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OK... let me catch my breath... I just returned from visiting "the barn" that he has all the 400 parts stored at. I drove an hour to get there so that I could carefully check everything out--myself. Everything belonging to the little 400 was kept in it's own small covered trailer inside the barn. He turned the latch, and I swear I heard an angelic chorus singing as the doors swung open. It looks like everything is there (except maybe some minor things like springs and belts). The parts that are not already installed are just simply not cleaned up and painted yet. And, tucked way up in the front of the trailer what did I see...? The original mower deck, in it's unaltered, unrestored--but looks to be all there--condition! BONUS!!! Regarding the front tires: they are not filled with anything (including air); the bead is not sealed on either rim. The liquid seen in the picture was just oil that he used on the spindle. That will be replaced with the correct grease when I turn around the front axle. Regarding the cut hood: yep... kinda sucks... and there is a little jagged section in the cut right near the bottom of wherre the ID plate goes. But certainly not a dealbreaker. Which brings me to my final point... There WAS a deal made. The 1960 Wheel Horse Suburban 400 is MINE! I will be picking everything up this evening. One quick question: should I put gear oil in the gearbox prior to rolling it onto the trailer? Or am I just overly concerned about rolling it a few feet dry--they obviously weren't, because they rolled it out of the garage? What type of oil is used in the Uni Drive? BTW, good thing I was smart enough to put a deposit on it yesterday. They have had 15 people today wanting to buy the tractor. One of them offered twice the asking price. I'm glad these nice people are honest.

Here is my Wheel Horse push mower I bought a few years ago when I got it you could hardly see the red paint & logo. It has a 2 cycle Clinton engine it runs and mows pretty good,heavy steel deck.

Well, it's 95% done, it will probably never actually be finished. Lots of little things, and some decent photos, these cell phone jobbers suck, but you guys are all up in my junk about seein pics, so .... hope you're not disappointed!! LOL

Someday, for me at least, is today. You know how you see something really cool and think to yourself... "someday". I picked up the Suburban 400. To my surprise, I think I scored BIG. This turned out to be the best garage sale find EVER! The tractor came with two big boxes full of of nearly every part necessary to complete the restoration. And the original mower deck. And a snowblower. And a plow blade.... And 200+ pages of documentation in a 2 inch binder containing every record of every part purchased for the restoration, even with a mapquest page for each purchase showing exactly where the part came from. He claims that he has a rear plow for it too, but it's mixed in with his other tractor stuff--he said it's mine when he can dig it out. He has parts diagrams, and a copy of the original owner's manual. He obviously cared about this little project. I guess I can stop bitchin' about my Craigslist Nightmares and all the $#!T I dealt with recently. The Wheel Horse karma has come full circle. This more than makes up for all of that. Here are the only pictures I can post today. I had to quickly unload and squeeze everything into the garage before a huge storm hit.

I got to do it again Doug, the gentleman who had the 701 and other stuff I hauled to the big show sent me a text yesterday. He wanted these out of his garage but didn't want to scrap them so he was giving them to a good home. I was more than happy to take the trip to Palm Coast. The rear tractor is a 657 and definitely worthy of saving. It has Wheel Horse branded tires in real good shape. I was finally able to get the ID off the one in the front, 1-3631, a 500 Special. The hood is straight but for a long frame, The pivot point has been modified. I'm thinking the hoods are identical on the 500 special and 657 (edit....nope ). I'll have to research that some more. At first I was thinking to fix up the 657 using some parts off the other one but now I'm pondering. I think the 500 Specials are pretty spiffy.

So i found an RJ to restore. Except I cant figure out exactly what it is, here are some pics. I have not seen any others with the choke and throttle pulls on hood like this...i know its not a 35 thats all i know though lol. It came with a seized up k91 which i think would be the original engine, I tore it down, the connecting rod was seized to crank shaft so i will see if i can get new rod and have a friend measure crank to see if he can regrind it...Excited about this project so any help would be great!

I picked up this lawn ranger last night it appears to be original and does run heres a few pics from last night i will try to most sum more pics later today

At $500, I'm inclined to say you're on the high side, but since you got the original engine, and the correct 1961 deck (which are actually kind of hard to come by) , I wouldn't say your out of the range... especially out there in the PA and east region. Lots of info here. Search for Suburban 401 and read up. Enjoy your project and ask questions. Keep in mind that for many questions it will help if they're accompanied by pictures of what you're talking about. Have fun and

So I finally broke into this tonight. Came apart with ease, which was surprising for a 48 year old tractor. I THINK the gears look REALLY good: Which is awesome. The pros will have to take a look and let me know if they see anything that I dont. But I was impressed with how it looks for its age! THEN i found this: Of course I would loose a 1533 and the needle bearing at the end of the axle. I dont have a press or anything and I was hoping to not have to dig into bearings. Everything was spinning smoothly, or so I thought. The other side doesnt look too bad, the brake shaft needle bearing might be a bit stiff. Thoughts?

