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To say this tractor needed some love is an understatement. Lots of PO cobblements and lots of just plain old worn out. Just getting it on a trailer without the wheels falling off was a job. The good news is both Dan and I could see a diamond in the rough. The motor started and ran good with no smoke. And the hydro seemed strong. After getting it home and into another mafia member's shop and after a bit of head scratching. Dove into it. I took custody. Of the transmission parts whIle Dan comenced to whittling in some full length keyways on th axles. A quick call to Lowell and bearings, gaskets and new HY hoses were on their way. As with most projects clean up is the worse part. One day Dan and I were brousing Fleet Farm we stumbled on some farm paint in IH red at a very reasonable price. Here we go full paint. It was our orginal intent to just stay mechanical but figured this far apart might as well go whole hog. A fine selection of gently used hubs to choose from thanks to other members here.

Last weekend was final fit & finish day. I hauled the tractor over to Jim's so that we could do final fit of the implements. First we installed the plow and made sure that my cable set up for tripping the pivot release would work. Then we removed the plow and fitted the mower deck. While doing this we discovered that we had a damaged belt tensioner. Lucky for us Jim had the part that we needed in stock. I may be jumping the gun on the deck as I'm sure Jim has some pictures to share with the work that he did (and of course we want to see them, as well as hear about the decisions that were made about the deck) but here it is mounted on the tractor. After we had every thing fitted, Jim loaded the tractor & implements into his enclosed trailer. Yesterday was delivery day. Jim, Cindy, our friend Joel & I loaded up in the truck and headed to Manitowoc. I had stopped sending Jason update pictures of the Bronco towards the end of the assembly process, as I wanted him to see it first hand when it was finished. On arrival Jason was quite anxious to see his Bronco again. When I finally drove it out of the trailer he was pretty much speechless. Jim & Cindy were running cameras so I hope they have some good pic's of that event to share with us. I managed to get a couple of pictures. Jason taking his first cruise on his rehabilitated Bronco. Taking it all in. Jason with the "Mafia" delivery crew. I wish more of the people who helped on this project could have been there for delivery day. We had a good time with Jason, we helped him switch implements around so that he had some first hand experience with them. Jason is a great guy & I really hope he enjoys his Bronco every time he uses it. To give thanks to those that helped on this project and to let Jason know how our community can work together I asked Terry to make up a decal to place on the inside of the hood. The names in each group are in alphabetical order as each one was equally important. Thanks Guys!!

Busy Saturday morning (again!) . All 3 came from the same owner. Bought them all brand new. Raider 12, 48" deck,blower, plow; wore that one out put it out to pasture. Bought a 417, electric lift, 48" deck; wore that one out, put it out to pasture. Bought a 520, 60" deck, 44" blower, wheel weights, over 2000 hrs on it. They were gonna take them for scrap.......

A good looking tractor with a good transmission and a good engine still needs to handle well. The tie rods were in poor shape so to repair them I chose to turn the original tie rods down and fit them with replaceable ends. Some final body work to be done on the sheet metal. After blowing some paint around a little assembly work. On to getting the implements ready. The dozer blade was my job, Jim took on the mower deck. To start with the A-frame was not exactly correct for the tractor so some alterations were required. First of all a PO made an addition to the A-frame to convert it from a short to a long frame set up. Issue... they stopped short of where they needed to be. When the plow was pivoted it would hit the front tires. I removed the addition that a PO welded on and added on a more suitable addition. Unhappy with where the pivot handle ended up after the addition, alterations were done to make thing fit better as well as be more comfortable for the operator. The plow after it was finished and fitted to the tractor. I did some work on the mower deck. A little welding to take care of some worn out parts. Weld up some over sized holes so they could be made the correct size. The rest of the deck was up to Jim @WHX24. I'll let him give a take on that.

