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Here we have a couple of mine up for consideration, Both arrived into the UK this year 2013

gotta include the INDY 500 SPECIAL

So yeah...why is it some models such as the 603 have "special" in there title? I'm thinking it must have something unique to that individual model run... like the 603's one year only steering wheel for example.

Well, I've been out of town for a few days, and just got back last night, so I hadn't got much done on it. However, when I got back I had a couple things that had come in the mail. I got a care package from Glen Pettit, including a repro throttle knob, and a few other items. Glen does great work!! I also got some 23x10.50-12 AG's, and some tri-ribs. The clutch pedal came in as well, so now it drives. Here are a few pics. Matt

I have had a lot of postive feedback about this photo from our show............

should be all good to go now....... i just took out all the nudity, i think.........

If you make it to the cellar, you have to buy!

Thanks guys - for the votes and especially to all of my fellow D owners on the other side of the pond who helped in so many ways. Without you guys photographing parts, providing dimensions, forwarding bits on to me, or just simply sharing in mutual D resto problems, frustrations and solutions it would not have come out as it did. So give yourselves a pat on the back for what together WE achieved as It speaks volumes for RS as a community. It was nice to see D's & 18s take center stage for a month but I realise that they are a minority interest for variety of reasons including perhaps their lack of 'charm' but beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say and there are a fair few of us who love them to bits even if they do seem like money pits during the resto. Thanks for voting my D-200 tractor of the month. I really didn't expect it to win. Andy

I worked at a gas station my senior year in high school back in 1973. I had to work every Friday evening and that's when the big truck would come in to fill the underground tanks for the week. I then had to call the owner and tell him what was printed on the receipt from the tanker and he would call me back and tell me what to change the pumps and sign to in order to charge the correct mark up for the weekend. I remember sometimes the truck would not get in to real late and put a damper on my Friday night activities and I would be so mad. Now days the price changes hourly and without even a delivery!!!

Well, after a consultation with the old (man is it foggy in there) I've come up with my picks for this week... Penn St., Iowa, Ohio St., Indiana, Nebraska, and Michigan. I figure there has to be some risk taken here and there to pony up to those bragging rights, that, or end up in the basement crying in squonk's beer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ADeB6V1rQ

My block is about 7 miles to get around it, maybe do one around the perimeter of the zieg72 homestead.

sorry if i have offended you Jim , i didnt actually say OLD , i said Older .

Here is a Halloween trip around a very scary block... I know we have done this before...but this is counter-clockwise and on Halloween with just about peak in colors.

Well time has not been on my side here lately but I was lucky enough to sneak away for a little bit tonight. My wife doesn't want a tractor but since everyone else in the family has their own I thought it would be fitting. She picked out her favorite color so she can have a custom Lawn Ranger like our daughter. I am sure this will be another rewarding build!

I've been using vinegar to clean rust from the inside of gas tanks and it works very well. Since the vinegar was just sitting in a bowl after recently doing a tank, I decided to throw in a rusted pulley which shows the results much better than trying to get a pic of the inside of a tank. These 2 pulleys looked just about identical before soaking one. I let it soak for 2 days and wiped it off with a cloth. Using baking soda afterwards will neutralize the vinegar's acid. There are quite a few other posts on the subject, just type "vinegar" in the search feature.

I have got myself a Wheel Horse 551 I think and a Wheel Horse tiller, these are something that I want to rebuild and bring back to life if I can find the parts to do so.

If you volume is turned up you can hear some distant voices from the boat. Happy Halloween

I don 't own one, nor do I have a picture of one, but I do know of a model named the 420 LSE (Limited Special Edition) that I think was only made for one year.

That tractor is looking fantastic matt! You are always welcome to store it in my barn...I'll put it to use.

Nice AG's and tri's you have there Matt!! And overall the tractor is turning out to look really sharp ! But Actually that's no surprise. Oh, I think your tractor maybe taken from behind your back by some small person in a red shirt. Be carefull pal...

