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This is my first post on the forum. I am about to do my first lawn tractor build. My dad picked up this ltitle Wheel Horse for my kids around 6 years ago, he never done anything with it. A little over 2 years ago he died. It has been setting there by his barn reminding me of him and his purpose for having it. Today I picked it up and brought it home to my workshop and started disassembly on it.

Prairieland Heritage Museum in Jacksonville, Illinois will have a Swap Meet and Sale on March 11, 2017. The Wheel Horse items of the lat Earl "Tuffy" McEvers of White Hall, Illinois wil be sold at this Swap Meet and Sale. Earl attended the 2013 Prairieland Show that hosted the Wheel Horse as the tractor of the year. EARL'S SMALL SCALE Road Grader on You Tube: He was famous for his smaller scale road grader made from a Wheel Horse hydro transmission that used a 1 /1/2 Horse International Harvester water cooled farm motor.

I use sealed on my show horses so that I don't have grease on my wheels. I use open on my workers so they can be well greased to keep water and dirt out. It's all about personal preferences.

Kids are a blessing and boy do they grow up fast. I'm happy for all of you gentleman and certainly see the pride you have in your grandchildren. As a side note, my supervisors daughter was good enough to get a full ride at a good university for softball. I hope that can be the case for you as well.

FEL is that not a front mount crane ? eric j

Well the weather was perfect and the show was busy. I got to take some pictures but for the most part I spent the first part of the morning buying the gt14 and then the other half trying to figure out how I was going to load/unload it when I did het it. Walking along there were some neat things here and there. Just some of what we saw is here. Some red, some yellow and yes, some green. And then there is that gold,green and blue thing I bought. Had a good time. And my treasure

I think it's risky no matter what you use or how you do it.

2017 "Power from the Past" Show Flyer . Held in Winamac, Indiana -this is always a good show. I have been attending for seven years!

Okay...I have a friend who is a honcho at a local power tool rental shop and he called me this morning to offer me this hydraulic hose crimper. It's an oldie for sure (he says it was there when he started 28 years ago). Anyway, I'm not about to pass up a freebie such as this, so here 'tis. It's a bench mount, but unfortunately I don't have room on either bench at the moment. There might not be much of a cost saving factor here because of my cost for hose and fittings, but I have to check it out.

Before you order new parts from a dealer.....think about whether a used part would work. We have a great list of vendors in our classified section that offer used parts. I bet one of them could have set you up with the correct length choke cable for much less than $63. Mike.........

Thanks Doc. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. I have no clue how it runs. I'll get the model when I get up there next week. My Wheel Horses will keep it in line.

Many of you know about our move back to our home state of Indiana. Well, the closing date has been set for March 10th. I just found out yesterday that the seller is going to leave these two items. There's a lot to mow and I actually thing the seller is trying to do me a favor. She doesn't know that I have real tractors The Agri-Fab will probably get some red paint and I'll just use the trailer to haul the grandkids around. I can see that the mower has an 18.5 hp Kohler Magnum twin and a 46" deck. Does anybody know the model? On my trip up to close I've got a cargo trailer reserved and I'll be bringing my Wheel Horses up. The plan is to leave them up there along with my truck and fly back here. We will then have a semi trailer sitting in the drive to haul everything else. Once we close on this place my wife and I will come back up in her car. When I unload my tractors I'll be sure to keep them as far away as possible from this thing.

Picked up another RJ-58 today that a guy had in his yard. Not as good as my last find but not too bad for $175. No original engine but it had the pulleys from it, belt guard, muffler guard and serial sticker. Hood has a couple small dents but in decent shape otherwise, no holes. Front rims are not rotted and the fuel tank is in good shape too. Check it out. I'm cleaning it up. Ill get a few more pics up soon.

UUUHHHMMM...Front right tire, 5th tread pattern from the bottom on the inside - I see some dust on the tire...

Send a PM to @Shynon...I've watched him remove paint off of original decals with good success.. Just can't remember what he used..

Are you going to repaint the hood? If so remove the decals with however you are going to prep the hood and put new ones on. If not @stevasaurus knows a way to do it.

Is it just overspray, or actually painted over. If it is overspray I would start with something like WD-40 or Seafoam Creep.

Millions of New and Used Onan parts available. Intakes are the same on the P216, P218 & P220 engines. Same carb on the 16HP & 18HP. 20HP carb only the jets are different.

Richie: I was down there at the Flywheelers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday is vendors setup day but they sell a lot of stuff. I was there selling stuff with Rodeny Burger of Roachdale, Indiana. I saw Terry Wolfe and his display from Greenville , Ohio, another Red Square member. I took some pics too and will add here. I had a great time an except for Wednesday's rain the wether was great! They needed the rain down there though -it was awful dry and quite a few grass fires. Saw a Wheel Horse for sale that had an Anderson, Indiana dealers decal on it!

