Yet another damn tractor

[sorekiwi 761]

While our Australian friend has been doing his best to fill up his shed with little red tractors, I have been hoping to get rid of a few of mine. I'd really like to get into single digits, and ideally would like to only own about 6. I doubt its ever gonna happen.

So somehow I managed to drag another one home yesterday:

Reasonably tidy, I think it'll look OK after a good bath. I jumped it this morning and the M10 did struggle into life briefly. By the amount of "debri" that came out from beneath the engine tins, the mice had been quite happy living in there. After removing the blower housing, the vermin had been feasting on the spark plug wire. We'll see how she runs with a new wire.

It came with a reasonable 42" deck, it needs a couple of small patches welded in, but I think it'll be a reasonable unit when its done.

Hopefully this one wont stay here too long, get it running good, a clean up abd drive it out to the roadside with a "For Sale" sign on it.

[JimD 3,345]

That's a nice straight tractor Mike. A little "dust up" and she'll look like new. I don't know where you find em. They are scarce over near me. If you run out of room, I could store one or two for ya.

[Kelly 1,029]

Looks like a nice little tractor, and should clean up and sell good.

[Martin 2,131]

looks good mike, you should know by now that nothing in life ever goes according to plan........

[Martin 2,131]

hey, are you teasing me with that seat pan placed behind the tractor in that pic?

[Jake Kuhn 1,554]

Thats a very nice tractor you found! Jake

[dclarke 4,032]

Looks like it'll clean up nice Mike. :thumbs:

[stevasaurus 22,682]

Wheel Horses are like Oompa Loompas...they are so cute, you just have to save them. Nice score Mike.

[sorekiwi 761]

Wheel Horses are like Oompa Loompas...they are so cute, you just have to save them..

I've drunk more than my fair share over the years, but even with my thickest beer goggles on I cant make those things look cute!

[Kelly 1,029]

:text-yeahthat:

[sorekiwi 761]

Thanks guys.

Obviously the more you look at a new purchase, the more you find wrong with it, but so far with this thing I havent found anything too nasty.

Our bodyshop/painshop/woodworking shop at work is next door to a New Holland tractor dealer. They took the 310-8 as a trade in on a zero turn. Apparently the tractor belonged to a guys father, and after the old man passed the son used it for a couple of years. When the deck drive belt came off, he decided to trade it in on a 52" zero-turn to cut his 2 acres with a 1 1/2 acre pond.

I was kinda hoping someone else would take it, but after a week it was still sitting there all lonely, and somehow ended up being loaded into the back of my truck.

I spent the morning cleaning out grass and house of mouse. I cant seem to find any copper core HT wire here (although I am sure I have some) so getting the engine running will have to wait till tomorrow night. Also dont have 4' of 1/4" fuel line either, the lines that are on it are hard and cracked.

Fixed all the slop in the steering column, the bush at the top had fallen out of the sheetmetal. That whole steering column arrangement on these 300 series tractors is the most stupid, mickey mouse idea that I have ever seen on a Wheelhorse.

My 8 year old daughter is starting to get a little stir-crazy, might be time to stop my play-time and take her to the beach for a little for her.

[AMC RULES 37,124]

Why stop, I bet your new horse has never been to the beach.

[HorseWhisperer 243]

Why stop, I bet your new horse has never been to the beach.

yeah,let her ride the 310 to the dunes!!Fun for both?

[tunahead72 2,400]

Fixed all the slop in the steering column, the bush at the top had fallen out of the sheetmetal. That whole steering column arrangement on these 300 series tractors is the most stupid, mickey mouse idea that I have ever seen on a Wheelhorse.

Agreed. How did you repair the column?

[sorekiwi 761]

I havent worked out yet how to tidy up that stupid piece of plastic pipe that covers up the column. Any idea's on that would be much appreciated.

As for the bush and the wallowed out hole in the upper console, I ended up welding the bush to the sheetmetal. Just 3 biggish tacks so it could be removed again if I or someone else wanted to.

[kpinnc 11,866]

As for the bush and the wallowed out hole in the upper console, I ended up welding the bush to the sheetmetal. Just 3 biggish tacks so it could be removed again if I or someone else wanted to.

