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Started the 704 after a long winter for sure. Started on the first pull. I stored it last fall with the Super-Whoopie fuel you buy at Lowes. It's supposed to have a 3 yr shelf life. I know the 2 cycle fuel they sell works awesome. Hood rattles a bit when revved up. Hope to get it on the yard this weekend to pull the trailer and sweeper!

Found an old post by buckrancher Wheel Horse 1513 is a Torrington B-1012 Torrington part numbers are in 16th's of an inch. 10/16 = 5/8" shaft 12/16 = 3/4" length Bearing OD is 1/4" larger than the ID so 7/8" B-Series bearings are open - shaft goes right through it M-Series bearings are closed - bearing shell is capped Garry

Hodge, I'll take a shot at your question without giving you the weather forecast or my favorite recipe for scrambled eggs !!! CCA is a 30 second measurement of how any AMPS the battery can delivery under certain environmental conditions. . Comparing the two batteries you talked about is like comparing an AA flashlight battery with a D cell battery. In near short circuit usage, both can deliver about the same amperage over 30 seconds. But what happens beyond that? The D battery has more staying power due to it's physically larger size. This "staying power" is RC or RESERVE CAPACITY. If you can find the RC for both the batteries you mentioned, you will find them significantly different. No way you (or anyone) needs 400+ CCA as your starter may only draw 50 - 100 amps max before burning out internal wiring and components. The more expensive battery has more and thicker plates inside allowing for a large CCA rating (many plates) and also a larger RESERVE CAPACITY (thicker plates). So Chuck, then I should go out and find the largest RC battery available. Well no. If your tractor will not start in the first 30 seconds of cranking, you may need to investigate other issues with the engine. So all wrapped up, lawn and garden applications do not really need large RC or CCA with a properly tuned engine. The physically larger battery just has more material to degrade before it dies. You interpret this as longer life because of the meager requirements needed to start a small single cylinder engine. I believe the success folks have with larger batteries is strictly due to more / thicker plates that take longer to degrade. That's it. Those who can get 5+ years from batteries are just exercising common sense in using and storing the batteries. Don't run a battery dead until your starter stops cranking. Once a battery goes below 10 volts - its functionally dead and irreversible damage starts on the lead plates. Zapping the dead battery on a 200+ amp charger does more irreversible damage with plate warp, etc. Don't drain a battery below 10 volts - stop cranking and SLOWLY recharge it. Don't store it uncharged in the cold as electrolyte will freeze and warp plates. Common sense stuff that few of us practice. So we see each other at TSC every 2 years and fight over the last LG battery with the proper terminal configurations.

I put those thrust bearings on my tractor with a Ark Loader and in with less than 4 hours operating time they had been reduced to a grey slime powder. Could not hold up to normal usage let alone getting a few heavy buckets of top soli. The bearings are just to small for the application. Maybe a little larger one would hold up better.

Install a THRUST BEARING like thiis one in the two front wheel spindles....between the cast iron axle and the 3/4" vertical spindle shaft. A pack of the just sold on ebay. # 9862 may or may not be the right part number...but it is a bearing like this that will help with the steering.

Be sure to have a little tow-in on the alignment, and keep the tires slightly over inflated.

I liked the human chock block idea... finally, a good use for the dead wood at work.

Here is a few pictures of one that I just bought a few weeks ago. I have a few things that I need to do to it including replacing the decals with those made by Terry. The Toro labels will soon be gone...

I finally got potatoes and onions in the ground today. The wife planted some greens this weekend. So, what's everyone's plans for this year's garden?

Made my first set of front wheel weights came out great!!!!

I've "owned" a Wheel Horse for about 12 years now. I say "own" because it's not technically mine. My brother inherited a 310-8 (1988 model I believe?) from his father-in-law when he passed away. He has a small city lot that he mows with an electric push mower so rather than sell the classic beast or store it and let it deteriorate he "loaned" it to me. I mow about an acre yard, the lane and sometimes trim around the barns with it. Would love to till once I find a rototiller attachment (complete). In return, I do the annual maintenance and repairs. Which has brought me to this site. So far I've sourced everything from my NAPA (belts, bearings, etc) but now am needing parts they don't have and thus have turned to the power of enthusiasts forums where I also get my old truck, boat and diesel info. Cheers, Keenan

