Leaderboard

August 19, 1950 ABC begins broadcasting Saturday morning kids' shows (Animal Clinic and Acrobat Ranch).

Installed a set of 2” wheel spacers on the other 520h today. I dont know what these rims/tires came off of but they had a lot more back space than Wheel Horse rims. Had to cut a counter bore on lathe to fit the WH hub but turned out pretty good. The way it was set up before the rear end was a lot narrower than the front and looked plumb goofy. It actually was rubbing on the right hand side. The tires or BKT’s and they are a tall 10.50 and I think I like them.

I had to buy myself something after all the crap I went through all the years. I decided I wanted more tool storage but room is at a premium. There was a shelf bolted to the underneath of my work bench with just some odds and ends. I looked at it and thought if I remove the shelf I might be able to fit a roller cab under it. So I measured and looked around. A 5 drawer Yukon cabinet from my fav, " Horror Fright " would fit nicely with out the wheels. $359 not horrible but I get rewards money and stuff goes on sale all the time. I cut off the shelf and sliced the back of it off and reinstalled on the bench for bracing and waited.................. New sale today!!! Coupon for the cabinet! 50 bucks off!!! so off I went. Used my HF card and will get 5% cash back on top of the sale price Didn't want it sitting right on the concrete so I bought one of those stall mats from TSC and trimmed it to fit around the table legs.

Reminds me of a personal add: Looking for attractive, single woman who likes tractors, dogs and hunting. Send pictures of tractors, dog(s) and rifles.

Saturday morning cartoons were a weekly institution in my house!

Sounds like your looking for a tractor built for two, some thing like "Big Betty Baloo"

What do you get when you put ducks in a cement mixer? Quacks in the concrete!

I concur with @ri702bill on all points and once dialed in, these decks do cut nicely. They are not “silent” like a perfectly tuned belt-driven deck but they are not loud either. I’ve not encountered anyone who welded the bearing holder (aka, the backbone) and got it perfectly aligned and dimensioned. At least two guys I’ve spoken with eventually got parts decks with unbroken ones to swap in. They can be had. With the right tool, the spindle bearings press in easily (as do the grease seals) but they will distort with even minor misalignment. That spindle looks good (it is hardened where it forms the inner race of the roller bearing). I ended up using shims on the cross-shaft (behind one face gear) to reduce gear lash while leaving about .02” of play for thermal expansion (yes, those gears and the cross shaft do get warm in operation). It took three assemble/disassemble/reassemble tries. Lavishly grease the gears (I now use 3x what I initially thought they should need)--yes, some will seep out around the gear covers--normal (didn't @squonk mention rags ) You are well ahead of the game in that you don’t have rust-through at the top front center of the shell. Typically, users: a) don’t clean the wet grass that accumulates underneath at that point, and b) adjust the lift too high so that the deck frame bangs against that part of the shell, denting it. You’ve been warned. From my notes: 1508 spindle bearing (4) ==> Koyo B-1212 needle bearings 1303 oil seal (2) ==> Timken 312518 seals Staked cross shaft 1515 bearing changes to the 101480 bearing which is a 1630 2RS Glad you are looking to put this back in action.

“What’s black and bad for your teeth? A bowling ball.”

“If you see a robbery at an Apple Store does that make you an iWitness?!”

If Apple made a car, would it have Windows?

Even the dog appears to like the looks of it!

My brother in law has something similar. Top is full of stuff. You can't find a thing!

Nothing wrong with the HF toolboxes! I have this monster in my garage.

Looks good in the brochure.

I'm in the process of swapping the 3-speed from my 1966 656 with an 8-speed from a Raider 8. After reviewing the parts list I've come to the conclusion that the only part that is different for the brake/clutch mechanism is the rod from the pivot to the brake band. The 656 uses rod # 3935 and the Raider 8 uses rod # 9599. According the the picture in the parts book the 9599 rod has a kink in it. I've got a rod # 103538 that looks very similar to the 9599 rod but it's a mirror image. Unfortunately pictures don't provide dimensions and angles so what I'm hoping for is someone can possibly take some pictures from their 72-74 Raider 8, Raider 10, Commando 800, or 73 8 HP 8-speed, or 10 HP 8-speed. With pictures and dimensions I should have no trouble making a useable facsimile of 9599. Thanks!!

Another point peculiar to these decks - the spindles must be properly timed, as the tips of the blades make an overlapping cut. Timing is done at assembly, set the hub shafts pins to be 90 degrees apart. Kind of like a WWI fighter plane's machine gun bullets shooting thru the area of the spinning propeller - they HAVE TO miss each other.

Been working on bringing an old Wheel Horse RM-367 mower deck back to life and figured I’d document the process. The deck had a lot of play in one of the spindle shafts, so I finally tore the spindle assemblies apart to see what was going on. Once I got everything opened up, I found the old needle bearings, thrust bearings/washers, gears, seals, and spindle shafts all showing their age. I also realized the spindle gears appear to be missing the Woodruff keys. Right now I’m planning on rebuilding both spindle assemblies while I have everything apart. My current parts list is: 4x 1508 / 252-6 needle bearings 2x 1303 / 100441 oil seals 2x 1534 thrust bearings 4x 1535 thrust washers 2x 937084 Woodruff keys (Local parts store click here link 2x 936125 / 32120-72 snap ring (Local parts store click here The deck itself is definitely rough and rusty underneath, but it seems solid enough to save. I’d rather rebuild the original setup than continue messing with a craftsman gt5000 that I have. Big thanks to our well known friend Bob, who has been helping me along the way with getting this Wheel Horse working again. It’s been a bit of a project, but I’m slowly learning how all of this old gear-driven mower deck hardware goes together. If anyone here has any tips on where to get these parts, let me know. I find myself getting lost in this forum due to how much authentic and knowledge there is compared to anywhere else. I will be uploading more pictures here shortly of the deck.

Have new gaskets for the breather and look carefully in the manual for the correct orientation of all the parts! You don’t want to have to revisit this!

Do it hard enough and wreck a tire or even bend/break something!

Brad are you adding a second pedal? The 3 speed tractors all had a single pedal. I believe all the 8 speed tractors had two pedals. That'll cause an issue with linkage.

New candidate for Wide Rear Wednesday

My wife rearranged the spice rack labels... I haven't told her yet but the thyme is cumin...

Yeah, he's a lot of help.

Welcome! The cracked & repaired cast iron bearing housing - the back mounting surface NEEDS to be flat... If not, the gear mesh will be off... The housing cracked, most likely, by someone mowing & hitting a stationary object. Bad thing happen - you may also bend that spindle and that end of the cross shaft. Runout in either or both causes issues. Check those parts too... Installing the new caged needle bearings.... They NEED to be pressed in, not by impact whacking a socket that fits. Torrington recommends using a piloted stepped tool that has a negative 15 degree shoulder to contact the radius at the edge. Also note that the upper & lower are not installed flush - the lower is driven in about 3/16" beyond flush to make room for the seal. The gears - are reversable - the side gears can be swapped left to right, the shaft gears can be flipped over to give new surfaces - as long as someone prior did not already do it. Properly set up, the gear drive deck cuts well.

Best advice: Get a truck load of rags!

1194 key replaced by937084 Woodruff #5 (1/8"x5/8") at you local hardware store A 3/4" retaining ring is sized to fit a 3/4" shaft. The actual diameter is smaller and also available at you local hardware store. They have one rounded side and a sharp side because they are stamped. You want the sharp side installed in the correct direction to maximize the retaining effect.

All of mine were rubber band powered and made of thin balsa wood.