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Special day for @Coulter Caleb last Saturday as he married the love of his life Faith Cowger. We had the privilege of staging a three generations of GTO owners For those of you that don’t know, I brought Caleb home from the hospital in my 1969 Goat following his birth. Grampie bought the 1967 as a project car two weeks after Caleb’s birth and we restored it over the next two years. Finally Caleb bought his 1970 on his 18th birthday and we have worked on it over the years. the groomsmen the lovely couple a fairytale departure from the church! getting the new bride settled in the Goat it was a great wedding day one more pano pic for good measure. GTO’s have been a passion of mine for most of my life and it was neat to have three of them take a small part in the wedding day of my first born.

Both tractors could use a face lift on the leather seats and steering wheels from prior abuse. I do have a few leads on small local shops that I need to connect with too see if they would be interested in a Winter project. Any how I have been storing a very nice clean 1988 - 89 high back 520 original seat that is in mint condition and decided to install it on my recent second 420. Sure is comfortable and doesn't look too bad in my opinion.

September 3, 1777, The American flag is said to have flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware. Patriot General William Maxwell ordered the stars and stripes banner raised as a detachment of his infantry and cavalry met an advance guard of British and Hessian troops. The rebels were defeated and forced to retreat to General George Washington’s main force near Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania.

Of course, how silly of me!

I have owned this tractor for 38 years and finally got back to finishing it up at the same time I did a refurb on one of the 420-LSE'S. Nice to be able to see it moving again instead of it under a tarp. I would like to at least possibly keep it to plow with it this Winter to bring back memories moving snow with it. It has had a lot of work done to it recently. I think it is time to pass it on to someone who has an interest in the old stuff. Many attachments,manuals and small parts and a band new HD clutch and pressure plate etc,etc. Great all around tractor and fun to work it.

Installed thrust bearings on the spindles today. Didn’t take long to do, made a big difference. Used two narrow hose clamps to use as a guide. Then started cutting with a part off blade, and finished the final depth of material removal with a flap disc wheel. Reassembled with a goodly amount of Red and Tacky grease. In disassembly I discovered the left side tie rod end was froze up. Replaced both sides with new spring loaded ones. Made setting the toe in easy.

Some pics of the redo project. Pics of the chrome split front rims had help from @ebinmaine Upper dash console has not had replacement decal as of yet. On the list.

If I want a large rock all I need do is buy a plant in that size pot and ask my wife where it should be planted. Guaranteed there will be a rock about the size of that pot.

Finally got a sunny day here today. It rained just under an inch last night though. I managed to get the bottom of the hoods and fenders painted that I had sanded and primed a few days ago. Hopefully I can get the top sides painted on Sunday as it is not supposed to rain that day.

Now driving and steering - a lot of trial and error!

We changed the brake pads and rotors on my nephew's truck and my van last weekend. What to do with those old rotors? Well, since they fit perfectly on a 12" rim we made some inside/outside wheel weights out of them. Outside Inside

Great morning on the Chesapeake Bay with the boys. The blue claws were cooperating. VID_20260903_091532229~2.mp4

I upgraded the wheels and tires, 30 x 10 -12 Interforce AGs on the rear and 4.00-12 tri-ribs on steel wheels and 4 bolt cast iron hubs on the front

Got the hood painted up today for the C120. Now that my Simplicity mower has brakes I can take the C120 out of service and pull the rest of the sheet metal. Hopefully all the tin will be painted before temps drop.

I know I’m not the only one around here that finds it kind of amazing how perfectly good re-purposable stuff goes off to the scrapyard for pennies a pound or simply thrown in the trash. I made a great back yard fire pot by bolting together a pair of brake drums that came off a semi my friendly local alignment shop gave me for next to nothing. I topped it off with a recycled grill and now it is one. It’s pretty impressive for a piece of junk if I do say so myself. It’s hurricane proof in any case! Lolz

I didn't do any actual work on any of the tractors today, but the 1076 got to stretch it's legs today. I finally got time this morning to teach my daughter the controls, and then let her just run it around the yard to her heart's content. She came back to me for more fuel twice, and got yelled at for towing the neighbor girl on a skateboard once.