Any of you interested in forks for your loader......found these for $95 with free shipping. http://www.paynesforks.com/

I hesitated to use ‘resto’ in the title as neither of these carts will end up exactly factory like but to me it is a ‘resto’ in the sense of ‘returning to an earlier state’ i.e. functional, looking reasonable original to the casual eye, and having an active useful life in front of it again. The story really began with the purchase of a 10 cu ft dump cart which looked sort of ok from the outside. What attracted me to this particular cart was that, unlike the few I’d seen (as they’re not exactly common here), this one is not the bolt together type but the tub has a one piece floor and a tub assembly that was welded up at the factory. I’m guessing that at least one other bidder was attracted to that as well so I ended up paying what was really too much for it. C’est la guerre! It had stood so long out in the weather that both wheels had rusted through – hence the Westwood wheels that I had spare and to hand being fitted in the photo. Although the outside looks ok the inside tells a different story – I knew that when I bought it and as a project it was always going to be a challenge. A few weeks later a haul of attachments came along which included a small dump cart which was going for scrap if nobody bid on it – you’ll see why in a moment. It had good wheels that I thought might do for the bigger cart but it turned out that the bigger cart has slightly wider wheels and tyres. Like the bigger cart it looks quite good in the above photo but the rear end of the tub had basically rotted out. Whilst considering the options my son came across what I think was probably a Westwood trailer that had been rotting away under a hedge in Devon. The owner didn’t want it so it was recovered despite being absolutely rotten because the wheels and tyres were in still good shape. This meant that I now had a pair of non-original wheels but about the right size and appearance for the bigger dump cart so what to do with the smaller one as its wheels weren’t now going to be used? Despite the condition of the tub it looked from some angles as being too good to scrap and so a second cart challenge was in the offing, well maybe, as it needed further investigation before committing to anything though my first thoughts were to scrap the tub and turn it into a water bowser which would be useful. The cart had obviously been stored for some years upside down with the result that the axle mountings had filled up with water eventually causing the tub to rot through. It appears that it was then stored the right way up with the tub in the tipped position causing the rear end to rot out. A good clean up revealed that much of the tub was still ok though a bit thinner than it had once been. Shot blasting it was a no-no or there’d have been very little left in places so it was long patient work with a dust mask and abrasive wheel in the angle grinder and various other abrasive wheels to remove as much of the rust as was practically possible.. The tub was then anti rust treated with a phosphoric acid based product but what to do with the end that was by now paper thin and had a quite a few pinholes in it? Cutting the whole end out to weld a new panel in was a possibility but would have meant losing the ribs as I don’t have the skills or machinery needed to press ribs into a new panel. I’d thought about using glass fiber matting but that would have looked clumsy, pretty awful in fact so decided to experiment with a fibre glass repair paste (basically resin mixed with finely chopped fibre) A first layer was brushed onto the tub then sanded when cured. A second and third coat was added brushing in random directions aiming to achieve a uniform thickness after which as much of the end of the tub that could be save had become as rigid as the rest. This was followed by a coat of oxide primer to protect the inside of the tub. It was then time then for the next experimental stage which would decide the cart’s fate. It was now possible to take the outside of the reinforced skin back to bright metal, treat it, fill the pinholes and again give it a coat of oxide primer to keep it good for now. That’s as far as I got by the end of the summer since which time I’ve been otherwise occupied and the two carts have been stored in the dry. Seeing what other WH friends in the UK were getting up to made me feel guilty about not actually getting on with this so you can guess what my New Year resolution was. I actually began straight after Christmas by getting the wheels for each dump cart cleaned and painted as a warm up exercise but now the more challenging stuff is under way (well challenging for me at least). Cutting the rotten parts out above the axle mounts revealed just how corroded the insides of these had become. Not an easy place to work but patient work with a hammer and sharp screwdriver as a kind of manual needle gun managed to dig out the carbuncles that had formed. The supports are made from fairly thick steel but none the less once the carbuncles were removed the second side had pinholes. The metal was treated with anti-rust, one advantage of having two carts on the go being that while there’s waiting to do on one you can get on with the other. Time to dismantle the larger cart (still with its temporary wheels on it). It’s difficult to date this cart, or the other one for that matter as neither has an id tag or any evidence that it ever had one. Based on the decals used on it the larger one is possibly from about 1978 in that it has the silver on black warning decal. The small cart has the small Wheel Horse on silver foil decal so it has me guessing 1960s ‘somewhen’. Perhaps someone can help on this. More photos of the larger cart will follow as I start to work on the tub but this one shows the one piece floor that is part of the welded tub assembly and the undercarriage which from memory is different to the Agrifab style WH carts I’ve seen. So that’s two carts on the go here now. I must be mad to be doing this! If you’re wondering how I intend to tackle the majorly rotted end of the small cart tub, I have an idea that involves steel but I’ll save that for later. Andy

