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Done a few things this week. First, drained the oil from the rear end. It was to the full mark and it looks like I got around 3qts out. Oil was not too dirty no surprises drained out. My pto clutch was pretty beat up. The clutch pad was wore into the rivets and that scored up the plate good. Toro wants $80 for a new clutch/pressure plate. Evidential you can't get the pad and rivet it on, they sell a new plate with the pad bonded on. Luckily I found an nos pad. Drilled out the rivets on the old one, cleaned up the backing plate and jb welded the new pad on. Cost me 10% of what the new setup wAs. I brought the pulley to my buddy. He has a small mill and lathe, he's gonna machine the clutch face. I broke the drive pulley on the engine, finding the 5" pulley to fit the 1" Briggs crank proved to be difficult. Just about all the hydro machines had a kohler or onan driving them...and they use 1 1/8" cranks. Wound up finding a 5/20 pulley and getting a 1/8" sleeve adapter. Worked awesome. So the clutch plate is now bolted up. I also hooked up my throttle and choke cables. Gave all the paint a clear coat and painted the grill black. The custom exhaust I had in mind has just become too much work. I told myself if I can get a new muffler for under $100 I'll do it. So one is ordered $85. It's coming together, I can't wait to run it

Yes Mike I have been planning this trip for at least 15 years now. Just waiting for the wife to retire. Here is the what we are looking at from a good friend. It is 34' Class A.

A 1968 model tractor could have been sold in October of 1967 just like autos today. Engines are always built before the tractor so perfectly normal. Try a new spark plug. If it works great. If it doesn't work remove and save for the next time you want to try a new plug. Spark plugs can fire out of the engine but when under the pressure of compression will not fire. The condenser connects to the points or to a wire leading to the points. The metal body of the condenser needs to be grounded to the chassis which is accomplished by the clamp and bolt securing it. Point gap is critical because that also controls the spark timing. New points have a coating on them to prevent the contacts from oxidizing in storage. Give them a rub with a nail file and then drag a strip of white paper through them until it comes out clean or spray with a contact cleaner. Magneto ignition is self powered and the ignition wire simply grounds the points to the chassis to shut it off. See if you can disconnect the wire and isolate it in case the ignition switch is keeping it shorted to ground. Do not allow any battery voltage into the ignition wire as that will burn up the coil. Garry

That's when you leave and go back to the house, remember what it was, go back out to the shed and forget what it was you went out there for because you got sidetracked on the way.

To give you an idea of how this looks in real life, the photo below shows my bucket, fully rolled back. That's about the height (maybe a touch lower) that I can carry loose material and not have it spill out. If the back wall of my bucket were formed at 90 degrees and the bucket pins were parallel to the back of the bucket, I'd have to carry a loose material load much higher than what is shown in the photo below to not have the contents spill out.

It looks like the factory ARK bucket is done up at about 90 degrees at the bottom inside back corner. I would say you would be better served by forming up your new bucket with that angle between 70 and 80 degrees otherwise you'll limit the amount of negative rollback of the bucket, especially when the bucket is low to the ground. This makes it hard to keep material from spilling out of the bucket when carrying a load low to the ground. Here is the built-in angle of the CTC bucket that I used for my 5Xi project. -13 degrees from 90 so 77 degrees. This is approximately the same as the factory kwikway bucket. If you were to draw an imaginary line connecting the (2) bucket pins on mine, that angle would be a few degrees greater than 13 degrees that the bucket is bent at. Your middle two choices for your bucket mounting bracket (or perhaps splitting difference between those two middle choices) should allow for good geometry. If you stray too far from them to either extreme, it makes it hard to keep loose material from spilling out when carrying a load as low as possible to the ground, or the other end of the spectrum is it makes it hard to completely dump out material at maximum boom height, like say, trying to place material in the back of a pickup truck bed.

Wait until you guys hit the late 60's , you make notes on stuff lose the notes , walk in to your work shop and have not idea of what you wanted to or why and my all time favorite ( it happens a lot ) write down a list of things you need to buy , walk into where you are shopping , can not find the list. Buy a bunch of stuff which you hope was on the list. Get the "stare " about losing the list only to find it 3 hours later in your shirt pocket.

I was going to add something to this thread........................but I forgot what it was. It was important too...dang it.

Have this tractor that needs a lot of love. Not sure if I should save it for a collector or not. There is a lot of potential in this tractor outside the French motor Italian Steering and Italian Transmission. Originally purchased the tractor for the Fel and Box blade but am having a bit of a hard time deciding what to do with it. Are there any collectors that would be willing to purchase it as is with the FEL for a decent price? I am trying to find the pictures of it now. I found a picture with the FEL working after I replaced a couple hoses and the O-Rings in the bucket cylinders.