Yeah...but you forgot to remove that green thing in the garage Martin. OUCH! You hurt my eyes.

Are those 10.50's on a smaller sized rim? They look great.

Craig, for the electro tank video. I gotta have one. Ed

Oh LORD!! A big light just went off in my head after reading this thread. My newly accuired 551 Wheel Horse has been sitting since 1989, the shifter boot is all but gone, I am sure I will be visiting this thread in the future.

You have the handle mounted backwards. Take it off, flip it over, The cut-away in the handle is there for it to clear the footpeg bar. You MAY have the wrong lower index bar too. That is, the 1/2" bar to the front quadrant MAY be too short....that would cause the lever to hit the foot-rest. You MAY have to tweek the footrest a little. You can buy the correct 'wire' at any hardware store. Buy a 36" length for about 3 bux. After you get the lever floipped over and the lower 1/2" index bar attached, I can see that the lever would be just about right...that is, the lower portion of it (below the bolt) should be parallel to the tall bracket welded to the frame. This will cause the lever to be tilted forward just a bit, since there is a factory made bend in it...it is supposed to be bent right at the 2" off-set....it looks lit it is twisted a little, and that is correct. That little twist causes the upper portion of the lever to NOT be parallel. here is a pic that may help.

What size are those front tires?? How did you mount the duals together??

I remember when gas was .20 cents a gallon. I had just started driving then. A bottle of coke was .5 cents and a large candy bar was .5 cents. much larger than candy bars today. I'm pretty sure minimum wage was .75 cents per hour back then.

Wow, I was slowly waking up, now it's pretty safe to say I'm wide awake,

This made me laugh so much.. My wife does exactly that Great video Steve, my Wife was wondering why I was chuckling to myself You have do the right thing brush painting your plow, much easier than trying to spray in all the "fun to get at" places. As a plow is a working tool I wouldn't see any point in trying to get a mirror smooth finish anyway as the paint will soon get damaged in use... Or maybe I have just abused my snow plow/dozer blade too much in the past By the way, what were you smoking? I only ask as I noticed you didn't start singing until you had a few puffs

I just showed that to my son Danny, and he jumped back, and almost fell on the floor! Matt

Thanks for the free "stress test". My last one cost me 4K

That looks very cozy in its stable. Its good to see this machine again. Matt

And that's why the wifey won't let me ride my WH tractors around the block... she thinks the neighbors think I'm crazy 'cause I own seven WH tractors. I beg to differ however... I think the neighbors are crazy 'cause the don't own a Wheel Horse!

Here's my plow. Painted 2 yrs. ago with a TIP Turbine machine with an HVLP gun, Valspar restoration series with hardener. Just a little dirt on it from pushing a leaf pile last week.

Ditto, I'm in need of the same info for my RJ. My front wheels are totally rotten. Thanks for any help, experts! -Dan

When i till I pretty much follow what has been suggested. To me personally, tilling in reverse just sounds like a for sure way to tear something up and cost you a lot of money.

Thanks Zane...it really did come out real nice. How do you like the ghost peaking over the blade??? I did not plan that...just turned out.

This is awesome! I plan to one day be a teacher (Music. Ed.) and would love to do something like this! They seem to make fantastic little workers! Keep up the good work!

The next thing i did was remove the motor the rear and front wheels in the bottom pics are off of a commando 6 i have lying around there is more to come in the next few days so stay tuned for all of you who like my 857 project

Then i took off the gas tank and took apart the dash: Note: you can see what the front wheels looked like originally in some of the following pics. .

