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Remember the ugly yellow $25 tub cart I picked at the auction last week ? Well, I cleaned off the layer of concrete, straightened the tongue, and gave her some new paint. Now she's lookin good behind the Commando 8.

I just got back from Le Sueur, we had a good turnout of horses and members. I got a few pics of the horses and some pics of some of the other cool stuff that was at the show. I'm hoping some of the other guys will post some "people" pics. This is a huge show with lots to see, an auction that lasted most of the day on Friday and the parade on Saturday lasted well over an hour. And lots of good food! Here's a few pics for the "Connecticut" guys.

I picked up this steering wheel for my Suburban at the big show. It was decent but did need a little work. I didn’t take any before shots but you all know what happens to these old wheels. After patching deep gouges, cracks, etc. smooth things up and do any reshaping if needed. Clean up the spokes, prime and paint. Mask the finished spokes stopping about 1/16” short of where the plastic coating on the rim started. I used Dupli-Color Truck Bed Coating in a spray can. They make two bed coatings. The blue can that I used and the Bed Armor in the black can. The Bed Armor might be a bit better for a truck bed but I really don’t think it’s best for this application. I held the wheel with a ¾” wood dowel and had several coats on in just a few minutes. Even in this Florida humidity you could actually see each coat dry literally in seconds. I applied enough to get the finish I liked and to blend it into the painted spokes. I love the texture and feel of it and it should be durable.

Here are some of the pictures I have, will try not to repeat someone else's. Was a great weekend met a few new Red Square members new to the show. Glad you could make it.

And they brought this in when they heard Steve was coming.

Hi All, Just wanted to introduce myself and my newly acquired 1990 Toro Wheel Horse 512-D (well almost, I pick it up in a couple of weeks!) I've been researching these for some time and managed to find one in excellent condition. From what I have read these were only supposed to have been sold in Europe, but apparently they must have also been offered in Australia too. I also noticed it seems to have the seat option with arm rests... not sure if this is a retrofit or an additional option, maybe someone on the forum knows? Anyway looking forward to learning a few things on here and getting to know a few people! Bliksem

So I finally got one off my list a good running 520-h. Starts and runs great, I'm new to the hydro scene so I need to know what I have to change for oil and filters and where I can get them. Also what oil and filter should be run on these onan motors?also the dash lights on the gauges are on but headlights and tail lights aren't and the tach doesn't work any suggestions? Any help is greatly appreciated thanks in advance

Well I finally got the RJ home. Here are some pictures.

I already have an ugly worker cart Richard.

We should talk sometime then, get you some practice

Make sure you have 12v at the coil with the switch in the run position.

It was being used a s a mailbox holder when I found it. They had the mailbox mount on top of the hood.

Love the "Craftsman" hitch pin, I have a couple just like it!

Now she is too pretty to put to work and you'll have to find another ugly one!

FEL if it is decent shape is probably worth 1500 by itself tiller if the tines are good 150-200. Homemade plow??? cultivator not so much. The 4ft mower deck is heavily dependent on condition 50 - 250. What are the tractors issues???. Lack of power or steering or both.

Just finished reading (cover to cover) the recent issue. As always, lots of good articles and top quality photos. I didn't get front page billing, or a center fold, BUT....On the back jacket there is a photo of a Lawn-Boy and if you look to the left of the photo, you will see my 1975 B-100 with trailer (and seat) with my 18' "Horse Hauler" behind! I made the magazine this time! Woo-Hoo!

To keep this thread correct for archival purposes: -Style "a" pistons are the most common and can be put in either way. Style "d" pistons are made by Mahle, and must be installed with the arrow towards the flywheel. -Magnum cranks are the same regardless of piston / rod config. (Note: Same, meaning for the horsepower. Do not interchange an M10 with an M12 crank for example.) -Magnum engines can come from factory with style "a" or style "d" pistons. There is no real way to determine without looking at the top of piston. -There is no ryme or reason why Kohler chooses a particular pison/rod config over another. -The style "a" piston must be used with the wide wristpin rod and normal wristpin. -The style "d" piston must be used with the narrow wristpin rod, and more narrow "thicker" wristpin. -Rings for style "a" pistons only fit "a" pistons. Most chinese stens, rotary, and ebay rings regardless of notations, typically fit style "a" pistons by default. -Rings for style "d" psitons only fit "d" pistons. There are no aftermarket rings avail. Just genuine if avail, or search the net for NOS. -Style "d" pistons typicaly wear the cylinder less, and provide much superior oil control assuming the engine is maintained properly. Kohler claims this piston runs cooler in there literature. On the flipside these rings are thinner and apply more tension to the cylinder wall, so when the oil is neglected they wear faster.

