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So this morning I took a drive to the dump and upon arrival I see a Wheel Horse 416-H sitting in the scrap pile. Walked over and it fired right up! The guy at the dump said the previous owner had enough of it and couldn’t make it drive he was done trouble shooting it. Apparently that went on for two years? Anyway I pushed it right onto my truck and got it home. Transaxle was full of the proper fluid so took belt guard off. There I find the issue a very stretched belt and the wrong spring on the tensioner. He had a small spring as seen on driver side brake band. So pulled that all off put a new belt on it with the proper spring and man oh man this thing cuts and works great. Now here are pictures of her and the beautiful job it did on the grass today.

Wife’s boss sent a Marketplace ad to her for a for cheap. A message and a trip ‘cross town... here we have a Raider 10 with a custom paint job and some extra character on the hood! Three or four flip flop equipped helpers and it was in the truck Better yet, I figured it was her new toy. Get home and “Happy Father’s Day” I hear!

Finished up the blade. Got new decals from Terry. Now if I could only get the hydraulics to work!

Just kidding...... I was looking hard for a 308/310/312-8 to get in my area. None looked that good, or were way too far away. Then I found this not too far away from me. It’s a bit warn out older model, but what the heck. oh, it also came with a dump cart. If you still have your eyesight after clawing your eyes out after the prior post, here’s what I picked up.

As promised this is what I made a trip to PA for

Two 86's side by side shot.

What a wheelhorse day! My wife wanted to learn how to mow, and now I can't get her off the thing... I think she's finding her Zen doing the lawn and some field mowing Then I decided to use red and black spray paint and do some decorative work on my mud mower. Painted the front wheel washers red to emulate the look I have going on the back wheel hub And I went a little crazy with the masking tape and did a star pattern on the fan shroud cover. I like it but imagine some won't What a great day too be outside though, Summer's finally here!

Look what folllowed me home today for all 1368 miles S.C. P.A. First let thank my wife for indulging my passion for the wheel horse. After loosing my my entire herd I am veary happy to have found this 141, special thanks to Jim I will take care of your dads tractor. Lots of fun to be had and now that I am retired I have the time.

Love them red tractors! My 855 that I mow with, RJ58 for road cruises, 702 for ornament, and 657 for moving whatever!

One of mine, sold it a few years back

Got a Raider 12 in the shop to start thinking about some hydraulics for it. Picked up a hy pump on the cheap this weekend. Bad news is it has to run off the flywheel side but @Achto has it so it can be done... there is a plan. Anyone recognize what this might have came off of? Worked the new to me Super C and started sorting out issues. Got the 854 B'hood in the shop to get it running. @prondzy is going to take custody of this one.

Figured I'd combine tasks today on some things between Cinnamon Horse and Colossus. I need the wide 3" wheel spacers that are currently on Cinnamon for use on Colossus. Also needed to realign the left hub of Cinnamon. I bought some 2" spacers to swap to Cinnamon. I figured while I had the wheels off I'd do both ... And... Do some rust removal from the rear wheels for Colossus. Turns out I did not have the right bolts to swap spacers but I got the other stuff done. Almost worked... 2 out of 3 ain't baaad. It's a little tough to see but I set the tractor in gear let the wheel turn while using an abrasive disc or wire brush to remove some naaaasty rust. While I was doing that Trina was working on another improvement for the chicken coop. She had added some plastic for drainage over the winter and wanted to change the land contour a little and bury the plastic. She used her favorite 867 Pig Pen and the mid mount grader blade to do some of the work. Here she is a few scrapes in. Mostly done. Note the pile of rocks she removed from the area. And that's only just a skimming of the surface. Putting it away... She said.... Well I had fun! A little outta order but here's a close-up of the wheel after rust removal

@ebinmaine I know you guys here are all like crazy Wheel Horse nuts. But you need to know one thing. I've wanted a Wheel Horse since I was 13 years old, working at the dealership. I'm now 50. I have a Wheel Horse. WHEEE! Indeed.