If I can carve out the time from my crazy life...there are more stories to tell and many more pictures to share. The iron horse has been in our family so long that the memories abound! There is the time that I took the key as a little kid and hid it who knows where, there is the effect that a timed RD deck can have on a vintage Schwinn bike when accidently backed over, there is the feel and sound of using the same machine for years and years. After all this time, I've been at my own house for 15 years, when I get on that little tractor, it brings all those memories back.

This is your "official" spoiler alert, as they say these days! It is time for me to resurrect this thread and finish the story now that we have nearly finished the restoration! We have a little fine tuning to do to the carb and then "letter" it and this Iron Horse has a new life for the third time!!! It has been a great project to do with my dad and my boys, now we get to enjoy playing on it! ...more pics and story to follow! I just wanted to let you guys know that we hadn't given up!

I was hoping to put an 8 speed transmission on my 854 mostly for the limited slip diff, but it would be nice to have low range every once in a while. Before I knew anything about the differences in transmissions (input shaft/pulley size especially) i happened upon a pretty trashed 867. The transmission shifted smoothly into all the gears and I got it for a song (was at the persons house 3 hours after listed on CL!) so the adventure began. I learned after the fact that this was an excellent bit of luck as it was the only year of 8 speed to have the right input pulley to match up to the engine pulley on my 854! Got the rest of the 867 dealt with a few months back and never had a chance to really take a look at the transmission until tonight. I knew that one hub was welded on the axle and the other was busted up so I preemptively bought good used replacement axles and I have hubs from a C-165 I can use. Ground off quite a bit of really ugly weld, had to bite into the hub and axle a fair amount. Broken hub (with a leaky seal behind it, maybe an early attempt to replace?) Got both hubs off without too much effort... Well the axle keyways look... perfect.. what!? Lets check the hub... WTH!? Keyway is also nearly perfect... whoever welded this was a nutcase. I had to ruin the hub and axle to remove it. Was this a setscrew originally? Looks a bit cobbled. I had mixed in a bit of pure methanol to clean out the oil... Dumped out a gallon of mostly water. No oil to be found. All setup on my 'work station' ready to be torn into. To Be Continued...

Does anybody know if this is a suburban snow blade? If not what will it fit? Thanks in advance.

I'm in the process of rebuilding a 48" deck - about my 5th one! - and thought I'd share a couple fixes I've come up with that are relatively easy to do with common items from around most of our shops. The 'roller' wheels on back and front of the deck really take a beating and after I paid out a pretty hefty sum for new ones -- well I thought I could do something better. This is for the solid wheels that have a white bushing on each end that is almost always worn out. I had a piece of 1/2" schedule 80 PVC around the shop (my air line is run with it) and since it has the 1/2" inside is about 7/8" outside it makes an ideal replacement bushing. I chuck it up in the metal lathe - a wood lathe should do just as well - and trim the outside down to my worn wheels inside diameter for about 3/4-1" and cut it off. Here I measure every opening because of the wear, it will vary from .750 to .800. so I trim off what ever is needed to get a good snug fit. This will leave a slight shoulder similar to the original ones. So if the wheels are worn then the axles are more than likely worn too. I get a piece of 1/2' rod and a piece of sheet metal from the scrap pile and a couple minutes on the drill press and a quick spot weld and I have a new axle. My decks get a lot of abuse on the left side from rubbing against the edge of my concrete driveway where I try to get too close, so on my last couple of rebuilds I added a 'guard', Another piece of 1/2" rod from the pile and another few minutes on the welder and I should have enough protection.

The boys adopted my Pennsylvania and the Radio Flyer! https://youtu.be/MhlK4_4I4JY

