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Picked this up over the weekend for $200 form a “picker” in the area. Besides the tractor it came with a 36 Rear discharge deck and a 42” dozer blade. I also noted the slot (or Celvis, not sure what) hitch on the back. He pulled it out of the woods at a widow’s house due to her wanting to relocate and needing to liquidate the estate of her late husband. Once I got it home and on the surgery table, inspection lead to find the motor seized (likely due to the “tractor” exhaust) as well the most of the electrical shot. Obviously the tires are blown out and will need replacement. Other issues that were noted were the seat (or the lack of I should say), the clutch rod hanging because it snapped in the middle and various rusted hardware being snapped off or corroded. Got it on stands and the heart removed and somewhat broken down tonight. after removing the head and covers, I found the piston and both valves seized in place. The cause is definitely water getting into the intake as the exhaust side is more stuck then the intake. More to come soon after some ATF and Kroil work their magic on it.

This is what I use on my hydro's. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/traveller-conventional-motor-oil-sae-10w-30-5-qt-t1251393-1636287 Blending a little dino & synthetic is not the worst thing in the world.

September 23, 1957, "That'll Be the Day" single by Buddy Holly and The Crickets reaches #1 in the US.

Thirty plus years of Marriage can be seen the same way.

Quick search came up with this: Stens brand filters are manufactured by Arrowhead Engineered Products, which acquired Stens from Ariens Company.

Usually one of the gallon jugs will do it or at least get you in the neighborhood. The boys told me syn is a bit better for winter use but I really can't tell the difference. Wonder who makes those Sten filters? Don't forget to leave the filter loose or a fender stand bolt out for burping.

At the very least, installing a nice thick fender washer underneath when bolting the front fender bracket into place should help spread the load and possibly stop it from cracking again.

There was once a very successful farmer from Texas who started gaining interest in his ancestry. After doing some digging, he traced his lineage back to a small town in Ireland. And lo and behold, they were a family of farmers. So he packed his bags and took a trip to Ireland to visit the small town to see if he could track down some of his kin. After landing in Dublin, and driving an hour outside of the city, he stopped in a pub to grab a drink and start asking around about his family. The Texan sat down, ordered a pint, and started talking to the Irishman sitting at the bar. After explaining his story and the purpose of the trip, the Irishman responded, “You don’t say! I’ve never heard of your family, but I’m a farmer as well. Tell me, what’s it like farming in Texas?” “Gladly,” the Texan said, “farming in Texas has been quite lucrative for me. If you started out in the morning, and drove west, you could drive all day before you reached the end of my property. And if you started the next day and drove East all day, you wouldn’t reach the end of my property. Same thing North and South, you could drive either direction all day and you wouldn’t reach the end of my farmland.” “Ahh, I know what you mean,” said the Irishman, “I’ve got a truck like that as well.”

Looks like you got your money's worth. Three things to check. Since I saw a plow in one picture... check the "F" plate on the frame where the Unidrive bolts on for cracks around the 4 bolt holes. A very common issue as plowing flexes that area to a fatigue failure. A disapointment, not a show stopper. Inspect the ears (tabs) on the lower steering block for cracks. Plowing can induce twisting forces into the frame and break the block - easily replaced. The Unidrive - since so much of the tractor is rusty, I suspect the Unidrive's innards may be too. If so, it may be able to be fixed - but consider swapping in a later known good 6 or 8 speed. I did the 8 speed on my 854, @Handy Don did the 6 speed on his. A bit of work, but well worth it. The picture below is from another 854 I picked up for parts - that frame was severely cracked & twisted.

I don't know if I have ever got a machine that wasn't at least cracked here. If I was to say what the weak link is on these machines it is here. Fortunately it does not cause any great harm as the machines run along just fine like this but like Sparky, I just can't leave it and get them welded up.

Going to swap out the trans fluid and filter on my C-145 with the Eaton1100. I’m seeing that it holds 5 QTs oil, but will I actually get 5 QTs to drain out? Or does it leave a quart or more in the system when doing a fluid/filter swap? Planning to stop today for 10w-30 (it’s going to be a winter plow rig operating at cold temps) and wasn’t sure how many QTs to grab. And the loaded question! Regular Dino oil or synthetic? And if it leaves a quart or whatever in the system is mixing in synthetic a good idea? I also have no idea what’s in it now (it’s not ATF)

Agreed Joe. I do like to use the same 10-30 in my winter Onans but wouldn't be afraid to use the TSC stuff in the tranny. That's what the Mahindra tech told me to use in the big tractor and figured it's good enough for a 40K tractor good enough for 520s.