Yap, ya all 😎 especially the Guys of the Gardentractor Mafia, ebinmaine, pullstart and some more. You are all Guilty.... 😁 You infected me with that Virus.. ..😂🤤 and while the Big Show wasn‘t happen this Year, i decide to have a real Wheelhorse here on my Site as a consolation. 😇 No, not a Sheet metal framed, i like a real Wheelhorse here. Eric‘s Colossus Project and all of your Restorations give me the need of an vintage Wheelhorse. So i do a lot of Searching and investigation but it is nearly impossible to find a usable machine here on my Site that‘s worth to resto. Older machines are mostly just available in Parts or have exorbitant prices for a completely rotten parts. So i decide to increase my Search and instead i fly to the Big Show, what seems this year impossible, i decide to import me a real Wheelhorse. Finally i found few options, but they all over the Big Pond and have to be transferred to my Site. By the Way, i asked a Customer who has a bigger Logistic Company, if he can help me with that issue and he agreed. - next hurdle taken. So i begun to a closer Lurking for several 702 and similar in my Age and get at Least an offer i must immediately Agree. As i read sometimes here in the Forum „ it‘s easier to beg for forgivness than to ask for a permission“ i handled that Way. Yeah, i‘m not in a hurry with the Transfer, but i did it. She is a 656 from 1966 With a Tecy Engine on it to a extreme fair Price and with nice Patina on it, a perfect candidate for a Resto. I know most of you just preferred a Kohler Engine, but i‘m also fine with the Tec- Engine because here on my Site are more parts available for a Tecy Engine than for a Kohler. @pullstart helps me with the packing and Shipping, big big thanks for that ahead Buddy! I’m happy in advance to have it someday here. Thanks for infect me 👍

The 701 that I purchased last fall came with this belt guard on it. Not only was it the wrong guard but it was obviously hacked up and unacceptable in my opinion. To remedy the issue I grabbed a piece of 16ga sheet metal and laid out a new guard. The front mounting tab and the lower belt brake were made from 10ga metal. Then a few bends and some welding to get to the finished product. A final fit shows that my work was a success. Nothing left but to throw some paint at it.

Im not gonna say much here, tonight. Ill be startin aother thread tho, prolly tomorro, to say/add more. Been a long day n just got in from the garage again; rearanging the garage to fit everything. Will say i was speechless for a good bit after 9am, at 1st....and thats not something i am, often. You...guys, gals...all of you... Are amazing. Shoot, im choking up typing this...so all add more later; close withb1 pic of my own, for now. Thankyou Dan; Jim...All of you!😊❤

The deck... It had a orginal '71 vintage 42" deck but after looking at it we decided to go with a '67 RL-486 that I had that was in a bit better shape rust wise. We could have saved the orginal deck and certainly will not scrap it. I have a soft spot for these early side mule drive decks as that's what I used to mow with for years.

In a very heart felt PM @12Horse Paladin contacted me about helping him out with a Bronco 14 that he needed help with. I would have rather helped him fix the tractor but a 2 hour travel time between us made it difficult to just be a helping hand. Instead the decision was made that I would pick the tractor up and work on it at my place. @WHX24 and I made a trip to pick the tractor up. Here is a picture of the Bronco as it was when we picked it up. After evaluating the Bronco we realized that it had a few more issues than was expected. Knowing that we would be working with a budget Jim & I decided to reach out to see if others may have some extra parts to help bring this back to life for Jason. A special thank you to @A-Z Tractor, @dclarke, @ebinmaine, @stevasaurus, @Vinylguy, @wheelhorseman for helping Jim & I make this happen for Jason. Here are some of the hurtles that we encountered. First off the axle key ways were damaged and of course the hubs were trashed. The hubs were replaced and the axles were repaired. After the trans-axle was fully repaired and ready for service attention was was given to sheet metal repairs. There were multiple damaged pieces, with the repairs that were needed it made sense to extend repairs to a repaint as well. More pictures and the unveiling of the tractor to Jason yet to come.

Trina, Meeha, and I met a friend and went for a super awesome bushwack hike on the mountains across the street from home. 6 miles of rough woods walking. It was FANTASTIC. We found a 900+ acre conservation area about 2 miles away that I'd NEVER EVEN HEARD OF!!! Absolutely excellent day!!! A small cave near the top. Maybe 4 feet deep. I've tried twice before to find the actual peak of Bill Merrill mountain. Both times we were fairly close. Yesterday I finally found the rock cairn that marks the highest point. Here's a video showing the valley we live in. Our house would be below the ridge near the beginning of the video. One of the many boulders left behind as the mountains were vacated by the ice glaciers a few thousand years ago. For scale note Trina to the left of the rock. Her pic of the same, from close up. Walking through rough forest and we popped out on this old cart/tote road. It's now an access road for the conservation area. One of several stone walls we found. This area is known to be farm country from the late 1700s on. One of the walls was 8-12 feet wide on one side which means that farm was in operation for a looong time. A little vernal pool in a valley between the peaks. Moving moss in a small stream

