855 Restoration

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

My first post here on RedSquare and I thought I would post about my latest restoration. I picked this little 855 up last winter but I had too much fun playing with it so I'm just now getting around to restoring It! When I bought this thing the shift lever was sitting on the seat, but I figured for $60 I really couldn't go wrong. I brought it home, and split the transmission to look for damage, but it was actually In pretty good shape. I put new needle bearings In the axel housings, along with new seals and a new seal on the brake shaft. Turns out the only reason the shifter pulled out was because the set screw broke. 

 

Anyway I finally decided to pull it into the shop and get It restored before the big Wheel Horse show In June. So far I have it torn down to a rolling chassis except for the blasted steering wheel. I never have luck with steering wheels! Spent the last few evenings working on stripping the paint off the parts I do have torn off. 

 

Tonight I took the motor apart. It runs like a champ with no smoke or any bad sounds so I’m just going to put some new gaskets on It and rebuild the carb.

 

More Pics to Come!

 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Update: So i saw a thread on here somewhere about soaking parts in apple cider vinegar to make the paint removal process go easier and it worked surprisingly well.

 

 

You can see where half of the foot rest was out of the vinegar and the other half was in. I think it worked well. Worked well on the other two parts as well.

 

 

 

The Kohler ended up being kind of a greaseball so i'm going to spray it with engine degreaser and pressure wash it on a warm day......warm as in above freezing lol! Pulled the flywheel and cleaned it up and sprayed the back with a high heat paint and primed the front. I got quite a few parts cleaned up today and primed with a can. When the weather warms up I will prime them with the gun. 

 

 

 

The bracket on the bottom of the fender where the seat latch goes across was broken, but that seems to be a common problem. I have some spare parts fenders that i've just saved for the sheet metal so i cut a corner off the bracket of one set of parts fenders and tomorrow i'm going to weld it in place. I'm also going to use an extra piece to weld on top to reinforce it a little bit. 

 

 

It;s going well so far!

 

 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Haven't posted here in a while. I will try and get some pics of my progress up tomorrow. In the mean time I'm still digging out of all this snow.

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[stevasaurus 22,841]

Looks like that horse is in great shape.  Nice pictures. 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Sorry it's taken so long to put my progress up. I've been sick for a while and haven't done much with it, but i'll give a progress update.

I've pretty much made a mess of the shop. Parts laying everywhere waiting for spring and good painting weather.

I've had to do some body work. The drive pulley on the tranny was bent (Don't ask me how) and it did this to the drive belt shield. So now i need a new drive pulley. Anyone know if i can get that at an autoparts store. My dad thought it would be difficult getting one since it's a 3/4 inch bore and keyed. Any thoughts would be nice.

The fenders were pitted under the seat so i got that all patched up.

We did have some warmer weather last week. And by warmer i mean above freezing. lol So i was able to finally degrease the engine and wash the frame off before i started working in those.

So to make myself smile and feel like a serious transition from rust bucket to thing of beauty is happening, I painted the black parts lol.

By the way i lost the battle on the steering wheel and gave up. I thought i was going to break it on the 20 ton press and that was my last resort so i have a game plant to paint it now it's just going to be a little more difficult. I also ordered the decals today and am waiting like a kid on christmas for those. Terry from redo your horse makes such excellent decals! Also needed a seat so i ordered one of those michigan style low back seats. If i would have had the original seat frame i would've gone with a cover like i saw someone selling on here, but i didn't. So hopefully come the end of the week i'll have this thing completely ready for paint. And yes i'm procrastinating doing the wheels......because i strongly dislike doing wheels.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Mike'sHorseBarn

[rmaynard 15,580]

Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see the next update. Been so cold and snowy here that I haven't been able to do anything this winter when it comes to my horses. It's nice to see someone else is making a little progress.

[Wishin4a416 2,191]

Looks Good!! I too have good results with red cider vinegar. I just pulled the drive pulley out and the rust is gone. And Welcome!!!!!!!!!

[neil 2,410]

good progress . looking forward to seeing the rebuild ,

  will give the cider vinegar a go

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

So I was cleaning up some electrical components on this tonight and my cigarette lighter is burned out and so is the wire that goes to it. I want to put a fuse in the line so my question is this. Anyone know what size of fuse I should use?

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[JERSEYHAWG / Glenn 4,497]

Mike, I just wanted to comment how nice its coming along. I really enjoy watching the transformation.

 

Glenn

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Thanks glen! Can't wait until we get some warmer weather so I can finish this up lol

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[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Got my seat in from Northern Tools today. Gonna have to drill some holes in the fender deck and do a little configuring to get put on there.

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Got my package from Parts Tree today!  

 

 

Was able to start putting in the new gaskets on the engine and i put one last oil seal on the drive pulley shaft in the tranny. That being said, i have officially replaced every single seal in that thing lol. 

 

Put a new points gasket on. Then removed the fuel pump to give it a good cleaning. One thing i noticed about that pump is that it is heavy for such a little thing! Modern fuel pumps don't have a thing on this one! Anyway, i primed the fuel pump and put it back on after i cleaned away some of the grease i missed with the pressure washer.

 

 

I moved on to the head to decarbon and clean it. I noticed that someone put rings in this motor at one time or another. Not sure if it's been overhauled....didn't measure the bore. It runs like a champ so i'm not planning on going that far on the engine anyway,,,,just a good cleaning.

 

  

 

Certainly needed cleaned

 

 

Tomorrow it's time to replace the pan gasket as it leaks pretty good around the old one. I also need to stop at autozone for some copper head gasket spray so i can get this head put back on and torqued.

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Haven't posted in a while due to the lovely winter sickness called bronchitis so i hadn't worked on it for a while. Lately i started again and got the the new head gasket and pan gasket on yesterday. Cleaned up the head and painted it with aluminum colored engine paint. Looks nice if i do say so myself. Today i got the block all cleaned up and wire brushed and primed. My uncle told me about this copper gasket spray that i thought i would try. Says its good for maintaining a good seal. Anybody ever use this stuff?

 

   

 

[shorts 182]

just make sure the block and head are clean and straight, install the new head gasket and torque to specs. all that really matters on these air cooled flathead engines is to properly crush the fire ring around the combustion chamber/cylinder the gasket material just helps to stabilize the head and hold the fire ring in place during assembly.  The copper stuff and most other gasket adhesives are most beneficial to hold paper gaskets in place during assembly but they make it much harder to remove the gaskets the next time the engine is disassembled, I would just use a little grease or Vasaline to hold the gaskets in place for assembly.

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Thanks! I was thinking that it might be overkill but I just thought I'd try it.

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[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

So this past weekend yielded some quality painting time. Primed some bigger pieces like the hood and fenders with the spray gun. And then the Red Paint flew! Have a little more to paint yet like the engine block and some small pieces but i ran out of paint tonight so i'll have to make a trip to the IH dealer this week. Won't be warm enough to finish until Sunday or so. Have to paint the wheels and then it's time to put it back together! 

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

[JT Burkard 4]

Looking good.

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Thanks!

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[JERSEYHAWG / Glenn 4,497]

Mike. Your doing that horse up nice. Can't wait to keep following along.

Glenn

[Stigian 1,234]

Your doing a great job, the paint looks rather nice

[Jake Kuhn 1,556]

Looking great!

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

Thanks guys!

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[rmaynard 15,580]

I know the question is going to be asked, so I'll ask. What brand paint/color are you using?

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,013]

I'm using the IH ironguard brand paint in the IH red color.

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