I also did the 6 speed swap on mine, I highly recommend doing it, low range third or second is nice for mowing heavy grass

You didn't mention what year but they are likely the same. It couldn't get much more basic other than an older model with nothing. Here's the wiring for a 76 B.

Does that have the rubber isolated engine "wobble plate" mount? If the cushions are original, the rubber may be getting bad. I had trouble with a C-125, and that was over ten years ago. If the engine vibrates too freely, it can cause the float to bounce around so much that the carburetor bowl floods. At least that's what I convinced myself was going on. The replacement cushions were stiffer and seemed to cure the problem. They were still available, though pricey, back then. Don't know about now. No guarantees, just something that fell out of the cobwebs of memory.

Definitely following as the 854 is one of my favorite models, however, I may have to take that one off your hands because the serial number is only 4 after the one on mine, my serial number is 40473

That horse appreciates you saving it. Take lots of pictures as you disassemble it. Heavy Zip Lock bags work good to bag and label parts

IMHO and experience... If you need a snowblower - get a two stage. They have the serious advantage of being able to operate at slower tractor ground speeds while having less tendency to load up. Not none.. less. Trina and I do basically what's outlined by several above. Nearly all snows nowadays get the plow blade. She absolutely loves moving snow. We can all agree "seat time" is excellent. Here, we don't use a Wheelhorse for mowing. We do use them 4 to 5 months a year for snow removal. We have to plan far ahead for much larger storms that don't melt. Our plowed area is a good strong 10 to 20 feet past the desired clearing zone. If we're home we would rather plow a large storm multiple times than use the snowblower once, then plow to scrape the surface clean. We are currently using the Ariens Commercial walk behind snowblower. I have a Wheelhorse Dual Stage one I'd like to try sometime. Perhaps this year and perhaps being mounted on the Briggs 20 HP Vanguard V twin powered C160-8.

I use this stuff (3 1/2 to 4 qts a change with filter) but if you want and have other 10w-30 oils in engines etc make it easy and match the oil to what you use. 2 gallon $40, has the additives for hydraulics / gears. I use it also be cause I have a couple loaders and it works great as hydraulic fluid for those applications and only need one fluid for both hydro and loaders hydraulics.

Yes ... doesn't hurt with all hydros Howard. Just makes it easier to get water in the glass with the lid off so to speak. Lot less messier too ask Sparky how he knows. They claim a straw next to the funnel down the filler tube works too.

It helps to have some where for the air to escape when your filling the tranny.

Have a Great Day

not only welded but, reinforced is a good idea too.

Gonna be a while. I put 500 miles between me and that grader blade today. Basically, for offset, the arm that holds the blade has a pivot on the 3 point hitch. There is a semi circular plate with multiple holes allowing the arm to swing right or left 45, may be 50 degrees. For blade angle, it has a pin and pivot on the end of the arm and a circular plate with holes around the edge on the blade allowing the blade to rotate 360 degrees with lots of angle choices. For blade tilt, I discovered that what I thought were the bolts holding the blade to its pivot pin bracket actually allow the blade to tilt. The upper bolt is the tilt pivot, and the lower bolt has maybe 5 choices for tilt position. There have been enough repairs and reinforcements done on this blade that the tilt feature is not readily visible. I noticed a well painted over manufacturer tag on it this morning. Forgot to take a picture of it, though. Would be nice to track down how it is assembled. The 3 point hitch has an adjustable leveling link between the right hand lift link and lower link that gives maybe 4" of tilt across a 6' blade - not enough for a ditch. Did more back filling than excivating when I tried to run it down the ditch. This feature works pretty well with the box blade to put some crown in the driveway, though. I also discovered that when the ripper teeth in the box blade are fully extended, they can catch the 12" plastic culvert I had imbeded in the drive. I had the 2 teeth on the right fully extended and the rest set shorter. Old EJ kind of grunted and jumped when he snagged the culvert, but kept on moving. I thought I had snagged a root. I think I can chop up a culvert coupling and glue it over the hole so I won't need to replace the whole 20' culvert.

The handles on the wrenches must've been shorter in 1958 to 1961. Someone went overboard and it was probably a gasket leak and they tried torquing it. I've had a bunch of them over the years and never had one of those bolts leak oil yet. In fact, I remove one of those bolts to drain the oil out !

Boy aint that the truth.

check out page 2 of the classifieds. richmondred has an ad there. again i suggest to you to contact richmondred. repowering a tractor with a different engine is certainly doable. but why bother when you can 'plug & play' another kohler right in there. everything lines up. no screwing around. i have a kohler 16hp K341 on my shelf that richmondred rebuilt some years ago. i never started it. i have it because as time goes by these things only get harder to find. richmondred shipped it to me via fastenal. another member here on RS has an interest in it. i live in the peoples republic of lefty looneys (taxachusetts, err i mean massachusetts). the other member lives nearby in rhode island. the only bad thing about this site is somebody has what you need but, usually they are many miles from you. thus shipping big heavy things is painful and costly. regards mike

Yes Old ensolite sleeping pad over pvc board with vinyl top... used for numerous applications... including another model WH that I'm working on. Here's the first one... 1 and 3 year old testing engineers approved...