IMG_0248.mov

I faired fairly well, no damage to any of the buildings. Did have a large branch on the roof of the barn, got that down this morning. Other than that had 2 Ash trees come down, one fell on my neighbor's property it was a property line tree. The other tree was in the back yard and I've been cutting that up and burning the small stuff. Just have the main trunk left, and that's about 40 feet long. Power went out about 8:30 Wednesday night, but I have a generator wired into my main panel, got power back 5:30 pm but went out again until 8:30. A pole went down when a huge pine tree fell across Rt 89 blocking the main highway and a walnut tree took out the lines that feed the neighbors and my house. Been so busy didn't get pictures of that. Like @squonk said the lightening was awesome non stop all across the sky, never seen anything like it. Picked up 3 1/2 inches of rain. That EF2 passed 2 miles south of me. As far as I know, thank God, no one was hurt. And hats off to NYSEG, the firemen, DOT, and all those that cleared roads and got the power back on. Seneca County was under a no unnecessary travel restriction and even after that was lifted some roads were still blocked.

Sitting here eating breakfast with my wife. I'm reading Red Square, she is digging through her news feed. She makes a comment about the 'stars' in the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars about how they look familiar but she can't place them until she reads about the TV rolls they played as teens. Says that those shows aren't that old. I reply with a comment on that new Beach Boys song, Kokomo. It's not that old - just almost 40 years. She happened to be taking a drink of coffee at that moment - almost blew coffee out of her nose.

Saw this at a show. Owner called it a battery quick disconnect

Another classic line from @WHX?? !!

Since the neighbor has got good booze among other adult partakings ...

The kill relay is necessary because the ignition switch has an "I" terminal intended for battery style ignition. The M-Series have magneto ignition so the battery style of ignition switch is necessary to control the magneto ignition by the use of a relay. Wheel Horse/Toro also use this configuation. The relay illustration is poor. When the relay coil is energized the relay contacts are open. When the relay coil is not energized the ignition wire is grounded.

1960 550 and 61 551. First time these 2 have been run in awhile but both fired right up. I had forgotten how much easier these are to mount and dismount than the horses with running boards.

When I replaced the diff & axles in my C-120 last winter I did it in a rush to get back to plowing snow. I didn't get a good seal around the case and It's had a slow leak that's gotten worse little by little. The last month or so it picked up a rolling whine (from a bearing I'm guessing) I had a C-160 Auto trans I picked up for $50 to steal the hydro lift off of it. A few weeks ago, I decided to break it down and go through the transaxle proper. Tonight I made the swap. No initial leaks or weird noises from a few test laps in the back yard. Tomorrow, I'll give a full shakedown and see how well the hydro performs and what leaks develop. I'm guessing axle seals at a minimum.

September 2, 1945: Representatives from Japan signed the formal Japanese Surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, officially marking the end of World War II. This day is celebrated as V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day)

If you get stuck, I am in the same village as you. PM me if needed.

Looking at my 416-H as the only point of reference available to me, the only wiring that would be in any way related to the hood and it's movement is the connector going to the lights. If the lights are disconnected and the harness on the tractor side is secured from movement, the hood must be hitting something that you are not seeing. Leaving the hood in the open position, I would begin by touching every wire or moveable part that could touch a wire until the engine quits. Something is either grounding or causing a break in a circuit that is critical to the running of the engine. It's not magic or voodoo, it's a mechanical disconnect. Try your testing at night in pitch black darkness and see if you can see a spark as the culprit raises it's ugly head. When working in the dark, just be careful of moving parts such as belts, fans, PTO's etc.

I know these are all green, but bear with me here... https://www.grassworks.co/ I think I need one.

Got the modified bracket mounted with mostly new bolts. New high powered alternator in. The belt even fits after the changeover! Next is to make and install the new alternator wiring harness.

August 31, 1798, America's first bank robbery takes place at the Bank of Philadelphia, an inside job that netted the enormous sum of $162,821. In a bonehead move, the culprit began depositing the missing money in the very bank he had robbed.

Since you've put fresh gear oil back in it, get it running and drive it around for a week or two. As Ed said, jack it up and check axle bearing before replacing seals, worn bearings will cause new seals to fail . If axle bearings appear good, you will have to drain it to replace seals, so I would do a diesel or kerosene flush at that time. Removing axle hubs is one of the rights of passage as a wheel horse owner!!!!!!!! When you remove the hubs, do not use a 3 jaw puller, you WILL break them. Here a thread with several designs of hub pullers. You can buy precut heavy round plate disc from several suppliers on EvilBay. These transmissions are not that complicated. I actually enjoy rebuilding them. If you decide to rebuild it, drain oil. fill with diesel or kerosene and drive it around a little to do a flush before disassembly. It sure helps get some of the smelly gear oil off everything. take plenty of pictures as you disassemble it to help you reassemble it. Post picture of parts after disassembly and we can help identify anything that needs replaced. FYI the hi/lo shift fork assembly and the main shift forks have small balls in them that can easily get lost on disassembly. You can get replacements in those parts drawers at you ACE or other hardware store (not Home Depo or Lowes) You can clean rusty gears & shafts up on a bench grinder with a wire wheel. Here's a video by out transmission guru, Stevasaurus. While the bearing arbors he now has look great, you can use sockets as arbors to remove and install bearings You can buy your bearings and seals from a any bearing supply house, or get the from one of our vendors https://wheelhorsepartsandmore.com/product-category/manual-transmissions/