I'm guilty of the same fix Mike. It never fails that the retainer is rusted in place, which was just high enough to allow the bushing to slop around. It's a good temp fix that will hold it until someone tears the whole thing apart later.

Mine has been that way for over 10 years...

[tunahead72 2,400]

As for the bush and the wallowed out hole in the upper console, I ended up welding the bush to the sheetmetal. Just 3 biggish tacks so it could be removed again if I or someone else wanted to.

Good idea, quick and effective! For those of us with no welding skills, if that hole's not too large, I suppose we could try to accomplish the same thing with JBWeld?

I know there's some older threads on this topic, with much more elegant solutions to the problem (including one of yours). I have a similar situation with my own 310-8, just scratching my head a little to decide on the best approach at this point -- a lot of it depends on how much time I want to spend trying to get the steering wheel off.

Which reminds me, it's time to head to the shed, and hit my steering wheel and column with some more PB Blaster...

Thanks, and have fun with your new machine!

[tunahead72 2,400]

As for the bush and the wallowed out hole in the upper console, I ended up welding the bush to the sheetmetal. Just 3 biggish tacks so it could be removed again if I or someone else wanted to.

I'm guilty of the same fix Mike. It never fails that the retainer is rusted in place, which was just high enough to allow the bushing to slop around. It's a good temp fix that will hold it until someone tears the whole thing apart later.

Mine has been that way for over 10 years...

A temporary fix that can last over 10 years? I like the sound of that! :handgestures-thumbup:

[smoreau 658]

Wheel Horses are like Oompa Loompas...they are so cute, you just have to save them. Nice score Mike.

I had nightmares of the original movie when I was a kid!

[sorekiwi 761]

I thought for a while before I welded that bush in.

My first thoughts were to bolt in a spherical bearing like what is on the front of the lower steering shaft (I think Duke did something like this on one of his tractors. For a non-welder I think that would be the easiest and cheapest fix, I think the last one of those bearings I bought from Toro was about $8.

I did think about boring a hole in a piece of 1/4" thick flat bar, pressing a brass bush into that and bolting that to the sheet metal.

Then I thought "screw it" and just welded the bush directly into the sheetmetal. Including removing the oil light, test switch and the upper console the whole repair took 15 minutes. I was lucky that the steering wheel just slid off the shaft as soon as I removed the roll pin. But if you took the bush and console to your local welding shop, it would take 2 minutes for them to tack it in for you.

There is an alignment issue that you do need to take into account. The bush is round where it passes through the sheetmetal, but there are two flats machined into it, 180 degrees apart. I assume that the hole in the console was originally machined the same shape, but mine was all wallowed out on the rearmost side. I found by pushing the flat on the bush up against the forward-most flat on the hole in the console that the column didnt appear to bind, so that's where I located the bush for welding. I hope that makes some sense.

A day later I feel happy about the fix. At the time it seemed a little hillbilly, but I'm happy with the way it turned out, and I'm 100% sure that its better than the crap they designed in the factory.

To change the subject a little, I got the motor running today with a new high tension wire. Runs awesome even with a really shitty looking plug, old gas and probably a carb full of crud. No knocks, no smoke, I'm stoked!

[Martin 2,131]

how good does it feel to get them non running engines operational and find out that they dont have smoke or knocks and they actually run great without throwing a bunch of parts at them?

[Duff 206]

How about this in the "feels so good!" department: I got a 312-8 that was, at least in appearance, a complete junker. Much to my surprise, the M12 motor did start and run very nicely. Nonetheless, I pulled the head to check for wear and carbon build-up, and lo and behold! The engine had apparently been completely rebuilt just before the machine was "junked". New valves and piston, honing marks still just visible on the cylinder wall. Inside of the head and top of the block were clean enough to eat off from. New head gasket, spark plug, oil change and a carb rebuild, and it's the strongest running motor I've got. Some days we just get lucky!

Duff :thumbs:

[Wheel Horse Kid 105]

Nice looking 310-8. It is always hard to resist a horse that looks lonely!