Wife has been complaining that I don’t exert myself enough and my belly is getting too big. To make her happy I decided to regress over 30 years and mow lawn with old faithful. First time it nearly killed me but I am now beginning to like it.

a lot of a recent activity - including : 8ntruck fabricated a hitch ... rjg854 installed new engine in c160 ... 19richie66 new home for the tractors ... ebinmaine work on a number of projects ... continuous .. adsm08 tune up on the 855 ... sylvanlakewh added 2500 lb winch ... achto fabricated new guard from scratch ... etc etc etc what did I do ? i finally did something - I installed a new plug in our 312-8 hooray ! lol

Finished installing the engine on the C-160 yesterday and it runs great, some more minor adjustments, but it's definitely alive and well. Didn't have time for pictures because my son is here and we were also getting ready for his 40th birthday Today I'll hook up the drive system and reinstall the sheet metal and make it look like a tractor again. Before I installed the engine I had a spare front end of a 68 Commando in the parts room, so I swapped that out for what was on the 160. It had odd ball spindles and a welded up tie rod, and so the wheels were cocked and the spindle mounts were worn. it all swapped with no problem, axle, spindles and tie rods, nice and tight now. Even the steering wheel looks straight again

Dan did most of the assembly with me ther just a couple of times to get in his way and add wise cracks. He also did all new custom wiring all soldered and shrink wrapped. It was fun tractor hopping with a bro who was putting a simplecity together.

and a few side shots of the others

a partial group shot.....not distancing !!

The Black Horse.

Great job to all those involved, members are the best

https://susquehannasignal.com/a-little-known-national-treasure-located-in-felton-pa/?fbclid=IwAR0_3_Pwlc3ioJevd7tJe2XkIOjhoSoANjUS9GpbjpcBIkjC1NRUj6sgHt4

As I promised here are some pictures of the engine installed and the tractor reassembled.

Gotta feeling his employer has an apparatus for bending metal. Put on one of Dan's seat elevators and tightened up the steering on the 753. Also installed the rebuilt S/G. She gotta go topless till Dan does a little repair on the hood.

Amazing work, unbelievable (plenty believable actually!) story unfolding! You guys are awesome! Great work so far and unlike Dan’s bleed me out unveiling, I’ll sit patiently waiting for more updates on this one

Not just restoring tractors, restoring faith in humanity as well

I finally got around to putting this tall stack back on the Cinnamon Horse. I had the rain flapper on there but this engine doesn't idle low enough for it to make any kind of a tink tink tink sound and it was exactly in the position where it would blow exhaust right back in my face if I was in forward motion, for much of the ride. This is the same piece of pipe I've had on a couple of different tractors now. It's a bathroom floor drain S pipe 1/2 that I modified to work. It even has a side benefit of being slightly quieter and deeper toned. Trina and her mom are down in the forest splitting wood while I run back and forth with the orange dumping trailer getting the split wood out. 10 cube trailer and pulled 7 loads out today. 3 loads here in front of the shed. The other 4 a few feet away.

Fortunately I'm not in that position. I'm in good shape for the shape I'm in.

I’ll let Stefan make the updates as needed, but I’ll do my best to crate it to the best of my abilities and look forward to seeing it live on in Deutschland! Maybe I’ll have to stop by some day while I’m visiting my Jil (prior exchange student, quickly turned oldest daughter)

