Leaderboard

Today my wife, an avid quilter, had the honor of awarding a Quilt of Valor to a World War Two veteran during our church service. It was the one thousandth Quilt Of Valor presented by the Smoky Mountain Quilters. Not bad considering how sparsely populated our little corner of NC is. I have posted a bit of information about QOV previously.

I wonder if she knew then that she’d have a tractor some day... and in the picture on Grampa’s Ford, she had just cut her hair with scissors because she “wanted her hair little like Daddy’s”

More fun in the forest today. Headed out. We cleared another 250 - 300 feet of path for the tractors. Also... We felled the largest diameter tree I've ever done today. Around 21 or 22 inches thick at the trunk base. We cull off the unhealthy trees. With 11 + acres of land we have plenty of trees to choose from. The beech trees have a disease that makes them have a cankerous bark. They die off from the top down. This tree will supply a huge percentage of our heat next year. As luck would have it it laid down right on top of a small red oak. When I cut the oak out of the underside it landed the big beech right on the oak stump. Next we'll tow the splitter in there and section up some of the pieces.

Art class project at the girls’ Monday homeschool academy... they were to create a picture frame. Of all pictures she could choose a frame for... I’ll let the pictures explain the rest! It found home on my shop “mash pole”.

I went with my father in-law to pick up a race car this morning, ended up with this. Apparently it was originally in the Pontiac dealership in Portage or Kalamazoo in the 50’s. It’s mostly complete, shy of the glass. Luckily the panels are flat.

My wife's grandma just passed on Tuesday. She owned what was left of our little hamlets real general store. Today we had a service for her at our volunteer firehouse were she did so much for. Looking back, we really had a little piece of Mayberry. I'm would like to share this picture of my wife, her grandma and grandpa at the store. I post this with a heavy heart because I feel this kind of our America is going away.

My old squarebody hauler...C30 sporting a factory 454 big block with A/C and SM465 4spd spinning a PTO to the hydraulic ram lifting the bed.

I think I finally have all of my leaks fixed and my PTO adjusted so I got a load of rock and did some spreading over some muddy patches in the driveway. I’m really surprised how well this thing pushes and lifts when scooping rock from the pile. What I thought would be nothing more than a toy is actually a pretty good little worker.

I have this 48 inch deck that I am doing a redo on and regal red is a great match. I also hit it with some acrylic lacquer clear and what a shine!

So I have had several of the more rounded hood speedex tractors. They are fun, but I have always wanted one of the more squared hood speedex tractors. Well I found one. It came with a 13hp Honda engine on it. But I did get a bunch of extra parts and two 11hp Briggs engines from other speedex tractors. So I can make it original. The best part is the snow blade. I have looked for one of these for along time, they are the coolest thing to me. Because with another bracket you remove the blade and flip it upside down and then attach it to the back for a grader blade. This blade is only 40in and not the 44. But I'm OK with that, being the widest part of the wheel base is only 31 1/4 wide at the rear. So here it is and I will be working g in this for a winter project. The other tractor in pic is what's left of a 1968 speedex S-17. But there is some good parts there. Also the last pic is a photo of a advertisement for the blade, so you can see what I'm talking about with flipping it.

A friend of mine, Charles Wesco, has been in national and international news after his untimely death in Cameroon Africa a couple of weeks ago. He surrended his life figuratively and literally to bring the Gospel message to the people of Cameroon back in 2015. He spent the next three years traveling the US with his wife and 8 children to raise financial support to make it to the field. My dad was chosen to preach his commissioning service back in early October and they left for the field. If you have followed the news, you will know that there has been a lot of fighting going on in that country. He was traveling with his wife, second born son, and another missionary to pick up some cell phones at a local store when we was shot in the head and killed after having been in country only about 11 days. It was a shocking and tragic event that I am still trying to wrap my mind around. He taught a Biblical lesson while at our church in 2015 and drew a chalk drawing that so impressed @Coulter Caleb That he asked for it and Charles gave it to him... I happened upon it while cleaning the shed only a few days ago. His funeral will be held in South Bend tomorrow afternoon. Dad and I are traveling down tonight late and will have our morning free. My question for those of you that live in the area or know the landmarks...”What Wheel Horse places of importance can we visit and take pictures of/at?” I’m unaware of any museums in town but any recommendations would be much appreciated. Maybe an old factory, the Pond houses, old dealerships, etc. It will be a very emotionally draining and difficult afternoon for both of us and a little levity in the morning will be a good thing!

Thank you very much sir. Here's a few more pictures and a short video for you Richie. You have to share viewing with everybody else though....

The Pontiac Cadillac dealership in Kalamazoo was called Paper City Motor Sales. It was located in downtown Kalamazoo. The gas pump would have been in this building. The picture shown would have been taken in 1960.

