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First, how I came upon this old Mercury and vintage Homelite chain saw. Knowing that I'm into old outboards and chain saws Steve offered me this 1949 Mercury Rocket and a vintage Homelite chain saw free for the taking. I happily took him up on his offer, he even delivered them to me at the BIG SHOW. How cool is that! So..... this past weekend I decided to dig into the old Merc. Some old Mercs come apart easy, and some don't. Luckily this one came apart real easy. First thing I like to look at is the water pump impeller. The pump cover came off nice and easy. As I expected having sat for so many yrs. the impeller was in pieces. I figured I'd order one up. This is when things got a little weird.... As I was walking over to my tool box I stepped on something. I look down and what do ya think! A friggin Mercury water pump impeller! (Now, my garage ain't a mess, but wherever the hell that thing came from is beyond me.) Its been at least a yr. since I've messed with a Merc. Anyways, I reach down to have a look at it and what do ya know, its used but I can tell its a newer impeller with about an hrs. time on it! 50 bucks saved! I cleaned things up and installed the impeller and put new grease in the lower unit.. Next I cleaned the carb real good and blew it out. I then moved onto the ignition system. After checking spark one plug looked a little weak so I pulled the flywheel. Sure enough, one bad coil. No biggie, had a good used one in stock. The other coil looked new. Cleaned the points up, check the gap and put it all back together. I put the old Merc in the tank, pulled the choke and gave it a yank. almost fired on the first pull. push the choke in (all Mercs this style start this way when things are good) gave it another yank and were off and runnin. It pumps water like a fire truck, great acceleration, idles nice and restarts easily. All that in an hr. I hope to have this old girl out on my boat real soon trollin for some fishies... The Homelite is a nice old vintage Homelite, built when a Homelite was a mans saw, not a Home Depot cheapo. I decided to work on the Homelite on my lunch break a few days ago. Clean the tank and carb out, check for spark etc. In fifteen minutes that sucker was screamin like a scalded cat wide and purrin like a kitten at idle. Thanks again Big Guy!

I could do that.

Restorations are fine if you want a 'Show Queen' that you never do anything with but put it in the trailer and go from one show to another. Personally I prefer doing a thorough refurbish and enjoying them for what they were meant to be, working tractors. Now don't get the wrong idea. I do strip the paint off, sand and primer them before the final paint goes on. I do fix whatever needs to be fixed, change oil and filters. I don't however rebuild engines and transmissions, I will replace them and sometimes not with the originals. But when it's done it will be reliable for many years. Your time investment is an unrecoverable expense but is what it's all about. Starting and finishing one is what makes it worth every minute you spent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPi_m-sMfEM

I can see the Ponds now. Seeing they need some kind of shield, they make it and now how "how do we hold it on?" Cecil runs into the house and yanks the broom holders off the wall when his mom isn't looking!

There is the method that they used to use to restore old raised-letter license plates : 1) paint the entire Item in the color you want the raised portions to ultimately appear ( white ? ) let dry . 2) paint the entire item in the color you want the background to appear ( black ? ) let dry . 3) gently rub out the top portion of the raised letters with rubbing compound until the white appears . Kind of tedious , but if you cant find them new it's the next best thing .Looks like TT's idea is . -Gene

It is always nice to see others with the same problems and addictions. What we all need is to find a resident psychiatrist to join this forum so he can tell us why we can't be happy or satisfied with just one!!!

Big part depends on condition and how much you can do yourself. Figure $300 for the engine seals rings and parts, up to about $800 if you need machine work Paint is all up to your quality standards, I rattle can everything and probobly spend less then $50 on paint. If your going with Automotive quality paints the sky is the limit. Seals and bearings for the Transmission can range from $50-$100 depending on where you get the parts, would recommend a bearing specialist such as Motion Industries. Miscellaneous replacement parts from Wheel Horse and aftermarket reproductions could be $100-$200 depending on what you need. So low end I would say $500 All this is assuming you are going to do all the work yourself BTW and since you are a newbie we will excuse the avatar for now but you may want to change that before you blind someone.... They still have not found the last JD guy that came though here, I think his name was Jimmy Hoffa or something.

it has no fenders i dont know about the motor,but it has a starter generater,its motor sets in front of the driver not under i need to know the model if anybody can help

Somehow I wonder if I got this right or not?

I love my other color old iron tractors and I'm pretty sure Wheelhorse did a combo brake/clutch on some earlier tractors - but, I've got a gear drive IH Cub Cadet that has a combo clutch/brake pedal and what a pain in the buttox when trying to stop/start the tractor when you are penned-in on a slope against a shed, fence or anything else you don't want to hit while mowing/trimming. If you don't get out of the brake and into the clutch with the right timing. To slow, bang. To fast - spin or hard jerk! My 314-8 - on a hill, push the clutch-in, hold the brake to stop (on level ground, no need for the brake at all). Getting out of the situation, hold the brake, ease out on the clutch until you feel it take hold and let off the brake and ease off to more mowing. No bang, no spin and no jerk! WAY TO GO WHEELHORSE!!!!!!!!! Off my box. Thanks! Bill

I've been looking for a nice tub cart for a while, this one is a 1968 model. It still has the original tires, I don't think this ever sat outside. I hooked it to my RJ and had two of my girls try it out.