Thanks guys for the positive comments! The future of this tractor will be noted right here. After all, the story goes on every day that we use it or give it rest! The Story: I looked through many old slides and pictures to find the ones that I have posted here. This is the first picture that I could find of me and the Iron Horse. I was about nine months old at the time of this picture. I've been into engines, cars, trucks, tractors, and pretty much anything mechanical my entire life. Mom and dad tell me that as a little child, every time I would hear that single cylinder Kohler fire up, I wanted to be on the machine riding. That tradition continues today with my youngest son who is now about 26 months old. He loves to ride on the tractor. I know that it isnt considered PC or "safe" to give a kid a ride on a tractor but... Notice the 1966 IH Scout in the background. That was purchased by dad as a means of transportation but also because it had a 6' plow for snow removal. It would be in our family until 1992. At that point, dad installed a light kit on the Iron Horse and modified yet another single stage snowthrower to clear the driveway with it. Dad wishes to this day that he had kept that old truck too. The only machine that he kept through the years though was the old wheel horse 875. Of course cutting lawn wan't the only time that I wanted to snag a ride! Here dad is busting the clods from last fall's plowing. "We" are getting the garden ready to plant. Don't I look serious about the task at hand? What is ironic to me as I look at this picture is the fact that dad here is a dozen years younger than I am today. The 875 was a tough tractor back then and it continues today. Although the wheel horse isn't in this picture (It was parked just to the left of the screen), this is where I spent my time as a little dude, with dad in the garage. I'm smiling because I'm looking at my reflection in the shiny Cardinal Red 1972 Pontiac Lemans right in front of me. Or maybe it is because I was just "helping" dad rebuilding the old International four cylinder from his Scout on the saw horses behind me. A couple of interesting notes to observe: the bolt rack behind me is the same one as you will see in the current resto photos (even though mom and dad moved about 20 years after this photo), as is the old Craftsman tool chest which a discerning eye will see the drawer just sticking in to the left of the screen, and you may also see that brown oil can in current pictures too! Dad put a premium on getting good things and taking care of them. They were built with pride and have endured my whole life, Including the Wheel Horse 875!

Unfortunately, I could not get this pic. For one, the little Suburban 400 is too short for anything but the top of the lift lever to be seen over the truck tailgate, and secondly, I had to rush home with the precious cargo before monsoon 2015 hit my area. So, I wasn't able to stage anything that qualifies. I guess that means I have to buy another one to make up for it

I still have a lot more cleaning to do before I oil her up but it does look better and the model tag says its a L-156 I used sos pads to clean it

I would say that is a fair price. Probably rare to find one like this.

Actually, those didn't clean up Jim. I was missing one lever but was able to straighten out the one I had good enough to use it as a pattern. I made a jig to hold the three pieces and went at it with a benchtop belt and disc sander. Basically letting cdsi810 not to worry about some of the missing items.

There was a local guy here that had the 420LSE that someone on this forum bought pretty quickly after listing. He left that darn thing on craigslist until the ad expired. I cant even IMAGINE how many phone calls he received on that ad.

Here's another control plate decal by Terry. The serial # was completely gone and I didn't want a random one.. I flipped the original plate over to get rid of the pitting, made new levers from 3/4" stock from Lowes, and new levers from Glen Pettit. You've got the heat shield and belt guard. Any other that you might need won't break the bank.

Really ... if the essentials are there go get it! Dip into your girls college savings if ya gotta, I'll bet they will love ya for it and you got plenty of time to put it back! ...Im In the tires are worth that group too. Guys here will help ya figure out the rest. Also check out the front wheel situation if ya get it and let us know. Don't fret too much about the cut hood.

Yes it is Ask if they have the foot pedal to go with it. It connects with a small chain and is used to release the pin which holds the blade in position. Not completely necessary to have but it's nice for setting the angle from the seat. A small rope connected to the top corners of the blade and draped over the steering wheel is used to pull the blade into different positions. Look on the tractor if they have it It'll fit 400,550, 401, 551 and an RJ but will need the RJ adapter mount to clear the front axle

OK I know it's not a tractor but didn't know where else to ask. Has anybody ever seen a Wheel Horse push mower. I picked one up Saturday for $10 has a cast deck ,is self propelled (probably gear and chain driven) and has a 3.5 hp tecumseh. if anyony has seen one or knows where I can get some info would be appreciated. Going to try and restore it after all it's still a Horse. Thanks,Tim

Time to load up for the Dover Olde Tyme Days Show. Decisions..Decisions The 520 snow machine is out... too hot in the cab and rough ride on the chains. The 312H has mowing duties this afternoon. The Green MTD gets to go cause he is banned at the Big Show. The 16 auto dually hasn't been out for awhile. The Commando 8 is just fun to ride.

I picked up a 312-8 yesterday for a song. It has 1200 hours on it and a really nice 48-inch deck with her. The only issues are it needs a bath, new front tires badly, ignigtion switch, and some grass to mow! I don't think $300 was a bad deal for it! One thing that gets me is the 6-inch tires on the front! Why?!?

Very next nice job on the refresh/restore. No sense mothballing a proven worker. Keep on working the beast. It will make a great family tradition for each generation to do a restoration!!!!