That’s really cool @953 nut! Happy Veterans Day to all my fellow brothers and sisters. I’m sitting here watching “The Pacific” (probably my 100th run through haha) thinking that I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. Semper Fi

Call these guys... http://www.antiquearchaeology.com/locations.php

I love old Mack trucks, once got a steal of a deal from a gravel outfit in BC. Tandem with a fresh in-frame, new tires and a really nice aluminum Nahaani gravel box. The guys on the job-site were bugging me one day about the truck then I asked a few of the others what engines and transmissions they had in their Western Stars, Peterbuilts, Kenworths, Fords and Whites, after getting the answers I had expected pointed over to my old Mack. Said see that truck over there, as far as I'm concerned it's the only real truck on this job as it's Mack bumper to bumper. My truck had the gold Bulldog. A gold-plated bulldog indicates the truck was made with a Mack produced drive train, engine, transmission and drive axles. Once I had lugged the engine down then just before stalling out engaged the clutch. the windshield was immediately covered in oil coming out of the oil bath air cleaner. The engine was now running backwards, a quick pull on the engine stop with a restart fixed the problem. Borrowed your picture.

Cool!!! Congratulations on finding your Speedex! They ARE fun tractors, and I like mine a LOT! I had no idea that blade could be flipped and used on the rear. Keep us posted on the work you do to yours! Here's mine........ it's amazing how much you can do with a 16hp Briggs engine and some bar stock!

Got my new find home today. Well not home home but home to my buddies shop for the winter. I try to get up to the shop a couple days a week to BS over a cup of coffee or three. This little 657 looked better than the pictures so I am very happy with my purchase. Gary and I are both kind of busy for a few weeks but we will try to get the Kohler running before Thanksgiving and see what I have. Here is the good news as this appears to be a good news bad news kind of thing. So here's what was in my mirror this morning. Brake was pretty good rolling of the trailer and it seems to shift in and out of all gears as expected. Here's a little better picture of it once I got her in the shop. The paint is very nice but once you look it over the seat pan and frame are a slightly different shade of red. but all in all it will make a very good looking worker. IT looks to have been a tire on rim paint job but up close it was a good one. The deck is really nice. no rot anywhere. Can not be the original deck. If the tractor had enough hours on it to burn up the Techy then you would think the deck would have some dings and dents? The shifter boot looks to be original but still in pretty good condition Not sure where he got this seat but it is a beauty. Nice to sit on also!! Found the rope when I opened the hood. There is a slot on the front of the frame that appears to be a hood stop but the tab appears a bit bent and does not go in the slot? As usual its not all good news so here is a bit of bad news. Hopefully not too bad. Took a picture under the kohler and found this ugly mess. Sure looks like a big problem to me but I am no mechanic. The wiring is suspect also. the back of the switch looks like it was hot at one time Maybe the wires were hooked up wrong? Also there is no dip stick? Once I know the wiring is right and I get the new battery in we will find out if I have a $400 roller or a very nice 857 ready for work. If the engine is bad I will take it out and get it to Holden's Machine shop and hope he can get it healthy in time for spring. Bill does incredible work but you don't want to tell him your in no hurry. He always has 10 things going at once it seems. So let me know what you think guys. Good and Bad. Will download the manual for an 857. Your input and advice is as always very appreciated.

Found the garage floor. Packed up the shed. Bring the blower home next week.

I remember that station also. Back in the late 50's early 60's the first McDonalds Restaurant in Kalamazoo was also built in that same area. At the time, if you had a buck in your pocket, you could go to the Clark station, get 2 gallons of gas, a pack of cigarettes and still have 25 cents left to spend at McDonalds for Burgers and Fries. Then go cruise around Swartz's Drive Inn looking for female companionship!!! "Those were the days" or so we thought.

I had seen the story on this but weren’t aware you knew him. Sad really that there are people in this world that place no value on another’s life. Sorry to hear about this and will be wishing you and your dad the best while you travel.

I'll put some thought into that Josh but there really isn't a lot of the old Wheel Horse stuff here anymore. There's the plant that was their last location here and I live about a mile from it. Although it shows no signs of Wheel Horse now I still like to reminisce about my tour through it back in the late 70's or early 80's every time I drive by it. At least one of their yearly brochures has the model line up for that year sitting out front. Then there's the Studebaker museum. 25-30 years ago I was walking through their old location downtown while I was designing a fire alarm system for it. I was in areas not accessible to the public when I spotted some red under plastic tarps. I asked about it and they showed me. It was quite a few Wheel Horses that had been on display at their plant and were move to the museum for safe storage after Toro closed the plant. The museum is now in a new location and I heard that they have at least some of them on display. I haven't been there since we moved back so I can't confirm that. There's also Chandlers but their sign came down a few years ago. That's where I purchased my 1976 new and was reunited with it shortly after we moved back. Knowing that you're coming here I'll put more thought into it.

and video! That brings back so many memories of splitting wood with my dad and uncles for decades. I cheat now with a pellet stove but nothing quite like running the saws and splitter and making your own future heat! Well done!