haha ja precies, dat is omdat mijn Opa kwam uit Nederland. But I rarely get to practice, Dutch :(

i prefer the 48 inch SD's. Guess I have too many turns and time on my hands, retired. "Honest Hon, just as soon as I'm done mowin' I'll clean the garage out."

i would love to put a swept front axel on my 212-6. lol

I worked on the 5xi project for 3 years. The average person doesn't realize how many man hours and money go into the development of some products. They see the end result and judge it from there. Another person helped me on the 5xi build. I think the demise of the 5xi was the price. If you could afford over $10,000.00 for a garden tractor with a deck you would probably hire someone to mow your yard. There were 4 wheel drives out there that were better at the use of attachments. There were about 7 designers, a head engineer in charge of the project, an engineer working on the power for the tractor, an engineer from Wheel Horse was brought out of retirement to design the transmission, and the 2 of us building the prototypes - all who were dedicated to the project for the 3 years. There were 2 people from test dept, an electrical engineer, the toro stylist designing the look of the tractor, someone doing the finitite analysis insuring it was structurally sound and the marketing team that was driving the build of the 5xi. The cost of development along with the costs for production - Tooling for all the stamped steel and plastic parts and setting up the lines for production were a lot to recover. A differential lock was designed but never made it even into the prototype.

Funny how having a known good battery is crucial to examining a charging system. When I bought the 414-8 listed below the first thing I checked after bringing it home and going over the basic tractor was the charging system. At WOT it was charging 16VDC. I thought "Great, now there something else I gotta fix". So after doing my research here at RS I discovered that a faulty battery will make a good charging system do wacky things. At once I went to the Auto parts store and bought a new LAGT battery. After getting home and installing the battery the charging system went to normal and it has worked just fine ever since.

Go ahead, spend the $20 at Wally world Tom... ...will save you a lot of time.

When the 15 amp fuse blows, everything is dead....no nothing, nada, zilch....Replace the fuse, it starts right up and runs a minute or 2 then pop and nothing.....dead in the water. Haven't done much trouble shooting yet, but (before all this trouble) every time I turn the lights "on", the volt meter drops to 12 volts or <. Probably start at the lights. According to the schematic, the pink wire from the accessory terminal on the key switch goes (fuse 1st) then to the headlight switch and to an air filter switch as well as ALL the other gauges on the panel (except vacuum gauge).. I just finished troubleshooting with another member here - 15 amp fuse would blow and tractor would not run without a fuse in place. Turns out the 15 amp and 30 amp fuses were reversed in their positions in the fuse holder. When I checked the wiring diagram for the 15 amp fuse, all it controlled were the gauges, headlights and indicator pod power. Might be worth checking the fuse positions. http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/topic/58405-520-h-wont-start-hour-meteroil-sensor/?page=2#comment-539906 near the end - post #37

I think Georg Ohm just rolled over in his grave.

Sounds like a problem with the ignition switch, If it stops firing when you stop cranking, the switch may be wired wrong, or the ignition contacts bad.

I'm loaded be there in the morning

Very good job on the cart. Thanks for the photos.

$30.....C'mon Mike. That Regal Red dress and the beige shoes cost me 10 bucks.

Looks great! now you need some wheel horse stickers!

That is the newer style differential with the bolt on bull gear. It will fit in either the 5003 (RJ's) or the 5010 (Suburbans) transmissions. It requires the correct mushroom gear to match the teeth with the bull gear. You need part #3559...this part should be in all the 5010's, The RJ's came with #3502 which has 8 teeth on the upper part of the mushroom gear...the #3559 (I believe) has 11 teeth. Give us a picture of your mushroom gear if you would.

Guys....dont worry, I have a decent multimeter. Ill throw a known decent battery in it tomorrow and see where the voltages are and report back.

Go to the manuals section and see if any for a 520H are there. They would be a big help on doing the basic maintenance.

Thanks again slammer, just got a new one on flea bay for 13 bucks and free shipping, gates green belt 6969...... glennglenn I checked gates belt 6969 looks to be right hey slammer, thanks again, went to ebay ordered a gates 6969 green belt, 13 bucks with free shipping. What the heck, winter will be here soon enough, i have extra everything for the snowblower now. glenn

Great lookin tractor.

I've been doing projects around the house and camp after I noticed it was almost September. Where did this summer go?

Nice horse!

welcome to the forum Bliksem, that's a nice horse and a very dutch sounding name

Me too Slammer, but it's kind of a "Sleeper' in the 12 Auto isn't it? LOL, kinda like a 427 big block in a 1964 Chevy Nova with 14 inch wheel and hub caps.