You did good Dave. Its worth $150 for pulling a trailer or lawn sweeper till you can find a mowing deck!

Any running Wheel Horse with an attachment is worth $200 if you can put it to work and get some positive results from it.

If you can get the mower deck mounted and working they are great for mowing and make a yard look good I love mine congrats on the new horsey Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

If I was able to go, I'd be rasin hell on here Craig ,you can go for the "Long Hauler" award. Don't forget to stop by on the way back!

The transmission gears do all look real good. All of the needle bearings will tap out with a good brass or steel punch...some times, I can pop them out with the right size 1/2 drive socket and an extension (put the extension in the socket from the inside...ie...use the back of the socket as an arbor). I have had luck popping out the #1533 bearing with an air chisel...hit the trigger once and she pops right out. They do make a bearing puller that you may be able to buy at someplace like Harbor Freight....we have some threads on the puller. Mike (racinfool40) does have good, used #1533 bearings...and he will sell you one if that is all you need. Send him a PM. Open up that 10 pinion differential, ya big chicken!! Looks like you have the aluminum caps differential. If there is anything that is not good in that trans...it is in the differential. Don't forget to replace those nuts when you put the differential back together.

Sweet Bob .. love the allen hardware! I saw that on another of your posts... Wish I could clean my levers up like that but tryin to stay orginal. We are gonna have to start our own Suburban club complete with secret handshake!

You just gotta love people. Guy calls me and says he has a 56 WH with new tires, rebuilt eng ect. Says he's got 250 in it and it needs a hood and a home and would I be interested. I go over and see a Lawn Ranger on a trailer. I ask if that's the tractor and he says yes. I tell him that's not a 56 but might be a 66. He says a dealer told him it was a 56. Yeah an L 156. He wouldn't believe me. Hood is cut up bad so I passed for now Saw a 416 with attachments on CL for a week with somewhat decent price. I think something's up the ad is a week old. I call and it's been sold for a while. TAKE DOWN THE AD!!!!!!!

Congrats...nice score on the I wouldn't worry about gearbox oil till it goes under power, will ok for just rolling on a trailer. I believe it takes 80/90 lube. Go to the manuals section here and download the owners manual for it, it says in there what it takes and more, let us know if you can't find it. Also might find reading for the deck there. Post lots of 'specially the deck.

I vote for bringing it home. Most of the hard work has been done, tires, and paint/body work takes a bunch of time and money. If you bought an unrestored one for 300, and got it to this condition, you would have far more than 200 additional (and a good bit of time) in it. Looks like a fun parade tractor at this point, but many do work them.

There's a GOOD chance that they used armor-all (Or similar silicone stuff) on that seat. That stuff looks great but people forget to not use it on seat, footrests, steering wheels and other important surfaces. My BIL bought a 522xi and I think they dunked the whole darn thing in armor all to make it "look pretty". It looked aweful and took a month of sundays to get it to the point you did not feel like you were trying to sit on a slip-n-slide. Before buying a new one, try washing it with dawn. It will eventually wear off and be more manageable, but the dawn may help. Whenever cleaning it, use a non silicone vinyl restorer on the seat. I have yet to buy one though so I have no recommendations other than NOT silicone.

I'm in the "The tires are worth that" group, go grab it. Also, just check when you get it, looks like the front tires are/were filled with chloride and the "driver side" one is leaking. I would get it out of there if they are indeed filled with chloride (and its not rimguard) and either fill them with rimguard or get a tombstone weight to go out front. Those things are very light in the nose. Awesome find!

If you get time you must tell us some more stories, it seems you have a gift for it. Love the tractor too, it's my favourite style.

The hood is a 60 Suburban 400 and yes, it's been cut. Personally I wouldn't let that be a deal breaker in this case. There's plenty of value there.

The bottom of the hood is cut off, over the engine Choke/throttle are one piece that does mount in the square hole

The actual owner/restorer lives in another state, but worked on it every time he came here. His brother is selling it for him. He is retiring and selling off all his goodies so he can travel. I was able to speak with him on the phone and get all the details. I literally locked up my brakes when I was driving by and caught it out of the corner of my eye. They probably thought I was crazy when I ran up to look at it, panting partial phrases like, "what year... model... work? How...much?" Now that I think about it, I looked like a complete nut-- --a Wheel Horse nut! By the way... I was driving to look at another C-175 Auto when this all happened. And the price is right for the C-175 this time around. I know AMC RULES is partial to his C... what to do? Get the everyday workhorse C, or the too cool Suburban kit? I hate decisions like this...