:sleeping-yellow:

Congratulations to UCONN...they beat a lot of good teams that beat a lot of good teams...very cool. WOW...March Madness is alive and well. BTW...I picked a perfect bracket pool...only because I entered the teams after they won. AND MICHIGAN IS STILL OVER RATED...WATCH OUT FOR ILLINOIS AND KENTUCKY NEXT YEAR....FRESHMAN TEAMS.!! Quite honestly...the Big Ten did well...and so did the SEC...can't wait for next year. And YES...UCONN (now an AAC team) who was a BIG EAST CONFERENCE team (hope that is right) DID IT!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO THEM. The Connecticut guys on the forum are going to be hard to live with at the Big Show this year. I know that I am going to wear my CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS 2013) jersey at the show...just so I don't have to hold my head between my legs. These guys are Boston Bruins fans also...and guess who the Blackhawks beat (4 games to 2). I know...grabbing at straws...but I need a straw to stir my cocktail at the show.

Thanks Steve, I even started it with my "Tecky Arm!"

Looky what I just found in my mailbox. Not bad delivery....ordered 3 days ago. The center B+ tab is connected internally to the right AC tab. Same as the original.

Unfortunately. if you start going too small, you loose RESERVE CAPACITY by virtue of smaller physical size. Reserve capacity is necessary if you are going to consider additional lighting or adding electrical accessories such as electric lifts. Did the factory use batteries that were way too big? Probably, for 90% of buyers who only cut their 1/2 acre in the summer and store the tractor over the winter. Im sure the conversation on the design floor was centered around the fact that a "too big" battery was also a very common battery, used widely and available widely in the automotive market and as such was less expensive to purchase in bulk than "the right battery". A;ways go with RESERVE CAPACITY in the LGT arena. CCA is secondary and certainly anything near 400 CCA is useless unless it happens to get you a better reserve capacity. Good luck finding RESERVE CAPACITY ratings. This is the one true way to tell the good from the marginal and therefore is the rating most likely not to be listed for a battery.

Project now completed! Armed with hub caps that had arrived from Glen in the US and a decal from Mark (meadowfield), put the finishing touches to the little dump cart. Took it out for a photo, looks better still now with the caps and decal. Assembled the larger cart. Added the decals which include the original dealer sticker (thanks for doing that one for me Mark). Hitched the trailer up behind the D-200 which came out of hibernation specially. Not bad when you think what I started with. And took this cart out into the fields for a couple of photos. Inca (the horse) gave a nod of approval before I put it away. I'm well pleased with how both carts have come out though it has to be said I could have restored a tractor in the time that it's taken to do these. Thanks to all who've kept an eye on the progress and provided so much positive feedback. Andy

Keep in mind that battery tech has improved in the 20-40 years these things have been made. That's why the "box" is so big on these machines. Cranking amp numbers are a little bit of marketing black magic, and as others have stated, size of battery is often directly correlated with reserve capacity. Long story short: with a well tuned, maintained tractor (especially when not in extreme climates) you don't need anywhere near that size of battery. I think the reason that they went bigger is because with a larger battery the starting and charging cycle is less stressful and could possibly make them last longer when not cared for properly.

I cut a bunch of index cards to the radius of the rim. Then, with the air let out I slid them under the rim all the way around. Then I masked off the rest and sprayed. Turned out great with the paint fully to the tire and no paint on the rubber.