Back on topic. I do have front ball hitches on my tractors. Makes it much safer and easier to position equipment. I especially like the offset receiver on the 310-8. I can see the ball to position it under the coupling without leaving the seat. I can still use the mule drive and decks with both of these front ball hitches.

Well, it is sunny today. Supposed to rain tonight but I took that as a good day to apply some paint. Top side of two hoods and two fenders got some red paint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite_Mountain_(Texas) My yard is a mixture of decomposed which is granite gravel/sand/clay. I'm lucky there are just a few granite bolding balls randomly in it. Some short distance under it is solid red granite. A few houses over - slightly down hill their back yard has a lot of exposed solid granite. This picture is the "backside of Granite Mountain where they have been quarrying granite (from the front side ) since the Texas Capitol was built in 1882. One you get a way from the granite the Texas Hill Country is thin soil with limestone . They have been hauling thousands of truck loads of roughly 3x3x3 chunks down to the coast for several Harbor breakwater projects at Galveston, Matagorda and Corpus Christi. Each semi- truck carries 3-4 chunks. There are several quarries in about a 20 mile area that each have a different shade of rock from light pink to dark red. Back in the 70's and again in the 2010's An oil drill bit manufacture set up a drill rig and tested various experimental drill bits. Rumor has it they went down over 10,000 feet of solid granite and never ran out of it.

Most of what I have figured out about Sunstrands came from Dave. RIP my friend.

Spent the day at the Williams Grove Historical Steam Engine show. Always good to find an example of my favorite WH 1054. Not a good show for parts but if you're into steam it is a must go.

We were out about 4 hours, almost set up a gen. but power Co gave me a 11 3 0 am repair time and they came through at 11 20. Pray for our power lineman and personal, they have a very hard and dangerous job, especially after dark. I have worked in there shoes many dark and stormy knights and days and it is a very tough job, but for me very rewarding when we energized a section and the cheers where heard, made it worth while. Bob

September 4, 1888: Inventor George Eastman gets a patent for the roll-film camera and registers the famous trademark Kodak.

We took a drive tonight. Mrs. P drove it like she parked it yesterday! Things it needs yet: Throttle adjustment. The hydroboost seems to be enough of a drag at idle, it’ll stall if you spike the brakes hard enough. Wiper motor, wipers I have another motor. I just need to swap it in. Windshield its a little cracked, all over. IMG_8503.jpeg

Wife: “Do you think our kids are spoiled?” Husband: “No, I think most kids smell that way.” Wife: “Our new neighbor always kisses his wife when he leaves for work. Why don’t you do that?” Husband: “How can I? I don’t even know her.”

And you know this because????

September 1, 1972 American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer defeats Russian champion Boris Spassky 12.5-8.5 in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the most publicized world title match ever played; Fischer becomes the first American to win the title.

I'd leave it. Then race people with 16 hp engines and when you tie/beat them, you can point to the HP engine sticker and claim superiority of driving skills over HP...

I wonder if the only ground for the coil is coming thru the headlight wiring.

IDK how many times I could have used these over the years and finally ordered me a set. Some of the terminals I have worked on I could release and save but a bunch I could not . I hope the days of sticking them precision screwdrivers I had been using in my hands and fingers are over. Surely there sumin in this kit that will cover all the terminals I will ever come across from here on out . These seem well made with a handle that you can hold on to. Will try and replace the 9 pin connectors on my 520’s with new 9 pin connectors instead of replacing with 2 4 wire trailer connectors. Me being a purist ya know.

Today I got the group out took the deck off the 308 and pressure washed and armor alled them in preparation for the get together. the 308 was having an issue so I ended up pushing it back to it's spot. It's probably gas I need to get gas before I go.

Well, weight is weight. Whether it's cast iron, liquid, barbell discs, or old rotors. Function is more important than asthetics. (that describes a bunch of us here too). Nice to see the full complement of cross links on the chains too...