Leaderboard

Let me be specific about the nuts issue, these are chopped edible nuts like peanuts or pecans. NOT the hex nuts that we use on bolts. Got to be specific around this bunch of nuts.

Set up to do front end alignment. Two straight edges set up at mid-point of front wheels extending almost back to rear wheels. Steering wheel set straight and two measuring tapes (verified to have the same measurements) set up on straight edges. Front end alignment complete at least for now. Steering wheel is straight, there is around 1/4" toe from front to rear of tires which should be close to 1/8" at wheels as the manual states. Also, straight edges are in about the same amount at the rear wheels. A test drive on a flat surface will verify tractor tracks straight and steering wheel is also straight. Tractor looks like this now.

Draining out the water and gear oil …after letting my heater blast the trans for 30 minutes. 1990, 520-8

My Wife Krista took these pictures of me posing with my newest baby.

Nuts or no nuts? Well we all agree lug nuts are amazing vs no lug nuts!

National English Toffee Day is on January 8 every year to celebrate the richness of America’s toffee variant and encourage us to cherish this much-loved confection. Did you know that the English toffee enjoyed by millions of people across the U.S. is slightly different from the original? The rich and delicious variant of original toffee was invented in England and is sometimes called American toffee or buttercrunch because of how it is prepared with white sugar and a variety of nuts. The original English toffee does not contain nuts, although it is equally delicious.

That's what most guys use. I despise the smell of diesel fuel so I use Motor Metic Motor Flush. Since it was on the bench I spun it with a drill, let it sit overnight, spun again and drained. There was no water in this transmission and the oil was deep black. It came out pretty clean.

Isn’t the Charger 8 a vertical shaft engine tractor? If so, the transaxle is very different and I’m not at all sure it’s intended to support a plow bracket. The brackets/frames for the horizontal shaft tractors won’t be compatible. I’m fairly sure the dozer blade for the verticals attaches only to the frame at the front and mid-hitch.

It's official, I've done more snowplowing the last 2 days than I've done in the last 2 years. I think that's the way winter is supposed to be.

For sure ...Don't even bother to check anything without a battery. Just spinning your wheels. There can be no current flow tests without it. You might be able to get some voltages without it but best to have it. Very common for the diodes to be bad but we fo have a fix. Sounds like yours are good. Just one of many ... search on Tecumseh Diode all words.

F.I.R.S.T. Robotics 2025 season kicked off Saturday. This season's game has some interesting features. Looks pretty straight forward, but, as in past games, there will be an interesting and challenging twist somewhere in the game. I am a mentor for the local high school robotics team competing in this program this year. We are a bigger target this year, as we were one of the four 2024 world champions. Weather has canceled school yesterday and today. In past years, snow days have taken critical time out of our build time. This year, we were able to meet and make much design and planning progress through virtual online meetings. Good start on our CAD (computer aided design) work too, as the students have online access to the school's CAD software from home. We expect to start fabricating parts in the next few days.

If you can not find regular shear bolts, then I would suggest using some grade 2 bolts. I like to call them "butter bolts". These are the ones found in the bulk bins at hardware stores. They will have no markings on the heads at all.

Diesel drive-it-around flush but I’m fortunate that I have a hazardous material drop off that will take both the contaminated oil and the flushed diesel (in separate, labeled containers). Service stations and oil change places will typically NOT take this stuff because the re-refiners that recycle their used oil will refuse it.

Yeah, smells nasty. I left mine propped up so it can drip all day. I want ALL of that water/gear oil combo out of it!

How about sticking a magnetic oil pan heater on the bottom of the transmission? I saw several online.

Beautiful tractor! After watching this master class in restoration, I feel very inept.

This was taken quite a while back, but I just got around to editing a bit…

A quick before and after pic.

Double Nuts on everything for this nut case.