Well, I received a quick reply from Zack to say that they had a run on them and he had no stock so it wasn't a matter of a dusting off. He committed to firing up the program in mid-week for me. On Wednesday, he wrote again to say they were in the mail. I commented that they were probably packaged warm from the machine. He confirmed this. Really good communication. Personal message like he was a buddy that had a CNC machine and I brought the beer. They arrived yesterday afternoon - wonderful quality. Well, it is a CNC machined part. It had better be perfect. The mounting holes are tapped so no need for the nuts anymore and, of course, the large washers aren't required either. The grounding wire also not necessary but I kept it anyway. So, I decided to tackle it this morning. I guess you can say that the rubber mounts give you some flexibility in getting the main bolts installed. Not with solid aluminum. I got the original mounts out in about 20 minutes with the help of a screwdriver used as a crow bar. I had the mule loosened but was able to keep the main belt attached - without engaging the clutch for slack. Threaded the bolts and tightened them - a mistake. I had assumed that the mains would thread easily - was able to shift the engine to get two of them in without too much effort. The rears. Needed the room to futz with the fronts so saved them for last - a good thing.The third went after loosening the rear frame mount and all the mounts' screws. Number four required a beer for thought but, hey, it's Sunday, and there was a preacher shouting on TV. I took a 30 minute break. In the end, the only way to get it to align was to remove the mount screws on the front and lever the engine above the mounts themselves. That allowed the mount float and #4 started. It was easy then to align the mounts to the cradle holes and tighten. All told, about 90 minutes for this C-125. Impressions? That bad shaker point just above idle is gone. It had been bad enough to rattle the hood. There is little felt vibration - less than my old C-120. The hood's side panels vibrate now - never used to. The blades engage smoothly - no adjustment was needed. I am VERY happy with this upgrade.

Where is the cup holder???

How many do you plan on plowing under?

I spent some time today kicking more "shoe man" repairs out of my 701. Today I tackled this um "repair". This goofy mount was done to raise the hood up in the front. Why did the hood need to be jacked up?? This was my question when I saw it. Well it was done to compensate for the ignition coil being mounted in the wrong location. The coil should be mounted in front of the engine to a bracket that is bolted on to the oil pan bolts. The correct mount for the coil was missing so I made a new one out of 10ga metal. I also added weld nuts on the inside where the coil will bolt on, this will make bolting the coil on much easier. Unrelated - but while I was waiting for the paint to dry on my new bracket, I grabbed some 3/16 round stock and made a new charcoal grate for my grill. The old one was getting pretty thin. Sorry, back on subject. Mounted the new coil bracket on to the oil pan bolts, mounted the coil to the bracket, and got the wire stretcher out to make the wires reach the new location. When I get around to restoring this tractor I will have to do some thing about the extremely over sized hole that a PO drilled in the frame where the hood bolt goes. For now at least the hood can sit where it is supposed to.

Stonewalls in the woods of New England are no big surprise as I am sure @ebinmaine is well aware of. One hundred years ago approx 90% of New England was farmland and treeless. Now 95% of that treeless land is once again treed. Nice countryside Eric. I am NE born and bred and love this part of the country. When I was in Denver for a conference I missed the trees more than I ever expected. A friend of mine had a brother from Columbine, CO visit and they felt like they were living in a jungle. Not me. Give me the trees.

Don't worry....ain't nothing changed about that!

I think because of Corona some things of the whole Transfer is getting slower, but i‘m not in a hurry. Just be happy!

By the time I am finished what I need is a Cas holder.

I take it Jim was staying out of the way manning the air compressor in case you needed a shot of air? Great work!

What a fantastic surprise for Jason, i take my Hat off to everyone involved for that Beauty. You Guy‘s are the Best !

That project turned out awesome! Great story and great work guys!

Just arrived

Kinda looks like a unveiling Dan like we know some other A did ... string this out for weeks and keep these on the edge. I'll just sit here and clam up till it comes time for attachments. EB shut up.

Glad to help and lookin forward to seeing more pics!!!!

1949 and 2019. Just... 70 years seperates these two. Buddy says it's for sale. So, what do you think, should I get it?

We can do that. However, it’s going to take quite a few Sunday’s to notice a difference.

We may need a before and after Sunday side shot of that belly just to make sure you stay the course. By the way, nice vintage mower.

Exactly. We've been married 54 years by both of us compromising when necessary or diverting attention from something we don't want highlighted. Like number of tractors in the garage, and shed, and covered with tarps, etc.

I think I am gonna try it regardless. If they can't handle the weight, I can always put a bronze spacer in it and grease it well. I went on Timpkens site and they said they are designed for heavy loads with moderate speed. They didn't say what those numbers where, but for less than $20 and some labor, I think it will be worth trying! Randy

@Achtoand @WHX24 I thought you two were a couple of clowns that came to the BS to strip parts off of tractors. You guys and the rest of the crew did an fabulous job on the tractor. I am sure it will last for many years.

Nosing around out in the parts shed a unmolested 61 or 62 guard that was hanging up wacked me in the gourd that would have worked... might have taken the fun out of making one tho!

outstanding work !

You guys are the best!

Think how awesome this this little guy would look in the bed of it, tooling around town.