I'm not sure why he put it on there. He bought the tractor right after the engine was rebuilt. I'm going to do some checking to see if the original charging system has problems or not and fix it if it does Thanks...They were really starting to grow on me after a while but even more so now that I own one

I was down in South Bend Ind. today finishing a job at Notre Dame. On the way home, just around the corner from the university, I spotted Heaven on earth...! Had to stop and take some pics!!!

The tachometer gets it's signal on the gray wire from the stator. One of the regulator stator terminals is common to the terminal for the gray wire. Garry

I have more than one duplicate tools because I couldn`t find them when I needed them and went and bought another one..

I hate looking for something not finding it and then forgetting what you were looking for.

I received copies of these two pages in the mail today from Clyde Potts of Wooster, Ohio. Clyde bought an RJ 58 with a Schnacke Recoil on it and the seller provided Clyde with lots of original paperwork that was given to the owner when the tractor was purchased. I have a Schnacke Recoil and I have had some previous Schnacke materials for Clinton Motors but this is for the Kohler version. It is a good two pages to have posted permanently on the Red Square Wheel Horse website. It would be great as the second page says if you could still send in your Schnacke Recoil to the company as they were quaranted "indefinitely" against any manufacturing defect! This Schnacke Recoil Page is from t the Clinton Motors order sheet for replacement parts.

Garry has given you great advice. If you want to go the next step and time your ignition here is a guide. Kohler static_timing.pdf

Here is the way my K161 governor/throttle is connected.

Now that is Funny Steve. It is great to be an old fart.

So the ones in the sleeve are the ones to the rectifier. The third one from stator goes to the trigger .From the second connection on the trigger(I i believe) goes to coil. Just follow my instructions in the earlier post and give it a go.It may not be as bad as it looks. Dont reverse the wires at the trigger or you will damage coil.

Got the car tires off and replaced with actual tractor tires this afternoon...I know they look kinda funny on there...They are the tires and wheels off the 701 that's currently in pieces...But they will get me by for a while until I can can get some ags ordered and mounted on the original wheels. Previous owner also had her running WAY to rich...Lined that out and she purrs like a kitten now

" D O N ' T F O R G E T T O D R I N K Y O U R O V A L T I N E " !

If you used a thrust washer, you should only use one...it should be against the plate, under the bearing in which the large part of the mushroom gear goes. It should only be about 1/32". It would have nothing to do with moving the mushroom gear anywhere...it just keeps that bearing from falling in closer to the plate. Actually, if you got that bearing flush in the holder with the thrust washer under the bearing, you are OK. Actually, I usually do not put that washer back when I do a trans. If the bearings are "flush" in their places, the mushroom gear will not rub. As far as the rest of the stuff you were doing, you have to remember that the trans has gear ratios...ie. you can always turn the input pulley, but the gearing makes it almost impossible to turn the brake shaft while in gear. If your trans is in neutral, it would take a lot of strength to turn both axles at the same time in the same direction. You should be trying to turn the axles in different directions (while in neutral) to test the axle bronze bearings. If you want to try something, take out the thrust washer and see if that helps. If you can turn the input shaft, with the pulley on it and it sounds good...no screatches...you should be fine. Do you have any oil on any of the gears yet??

Looks very nice John! And that seems pretty typical on it being tight. With a little run time the bushings should wear in and should make it easier.

John, that trans may last another 40 years, especially if you are not going to turn over dirt, or slam it into frozen snow banks. I certainly would not be afraid to mow grass with it, or do regular chores.

Hi guys..new here and this place may help me as I have a problem... Here it is I have a D180 and I broke the right hand steering spindle....I have looked high and low....seems it is a discontinued part....part no. 103798 Now this old girl needs a new leg and I am not ready to put her down......so any of you guys got any ideas about where to find a right hand steering spindle???? Thx Ocharry1

I cant believe I am in this box and YES Digger.....I admit I have a problem..... lolololo I have 2 857's torn down 2 seat pans getting painted,,,,,,a hood and other parts,,,,,,,,, This gets better,,,,,i need all the plastic bushings on the seat pans......So,,,,i go to parts tree,,,,,All I can find is the transmission,,,,huh !!????!?!?!!?! Do I need a bigger boat,? am I looking in the wrong place,?? I need all the plastic parts for 2 seat pans.....and bushings for two hoods now that I'm thinking about it,???? It has been 3 yrs since I bought from them last,,,,,,,HECK,,,i even paid them.... So,,,,,here I sit,,,,,,hard place and stuck??? howard,,,,,,,.

I know a few who use DesignCAD. Seems to be good enough for home use or light industry. A free trial I believe is available too. https://www.turbocad.com/designcad/

Standard turfs with chains on my C-105. Didn't use weights this year and it was fine...Asphalt drive and no issues...Just don't spin them too much.