The seller was hired to get the stuff off the property by the heir to the recently deceased “collector". The lot is large, sub-dividable, and in a very desirable area but it looks like a junkyard--actually, it IS a junkyard. I’d guess developers are circling. They’d have had the lot cleared in two days with no thought whatsoever about what was being scrapped. The seller could easily have just started loading stuff and hauling it to the scrapyard. Instead, he asked for a couple weeks of grace to get the lot cleared and posted the ad when he recognized that some of the “junk” probably had more than scrap value--not to him, but to others. Yes, he’ll earn some extra money by selling rather than scrapping a select few items. When I left, he’d sold two very tired IH Farmalls, the tired WH 855 with deck, a mostly-there Beaver (the gem of the entire lot), and the stuff I took. Likely took in about $1,000 in return for time invested with buyers and lookers (he said at least 10 people had picked through and bought nothing). That said, in my estimation, the stuff he’s sold is maybe one percent of the tons of real junk he still has to load and transport. Plus, unless you separate out the different materials (aluminum, copper, steel, iron, etc), scrapping doesn’t pay well.

Lookin Goooood! You probably should insulate the underside of the roof to prevent condensation from forming.

@953 nut regularly add nuts to ice cream or anything else I want to enhance , my grandmother , would always tweak a desert , with a slice of fruit or nuts , to enhance its finish . going over to her house was always a learning food adventure. she also exposed me / us to Genova olive oil tuna , and top mast sardines , with crusty italian bread , simply delicious , thanks gram , pete

One rear wheel installed. Rear wheels both on the ground. Front end down. Tractor is officially a roller ! Front tires are sitting on pieces of Teflon to aid in front end alignment that is coming next.

Not necessarily. I do not know a member's ability to find the info. Many are new to Red Square and their concern is a specific question - not where the info is located. Original illustrated parts lists are named IPL in the file description. A TIPL is what was copied from Toro which is most often vague and confusing. Some are PL (parts list) only with no illustration. As time goes on Toro is eliminating the illustrations and placing all the parts lists for a model on one page which is almost useless but the best we have. When this started the goal was to grab anything available. As a result we have parts illustrations that Toro does not have any more. Sadly we missed a few before they disappeared. Our file source was the Toro Master Parts viewer and that is exactly the same source Parts Tree uses. At Parts Tree if a part is still available it is priced. Bonus. A link to our files could be 20-40 pages. At Parts Tree in many cases a link can be provided to a specific page in the same 20-40 page file. The hope is a member's question is answered. Posts like this will educate new members of Red Square so they can navigate the site on their own. Just helping others help themselves. A shout out to Toro for supporting us as long as they have.

As I pass my 80s , I don't go out in the cold unless I'm in my warm Wheel Horse heated cab..b.

One of your other posts said it leaks bad under load. That's when the combustion pressure is the highest. That points to the most likely cause. Blowby. A blown head gasket will not cause blowby. A leaky intake valve will blow through the carb. A leaky exhaust valve will pop out of the muffler. If the gaskets are in good shape as you say and the breather is installed correctly it is blow by from the rings forcing the oil out.

This is how a leak down tester does work. The pressure gauge shows how much air pressure you are pumping into the cylinder. The instructions will have a recommended pressure to set the regulator to. The percentage gauge shows you the amount of air loss that you have. Any percentage in the green is good, yellow = marginal, red = you got problems. Remove you air filter, crank case breather cover, and muffler as well if it comes off easy. Lock you flywheel so that your piston stays at TDC. While tester is hooked up you will listen in 3 spots for air leakage. Hear air through the carburetor = You have a leaky intake valve Hear air through the exhaust = you have a leaky exhaust valve. Hear air through the crank breather = you have bad/leaky piston rings. ( If this is where your air is leaking, then the bang is blowing past the rings and into the crank case when the engine fires. ) Note: you will always have a bit of leakage to the crank case, if the percent gauge is in the green it is acceptable. A leak down tester is merely a tool to tell you how much compression and bang power you are loosing and where it is going.

Good afternoon fine folks! I am seeking another human or 2 to come over and help me get my GT-14 running. I need another set of eyes. I know some folks in my town. None are remotely mechanical. All the things check out. It just won't fire. I am in Willow spring NC. Thanks in advance

Happy Birthday @Ed Kennell!!!

@tstab Well don’t you know I think I know where the correct frame is! I’m not exactly sure but I can check in the next couple days. I think my buddy has one in his shed! Again I’m not sure if it’s the exact one but I remember it has that short frame.

