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Keep it away from any wheel mares.

Bein laid off ain't easy,you find yourself with all this time!I started and finished a project of necessity this am.I needed a convenient weight hanger up front for roto tillin and ground plowing so I took an old mule drive from the sixties,married it to a newer three hole mount and welded a piece of schedule 40 one inch iron pipe to a worn out newer belt drive and viola,a unihorse is born.Now I can hang or spear any weight with a hole!

Can you at lease put a cushion on it .... Just a little pointy for my fat azz...

5:30PM, back from TSC. Picked up some grade 5 bolts and I'm back to installing the bearing plate. I started out by only installing the gasket and no shims. The range of crankshaft end play is .002 to .023. .002 was a no go. So the bearing plate came back off and I got my pack of shims. I decided to try 2 shims. The result was .012. That is where I left it. Now I am going to back up a step or two, since I did a few things without the camera nearby. First, after honing the cylinder, I installed the governor thrust washer, and governor gear, cross-shaft, brass nut, and stop pin. Then I installed the valve tappets and camshaft. The camshaft end play is adjusted by a shim or shims. With the proper shim(s) in place, the end play should measure between .005 and .010". Mine measured a happy .008" Before installing the camshaft and crankshaft, I use a white paint pen to highlight the timing marks on each piece. Then, when the two are put together, I can easily see that they are properly lined up I installed new rings and a new connecting rod. The battery in my camera died, so no pictures. More later...

Here's my solution to people that "can't see" a big red tractor in the road when I'm plowing out the end of my driveway. 3 LED's in a 3/4 inch fixture Bright even in daytime. Plus I cleaned up the headlamp housing and bezel. Installed new bulbs. If they don't see me coming now they must be blind.

I picked this up a couple of weeks before Christmas but have not had a chance to post it until now. (Christmas came early for me) It's a 1982 SK-486 in excellent shape. 8 speed, 16 horse Kohler. There is even still some original paint here and there on the under side of the mowing deck. Since this picture was taken I have replaced the missing roller on the deck and put a new correct shifter knob on the transmission shifter (also removed the silly boat sticker). It lived in northern michigan at a cottage its entire life and seen very little use. I am extremely happy with it! It's a true gem. I am really looking forward to cutting grass with it for many years to come.

"Please run, Please Run!"

An interesting story comes to mind when talking about hands. In 1975, I went to work for an office equipment company in Baltimore. One of the three owners of the business was an inventor. He had several interesting patents. One day a salesman came into the office to discuss a business arrangement with this owner. Our business at the time was the exclusive distributor for dictation equipment and calculators to such hospitals and colleges as Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, and so on. We also had exclusive distribution rights on the entire east coast for Norelco. He offered him the exclusive rights to market a new product. Said this product was going to revolutionize the medical industry. The owner rejected the offer saying that this product would never catch on. What was it? Disposable latex gloves.

My guess.... The owner has a rear implement such as a moldboard plow, cultivator, or disc that he wants to raise / lower independently of the dozer blade, using a single hyd lift system (as is on the 520H). That bracket MAY be used to hold the floating dozer blade in the full UP position while he can raise / lower the rear attachment, without letting the dozer blade down at the same time. In other words, he uses this to NOT push dirt on the front end while plowing dirt at the rear end.

........ and it did run once I'd cleaned and adjusted the points! I've got Kohlers, an Onan, a Briggs and a Tecky in my stable - haven't been beaten by any of them yet! Just sayin guys oops, incoming!

Craig, you look so young! (Picture taken in living room this past Thanksgiving)

I found led replacements for the original T1156 bulbs. I plan on ordering them because led's give off less heat, produce more light and won't melt my new 36 dollar lens!

Bright, flashing lights attract idiots like magnets. They focus on you instead of paying attention to the road.

I had the same clutching problems on my Pappys Allis Chalmers. I could get the clutch in by sliding off the seat and putting my back against the front of the seat. I get goose bumps when I remember the number of times I backed that old AC's drawbar up to equipment while Pappy held up the tongue and dropped in the pin.