Tough to beat a 520 - H with a cab for the big storms and clean up around the back of the shop and access to the basement. 418 or 417 with a 48'' front dozer blade is nice for the smaller amounts. C-160 and 314 will do the job as well.

Over the last several days I’ve been moving trailer loads of wood chips to cover our now-sunlit hillside. Goal is to prevent an explosion of weed growth on an un-mowable slope left by the arborists when we removed a bunch of invasive Norway Maple trees . I carved out a temporary level “notch” in the hillside to park the tractor and loaded trailer on the trips up the hill. I need the tire chains for traction (visible tracks in the pic) and I keep the mower deck and front weights mounted for extra confidence. (The trailer attaches to the below-rear-axle standard drawbar--also good.) Going down, I walk the empty trailer and drive the tractor in 1st with my foot holding the clutch pedal up firmly. Progress has been slow and exhausting so I’ll be hiring some workers to help me finish it off.

September 22, 1994, the television sitcom Friends, about six young adults living in New York City, debuts on NBC. The show, which featured a group of relatively unknown actors, went on to become a huge hit and air for 10 seasons. It also propelled the cast—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer—to varying degrees of stardom and success in Hollywood.

Maybe a 12 or 14 HP 'till a sweet 16 drops from the sky?

I did some more work on the full-flow oil filtration conversion on my Dodge M37's engine. I decided to slightly revise the external filter plumbing---just some minor adjustments to get a better fit. (BTW, just as an explanatory note, the way the original bypass filtration worked in the old MoPar flathead six in my Dodge M37, only a small percentage of the oil was diverted through the filter; the bulk of the oil was delivered to the bearings, etc., with no filtration whatsoever. Eventually, all of the oil would pass through the filter, but if there was any dirt/debris in the oil, it would typically loop through the system many times before it all got filtered out. The later versions of this engine went to a full-flow system, so that all of the oil is filtered before it reaches the bearings. The original bypass filter media was very fine and could trap very small particles, but I think that a modern spin-on oil filter in a full-flow system should do a very adequate job of filtering, while eliminating the possibility of major damage/wear from any larger particles.) First, I bored the NPT end of a male 1/4" NPT-to-JIC AN-8 adapter so that the NPT end has the same ID as the JIC end of the adapter, and also matches the standard (almost 3/8") ID of the 1/4" schedule 40 pipe. This will still allow me to maintain that full inside diameter all the way from the oil pump to the filter and back. I turned down part of the hex area of a 1/4" female NPT-to-JIC AN-8 adapter to provide more clearance from an adjacent adapter: The net effect of the adapter changes will be to lower everything just enough to allow me to pull the valve compartment cover straight out, without having to maneuver it over the tubing, and it will also move the tubing a little farther away from the exhaust manifold. Here's a loose/dry fit-up just to get a general idea of how the fittings should work with each other: I'm about halfway through reassembling the transmission, which I'm totally rebuilding, but I'm waiting for a snap ring to arrive. It can be a little frustrating to get hung up by such a seemingly minor part, but the groove width and diameter are kind of unusual, so 'standard' inch sizes wouldn't work properly. I finally found a metric heavy-duty retaining ring that should be a good fit, both in terms of diameter and thickness. I'm also still in the process of making a couple of upgrades to the engine valves and connecting rods, beyond what the machine shop did for me. More on that later.

May want to treat it to a couple of double strength doses of Berrymans B12 gas treatment. It may dislodge some little power robbers hiding out in the carburetor .

Replaced both axle seals and brake shaft seal on C160, and thanks to @rmaynard glued up a new brake band for same tractor. Hopefully get put back together tomorrow or maybe this evening.

that’s a sweet paint job, on Grandpa’s old tractor!

This is my raider 12 I acquired last month I have the original k301 for it it runs good but for now it has a k341 on it till I decide to restore the tractor. Has the original 10 pinion rear axle to. its a 1969 i added the amp gauge

Thanks for that. My water is softened, and when I drained the tank, there was no sludge in the bottom. I pulled one of the heating elements out prior to taking it back to Home Depot, and other than a little discoloration, it looked like new. UPDATE: We never found where the water was coming from, but after all was said and done, the warranty company ponied up with a check for $407.00 for my labor, transportation, and miscellaneous parts and fittings.

Gone too soon...