Wheel Horse Madness 310-8 & 414-8

[MrMiller 5]

Hi, Im Tim and somehow I have ended up with a pair of Wheel Horses. Thanks for the information you post here, I find myself searching these forums often for help. The tractors: The 310-8 has 278 hrs on it but hasn't run in many years, mice were living in it and ate the wiring harness and it had some exposure to the elements and has a lot of peeling paint and some rust issues. I bought it for $200 with the idea of restoring it but it turns out that parts aren't so easy to find and a running 414-8 came up for sale that had a 48 inch deck that looks like new so I picked that up. The 414-8 needs some work as well. I will post pictures in this thread and hope to get some idea of what I am up against in trying to keep the 414 alive. I have found that quite a few parts from the 310 fit on the 414 so I have begun using the 310 as a donor. Here is the 310-8 it is from 1990:

Here is the 414-8:

[MrMiller 5]

The guy I bought the 414-8 from said that it didn't have many hours on it (it has no meter) but I think that it does (he was a Cub Cadet guy). Based on these pics, anyone want to guess how many? I had to swap the front hood mount from the 310 because it was wobbling all over the place on the 414 and the hinge pin mounting holes wallowed out to about twice the size they should have been, also the throttle shaft is worn over a third of the way through, the brake band is covered in oil/grease, and the shift gate looks pretty hammered:

 

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

Excellent!

Welcome to redsquare! You will find that MANY parts wll swap over from other horses. WH used the same frame and transmission on the 8 speeds for like 30 years. If you need things post in the wanted section and keep posting pictures of your progress here we love keeping horses running!

So yes there are some parts that are no longer available new,  but i think youll find there are plenty of decent lightly used parts available.

Oh and be careful, they multiply. I started with a hand me down and bought one for parts to fix it. Now i hsve 5 or 6?

Hard to say how many hours. The throttle bushing being worn means it probably has a few, but it looks to be in really good shape. Those single kohlers go forever. They are very tolerant of wear and very robust and you can just keep rebuilding them.

The shifter gate happens sometimes is the shifter is a bit too loose or the plate isnt llined up just right you can smack it when shifting.

The grime is pretty easy to occur if theres a small leak or its not cleaned up well. The brake grime issue may be a seaping seal on the brake shaft.

The hood hinge pins get wallowed out very easily with the hard frame mounted single cylinder engines. The hinges just get beat to death.

[slammer302 2,155]

If I had to guess I would say it has around 700hours on it welcome to RedSquare Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[MrMiller 5]

Thanks! I want to restore it over time but began to worry that it might more beaten up on the inside than I thought. It runs strong it just has issues with the throttle a bit which I hope will be fixed when I rebuild the carb. Going to try the trick of putting the Hillman bushing in and hopefully the local parts shop has a throttle shaft. Carb is soaking in carb dip right now and would like to get it cleaned up and put back together this weekend to mow on Sunday.  It also backfires dramatically when I shut it down but hopefully that will get better when I pull the head and decarbon, I expect it needs it. The steering has A LOT of play too right now so hopefully I can use the parts from the 310 to address those issues. Thanks again!

[slammer302 2,155]

when you pull the head to decarbon it check the spark plug wire both the 314s i've had the spark plug wire was missing most of the insulation around it from the flywheel blowing on it for the last 30years 

[953 nut 55,191]

    From the sound of your post you have a good handle on what is needed to keep your  going for another 25 or more years.

[Tuneup 1,433]

You're starting way ahead of me. Those horses are actually pretty clean, at least to me. Good luck with it and, yes, fantastic resources here at Red Square.

Marc/Douglasville GA