Toro GMT 200/230 or Hesston front runner. Find all kinds of pictures but none around. Guess I’ll have to build my own.👍

It’s a 70s gravely. It has a 12hp kohler 8 speed forward and 8 speed reverse. I own a gravely just like that. It’s a good tractor, it will pull a lot. That’s a great deal.

Oh how I want one of these!

Finished product...and it's amazing I have gained some floor space...that's Ray's C141 underneath the bench, and that's the 8 speed out of that tractor on top...which is one of the main reasons I wanted to get this project done... transmission is locked up need to tear into it and see if it's salvageable

Got the snow blade on about 5 minutes ago.

Lock-Tite 660 Is made for “Cylindrical Gap Filling” applications like this. I have used it and the part is removable with a little heat.

Could Norcar be related to Norlett? Norlett was made by Wheel Horse in Belgium. Just a thought.

So recently I sold a gentleman a transmission rebuild kit that was from Finland and it struck me odd at first on why he was asking for parts because it was not a Wheel Horse tractor so after reading through his email and looking through the manual that he sent me he wanted parts for a MinkOMatic which is a livestock feeding machine/tractor overseas and if you read through the PDF file that I attached and go to the last couple pages you will find a parts list and exploded view of a wheel horse eight speed transmission you will notice on the parts list that the part numbers are mostly all wheel horse numbers, the transmission does have a few variations on the input shaft and on the right axle. And you will also notice the tractor has a Kohler engine in it . So I communicated back-and-forth through email with the gentleman and he told me the company is still in business today and actually has two or three brand new wheel horse transmissions in their warehouse which are very expensive, in US dollars there around $1200 each. Here are some pictures of his tractor it does have the feed hopper removed he says that he’s turning it into a tractor now. So it got me thinking what other brands used Wheel Horse parts in them???? 107SL - 109SL[62].pdf

I'm building an ultrasonic cleaner from four 100 watt 28khz transducers and power drivers operating on 220 volts purchased from fleabay. A few things learned on this journey, the metal used on the tank is 1.5mm to a maximum of 2mm, the cheap Chinese tanks as shown in the first image do not use the proper amount of transducers. A fellow form another forum modified his tank for optimal cleaning power by adding a few more transducers placed as you would find in a commercially used cleaning tanks last image. Your tank should have a heater and never place parts to be cleaned directly on the bottom. The 40khz and the 28khz transducers are the most commonly used for cleaning purposes with the latter being a bit more aggressive - larger cavitation bubbles creating larger implosions. .

The album of life.Great memories for you and for all of us who are raising or have raised children.Out in the shop I have a pencil holder my 30 year old son made for me when he was four.It is a soup can wrapped in orange construction paper with his drawings on it.Brings a smile to my face when I see it.Thanks for sharing and enjoy your time with the kids.

Thanks guys. Ironically, I did use 10W30, just failed to state that properly. And thanks for the reply. I figured it was OK but just picking your brains for more info. Tractor runs pretty good. I use it for snow clearing in the winter.

Well guys, here's an update on my issue. I removed the pump to check all valves again and found an oring on my hydraulic line manifold that must have gotten bumped out of it's recessed grove during first pump reinstall. It got squished all to heck which caused my small seep and must have been the oring that seals off the line to deliver fluid from reservoir to pump, replaced oring and made sure it didn't come out of it's spot during second pump reinstall Fired up tractor and immediately had forward/reverse/implement movement. Shut it down, refilled reservoir, and she's back up and running! Thanks again guys for the imput!

His wife dang near drove him to get it Ritchie! Wonder if she's got any unmarried sisters? !?!?

Agreed. I like those '80 - '96/7 Fords a lot as well. I've had several over the years and had fantastic luck with them. Next truck I buy won't be for 3 or 4 years... It'll most likely be a 92 - 95 F with a 300-6 & 5 speed. LOVE the straight 6 overall. Also like the GM 292 but those never had fuel injection.

Ear flaps man. Ya got to keep your ears toasty warm. Nice bench! Keep us posted on that trans. Almost definitely is repairable. Just a matter of what needs to be done.