Here as promised the pictures that show which way I'm going with this, and what it's for. The last pic only shows one of the hydraulic rams, there are three on the finished machine. I think I'm going to call it wheel horse LS or maybe wheel horse i. Not sure yet.

That's it, the big Chandler sign faces are gone, but the Lawn-Boy & Toro faces are still there, the Chandler faces have been replaced with white Lexan. Still cool though, made my day!

Take your spool valve to your local hydraulics shop (FleetPride/CatCo etc) and have them take a look at it. I found o-rings for all of my ark loader parts there for next to nothing. To do the spool valve (turned out to be worn beyond repair/cost to fix vs a new one) and new o-rings for all of the cylinders was under 10$. Just a thought.

Before moving forward with a bucket design and pin-on bracket setup, you'll also likely need to optimize the pin spacing for the bucket so that the hydraulic bucket cylinder or shaft won't interfere with the back of the bucket when the bucket cylinder rod is fully extended. As per the photo below, when the bucket rods are fully extended, the bucket pivots down to full-dump position and the cylinder body and piston shaft also move closer to the back side of the bucket and the loader boom. You may want to do some mock up with cardboard or wood and your bucket cylinders before welding anything up so that you can be sure that nothing will bind, and the bucket cylinders or shafts won't hit anything when fully extended. On my setup, it was just dumb luck that the CTC bucket and bracket geometry crossed over very well with the kwikway design. When fully extended the bucket cylinder and shaft get close, but do not contact the back side of the bucket or the loader boom. This photo from the below message board thread is also good to review for thinking ahead. http://www.mytractorforum.com/119-home-made-tractors-implements-accessories/175389-jd425-fel-build-input-requested.html

You can post an ad in our "Classified" section or contact @A-Z Tractor or @daveoman1966. either one will be able to fix you up.

So last year I bought a transmission for my dads 502 from a guy on facebook. Afterwords i needed a hitch for it. I knew we had one. Problem is where was it we have 4 sheds where it could be and 2 leantos. I cleaned out one shed a bit and nothing and i could of swore thats where it was. i hunted for 2 weeks for it. and i gave up looking for it. well this past weekend i was redoing my sheds floor so i wanted to organize my shed. so i thought well ill pull 2 cabinates out of parts shed. unloading the one cabinat look what i found. i went through that cabinat over and over thing was i didnt pull out gas tanks. it was behind them lol. now dads 502 will have both hitches on it.

John, it is the worn bearings that let that large gear rub on things in the case. New bearings equals no rubbing. Post some pictures of it painted.

I had my bucket made with about a 10 degree forward slant and also offset the holes. Haven't had any issues with dumping and I can carry it low to the ground without spilling.

I wound up ditching the thrust washer. It was, in fact, the culprit. The mushroom gear doesn't seem to touch the bearing and bearing cup for the cluster gear. This could be from the new, tighter fitting bronze bearings, or that damage could have been from hard use 50 or 60 years ago... Either way it doesn't appear to be an issue at this point. Here's the pic again of the damage that we were hoping the thrust washer would help avoid. I have it back together and will be spraying primer this morning.

I'm a big fan of the old Wagoneers, Jeep pickups and the CJ's. I've owned 3 Cherokee Sports that were all great and my wife had a 2013 Wrangler. My every day is a 2002 Grand Cherokee that I've owned for over 10 yrs (a record for me) that has been a great vehicle. I bought it with 40,000 miles, it now has 200,000. it still looks good and I'd drive it anywhere. I've only had to do regular maintenance on it. Pretty hard too kill the 4.0 6 cylinder. I'm thinking of semi retiring my Grand Cherokee so my son Cole can have it to drive next year. I think I'll look for a low mileage Grand Cherokee, I know any quirks they have and you can find them reasonably priced.

Wow thanks for the interest all, a couple of you are close but have not got the right application yet so... one more night to tease. I love some of your comments/suggestions, A 'wheel horse drone' would definitely be a new one. A stretched wheel horse limousine,.. handy for a farmer. And Anglo,.. Richard,.. your only about 995,000 miles away. Give away pictures coming tonight....

Thanks roadapples this is good stuff! I never operated one of these so I don't have a clue! I have a question will it be able to dump the material okay by bringing it out? I drew up a BB Bucket Bracket design with 4 positions. What do you think?

@HorseFixer Duke, I have an Ark loader with nearly the same bucket. They`re known for not tilting back very far. If I were building one from scratch, I would make the brackets on back of the bucket deeper on the bottom than on the top. That way you could haul more with the bucket closer to the ground. I think I`m right, never had geometry....