Other things have done are strip prime and paint the wheel weights; prime the mower deck and give it one coat of paint; prime and paint the hitch; and prime the belt cover. Unfortunately i don't have pictures of the painted hitch or painted mower deck. heres the stripped wheel weights, then them primed and them painted:

Head bolts can loose their tensile strength properties over time and many heating cooling cycles. I have successfully replaced mine with Socket Headed Cap Screws witch are grade 8 by definition on my Tecky H-60's. I must admit that I usually do not get out the torque wrench for these small engines I think I have a fairly good feel for how tight they should be. I also use die washers under the heads(hardened steel washers 1/8" thick) this cuts down on the aluminum heads mushrooming out under the head of the bolt. These motors run fairly low compression so the head bolts that are used are a bit over kill. I actually have one motor that I used 316 SS bolts on the head which have a much lower yield strength then grade 8 bolts and it sealed up just fine. And btw 5/16-18 UNC bolts are a standard size, and are probobly the second most common thread size behind 1/4-20, you should have no problem getting them almost anywhere. I would recommend going to a real industrial fastener supply house such as Fastenal, their hardware is usually much better then the overpriced low grade junk sold at most hardware stores. I specify fasteners as part of my job as an Engineering Technician and we buy them by the barrel in certain sizes, currently we only buy bolts in either HOLO-KROME or UNBRAKO brands as both are US made and have successfully proven themselves in the field over many years. Most hardware store stuff is made overseas and you never know what you are buying or what steel was used to make them. Sorry for the rant

Once again, thanks for all the great responses, and that a great looking C-120 you have there ekennell. I got the stack built for it today, although its not done yet. The muffler is only tack welded to the 1" pipe, and the hose clamp won't be staying on there. I will get an exhaust clamp for it, and when its finished, it will get a coat of silver header paint. I also posted a video of it running. As you can probably here, it needs the valves adjusted, and as soon as I find the clearance specs for it, I will adjust them. I love the way this exhaust sounds! I'm really am enjoying working on this beast, and can't wait to start buffing the paint to see if I can make shine! Thanks Matt Here is the Youtube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78kXv0Elg0&feature=youtu.be

Wow, thanks for all the great comments, and encouragement guys! The Tecky lives, and it runs Fantastic!!! No smoke, except a puff of black smoke when throttling up hard. I did the initial wash up on the today, including removing the shroud, and cleaning out the cooling fins before starting. All I did to was change the oil, new battery, and add gas, and it fired right up. I'm really starting to love this beast now! The clutch pedal is broken as can be seen in the pics below, but I've got a set of both clutch, and brake pedals on the way. I'm still really amazed by the seat, as its in fantastic shape, and the vinyl is still soft, and pliable. I think I'm going to have to put a stack on it. The Nelson muffler is in like new condition, so I'll save it, incase I decide I want to go back to original. I'm going to order a set of 23x10.50-12 ags as well. I introduced the C-160 to the B-80 today, and they get along quite well. Both of my :wh:'s are 1974 models, just like me. All of us are turning 40 next year! The hood really is raised much higher on this Tecky model, as can be seen in the comparison of it, and the B-80 below. Anyway, hear are the pics. I almost forgot to mention that the 88yr old woman I bought this from even gave me the original owners manual for the beast. Matt

Matt, I remember a C-120 at the tractor show in jacksonville ,IL last month that was considered a "special" model because it was one of the few(I thought he said 200 C-120 tractors) built with a Tecumseh installed at the factory. The C-120 owner was explaining that a limited number of these models were built with the tecumsehs because during production, Kohler couldn't supply enough engines to meet/ finish the total number of tractors built... Which is why its labled a C-120 SPECIAL. and becoming collector items to some.. Matt I know yours dosen't say Special, but Just thinking Maybe thats the case with your C-160. Maybe somebody else has more info about c-series and Tecumsehs.?

I just got home, and I am whipped! That's a lot of driving for one day. I took a couple pics when I was at a gas station, and thought I'd post them. In the pics the owner sent me it looked like seat was a little tor up, but that was not the case. The stuff around the bottom of the seat that made it look bad was actually the original clear plastic that came on the seat when new. This seat is beautiful! Anyway, here are the pics. Matt

Whether twin or 1 lunger, the RPM is the same. Rated at 3600RPM . I have never measure the deck speed, but unless the pulley size is different they will spin the same.