I think I will add our two vintage trucks.... the 1995 Ford F-250 7.3L PowerStroke (136,000 miles) is mine, the 1981 Ford Bronco is my wife’s (10,000,000 miles?). I am the second owner of my truck, got it about 8 years ago with 70K miles on it. It is one of the very first 7.3L PowerStrokes made, with a build date of Sept 1994. It is almost bone stock: no chip, no modified air intake. I replaced the #4 fuel injector a year ago.... I don’t think it had been working right since I bought the truck, but it failed entirely over the years. I don’t think it was spraying fuel like it should. Noticable difference at idle, at slow speed, and especially when towing. I have added a 45K BTU transmission oil cooler, and an FS-2500 bypass oil filter to super-filter the oil. The FS-2500 filter is not used to extend oil change intervals.... just to really clean the oil. Since the engine uses high-pressure oil to fire the injectors, I figured it would be a good idea. I do drive it to work, but it is mainly used to tow our 1987 Avion 34W travel trailer. The Bronco has had I don’t know how many owners.... 3 that I know of, including me. The previous owner painted it blue.... started life as brown. It has a new 302 and a C6 transmission. I have replaced just about everything except the transmission. It has an awesome aluminum radiator and a thermostatically-controlled electric fan in lieu of the fan on the water pump. I replaced the entire brake system except for the brake lines and the proportioning valve. Also added an intermittent wiper control module that came from a 1979 F250. It has a new AC compressor, and I installed a nice Sony stereo. Nothing fancy, but it is a decent one. Replaced the u-joints, and replaced the front drive shaft. Still need to replace the rubber gaskets around the rear window and the tailgate. It is pretty much NO-tech, which makes it GOLDEN in my book! I REALLY like both of them

Just up the road from me there's an old International pick up that I'm think of making an offer on, my last project was a 1956 R160 3 ton that I stuffed an LT1 350 small block into on propane and converted the flat-deck with a telescopic hoist and a hydraulic 8,000 pound winch run off of 12 volt electric spools with an umbilical cord. The hydraulic pump came from a commercial fishing boat, two belts on a magnetic clutch that I had mounted onto the engine, the trickiest part of the small block transplant was figuring out how to make the clutch linkage work as the International pulls from behind the fulcrum rather than push from the front. Truck was sandblasted, painted with Endura in Emerald green with Perl then a clear coat. Endura in my mind is the best paint money can buy but you need breathing apparatus to apply this paint as it's nasty stuff http://www.endura.ca/

Where there is a vacancy, there usually ends up being something to fill it! That bench looks functional and ready to work—can’t wait to see it in action...

Yep, it's a Gravely.

Now you can go out and get more stuff to fill the void!

That's my Elmer Fudd hat keeps my ears good and warm The bench is 92" long by 31"wide and 41" tall. The shelf below it is 20" off the floor. Just stood back and realized I screwed up though...had planned on one solid piece of OSB for the shelf...but I put the top on and now can't get one piece in there...oh well I can piece it together. It's like I told my ex wife's grandpa while he was helping me this morning...we're building a workbench not a piano

looking good! How big are those shelves and how much space from shelf to floor and shelf to shelf? Looks like you built a nice sturdy setup there! Style points for that hat too

I just love when a plan comes together...still have to put the top on and cover the shelf. Bought a generator last night too for more power than just enough to run my lights, got one big enough to run my whole RV in the event of a power outage too, so it was a win win

Sears started out as a mail order company. I believe that if they would have paid attention to the market, dropped the stores that were not doing good & went to an internet order company ( essentially going back to their roots) they probably would still be in business. JMO. I do miss Sears stores and luckily Black & Decker / Stanley picked up the Craftsman tool line so at least your life time warranty can still be honored.

As Roadapples said, axle is around 4" wider. To make it a complete bolt in, you will need axle, spindles, wheels, tie rods, and either lower steering shaft from a 1990 model or the complete gear reduction steering gear assembly that includes upper and lower steering shafts from a 1991 and up model. Check this PDF and note differences between the regular 520 and the HC model. This is your non reduction setup. 1990 model steering.pdf Here is a PDF of the wheels. You can see the difference between regular 520 and HC. 1990 model wheels.pdf This is the gear reduction setup. 1992 steeringl.pdf Here is the 1992 wheels PDF 1992 wheels.pdf I hope this helps. Cleat

In the 60's, as now, it's very expensive to have custom molds and dies made to manufacture a special part, so the tractor manufacturers had only have a few suppliers to choose from and tended to purchase standard parts to save $$. For example, there were only 6 companies manufacturing steering wheels, so the inserts tended to be standard, just different decals applies for each brand; ---- and golf-carts, boats, etc also used these same steering wheels. Knobs were very standard as were the threads they were used on. Transmissions were in the same situation, as were engines. Tractor brands/models tended to have unique hoods, dashes and fenders; sometimes they made their own if they were large enough, but most of the time, they subcontracted out for a supplier to make them. In the mid-60's, John Deere made mower decks for Wheel Horse (to WH's exact specifications), probably because the JD lines were not busy and WH was max'ed out on capacity. Today, MTD (Modern Tool & Die) makes many of the American tractor brands, on any of the many lines they have, and to the customers specifications for quality. Glen