@Ed Kennell Well you did not come home empty handed or with an empty wallet. I think you guys have more auctions in PA them we do here. Our uncle in Bedford Pa is always talking about auctions. Down here there are more estate sales with set prices. Of course there aren't many tools for sale and no . Craftsman sockets down here are priced so high at the estate sales you get a better deal at Sears.

I can't explain it Jim. Why Anyone would pay 3600 and sell it a year later for 1800. And the auctioneer told me there was only a $700 reserve on it today. So If I had not been there, it would have sold for a grand today. To my knowledge, everything worked as it should. Like Duke and Jeff , my plan was to part it out and end up with a free deuce, but the numbers just weren't there. I think the reason some of these items go to an auction vs CL or local paper ads. is that a lot of people can't deal with the phone calls, lookers, and low ballers. Usually the bulk of the auction sales are from estates and a lot of the time, prices are determined by the presents or absents of family members that have sentimental ties to some items. Example, I saw a 14" cast iron skillet sell for $675 last week. No horse followed me home today, but I did get a 0.5 to 6" l set of Fowlers telescope gages, a box of craftsman sockets, a set of nut drivers, and a nice ridge reamer, all for $30.

The fuel pump is vacuum operated, never had one pump too much, they usually just give up, sounds like the needle stuck open, sometimes you can get lucky and just pull the top off and clean it out, spray some good carb cleaner in all the passages you see, if there's black specs in there your fuel hoses have deteriorated from ethanol fuel and they'll need replacing as well as the filter, sorry I can't help with the governor issues never had mine apart yet, Jeff.

The farmer across the road from my parent's farm had a workshop that was a sight to behold, everything was a mess. On occasion I would need to barrow something and he would pick it out of the clutter without hesitation; when I returned it he would toss it wherever it landed. You could go back a month later and ask Bob for that item and he would retrieve it as if he had cataloged the location in his mind; perhaps he had!

John, that trans has nothing wrong with it and it looks like it should be sitting on a coffee table in the living room. I kind of saw something that may be making your trans tight. In your 2nd picture (one with the bearings in the plates), it looks like your closed bearings are sticking up a touch and not seated flush. If they are, it could be pinching the shafts and making it hard to turn. They should be flush in their seats, but not buried. Sinking them all the way can also make the bearing hard to turn. If it is just the picture, and they are flush, then the trans will loosen up as you drive it. Remember, being dry yet will make it tight also. Dang that looks nice Mate.

That is indeed the thread 953nut is referencing. The relative scarcity of the breakerless parts will leave you most likely spending same or more than you would for conversion. Although there are proponents on the forum for using the original set up. But the electronic parts even if found new are very old. That era electronics was not as robust as today's designs. Spontaneous or arbitrary failure is very real possibility. Just depends on what you want out of the tractor once it's running.

So I just got done assembling the transmission. Everything went together nicely. The bew bronze bearings are in. I chopped up an extra $2 harbor freight hammer I had to get the axle tube bearings all the way seated. I ground the hammer face down flat so the chamfer wouldn't flare the bearing outward. Worked pretty well. The hone worked well, but I'm with you steve, I'm too impatient to do that again. It took about an hour to get all 4 to fit nicely. My EE6 bearings and the unground bearings went in without a hassle. And the thrust washer seems to be doing its job. It lifted the bearing up on the mushroom side just enough to clear the cluster gear bearing on the same side.. so no more grinding on that! I dry fit it before final assembly and everything fit nicely. I did, however have to grind down some of the machinist's work on the hooby dooby on the mushroom side. The mushroom gear was touching it ever so slightly. I told him he could build it up a bit more on the left side but not the right because of that gear... he got the sides confused. No biggy though. I dressed the gaskets, tapped in some new seals on the input shaft and brake shaft, and got the trans put back together. **TADA** All seems well with one exception. I dry fit this thing 6-7 times when honing the bearings and everything turned nicely. It even turned nicely when I dry fit it before installing the gaskets (I torqued side plates to about 7 ft lbs). Now that I have the gaskets dressed and installed and torqued all the way down things seem a little bound up. It has to be the bearings. The gears are turning smoothly and I don't hear or feel any gears rubbing or ginding against anything. To give you an idea of the amount of force necessary to turn the trans while it's in gear... I put the pully back on the input shaft to give me some leverage and I can turn it in all 4 gears with slight force. But I can not turn it by hand without the pully. My intuition tells me that I will probably be okay with it like this. It may just take a ride or two to let those bronze bearings wear in. But I'd like some opinions before I move on to painting. Any thoughts? And yes, I'm going to paint everything in. I know this may not be the popular approach, or the easiest to deal with if I have an issue down the road. But I do it because it was painted after assembly originally. Well, I can at least say with certainty that it was painted like this before I began the restoration. So, in the interest of maintaining it's originality! And I personally really like the way it looks.