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April 21, 1967, General Motors (GM) celebrates the manufacture of its 100 millionth American-made car. At the time, GM was the world’s largest automaker. General Motors was established in 1908 in Flint, Michigan, by horse-drawn carriage mogul William Durant. In 1904, Durant invested in the Buick Motor Company, which was started in 1903 by Scottish-born inventor David Dunbar Buick. Within a few years of forming his company, Buick lost control of it and sold his stock, which would later be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Durant made Buick Motors the cornerstone of his new holding company, General Motors, then acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Reliance Motor Company, among other auto and truck makers.

Your engine is splash lubricated with relatively wide clearances when compared to a modern automotive pressure lubricated engine, I would go with 30 as stated in the engine manual.

I have used Rotella T1 30w for years, summer and winter without any problems. IMHO it is the best oil for these older engines that is made. Bob

Hey everyone! Just wanted to follow up with how things went, both to give closure and to maybe help anyone in the future. I was able to get that governor shaft in place and installed without any further disassembly of the crankcase. Took one strong magnet placed on the outside of the governor shaft hole, one extend-o pocket magnet to move the shaft around in the case, and about 10 minutes of my time. Turned the engine on its head, dropped the shaft down at the bottom, then maneuvered the shaft into position using the extend-o magnet. Once it was "in place"-ish, I moved it close enough to the magnet covering the shaft hole. The shaft attracted to the magnet and grabbed over. Then, I just pulled the magnet outward (with the shaft attached) and the shaft walked through the hole. Checked the alignment was correct, installed the shaft sleeve, torqued down the nut, and voila! - new governor shaft installed and ready to go. Reassembled everything (new oil, new oil pan gasket, new fuel pump installed, but not hooked-up to fuel lines (for closure - still using the electric fuel pump)), started her up, and bingo-bango - throttled up and governor-ed down as expected. Thanks again to everyone for the assistance and help here! It is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!

Buying cable in bulk is a better idea but for no more often than I do it I just pick up a cheap throttle and cannibalize. I discovered I needed one for my Dino project so I got this at Rural King a couple days ago. I'll fit it to the original control and cut it to length as needed. The Z bend tool I have gets the job done OK.

McMaster-Carr is the adult version of "Acme". The mail order place where the Coyote got all is stuff to do in the Road Runner.!

Thirded...

Seconded!!!

I believe that the Rotella T1 was originally developed for use in diesel engines. It has a better extreme pressure additive package suitable for the higher bearing loads in compression ignition engines. When used in our antique Kohlers, and Onans, that same extreme pressure package helps protect our journal type crank and rod bearings and the non roller lifters and cam shaft. These surfaces have largely sliding type of friction. The current automotive engine oils are designed for tighter crank and rod bearings clearances - often with special coatings - and roller lifters running on the cam. All of these features are efforts to reduce friction and increase fuel efficiency, which, was not a concern when our antiques were designed and built.

https://www.uscargocontrol.com/products/1-8-7x19-type-304-stainless-steel-wire-by-linear-foot?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=191860260&cq_con=14410206540&cq_term=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&utm_term=&utmcUQAvD_BwE regularly refer to stainless cabling , for corrosion free set ups , have it in various sizes , we regularly made up lift slings with it , in a winch set up its a no brainer , like chain / cable spray , ridiculous movement ease , snow plow chute , pete

T-6 is not going to do anything better for you engine than T-1 (30w) or T-2 (40w). Full Syn and Blends in these old loose tolerance dirty port engines just burn off some of it after a couple of hours of use. Rotella T-6 is expensive overkill for these old flatheads.

I bought one of those years ago. Very handy to have.

Sounds a lot like me getting older!

Looking forward to hanging out again! Although 11:00 am is my limit due to the wife's birthday party. Can't wait to see the look on her face when I roll up with that truck project! LOL. I didn't tell her anything about it and don't plan to either! I'm just gonna blame @Sparky and how he needed me to take it so HIS wife doesn't know HE bought it! She likes Mike so that should soften the blow a little.

My first two tractors as well. Still own them. Standing the test of time very well.

Hello Tom You've come to the right place. We have quite a few characters from Wisconsin and other nearby areas.

As a sailboat owner for the past 40+ years those SS cables are the bomb, but when they start to get old, with years of sun and salt water spray they can develop tiny meat hooks.