Just curious... What does your winter rig look like? I found a small heater I am going to mount, up in the corner of the cab, and hook it to a rechargeable battery. I'll add the photo's when I'm finished.

Back in October I picked up a nice 857. Didn't know if it ran or not because the carburetor was missing, but the overall condition of the tractor was good. So, I brought it home and put a rebuilt carburetor on it. It started and ran great with the exception that it was a heavy smoker. I haven't decided whether to leave the metal as-is, or do a complete repaint, but I knew that something had to be done about the engine. So two weeks ago, after the single-digit weather warmed up and the snow melted, I removed the engine and began my engine rebuild. First observation after removing the head revealed a lot of carbon, and some oil sitting on top of the piston. The cylinder did not look bad, so I measured it with my new bore gauge. The cylinder was still within the acceptable tolerances of a STD bore, There were no scratches or ridges, so the decision to just hone it made sense to me. So, I just received my new Ball Flex-Hone yesterday, and that will be the next step. My local, very reputable but expensive machine shop charged me $125.00 to hone the cylinder, lap the valves, and polish the crankpin last year on my K161, so I decided that $35.00 for a Flex-Hone was a good deal. The crankshaft didn't look bad, so after removing it, I measured the crankpin. 1.185" and no out of round. Since 1.185 is the maximum wear limit, I decided to Plastigage the crankpin to connecting rod clearance. I got a measurement of .003. Since the maximum wear limit is .0025, I pulled out a brand new Kohler connecting rod that I had purchased earlier and Plastigaged the clearance with that. I got a measurement of .0175. So based on that, I am installing a new rod on the old crankshaft. Since I am not sure of the source of oil burning, I measured the valve guides. Tolerances were also within specs. The intake and exhaust valves were not bad, just dirty, but the intake valve had about .001" wear on the stem. So I have decided to install a new set of Kohler valves. I lapped them in, and they are now ready to install. The piston also looks real good. It measured within acceptable specs, and also is not scratched or scored. A new set of Kohler rings should solve the oil burning problem. Okay, that it for now. As progress is made, I will update.

This is a little FYI for anyone with an Onan powered tractor. MIght help someone out sometime. I have a 1990 416-H, with the Onan twin. When the weather is nice everything works as it should. The problem is that I use this tractor for Winter duty to power my snowblower, and it sits outside, under cover of course. When the temperature is below freezing, my starter would spin but not engage properly, and make all kinds of nasty noises. I finally got around to solving my problem. I removed the starter, fully expecting to see a bunch of crap on the drive end, which was preventing the gear engagement. Much to my surprise, the starter drive end was clean, dry, and looks perfect! So I puzzled for a minute and my brain finally fired on all cylinders(all that I have left anyway) and I took the solenoid off the starter. BINGO! There was a fair amount of grease in the area that the solenoid fits in, and along with the spring in there, would prevent proper operation when cold. I cleaned everything with brake cleaner, and now it starts right up at below Zero temps. Sorry about no pics, but I was a man on a mission with cold fingers.

As I have gotten older and hope- Fully wiser I find myself working Alone in the garage many times. I do try to make conscious actions Regarding safety. I keep my cell Phone in my shirt pocket,assuming I could reach it. That is no excuse For trying to work safely. Our little WheelHorses have the same capacity to injure us as a D4 Cat! Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

The C-series with the rocker shaft mounts higher as the fender bracket is bolted on. Here is a picture from the rear, but you can not tell how much as the camera make it look more. My rocker shaft has been modified to miss the 2" receiver hitch. These are rough dimensions as I did not remove the fender. From the top of the transmission to the top of gear shift plate 6 1/4". Top transmission to center line of rocker shaft 7 3/16". This dimension is real rough from center line of rear axle to the center line ofthe rocker shaft is about 1". Couldn't get exact dimensions with out removing the fender.

Yes..... and that's also the reason why some lift levers are angled more towards the operator.