I have 3 of these. I put 2 on my Power King (both sides of the hyd. tank for the loader ) and one slapped to the bottom of my Sunstrand on my C-160 ( when it was used for plow duty)

I fired up the 520H and gave the Ber Vac Deuce a little exercise blowing out some mail boxes that were buried by the state plows. This is really hard packed stuff. Sorry for the shaky video. Guess I need one more hand instead of hanging the camera around my neck. The wind blew the flat areas clear and deposited it around the buildings. Outside temp was 24F. After 30 minutes the cab was near 50F.

Outstanding job on this tractor, Cleat!

You only fill it to the two dimples just to the left of the word full (the word full should not be in the oil)

I do have two unfair advantages. I am a retired Millwright and also did I mention, I am retired so that means I have a lot of free time.

Yes, but only for maybe 5 minutes and with no load. Time to go into every gear and make some tight circles in each directions (to exercise the differential). BTW, I would NOT do this on a 6-speed LSD transaxle, since there are metal-on-metal friction parts in there that don’t deserve the extra wear.

Are you going to flush yours out? I usually fill mine with used oil and a little gas mixed in and roll it around the garage then drain again, then fill with new gear oil. Just curious to hear what others do

WH’s that had electric lift used a very sturdy electric actuator attached to the rock shaft in place of the big lever arm or hydraulic cylinder. @ebinmaine's point is good. When looking, be sure to consider both the dynamic and the static force capacity as well as the IP rating (dust and weather resistance) and be sure to look closely at the speed under load. The speeds I’ve looked at at range from ~0.3” per second to ~1.25” per second. Faster gets expensive. If the direct lift for the plow blade is, say, 3 inches, that’s as slow as 10 seconds to as fast as 2.5 seconds. The hydros take around one second! Tricky when the ads list the throw in inches but a speed in millimeters. The 4” @ 14mm/sec above takes 7.25 seconds for the full range. Count with me...1, 2, 3...I’m bored!

Same here....1987 416-8. The smell is rancid..

The long plow frame is essentially a short frame with straight sides added behind the angle section. It might be easier to extend the sides on your frame than to make a custom bracket. Later today I can get a dimension of how long it needs to be.

Forgot to post some pictures of my Christmas ornaments. All the Suburban parts except the engines and hoods for the 400 and 551 are painted.

Last weekend (before it got cold) my son and I took the RV to a Pace Bend Park at lake Travis with his oldest 5 yr old son. Fall, winter and Spring are the best RV time in Texas. Summer its just to hot unless your going to the lake. Some dad time since they have a new baby. Grandchild #7, where do they keep coming from! He and the grandson did some of the rougher off road trails. His little pedal assist bike really helps him keep us with us and is great on rougher trails too. We all had electric pedal assist bikes and rode quite a bit. They did some hill side climbing. His kids aren't going to be stuck inside on a video controller all day. Of course my son had to go for a January swim in the lake. Waters to cold for this Grandpa! Back home, this little girl is going to be a tractor driver.

Tarp the floor of a tent garage. ⛺️ Sacrificial tarp surface that is larger than the size of the portable building. Layer of stone to hold it in place.

I had a salad in a Gettysburg restaurant that had 1/4-20 nuts.

And it doesn't take much. I used 3/8" foam under my steel pole barn roof....no indoor rain.

And over here in Maine where everybody thinks we get buried, the ground is almost bare and we haven't fired up a tractor in two or three weeks or more...

We swapped our old side by side fridge for an old top freezer type. The side by side will stay downstairs. Neither Trina or I our fans of the side by side setup because it puts serious limitations on the size of the items you can store. Top freezers are normally more efficient as well. I kind of wanted one that was a little bit narrower but this was an auction find and we have under $200 into it even after replacing the fan motor.

Have a great day and thank you for your contributions here!!!

@ @Ed Kennell happy birthday ! whatever you want is good today . maybe even a nap , pete

The diode blocks any stray voltage from getting to the module. Since it is part of the Kohler wiring harness it only shows up in the Kohler wiring diagrams.