Yes. Magnums are definitely underrated and so is the K341. All great engines. I'll finally get to test out the 312 on the lawn tomorrow. In the mean time I said goodbye to the 6-inch wheels and installed a set of 8-inch rims with new turf tires and buffed the hood and fenders. Gotta look good while mowing in a subdivision full of green, white and yellow!

Toro got a bad rap from loyal Wheelhorse owners but it was Toro that saved Wheelhorse and the Garden tractor line. They could have killed the line and made Toro branded tractors changing every year or two so the attachments would not fit many consecutive models. As it turned out, Toro kept the Wheelhorse line going and were responsible for the incredible run of the C-Series through the 300, 400 & 500 series tractors and the compatibility of the attachments to extend decades of models. And as was touted earlier in this thread, the Xi line of tractors were built heavy-duty and were actually heavier in weight than the 520-H. Much heavier. Toro made many cheaper models that were riding lawn mowers at best but they were still far superior than the MTD junk sold in the box stores. Toro even kept making parts that were interchangeable to older machines. I've said it many years ago here but it bares repeating. We should thank Toro for buying Wheelhorse and keeping Elmer Pond's tractors going for the many years that they did. Toro knew they bought a great design with a loyal following. And it showed!

I talked to a long time dealer a few years back. He said when Toro took over Wheel Horse, the quality control went way up. Said many times a WH tractor would be shipped missing parts and that ended with Toro. I don't know, I was never thrilled with Toro. I bought a 210-H in 2000 and was skeptical but I saw enough WH features on it to take a chance. Had it for 20 yrs and only replaced a tie rod and a diode.

There is a cross pin through knob and shaft (screw). The shaft (screw) is 1/2" and turned down to I believe 3/8"/5/16" at protrusion into knob. You would be best getting a suitable support under pin and shaft and use pin punch and drive out pin so as not to bend end. I got one out with slight blow and another refuses to budge with almost fed hot heat I've not had luck drilling the pins but some prob have "gooder" bits than mine!

I have an XL T-Shirt from 2014 Big Show in a sealed bag I'd like to donate for the raffle. Please PM your address and I'll send it out

Wheel Horse never published serial numbers so have recorded a few to see what they look like. 147399 - Highest 1965 serial recorded so far 049065 - Lowest 1965 serial recorded so far 098334 - Recorded span of 1965 serial numbers Have five 875 serials recorded so far in the 1st batch of 2 batches of 875's and yours is the 6th Batch 1 of 2 132052 - high ------------131686 your 875 serial 130994 - low 001058 - 875's recorded in batch one so far. Attachment serial numbers are included in these figures as they were consecutive along with the tractors. Your 131686 serial is 84% through 1965 production. The lowest 1075 serial is 130336 and your batch of 875's followed. Garry

Does anyone on this forum have the ability to decipher when exactly this tractor was made from the serial number that I posted? I know much about the story of this tractor as it has affected our lives but there are many questions about tyhe production of this tractor that I have little to no info on. I would appreciate it greatly if you guys would and could help me by adding to the story by filling in these details as you can. Back to the story... This is where the story is just a little fuzzy! My dad is now in his early 60's and in all fairness to him, these details are nearly 40 years old! So, he was convinced that the tractor came without a muffler which makes no sense to me. However, when I showed him the snow pics, he could clearly see that it had a canister muffler on it at the time. For reasons unclear to me, dad decided to take the canister muffler off the next spring and replace it with a long straight pipe! Now that is loud! Any of you that have ever run a single lung Kohler with a straight pipe, know what I'm talking about. For those of you from the midwest and old enough to remember, we had some wicked cold and snowy winters back in the mid 1970's. Dad said he thought the winter would never end and the Iron Horse got a workout. It's just too bad that he wouldn't have had the correct snowthrower for his tractor. He probably would have been much happier with the outcome. Spring time finally came and with it, garden work... Dad picked up some spring tooth shanks that were extras at work and got busy building himself a "digger". He wanted a disk too but that never came to fruition. He had to make do with what he had or could get his hands on cheap back in those days. He made it a five tooth setup and he could obviously remove the center "tooth" for cultivating which he did every summer to keep the weeds at bay. We still have this digger and it works just as good as it did back then. They had a sizeable garden for just him and mom but it wouldn't have been possible without this hardworking tractor. Dad didn't know that he was driving and working a piece of history so hard! He just knew that there was a job to be done, and this machine was up to the task of taking care of business. How tough did dad build this thing. Here is the Horse and the digger working my garden 36 years later!!! Some things are just built to last but dad tested his Iron Horse to the very limits. In the upcoming posts, you will read of blown motors, busted rear ends, dented sheetmetal, and several over hauls. But that is what needs to be done sometimes when you ride a "horse" to its limits!