I was just talking about Warner Brothers cartoons a few days ago You're right: They all got their stuff from the Acme. Foghorn Leghorn for President

I have an old Hobart Beta Mig 200. It's a nice heavy duty industrial quality welder.

If you go that route... pay attention to the direction of the second end bends relative to the opposite end. For the smoothest action in use, you want the two ends to be within 10 degrees or so of the intended placement. If you end up 180 off, it puts a constant bind in the cable.....

Got my donor wheels together for the rear. I don't have any more wide rears so I'm gonna have to make a set from two different pairs. The pair with the surface rust has a way wrong offset. They came from a Ford LGT. The tires on Ford pair would not break loose at the bead, even though they were clean. I had to use a 3 foot 2x6 and the weight of the Tundra to break them. Hopefully I can gain another skinny pair of wheels using these as well. We will see...

Or, maybe he could just take the blower housing and wear it like a Flavor Flav clock to show off his Teccy allegiance!

Man, this is a rough crowd………I love it 🤣🤣🤣

I’m gonna need hush money…or a breakfast sandwich and a coffee

Nice work so far. Seals - some folks opt to pop off the inboard side seals, exposing the ball area so you can externally grease the. Others remove both seals temporarily to flush the supplied grease(?) and repack with a Lucas grease. Then replace the seals. A better non greaseable bearing. Your choice.

I keep bulk cable & sheathing in stock. It tends to get shared between @WHX??, my friend Joel & me. Think I've had the same 2 rolls for 4yrs now and there is still a few tractors worth left.

Good! Sick of looking at that through my windows (just kidding, no windows on that side of the house)

Hello all. I am a proud owner of a early 312-8 and also 520 H. I wanted to introduce myself as a Wheel Horse enthusiast, and I also joined in order to keep up with all the maintenance procedures and tips that this forum provides.. Currently. I am focused on getting my 312-8 up & running. I have ordered a throttle to replace the old one and it will come in tomorrow, after that I should be ready to cut grass with it. I am located in SE Wisconsin. Respectfully. Tom

The fuel filter not filling up is not a problem, mine are like that. It just means some air is trapped in the filter.

@wallfish @Sparky John had bought a doodle bug from Zagrays to screw around with... I stored it for a bit and Sunday he gets to take it home from the Belltown Tractor Show. Has a Tecumseh 16 OHV... so it will never run!! Lol sorry Bill!!!

No FEL... a big snow blade... its actually in the back if you look at pic

When I bought my B80 it came with a front dozer blade and a 36" mower deck. The deck was in pretty sad shape, all three spindles were worn out and frozen, and the rear of the shell was open and it had a cobbled together side discharge chute. The deck model number is 95-36MS01 which is supposed to be a side discharge. I don't know why the back was missing, but it was pretty obvious that the side chute had been reworked rather poorly. For my use I need a rear discharge so I took on the task of converting it to rear discharge. I put an ad in the Wanted section for anyone that might have a section of deck available and got no responses. So, I ended up using pieces of shell from the rusted out 36" deck from my 1966 656. The decks weren't really the same but I was about to cut various sections out and piece them together to eliminate the side discharge opening. This is what it looked like before I started. This is the deck I robbed piece from. The actual curved section was remarkably close to the 42" deck only the sides were taller. After a bunch of "custom" art work I ended up with the following: Is it pretty? No. Will it work? I think so. It's not going to be a full time mower, I needed something smaller than my 5' ztr to mow between a line of trees and a fence. I have all the parts for rebuilding the three spindles thanks to a couple of forum members, so the next task is to assemble and install the spindles. The bearings that I bought have seals on both sides. This deck will not be used more than a half dozen times a year for maybe 60 minutes each time. Would there be any reason to not just leave the bearing seals in place and forgo greasing through the spindles? I should add, I found a NOS rear chute on ebay and will be installing it as well. Thanks! Brad

Thanks for the info. I think I'll pull a seal to see what the grease looks like and if it seems decent I'll pull one seal for each bearing and go that route. Otherwise I'll clean the grease out and put one seal back on.

ooooookay! thanks must have missed that one.

I have used 15w-40 in some of my kohler in the summer and they seemed to do fine with it.