Now that this thread is off to "stupid things we did on the farm back in the day" There was the time back in the 70's when I was helping my Uncle getting baled hay (back in the day of small square bales) into the barn loft -- This was on my grandfather's farm and for years he had used a corn/hay elevator to save on throwing bales up into the loft (It was a great work saver!!) -- This elevator was the type that was the width of a hay bale laid on its edge and had chains that ran in sprockets at the top and bottom of the elevator powered by a gas engine; it was not one of the exclusive hay elevators that had the spikes you would set the bales on; insead there were "paddles" (or whatever the correct term is for the metal pieces that carried the ear corn or hay bales up the elevator) connected perpendicular to these chains -- The ear corn would get sweep up the elevator by these "paddles" when using to load corn cribs -- The hay bales set on top of these "paddles" So on this day I decided to do what I had seen others do dozens of time before (i.e. riding the elevator up into the loft) -- Jump from the wagon onto the elevator and the damn chains that were connected to the "paddles" were really loose -- So the paddle that was going to push me up to the hay loft pops up; my leg goes under it; and I am riding up this thing thinking if I am going to lose my leg when this gets to the top of the elevator -- Thank the good Lord that Uncle CO saw all of this happen and jumped off the top of the wagon loaded with 80 bales of hay and throws the elevator clutch with me only 2 or 3 feet from the top I extracted myself and "counted my lucky stars" and said a little prayer of thanks all at the same time -- Always climbed the ladders up into the lofts after that also

I grew up hanging off the back of tractors and equipment running between fields or transporting equipment around the farm. It is a wonder that no one ever got hurt doing this. Two incidents I do remember were: Dad used to have me ride the corn planter to keep the seed boxes from running out of sweet corn seed. Since the boxes were designed to hold about 50 pounds of seed they didn't work well when you only had a few ounces to plant. Once my shoe got caught in the open drive shaft between the hoppers fortunately I got it out before my foot was crushed. Another time I was working ground with the Farmal H which has a wide flat platform but we never had the fenders mounted to the tractor. I got the bright idea to take my puppy along for a ride and wouldn't you know it he tried to jump down I caught him by the collar before he fell but he would have been sliced by the disk and flattened by the cullipacker I was towing. Oh and I remember that incedent with the exploding steam engine in Ohio. The cause was found to be low water in the boiler and a cop that would not let the operator cross traffic so he went through a ditch when the tractor tilted to one side it caused the water to slosh in the boiler over the red hot crown sheet. Result is a crown sheet failure and immediate generation of super heated steam. The pressure builds too fast for any safety relief valve to dump the pressure and boom. This was quite common in the early days of railroading. After this indecent and others more stringent inspections are done to the boilers before they are aloud to operate at most shows. You now have to have documentation of a hydrostatic pressure test and ultrasound of the boiler metal thickness. Neither test is cheap.

You might want to rethink this a bit. Making the transmission mounting plate on the frame thicker will not give you the improvements you seek. The weak points in the assembly is the weld where the frame rails are attached to the mounting plate. Wheel horse addressed this by adding gussets to the frame (the angle pieces which go from the bottom of the mounting plate back to the frame rails). These gussets provide the stiffness to withstand the torque on the mounting plate from the transaxle, as well as provide mounting locations for the clutch rod and the lift bar. A thicker mounting plate does very little for torque stiffness. You can do what ever is easiest for you, but if you are really looking to make the whole assembly stronger, make bigger gussets and weld them on. Just my 2 cents.

If it were the UK, an original would sell for around $2000 as they are ultra rare here & a 401 suburban sold on Ebay for $2000 last year .

Can't joust without a horse!

hi men, as promised here are some pics that my younger friend took with his phone. technology is amazing. the carnage hurts! regards mike in mass.

WH stickers, and red spray bombs are cheap.

In the Cross ref link I post above has the cross over to # 1532 Torrington # M-­â€16121 MOTION IND #00090903 Hopes this helps

I will repeat what I posted much earlier and will explain in detail later why this is so important to me Notice what is indicated in nearly all Wheel Horse manuals under Safety and NO. 2 on the list.