Bolt in the cylinder story - My dad served in the Army Air Force in WW2 as a load and balance officer in North Africa. He was also taking some training for aircraft engine maintenance. He tells a story of how he and some fellow students were reassembling one of the radial engines after some work on the intake system. As they were installing the carberator, one of the other students says oops, and they hear a bolt going plink, clunk, clunk down through the carb. Class went long that day while they tore the engine down until they found the bolt. Just happened to remember. 56 years ago yesterday, Operation Overlord started in Normandy.

I know! I have even started cleaning my work bench, found some stuff I hadn't seen in years!

Hey guys I’m back! Now that I finally have time to post let me tell you what has been done on Comanche these past few days... So after we took the original engine out we started working on the new engine. So we were trying to decide what we were going to name the engine(because the Stertz’s name everything) So we thought about it and decided not to paint it all red but leave some parts gold...So the name of the engine(as you have probably guessed it already) is Ironman So we started by making sure the engine works. Me and Dad had gotten a pulley for Ironman so that we could use it but the crankshaft output was to big for the pulley so Dad grinded it down from an inch and an eighth to one inch. So after 30 minutes of grinding we finally got the pulley on the crankshaft. So we hooked it up to the tractor and took it out for a test drive!!! So now that we knew it ran well in the tractor we were ready to take it out to start painting So we took off the recoil starter and the air cleaner, then we covered the dipstick and the spark plug wire with tape to keep it gold. After taping everything that was necessary we primed and painted it!!! Today we put everything back together and untaped everything and it looks AMAZING (Meet our new engine Ironman!!!!) Love you Dad @PeacemakerJack!!! Thank you so much for helping and teaching me with this project

Took a little trip on Saturday morning (7hr roundtrip) to pick up this Delta DP220 drill press. The serial tag dates it 1947. I have a super cheap used taiwan drill press that just hasnt been up to snuff and I really have been wanting a heavy built press for quite a while now. Im gonna clean up some rust and leave the paint alone. I also need to make the power switch rod and bracket, if anyone has one dimensions of the rod that would be great! Boy she sure runs like a well oiled sewing machine!

I will jump in

I have gone to Toronto Canada, Des Moines, Iowa, Miami, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Michigan, Georgia and Tennessee for most of my early tractors! Oh and let me not forget FLORIDA! Very few picked up around here other than later Toro models!

I was able to get the rockshaft installed, the control valve, and the lift cylinder. Unfortunately the clutch pedal rod from a 8 speed is straight and bumps into the cylinder lines, I have another clutch rod from a hydro, however its a few inches short. Guess i will need to lengthen the one from a hydro to the correct length with a coupling nut. Had a visit today from Don Thraen with a "Horse" aka walk behind tiller.

All I can tell you @Coulter Caleb is Super C is in the house! Uncle Dan had a long haul to get it but she's home!

GSW cast iron frying pan had half an inch of baked on crude, heated the pan up evenly with the Tiger torch to burn the crude off, HP laptop in background with no operating system. Offered the frying pan to a neighbour before getting home and he declined saying it was dirty. It cleaned up pretty nice and Pat has yet to work her magic on it. That gal knows how to season a pan.

More pics to follow, just a hint on the new aquire..... a bit of horse wranglin across the border.

Got a cool update for you today on the tractor. We delivered the tractor in September but we had a lot of rain in September. Then we had an early snow before Halloween in October. So she parked the tractor and left it until today. We went over there and went to get it started for her and give her a fresh tutorial on how to start and operate the tractor. So we go to start it and it has a very weak battery so we got Warrior( dad’s Chevy pickup truck) and used jumper cables to get it started. Dad then with that used the method of dumping gas in the carb. It would fire and run for 5 seconds then die abruptly. After 5-6 times me and Dad were getting very frustrated... So we thought we had tried everything and were about to give up when Dad suddenly took off the gas cap for the tank and the gas tank was bone dry... After we got over our headaches we filled the tank up and got it running for her. She had a great time mowing her horse paddock... It was great for both of us to see her, a long time horse lady, on her Wheel Horse taking care of her paddock. Dad started cutting but once she got on the tractor, she kept on going...