Getting pulled out of Semi - Retirement again. In 2025 I worked from February to end of July on a massive 3 bathroom and complete removal of the 4'' cast iron soil stack and all related piping from the basement at foundation wall up through 3 floors into the attic and out the roof. This house is late 1800's /early 1900's and was not gutted out for removal of piping. I had to figure how the Old time Plumbers laid it out and then have a carpenter cut out walls and floors only where the new piping would go. This included all Cast Iron , galvanized threaded pipe and water piping. Also removed the original Lavatory basin sinks and Essex Claw foot tub and remove faucet etc. Really too much to keep typing. Turn the page to April 2026 and here I go again, this time a complete replacement of a heating system, basement only. The Material list cost is nothing short of Astonishing. This will be a Wall mounted boiler, indirect H/W Heater and all the included pipe and fittings. Again too much to type. Wish me luck. Cheers

Okay I have some updates. Today I searched and found a 103” belt and with the adjuster all the way tight the 103” fits perfect. But I did make a realization and I have to take the blame. Not often I admit I messed up but I realized I put the 107.38” belt on the mule drive instead of the 105” and I put the 105” on the deck. Which explains why the spindle belt was too tight. I wrote it down wrong and never went back and re confirmed my numbers. So I guess the only good is I learned that there is quite a bit of play in the belt size so if in the future I’m in a bind I can make things work. I noticed a huge difference having a tighter belt. I was able to mow the county ditch full speed without having too poor of a cut. So I am loving this thing. One odd thing is now the deck sits for the forward so it’s not hitting my wheels but when I lift the deck the mid lift rear brackets interfere with the rear adjustment. I’m going to have to read the manual again and make sure I’m not missing anything. Few other small updates. I made a cheap drag harrow that I’ll have to get a picture of and I’m on the hunt for a plow bracket. Other than that the battery still goes dead after using the PTO so I’m going to have to look up the charging specs. I’m assuming the charging system is weak. And lastly I came across a c160 so I might be able to use for parts, I have to do some research, as well as a 24hp Onan. I’m guessing it’s far too large to fit in the area the 16 fits.

Get one of those big bows they use for the Lexus Christmas commercials. That should spice things up nicely when you pull in with that on it!

Lots of nice work, maybe admin can consolidate into one thread? Nice for reference.

Nice job on those wheels! Yeller or not, they look very good!

I've used other tractors with the hand control hydro and I don't mind them. For me it was just an unfortunate combination of multiple factors that made the machine kinda awkward to use. If I can't relax on a machine when I'm working, then I can't enjoy it. The older I get the more ergonomics matter. I also don't keep machines around to look at them. The 520 was probably the coolest looking garden tractor in the fleet. Shame to say goodbye, but it went to an older gentleman who upgraded from his recently deceased 314 Wheel Horse. I believe it definitely went into the right hands, and the machine is scheduled for annual maintenance here yearly at the shop, so I'll get to see and care for it every once in a while.

Yes you can. Here are some other alternatives that make the job a little easier. A DIY Z bend pliers. A dedicated Z bend pliers. https://www.amazon.com/HRGDFBP-Spring-Pliers-Bending-Aircraft/dp/B0FRF4GF6V/ref=sr_1_7

Regardless of the material or color.

OK sooooo tomorrow is actually 3 days... Notice I'm measuring from the SIDE of the large round pin.

My boat came with an anchor so I’m all set, I won’t need that OHV Teccy.

The "export" 518H models had the Eaton 1100 hydros, which are much more rugged than the domestic-equipped 700 series. If the tractors have hydraulic lift (no manual lift arm), and a oil filter under the rear fender, then they are 1100 series hydros.

Been using these for quite a few years now. About $12.00/4. I can change a lot of bearings and still be ahead but I haven't had to yet.

This is a follow up of page # 1 post #19 on installing the indirect water heater and taking the electric water heater off line.This past January the electric rates went up and added 40 to 50 dollars to the monthly bill. We have been using the electric heater since 2010 and it was time to replace before an issue with that. Enjoying a lot more hot water now than we ever had and not have to wait for recovery at times. This replacement was long overdue and I am sure some of you tradesmen will agree, our homes are the last to do. I find after all your customers are satisfied I just don't feel like doing this on a weekend. It's tractor time.