Thank you Sarge will take that tip under advisement and thank you Denny, I find it takes less work by paying attention to the little stuff when building then to get it assembled and say "why the #@€& didn't I think of that when I had it apart and easy to do?!?!

finally got around to cleaning the nos one up

Looks like you have competition!

I got 4 of the horses in the barn.

Picked up # 99 420-lse brand new never started . Also the other one I have is 50 has 145 hours . Nos one is on left hand side .

Acetone or Lacquer thinner, you need to be careful with them as they can eat up the decal. PO had spray painted this 1045 with some orange paint, I washed it off with Lacquer thinner.

Another fine specimen saved ,,,,,,,,,We humbley thank-you,//// And welcome aboard !!!!!! Keep a few pics for us.....as progress moves along!!!! Howard 857Horse in VA

That's why I kept my mouth shut Terry....Steve told me what to use but CRS and didn't want Slim to screw up his decals. I think it was acetone but????

Garry

to the Ran d. The two 1972 models you listed have different spec engines.

Keep it and use it to mow and leaf duty Bob. It will save wear and tear on your horses and keep the hours down on them as well. And it's free......... Hope all goes well with the closing and the move as well.

I prefer to have the ability to grease my bearings. The last 6 sealed mower deck bearings I installed after removing 1 side of the seal 3 of the bearings were factory greased full and the other 3 had no grease in them at all and they were NAPA bearings. It can be a crap shoot. And as Bob said above depends on your preference and with low cost sealed bearings, your luck.

Nice! Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

I would caution you using pressure treated wood in this application. The chemicals (some really nasty ones) can leach out and soak into other things around it like your fabric or react with the paint and metal. Go with a good quality natural wood as lane said. It might be cost prohibitive or hard to find (check specialty lumber stores like Rockler for fancy stuff in small quantities), but I would look into teak or red cedar for and application like this if you want it to last forever.

Lots of fun in the mud yesterday.

Are you saying Cas's pics are fake Terry and he really didn't have that much fun?? That would be a bummer. ..I suppose the mud in the ear was just some chocolate bar?

@Tdubb

Lane I was thinking pressure treated wood that would add 50 mores years to it.

I'm sure I'll have some questions, and you pros will have some answers. I don't plan it to be restored to original. I do have the deck for it also. Or at least a deck was there with it.

Now on to the engine saga. This is the Briggs 18 opposed twin I got off eBay after some disassembly. It is just flat wore out. Cylinders are about .020 over already and a valve seat has come loose and ran like that for awhile. Governor is missing half the teeth and the timing pin was sheared off. There was a strange spring holding the throttle on the carb in place. I am willing to bet it ran in the condition it's in. Can't kill a Briggs! This is the block I'm rebuilding. Tins, carb, and oil pan are off the junk engine. This one sat for a few years so it had a lot more rust than the junk one. Much more to come!

I actually had one of those that I bought new somewhere around 1996. Finally sold it to my uncle who still has it. It was a really good mower for the most part (definitely not a wheel horse) and was pretty reliable. The only issue for me was that the 3 blade 46" mower deck really struggled in even just moderately tall grass. Left weeds and dandelions standing like crazy. Didn't matter what type of blades I used either.

those craftsman gts are decent machines. looks like a hydro. where in indiana are you moving to? one word of caution dont push the craftsman gt too fast in tall grass main belt breaks going to deck (some people do it over and over and cant figure out that they are pushing it too hard lol) have worked on many of these gts. a little too new for me lol.

Thanks for the pictures.

Florida Flywheelers' has always been one of my favorites, we were there back in November and ran into some friends from years back when we were Floridians. Thanks for sharing.

Do we have a video of the rescue??? And if not...why not? Jim

Great story and pictures Bob. Thanks for sharing. My participation in my own two Sons activities unfortunately was limited due to travel and work. But now I have the time and means to attend all my Four Grandsons activities, and I try to not miss any. The oldest, Reed, Will graduate High School this spring and has some college acceptance letters now and is still waiting for some to be sent out in March. He will probably end up at Lehigh, Cornell, or R I T. This will be a new phase in watching these boys become young men. Here are a few pics of my pride and joy.

Our grand daughter Mackenzie is a real book worm and a Disneyholic. She is 12 and is a seventh grader enrolled in a Magnet School with a concentration in Medical and Computer Sciences. She has already gone far beyond my limited ability to help with her homework. I may need to sell some of my herd in a few years to help with collage tuition.

Aldon here are some pics of my Gt 14 hood hinges and latch, let me know if you need anything else.

the kohler manual says: new: as in off the shelf never ran in a motor used: as from a running engine new: 260 in.lbs used: 200 in.lbs DO NOT overtorque----loosen---and retorque the hex nuts on posi-lock connecting rods cap screw style connecting rods: 285 in.lbs over torque 20%, loosen below torque value and retorque to final torque value Brian

A hex-head screw is nothing more than a bolt. (which was normally used on the newer engines) It's also 250in(INCH)/lbs - not ft/lbs. There's a HUGE difference.