Picked up this 1980 C-85 5 years ago 15 minutes from home with a free sign on it. Engine was in a rubbermaid tote and not looking to well. It has sat in the yard covered over thinking maybe a resto some day and that day never came, to many other projects. Turn the page a 1989 310-8 shows up and is leaking gear oil bad but I am told it runs. Come to find out the tranny must have filled with water and froze and split the case in 2 places. So yesterday I made the difficult decision to end the C-85's life, rather a difficult decision to make for the love of WH tractors. the other side of the coin is hopefully I will end up with 1 nice tractor and some spare parts. 1 more hub needs to come off and then transplant the uni-drive into the 310 and all will be well, I hope. That 10 H.P. Magnum sure does run sweet so hoping for the best. The other way to look at it is I still have the C-165 to keep me in the Blackhood club. Almost forgot, that plastic rear fender was in pretty good condition other than the small notch below the decal and the crack that I had to open up to see, not bad for it's age.

This morning, I got engine and trans oil for my new '89 310-8. When I drained the trans, I kinda got sad. The fluid look way worse than the dipstick showed. Flush required. Thankfully, my neighbor and best friend has a diesel tractor, so I stole 2 quarts from him and flushed the trans. Up on blocks, 5 minutes per gear, high/low. Drained it and added an ancient quart of 80W I would never use on a good machine. I have no idea where it came from lol... Ran that up on blocks and drained it. Ugly, ugly fluid still coming out. Stole another 2 quarts of diesel from my neighbor (I'll pay him in beer later), run it ~20 minutes, drained it. Not too bad. All I had left for spare oil was the extra quart of 5W-20 for the overdue oil change on my car. Sorry Honda, Wheel Horse wins. Ran that through, drained it, nose high in the sky, clean oil comes out. Wheee! Let her drain for a good long while, dropped the nose and changed the engine oil. Drove her around for a good spell, and all fluids looked sparkly clean on the dipsticks. Here are the first pics from my yard. I haven't cleaned anything yet, just mechanical/electrical work. Look pretty good for $300. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMzpoFxKSMOgcipFQcsQ_S98ns6yh7eXoratn1ki5UsGwZ9E01-ELnA8RaZy8HdpQ?key=QkQzNG5RRWJCUjh0V1R3M2hpLVhmTzE2RG5kT293

Well I picked this up a couple weeks ago. It got me back into the club since I was left " Horseless" after having to sell the 3 that I had. I havent been able to make any progress on my Lambert project, I am still looking for an engine for it. So in my spare time I have been working on this C-161. It ran pretty good when I picked it up. The rear end fluid was low. Lights didnt work. Looked like a mess but over all pretty good. Since then I cleaned it pretty good. Did a little spray can touch up on the deck. Put a new seat on it. Had to buy a new air filter assembly. Bought new front head light lens and new tail light lens's from @76c12091520h. Got new decals from @Vinylguy Just today rewired the lights so they all work and changed the oil in the engine. All I have left that I want to do is change the rear end oil and ask all of your opinions on replacing the engine mounts with the rubber again or just use the spacers? Here some before and after photos cause I know how much we all like pictures.

Today I was troubleshooting a blowing headlight fuse on my 1989 310-8. Both times it happened was after mowing with the lights on for 30 minutes+ so it was clearly an intermittent short. After two instances of me being an idiot: One: checking for voltage and not finding any when the battery was sitting on the bench behind me. Two: checking for shorts using a continuity meter set on beep and thinking my headlight was shorted to ground. (It is dummy, literally a high resistance short to ground) Anyway, after a lot of poking around, checking with a meter, being dumb, I found the black/blue wire under the engine was squished. I'm not positive, but I suspect it was the Attach-A-Matic. I cut the squished part out of the wire, stripped, soldered, shrink wrapped it. I just thought I'd post this here in case someone else has the same problem. Perhaps it's a common pinch point for the headlight wire on these models. Edit: Title word bad. :\

I borrowed this wrecking bar from a neighbour who unfortunately passed away a week later. It has become my favourite go to bar.