Clearly then... them bars are too small.

It is madness. ...61 with a solid seat pan??? I though only '60's had a...... never mind....nice tractor any hoo...

...and I'm betting... we could talk him down from there.

CHEEP AT HALF THE PRICE!!!!!!!

Ok hi all once again. Today I took the deck off to look her over. It had some caked on grass but not as much as I thought it would have had. I scraped it clean and got maybe a plastic grocery bag 3/4 full of grass. Then I took the blades off to sharpen them they were as blunt as a book binding. They were brand new a couple months ago so this was the first sharpening since then . I should have sharpened them after 1 month but oh well been busy with other things. I put a flap disk on the 4" grinder and shined up the under side very clean,.. then hit it with some denatured alcohol to get it prepped for the next step. Undercoating 3 coats of some 3m stuff I have had for 20 years or so. Then I put the deck back on the mower. Moved on to the air filter and cleaned it well, the pre filter was baddd. I coated it with light oil this spring and man it was nasty 1/4 deep in dusty grass and crud. So it took that and the filter off and cleaned both and then re-installed them with another shot of light oil for the pre filter. I hit all the carb linkages with degreaser and then carb cleaner. After that I went back an oiled all the linkage pivot points. Now it was time to look at the PTO adjustment trunnion. I am sure it was fine,.. I adjusted it last winter early and there is a nice " cam over / snap over " when the lever it moved into the engage position. Next will be a wait and see I guess. I know I was taking a full cut of very tall grass both times when the rpm loss happened. I knew I was pushing it and each time I was pretty sure it was caused by the tall grass but I have never had that happen in 20 years of mowing with it. So I guess time will tell.

i had an 88 or 89 312-A that would just about die down to an idle then back fire and rev up again, finally traced it to a sticking valve.it would only do it when it was hot out or i got the tractor hot. but since it take less then an hour to mow the yard i was mowing it pretty much only did it when the temp was a little past warm. once the valve stem and guide was cleaned she runs like a champ eric j

All rattle can here:

Tom & Jason....Please keep steve of trouble...want to see at next year Portage show!

My granddaughters came over today to celebrate Papa's birthday and brought a little something with them. What a great day. Thanks girls.

I have three (1998 518xi, 2000 520xi, and a 1998 523Dxi) and I am happy with all of them. Don't let the lack of power steering be an issue with the 518xi and 520xi. They have a cross between the 520-H steering reduction and regular steering. I pull my Cyclone Rake with the 518 (13' total length!) without a steering issue. Other than the base 518, they have cruise control as well. Because of this Toro equipped them with a mechanical system to automatically lower the speed (7.2 mph in Hi) when turning. You could be potentially thrown off the tractor otherwise! The power steering is a hydraulic system done without a mechanical link so more parts. Not to say I don't like it on the diesel though. It is nice steering with just using the spinner while clearing snow. The tractor portion is virtually bulletproof with normal use. In that regard it is just like a classic Wheel Horse. The Eaton 11 is improved with a Hi-Lo range along with a neutral position handy for pushing it around or even towing. If pushing, it does weigh approximately 1100 pounds bare (add the deck of about 200-300 pounds depending what size) but I can do it. The step-though platform is nice for getting on or off. The attachments go on the same way as a Wheel Horse, some even easier. The engines are what differentiate between the models. Brandon already mentioned the Kawasaki-engined 520Lxi. I don't have one so won't comment. With the three Kohler engined models, I feel the Kohler Command has less issues than an Onan, but more than a Kohler K-series. I would say that these are the most common and readily available. Also easiest to own. With technology improvements comes more technical/fit issues. Kohler recommends that the engine shrouds be removed every 100 hours. The problem is that the engine needs to be pulled from the tractor to gain access. It is four bolts for the engine, two bolts for the driveshaft, electrical connections, and throttle and choke cables. But the engine needs to be pulled vertically because of the oil drain spigot. Most owners don't know this maintenance requirement until they start questioning the oil temperature gauge rising.This is more an engine issue than tractor problem. That said though, the diesel has become my favorite. I bought it with 605 hours and have used it for approximately 20 hours removing snow. I was in the midst of changing over to mow with when I was laid up with a broken ankle. At this point in the season, I'll just put the Winter equipment on again. The diesel does have the potential for being the most expensive to repair if the engine develops any issue. The injector pump, for example, is rather pricey! It does have a water/fuel separator so with normal startup procedures, it should not be an issue. I garage mine in an unheated attached garage but never failed to start last winter. Attachments are out there. They seem to be more readily available today than when I got my first five years ago as these tractors age. Toro also produced a clone tractor for New Holland (black attachments) so they are another source. Good luck in your search!