The thrust washers and hardened flat washers are available from McMaster for less money than ebay. Your C160 only has 3/4" unreinforced spindles. If you are loading the bucket up so much that it is too hard to steer you are probably well on your way to bending them. People need to remember these are garden tractors with a loader not a skid steer or purpose designed construction equipment. A bucket full of mulch is one thing, fill it up with gravel/sand you are going tp break something sooner or later.....Take smaller loads http://www.mcmaster.com/#needle-roller-thrust-bearings/=rg7wly

2 more pictures

Slot hitch with drawbar adapter on C-160. Clevis hitch on 520H I added hole to flag so hitches will operate with blowers mounted. Without blower, cable goes in lower hole in lift arm. Green bracket is for attaching lift spring assists.

SOI I've been preaching that for years. I see all these guys wanting 400 + amp battery's for their GT 's. And then expect those 400+ amps to flow thru those puny starters and 6ga. worn out cables! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There should be a hardened washer each side of the thrust needle bearings. Torrington thrust bearing catalog (15 pages of 356) Garry

I worked 2 summers at a golf course. I saw some of those live!

Recutting the valve seat, or refacing the valve closes up the clearance some. But on these small engines its cheaper to just replace the valve.

This should help

I'll be using my 417-8. She has just under 2000 hrs. on the clock but still runs plenty strong! I'm looking forward to the seat time. Pushing snow is okay but I'd much rather be cuttin grass....

Loader is definitely going to make the tractor steer harder. If it would fit, a gear reduction and swept forward front axle from a 520H would be a good solution.

I received the following in the contact form regarding this post: Sent by: Jim Wiskus Email Address: (removed for privacy) IP Address: (removed for privacy) Sent on: 07 April 2014 - 10:37 AM Content:

I did that my first year here before the walk behind (slightly less than half an acre). Took me two hours with push mower, 40 mins with walk behind.

I guess you have not heard the old sayn', Deals are either made, or broken, on the golf course.... If it is made, then someone liked the deal they were discussing... If it is broken, well then, someone porbably did not like the deal they were considering and something else got broken.....

Havn't mowed with it yet but I built a round hood from parts, basicly a 753 but has a NEW 8hp in it, it plows and blows snow good, pulls the roller with ease, hope this year to get the 36" deck finished up took about 5 decks to find good parts. Here it is in winter gear

753 or 854 are probably the best if you want one for mowing....all the round hood decks are the same. The 753 and 854 are the only round hoods of 63/64 that have electric start kohlers. 63/64 have the best steering of the years, 61 and 62 do not turn very sharp.

Or even worse, 23 ex wifes!!!

Lucky you got your addiction the right way round ,you could have ended up with 23 wives

Run time at no load can be calculated Calculate your cylinder volume Then the volume of air your engine pumps per hour calculate gas and air weight per gallon Figure a 14:1 air /gas mixture . by weight Figure how long your engine will take to consume1 gallon of gas by weight at a 14:1 mixture Multiply this time by your fuel tank capacity There is your answer All the math can be done by googling physical properties.of gas / air / cylinder volume Or search this site -I made this calculation before

my 5500 watt genny has an 11 hp the rule of thumb,500 watts per 1 hp

I was think he meant the stig as in top gear stig nice videos Cameron

Just a quick update, put the stickers on yesterday but it was getting dark and the photos weren't looking good, so today I've spent quite a long time taking lots of lovely photos for you guys to look at. A very big thank you to mark who made the stickers. james

All three proudly displayed in my "in the house" man cave,,,the first edition signed by Cecil,his wife, & Mike,,,second signed by Cecil & Mike,,,,final signed by Mike.

If it were my neighbor I'd first try to help/advise on how it could be fixed first. If he still wanted to sell after that I wouldn't low ball the price because I prefer to stay in the good graces of my neighbors.

Stupid question Why didn't you offer to see if you could fix the blower for him ? Gives you a chance to see what it is, makes for good will, and what I would have done for neighbors.

I replaced it with a good one from Lane Ralph. Still have the rusted out one that I might fix one day when I have nothing better to do..... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you do end up with another brand that doesn't have a negative enough offset you can do wheel spacers to make up the difference. I got some Jeep 5x4.5 spacers off of eBay and used threaded 7/8" rod to make studs. These off-white painted JD 23x8.5" wide rims work nicely with this arrangement -- if I didn't have the spacers, I'd have rubbing issues for sure: