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Been awhile since I posted on this forum. My girlfriend got me an 856 for my birthday in April. To surprise her I’ve been restoring it and am going to surprise her with it. Hopefully it will be done soon.

Fired up the Old Timer for a salute.. Shame.

Between projects now so it was a good time to add a long due improvement. When assembling work using a variety of fasteners , organization and accessibility of them while at the bench has always been a bit of an issue. They are either loose on bench or in their regular container (mason jar)always on the way and taking up precious space. I decided to adapt one of the cobblers nail caddies that I have to the bench . Now I can have a variety of fasteners at hand organized and out of way. Caddy can also just be pulled up and removed. Importantly it is also below bench top level so it will not interfere with work.

I have 5 tractors. 4 of them sit and have tenders on them. My mowing tractor is run twice a week so no tender on it. I replace a battery when it reaches 3 yrs. old.. I put the new battery in the mowing tractor and the battery that was in that goes into the tractor the oldest battery came out of. This way I pretty much buy 1 battery a year.

Yesterday I unloaded some 320 lbs of pool salt from the truck. I was glad to be able to deliver it straight to the pool house!

Quick attatch forks almost done. Need to finish up some welding and paint. Lifts 6.5feet high

Picked up this cart and repainted it and made a dump lever for it since the original was missing, perfect size for a ranger.

Mercury (Brunswick) is reportedly a great company. They command the majority of the marine propulsion market and own more transoms than any other outboard manufacturer*. The industry founder, Evinrude, never was able to climb out of the holes they dug in the last decade of the 20th century which culminated in their bankruptcy in ~2002. Canadian giant Bombardier Corporation bought the Evinrude and Johnson brands from the dead Outboard Marine Corporation and sunk millions (billions?) of dollars into advancing technology and rebuilding the brands. Johnson was dropped a couple of years later and Evinrude was continued as the sole outboard brand under the Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) banner. Evinrude bet the farm on advanced, direct-injected two stroke engines while the entire rest of the industry went to four stroke engines. Both were in response to air pollution regulations that took effect for the 2006 calendar year. Mercury, Yamaha, and Tohatsu all offered DI two strokes for a while, but none were able to match the Evinrude E-Tec in efficiency, power, or emissions. Despite an aggressive marketing campaign, consumers just didn’t adopt the two stroke approach, usually confusing the extremely clean and quiet E-Tec with the smoky, cantankerous, gas guzzling two strokes from our childhoods. anecdotally, every boater and dealer seemed to have a story about a nephew’s, boss’s, brother’s, secretary’s, neighbor that had an E-Tec that was a piece of junk. Few understood that the mechanical part of the engine was amazingly simple and robust with far fewer moving parts than any four stroke and which required virtually no maintenance. the engines are very advanced and are essentially run by their onboard water cooled computers. They run extremely lean and out-torque competitor’s four strokes. They weren’t perfect of course and certainly some did fail. But generally dealers were horrible at setting them up properly and diagnosis of even simple issues seems to mystify most mechanics who just plug in their computers and scratch their heads. They have some advantages: no oil changes, no valves to adjust, no timing belts to replace. And some disadvantages: the special oil they consume is expensive. But, in total they offer the same clean, quiet, reliable boating experience any clean technology outboard offers. But few consumers bought them. BRP and OMC before them really didn’t help their situation. They lost or alienated a huge number of dealers during the bankruptcy. They failed to lock down popular transoms and let Brunswick and Yamaha secure many boat builders. They stuck with a technology that while effective and practical just wasn’t gaining traction with consumers. And, aside from a short dalliance with manufacturing 25 and 30 hp engines in China for one or two years, they built every single engine in Wisconsin while competitors continued to use cheaper Far East labor. Lots of blame. But still It’s a shame that today ended an era of another historic product line. steve * Edit: Should note that Merc is the leader in the US market. yamaha/tohatsu/honda/suzuki are bigger worldwide

Many here will agree, plowing a field or garden is one of the easiest to bring people together. Nobody has mow days, but people have plow days! Other than a grader blade, or the FEL, a plow is easily my favorite!

Yes they get hot . Might want to pull off the blower housing to make sure there are no nests or grass on the engine fins. Your cracked air cleaner is probably due to the fact that motor is mounted on a shaker plate

I buy the cheap $20-$25 batteries from Wal-Mart or Fleet Farm. I have multiple tractors, some get used weekly some only occasionally. I keep them on tenders in the winter so that they do not freeze. On average I get about 4 to 5yrs out of them, about the same life span as the last $50 battery that I had from Napa. There are only 3 major automotive battery manufacturers in the US. Most Wal-Mart brand (EverStart) batteries are made by Exide, the same company that makes Interstate batteries and Traveler batteries for TSC. Napa batteries are made by East Penn. Johnson Controls makes batteries such as DieHard and Optima. Each company rebrands more than what I have listed.

Put it out there on EBay and CL - You probably do have $500 "vintage" headlights for somebody... just make sure to say "they ran when last parked"...

Mowed the whole place again with the 21” Snapper. I am not sure if my belly is getting smaller from all this walking but my tongue is definitely getting longer.

We haul 1000 pounds on a regular basis with the Cinnamon Horse. Loads and loads of wood that are anywhere from 400 to 600 pounds. Here it is helping to clear the land for the horse stable last year. Note.... ZERO hesitation even at low idle.

Grader blade moving dirt or stone. The pulverizer also helps get the job done but not as much fun. 20 ton of crusher run blue granite.

I have enjoyed them all because I like the seat time and how they improve the property and at the same time have fun doing it. The last pic is my favorite with no attachment at all just a nice Winter trail ride as the sun sets.

As stated by many, a battery tender helps extend life Hot Temperature also Shortens battery life. At the power plants the large industrial batteries were designed for a 77F ambient temp.and a 10Yr guaranteed life. With average life being 15 years. We had 2 dams with un-air conditioned battery rooms. The manufacture shortened the warranty guarantee To 8 years due to our 100F summers I fought any of us keep our tractors in air conditioned garages, parking them in a cooler spot is a good thing for battery life.

I just picked up another project FEL yesterday... I can’t wait to get it on my newly acquired 1054!

General consensus here on this site and everywhere I've ever read seems to be that a maintainer or trickle charger is your friend. We don't use them here because we run our tractors enough all year round to keep them charged on their own. We have two tractors that we use predominantly. Cinnamon horse has a group 51r that I got out of the salvage yard for $25. I don't remember the CCA but it's 500 maybe? IF you have the older larger style battery box I would HIGHLY recommend doing that. It starts easier in all temperatures. The other one is Trina's 867. That has a group u1 from our local Small engine repair place. Low amperage. Nothing special. We buy them from him specifically because I would rather give the business to a little company than a box store. He is honest enough to tell you that it's going to last either two or three seasons if you don't put a maintainer on it. 4 or 5 if you do.

I'll see your lunched rod Green and raise...

Today I changed the gearbox oil on one of the C125's. Pleasantly surprised to find that it had no water in it, but it was pretty black. Also changed the engine oil and put on a new air filter as have been using it a lot hauling dirt and garden waste around the farm Lots of muddy tracks between job sites and the wheelhorse just finds grip and drives through it all with no trouble at all.

Picked up a very intact B100 barn find yesterday and solidified an age old lesson: if youre too excited to look things over closely, make sure youre not paying much'- which luckily I didnt. Rolled the engine by hand, felt some resistance, loaded her up. Resistance must have been a combination of valve springs and excitement- more the second Broken top ring, ring lands beat to the point of leaving a burr on the piston, and rod babies in the oil pan- anyone want to guess what happened here? Luckily, there is very little bore wear, and no other damage aside from piston and rod. On a side note- check out these headlights! OEM Horse add on accessory?

On the 60s vintage tractors where they have a pull type cable people have been known to use clothespins. 1 for half throttle, 2 for full throttle....

Video May 27, 9 29 13 PM.mov

As i get older and everything seems to get heavier ... FEL!!! Not the most used but most appreciated when i do use it.

Photo department might have had a job shift... maybe she’s in the paint department?

Our Garden is in!

Hmmmm maybe I should mount the stack muffler I got from @squonk Should help and " make it cooler" ! Get it " make it cooler"

Breezy today and it's blowing the cow manure smell that overran our village this morning. Napping on the back porch with Belladog.

Sawwweet dude Looks like there is some attention to detail there.... ... you best put a ring on that girls finger!!

Sorry but for $14 my fuel pump can make clicking noises. Lets me know it is working when I turn on the switch and once she is running there are a lot louder noises from everywhere.

Tenders help, cycling / using them once in a while, age matters. My friend's Dad had two tractors, one winter, one summer, one battery between the two! He would remove the summer machine battery in the fall and install it in the winter machine. I guess it worked for him. I'm not into that and I have batteries in all the machines. I have two tenders and swap them around biweekly when the machines are not used. I also found out I only like the Deltran tenders, they seem to work the best but are the most costly. I have seen issues with the cheaper ones not working right or over charge. I make sure I have a date on the battery....time seems to slip by fast and it is surprising how long it has been installed. It can be a crap throw concerning price, I had expense batteries fail early, cheap ones last for years. Now I buy whats on sale. I have no proof but believe there are only a couple tow three battery manufactures.

There’s a clothespin in this pic too... they work just dandy!

Hope these are helpful.