I still remember that DANG thread (sorry folks "inside" story),,, Jim how about the follow up, Chinese "boats" ,,, what did they call those "boats" again??

Got beat to the punch, but that is correct just checked the 200 and 160. Thank You TT

haha, its way past my expertise as well! I've read through several other threads, i've got the manual and figured why not...we'll see how it works out! Thanks for the heads up Paul. I will pull the acceleration valves tonight and clean the slippers and let you know what I find.

Wow !! That is tragic. It brings some memories of my childhood when I was 9 years old we lived on a dairy farm. We had an old farmall tractor and the clutch was so stiff that i couldn't push it in. My step father would get on the tractor with me and get it running in low gear then jump off and leave it to me to operate the tractor. The only way i could stop the tractor was to turn off the ignition switch. It didn't scare me back then but when i think about it now it gives me chills, especially when i think about all the times i was pulling a large disc getting a field ready to plant.

Things happen, don't I know it!

So if they sell for up to a grand they go for up to a grand. Just someone else bought it!

I agree with ya Vin, I wouldn't buy one for a grand (or more) but I'd sell one at that price, and I have. I did sell a very nicely restored RJ awhile back for 1200.00 The body work and paint were perfect with quality paints having been used. I rebuilt the entire diff. all new tires, NOS shower head muffler, perfect belt guard and heat shield. I put an NOS K91 on it that I had "In Stock." I think it was a fair deal for both of us but in all honesty, I wish I kept that one. I personally think each tractor is case sensitive as far as value goes. What one guy may consider a restored tractor another guy may consider it nothing more than a spray bomb special.

http://youtu.be/oQmpguUXay4?t=37s Congratz Neil!!!

I found an old emergency kit at the flea market. Works well although somewhat small.

Was a good deal, I see $60+ in parts

DANG!

By their OSHA standard...I'm sure, that is being safe.

At the same event Neil (Ardingly) Nigels throttle stuck open on his trojan and he raced into Pauls awning display... It looked like carnage, but amazingly onced we lifted the trojan off him, there was luckily no major injury!!!

Yes, it has the 1 inch rear axles. "SK" stands for Special Kohler. I believe the "4" designates the model number of that particular transmission, I am assuming 4 pinion. The "8" stands for eight speed, and the "6" stands for sixteen as in horse power. I might be wrong, but that's what I came up with from a little research and put together. They also made a "SB" that was essentially just a C series made over from left over parts but it had a Briggs engine, and I believe was a 12 horse with a different model number configuration designating it so. From what I have read, this particular model was a one year run only in 1982. Thanks for the comments guys!

No Problem Steve. I always find it helpful to follow the threads with pictures so I will keep updating them as I get more into this repair. I'm working on parts for now.

A beautiful machine Eldon. I 'hijacked' the picture and saved it in my Wheel Horse file.

And the winner is Eldon's C595 !! Very nice and well deserved for sure !!

@Ken- I just saw the walk behind two wheeler for the first time today. Very cool for sure. If you need a set of chains for it, let me know. I have a few laying around. Here is my snow clearing crew. The first is my 1989 520H with 48 inch blade. The other is my 1992 520H with 38 inch berco blower and snow cab. They are talking 6-10 inches in the next 24-36 hours so.... ready to roll !!

Agree on all counts !!

Why on earth would you guys suggest remedies that don't include finding the cause of the problem? Yep tube it.... and if it's a small nail or screw that got picked up, it'll puncture that too. Find the cause. Could be a nail, thorn or sharp stick, could be weather cracks, could be a loose valve stem... could just be a leaking bead that all you need to do is re-seat. Why buy a solution to a problem you don't understand?

We've had regular heavy-ish snow in South of UK for last 4 years or so. Prior to that, hadn't seen any for several years. So we don't have an excuse to 'Tool Up' with Blades and Blowers to make it worth while........ We depend on you Guys to show us the Red Things shifting the White Stuff.