I would love to pick at that thing , I just got my first Raider Where you from ( besides the barn ) LOL !

also has changed front steering to double tie rod and yes it's a 701

FLORIDA??? You go there in the winter Mike. If you want warm weather come to Illinois.

701 missing the double belt guard, drive belt guard, rear fenders and the seat spring is on backwards.

Could be a 701

Remember, they don't make GT-14's any more!!!

The big problem comes when you realize you have run out of room to hold them all....................................................................and then you still drag home another one and another one and another one and another one..........................

Nice find Denny. They are real handy to have around and they have a nice look to them. They must be comfy to as your daughter looks mighty comfy!

I think when the days of the mail coaches came to an end Mr Richard Turpin esq. applied to Toro for a job. Going on his past profession they knew they had an opening for him. I now know what TORO stands for , it's Totally Outrageous Rip Off ! I've just pulled my wanted ad for a hitch as there was nothing happening. I'm trying to post a pic for you, Shuboxlover but things aren't working this end.

416-H #2 PO said it ran great all winter and threw snow a half a block. It has power to the pos terminal on the coil but no spark to the plugs. needs a seat and hood has been partially rattle caned. console plate is missing and a miss fit piece of metal has been screwed in place. I tend to believe the PO about how it ran great but still he claimed both ran strong and had no problems. We agreed on a lower price and I am good with that but hope its not an expensive ordeal to get her going. It has half the hours of the running 416-H but had a harder life. So there is the good and the bad. The other bad is that on the way home I was still looking for red. Man I have got to get back to work tomorrow.

It has been a day for sure. Just got home from our second round trip with the second 416-H. First the good news. the first 416 has a 42 inch side discharge deck and a new set of tires. We got it off the trailer about 2 pm this afternoon and I mowed the north end of our buildings lawn. Cuts very very nice. The onan runs smooth but I have to keep the choke out just a bit for it to run correctly? Also just like my 520 the onan will not hold full throttle. slowly idles down to about 3/4 within 20 feet. I am going to remove the decals and buff the paint. Remove the wheels and soda blast them to paint as I do not want to dismount the tires to powder coat. The deck needs a little touch-up as you can see in the first picture. All said and done I am happy with this purchase. the not so good news to follow as the 416-H's are not identical twins.

got a little red on it now. deck was weathered from sitting on the trailer lot for 4 months or so. waxed the powdercoat and stained the lumber on the deck a nice redwood color......just need to load it with tractors and go traveling.....

20% Tax! That is just incredible.

No need to fill. If you find that the bearing looks OK, spooge some grease on your finger and stick in in there and squeeze the grease into the needles. Use too much grease and it will work it's way past the seal and end up on your clutch disk. All you need is about a half tablespoon or so. Your 'thump thump' is more likely in the roller bearing with the 'spud shaft' on it, because once the PTO is engaged, the rotating assembly is 'locked' together. The needle roller isn't turning relative to the outer pulley at all.

Remember that old public service commercial about drugs... new WH commercial: So I sell more stickers...So I can buy more Wheel horses, so I can sell more stickers, so I can buy more Wheel horses, so I can sell more stickers...

I wouldn't advise adding oil to premixed fuel. I've always been a proponent of using one oil type and sticking with it. By adding oil to a premixes fuel you're mixing two different oils which can, in rare cases, have ill effects. I've seen this first hand in snow mobiles and ATVs. Quite frankly if you doubt the label you shouldn't be using the product. I don't think that was the problem. There shouldn't be any difference adding 50:1 oil to a 50:1 mix. If you add a 32:1 oil to a 50:1 mix or vice versa, that would be a problem. A 32:1 oil will smoke and cause a loss of power in a 50:1 mix. Adding 50:1 oil to a mix that is 32:1 will fry the engine for lack of lubrication. There also is no difference between using and mixing the same rated-ratio dino and synthetic two-stroke oil in fills. The synthetic will burn cleaner; It would be best to settle on one brand though With the Tru Fuel, I like the convenience of unscrewing the lid and that it is ethanol free.

Very Nice Terry at least u wont have to send out for Decal`s. :happy-jumpgreen:Enjoy the sickness of W/Horse collecting Gary B..............

To tear one down, do any body work, painting and then reassembly I would say into the thousands of dollars and that is without any needed parts. There is many hours in these restored tractors. The most economical way to have a restored tractor is to buy one already restored.

MY 1968 INDY 500 SPECIAL RESTORED 2 YEARS AGO

Thanks. I actually milled out the side shield for more air flow. I used an old Bridgeport milling machine. It was tough to get it secured in the vise but I got it to work.

Hello i recenty got a 953 model # 62-533 and i was checking thing over the hubs looked funny to me so i pulled one off and found a 1 inch axle only about 2 inches long.

My 953 has the same hubs

I like the removable panel idea.

OK - pictures in order, more or less... I didn't think the buildup is too bad but the heads definitely need to be de-carboned. I forgot to take pics of the heads. Now that i have the belt guard off I think I'm going to mill vent slots in it to aid in the engine ventilation. I thought about adding a 12vdc pancake fan to the gurad but I think it would just get clogged up too fast. The gaskets, new bolts, etc are in the mail from Parts Tree so I'm about a week from total completion. what you see is what I have done since last night so I am pleased with my progress. I have already bead-blasted/sanded the top guards and the muffler and painted them with high temp engine enamel. I have also cleaned up the intake manifold and carb (nothing too invasive) so I'm chugging right along. I will have everything ready to go back together when the parts arrive.