I got a 401 and everyone asks me why there are clothes pins on the shift lever!

The Johnson 60 on my 14’ family runabout has been going strong for 30+ years without fail... I’ll take an old 2 stroke outboard over a 4 stroke any day... We’ve towed many a fancy go fast boat over the years with various issues... never been on the wrong end of a tow line... Sad day...

If not as Lift needed, it can be also misused with a bit wood and a Basket as a backboard.😎👍

Every WH I own gets nylon bushings on the hinge pins and almost everywhere else too.. tightens them up pretty good.

Well here is what I did and learned today. I decided my lawn need to get cut so instead getting the ole push mower out I said why not use the new Wheel Horse? Remember I live in the inner city my lawn takes 15 mins to push mow it so the ole 16 hp K341 might be a little over kill but " why not"? When I took the C-161 Automatic for its test drive after I brought it home I wasnt so sure about driving it with a stick. Seemed a little funny. So while mowing my small little yard with the 16hp 42" deck with the automatic stick I was like " THIS IS FANTASTIC !!!" I might be converted. It did take me a little longer to mow because I did have to get the push mower out to get to places the 42" deck couldnt reach but, this could be habit forming. Now I am thinking of putting a mulching kit on it. So I learned Automatic is SWEEEET, and BIGGER is always better. That 16hp Kolher is awesome.

formariz in a recent post you made there was a fair number of handsaws in a rack, two things came to mind. Do you play any saw music and do you collect the badges with the makers mark from handsaws beyond repair.

@JCM That last one is a calendar shot!!!

If the deck pulleys spin freely, and the double red pulley of the PTO spins freely....then you have a MULE DRIVE issue. That is the only link between the two !!! Check out the two pulleys on the front of the lower part of the tractor. That is the MULE drive. one is flat, and the other is grooved normally. You will figure this out go get it....

Miles. Yes. That's in one of the work trucks.

Sure, just buy the $749.95 charger and do up to 10 at a time. As above, do one at a time with a Battery Tender designed for one. I rotate my Battery Tender (I don't trust the cheap ones) and charge each battery for three days. Just because the fully charged green lamp comes on does not mean it won't take additional charge. You will get the best life keeping the batteries fully charged, discharging below 50% will reduce life considerably. I get by just fine with a monthly three day charge rotating between seven batteries. I use batteries manufactured by East Penn.

Thanks, folks. I think I found the culprit. Even though the seat safety switch was removed a decade ago and the wires tied together, the wires were frayed. I simply wrapped those up. For good measure I used electrical tape to isolate the fuse holder clip from the chassis. Don't know if that would do anything, but couldn't hurt. I'm not sure why this would only solve the problem that only seemed to come when under load, but it could have to do with more shifting and the tractor jerking on the drag chain. Regardless, no problems with pulling the drag for more than an hour.

Dang, thought maybe I had a ultra rare, flea bay 500 dollar sale set of headlights

Hate to say it but before I had my wheel horses, I was in love with JD 318's, looked for ever , Found one , probably 15 years ago, It was a 91 , I think. it had 332 hrs on it. I remember that because that is a JD model also. ( 3 cylinder yanmar diesel??)The engine was replaced under warranty (Onan issue) with a 20 hp Onan. It had a rear bagger & a power chute. It was a separate little engine that sucked up whatever the deck (51"} spit out. The Guy wanted $1800. for it, which was the going price @ the time for an average condition one. This was above average plus has the updated 20 hp engine & the bagger system. I offered him $1500. which he turned down . He was firm on the $1800.00. I left and decided to call him back the next day and buy it. I picked up hay most of the next day and late in the afternoon, I called him to tell him I would take it. He told me it was all sold. He sold the bagger system for $400 to one guy and the 318 for $1800.00 to another guy. I would still like to have one someday. Love that power steering. Tom, Perry Ks, Member #69

Here in Oklahoma Wheel Horses don't come around very often, so when I find one I usually try to buy it. Two or three years ago, I stumbled across a 1054 on CL in Oklahoma City. Don't remember now what the price was but as I remember it seemed like a good deal. At the time I was self employed and could take off whenever I wanted to, I should've drove down that day and picked it up. But I decided to finish up the two big jobs I was in the middle of and go get it on the weekend. Long story short the weekend came and the tractor was gone, to this day I still cuss myself for not hooking up the trailer that afternoon

Here is the 1976 deck The tractor model number 61-08K803 had the first 2 digits printed on the ID plate so likely fell off or faded. The spindle bearing assembly is no longer available from Toro but Stens and Napa have them. There is info here on the bearing Click on the pictures to see notes on the files. Garry

" Wow, you got your feelers out for sure, huh? Anyone need me to go get it? Yeah I have a project or two that could use that engine... but I am tractor heavy too. "