse holder that was so old it was yellowish and crunchy. I took the ignition switch out. Cleaned it up with various methods. Used dry lube to get it active again. Now it'll get some dielectric grease and be reinstalled.

I've followed this yearly auction for a couple of years. It's always interesting to see what people consider really rare and what they pay for them. On the flip side the more somewhat common one don't ever seem to bring much at this auction. I checked with the moderator and they approved posting this since this auction has passed. https://bids.aumannauctions.com/auctions/30231-2024-garden-tractor-consignment-auction

SAE 30 just means it's weight (viscosity) at 32° or higher. Got to look at the API rating on the bottle if any. I wouldn't use it. Kohler says to use Detergent oil in all of their engines. I bet Briggs does too. Non detergent oil should be used in non combustion applications like compressors and pumps.

At least some of these hours are from running it, Even a moderately used machine that is 30 years old could easily have as many as 700 hours of running. Agreeing with @Sparky and @Pullstart, not hard to walk away leaving the key in “run" on a stopped magneto engine. And it does not keep the lights on so the battery will last quite a while. I could see a good battery running the clock for three months at 700+ hours per month.

The pan is self cleaning! That stuff eats through it in less than a year. New pan, all clean!

Goop adhesive, Gorilla Glue.

Weld on it and turn it back down. Or buy a new rod and weld on any linkage or bend it to match. I make frame bushings out of axle caps from the drawers at Lowes. Grind off the enclosed end and ream to fit the rod. Or drill it to size.

The clutch pedal has been able to go waaay too far forward since I've had this tractor. Turns out the roll pin in the clutch cross shaft was a 3 piece model. Not standard. Took a bit of figurizing and I lined it up. Drove out fine once I had the right sized roll pin punch. Once the pin was out I was able to use a small sliding hammer to pop the lever end off. Then the brake shoe & band along with the drum. Wanting to check things out inside the belt guard I took that off. The clutch shaft itself is somewhat worn. I'm open to suggestions for bushings. I'll start a separate thread for that. Some time in the distant past the muffler was replaced with a Cub style. Likely I'll try to reuse that as I like the deepish quietish tone. What I didn't like is that the PO installation left the muffler outlet pointing directly into the bottom of the hood. Removed....

I don't know. I walked around to the back door and when I came back there he was. My life flashed before my eyes................

I think in position 3 the lights are off…so if the key was left in that position the hour meter would tick away but light would be off.

My 310-8 lights only came on if the engine was running. Flipping the switch with the engine off did nothing, regardless of key position. My $.02: This tractor is 30 years old. Even if the hours are somewhat closer to accurate, it's not so bad. If a large chunk of those hours came from leaving a switch on, even better for you. The hour meter is a nice option, but is not necessarily a true indicator of overall health. Especially true given how it can be energized by leaving the key on. If the machine was properly maintained, it still has many years of life left in it.

Picked this off the side of the road last night. Took me all morning to straighten it out. Also was missing about a dozen nuts and bolts. Working g good now ! 20240721_133529.mp4

Looks great Bob !! What a nice day. Good to see you again. @Racinbob

I suspect that if @ebinmaine cleaned the pan, the quality and taste of the coffee would suffer

Masking removed from wheels. Tires all aired up to 12 PSI (they were de-aired for masking and painting).

A few weeks ago BBT bought TWO new camp lounge type chairs. 1 for BBT + 1 for EB = 2 I've been forced out of the equation somehow.....

I have both, 418-C and a 520-HC. 418-C just has normal bearings but the HD spindles and the 520-HC just has the normal 1" roller bearings. Nothing special on either one. Probably the easiest way is to just find new rims. The OD of a 3/4" roller trailer bearing is close to 1 3/4". What about machining that race down to fit the ID of the wheel? It would need a couple of dimples in the wheel to keep them or a piece of pipe between them. https://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Agricultural-WPS-LM11949-LM11910/dp/B01EBKYSWA/ref=asc_df_B01EBKYSWA?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80607997944711&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584207577350339&psc=1 A piece of DOM tube to fit through the wheel hub with a 1 3/8 ID for regular bearings. BUT the tube will need to be machined down to fit 1 11/16". It's carbon steel so much easier to machine than a hardened race would be. https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/carbon-steel-round-tube?q=%3Aprice-asc%3AMaterial%3ACarbon%2BSteel%3AShape%3ATube-Round%3AInnerDiameter%3A1.375%22%3AOuterDiameter%3A1.75%22 3/4 ID by 1" OD DOM tube to covert the spindle from 3/4" to 1" then use 520 rims, or convert to 1" trailer hubs and wheels. Just kinda throwing different ideas against the wall to see what sticks.

It was a good time Mike a lot of banter and a good laugh. Good to see a lot of R/S members there.

Interestingly, I don’t much mind other people being right. I don’t like being wrong!

KVID0074.mp4 We lined up the input pulley on the hydro with the PTO pulley on the 953 and used a 110" x 1/2" belt to drive the hydro. The rear wheels were off the ground until the fluid was circulating then we let the tractor on the ground, engaged the PTO and let the hydro pull the 953. Another successful test and another good hydro. @953 nut

Took my truck and the wheel horses down to the local car show today. Also brought down some custom atvs and a go cart I built for my buddy.

Grasshopper, You just graduated to yellow belt front yard hammer mechanic! LOL

"Brown Material" Where's @SylvanLakeWH when we need him!

Oughta work right up until you press the clutch!

You could sell it to me 😁

@D_Mac Nice!!! Mount that baby on the hood of a and create the first "win-gen" model...

Getting the engine back together from getting the exhaust valve unstuck and cleaned up, set the clearances on the valves. Got new coil, new spark plug, new air filter. New gas lines shutoff and filter. All that's left to get it started up is the wiring. I did get the exhaust out used bunch of pb blaster after that I heated it up, then I used a 10' galvanized 2" steel pipe on a pipe wrench. Just letting the weight of the pipe do the work. I am leaning towards doing a lowered custom the whole front axle spindles and steering are all loose. My other Wheelhorses aren't tight but this one is worse. So I am thinking of doing a custom front suspension and possibly front brakes. I'll see once I get it running, I'll drive it around a bit see how everything is doing as is. Then make a decision from there.

@peter lena approved dielectric grease. Repaired/ modified harness installed. Cheap 💩 fleeebay fuel tank valve bad after just 2 years. Aircraft Spruce Company brand fuel tank valve. Grommet was good.

Spring attaches from the small hole in ratchet (23) to a small hole at the bottom of the dash tower. This picture is from a B-100 8-speed, looking down through the shift pattern plate. You didn't specify what model you are working with, but this should give you some frame of reference.

Or four. Or five...

Nailed your own answer there! Up here that's likely a wolf spider of some sort. There are many. We didn't mess with the nest to see what exactly was in there. That particular tree is a large Spruce. It was inundated with the those little spider houses.

Beautiful pup! No worries on the dachshund. They'll be beat friends before long.

Have you checked the valve clearances? May be too tight and under high heat a valve may be not closing. Lean condition could be a vacuum leak where the carb mounts on the block. I use a propane torch and replace the tip with a rubber hose so raw propane can be applied around the base of the carb with the engine running. If there is a leak the propane will affect the engine performance. Use a very low flow of propane. Get it turned on before starting the engine so you can hear the propane supply. You do not need much. Have you ever cleaned the fuel tank? You would be amazed how much junk they collect in 35 years. The tank screen is not very big.

The No-name series was one year only. 1973. From '74 up it would be a Letter series like B, C, etc. Do you have the model tag from yours?

Race starts tomorrow at 10am

RIP buddy.