I started off my day with only one simple task in mind. I wanted to make a new rear fender brace for my 701. After I made my new part I looked around for some paint to shoot on it to protect it until I get around to giving this tractor a respectable paint job. For some odd reason I was out of my favorite Vansickle spray bombs & I did not feel like making a 1 hour round trip drive to get more. Instead I choose to make a 15 minute round trip to my local TSC and try some of their Majic brand paint. Given the dry time between coats on the Majic paint, I may have been further ahead to make the longer trip for my usual paint. Any way here is a pic of the fender brace that I made below the one that a PO made. Mine is much closer to the original shape. The Majic paint takes at least 1Hr between coats. While I was waiting I took on a few more projects. I decided to throw some paint on the belt guard that I had made for this tractor. And then I was waiting for paint again. I didn't like the fact that the seat that I have for this tractor is painted orange. Well lets start paint on another piece.I know that most square pan seats are painted red but seems this paint is only temporary I thought that I would see how a white square pan seat would look on the 701. And...still bored with down time while waiting for paint to dry enough for the next coat. Next project - for some reason people seem to like to "borrow" hitch pins from me when I'm at tractor shows. I have no idea how many store bought hitch pins that I have lost, but the pins that I have made myself always seem to make their way back to me. I figured I might as well make a couple hitch pins while I was waiting. This time it involved junk tranny parts & some 1/2"round stock. I think that they turned out OK. Rumor has it that there will be a small local tractor show next weekend. I would really like to go so to fill in more gaps between coats of paint I did some grooming on a couple of my show ponies. . If my calculations are right, the paint on my parts should be dry in about a month.

Nice day to work IN my shorts

I forgot to mention how I found the short. After inspecting everything under the battery, I put it back in and troubleshot it the old fashioned way. I turned the key and headlights on and jiggled wires. I heard the tell-tale sparkles from somewhere under the front frame rails. And smiled. Found you, you stinkin' why I oughta...

There seems to be 3-500 models for the most part around here which don’t too much excite me, but randomly I find a square hood or the like. I’ve driven further for some of the coolest models so far, including 953’s, 1054, RJ58’s and such. Putt Putt came from about an hour and a half away, but then I just grabbed my closest ever, from just 6.2 miles across town. I haven’t ever gone to the west for a ride, but have delivered one to Uncle Jim’s and Mr. Josh’s places Owned one in ME once time, for about a week or less!

Real nice catch Kevin. Can you give me any pointers on what to tell my wife. I'm still working on it!

I should get some lotto tickets!! Hahah I can’t believe I left this part out. The guy told me to get it out of there haha so FREE!!

finally glued the two halves of bendy with a propshaft!

Had a distancing social with most of the family out on the green. First time we've all been together for nearly 3 months. Weather has been considerate and sunny and warm. Been an enjoyable afternoon.

Oooops, I seem to be missing a bolt, wonder where it went?

They only way a fuse will blow would be because of excessive current caused by a short to ground. Follow every inch of the wire from the switch to the lights. It has to split somewhere front to back. dollars to donuts there is a chafe or a crack in the insulation touching ground. A short in a switch is extremely rare. If the short was in the keyswitch side a wire would have burn't and you would have found out the hard way.

Caleb, you are the iron-man lifting that engine! One request, next time remember to close the blinds on the door so we don't have to see the CC.

Be thankful it didn't have a cupful of gas so it would run out when you were at the furthest point away from the barn. Had that happen once, now I always check first. Glad she is happy with the 418.

For an internal combustion engine to operate correctly one must have something... To combust. Don't feel bad men. I've done worse. More often than I'd care to admit. VERY nice work getting that tractor up and running and to an appreciative owner.

Possibly an early John Deere plough, just guessing by the colours but then perhaps the owner had a sense of humour.

Mowing the ridge at the lake today with the little 857 And took time for a picture by my new mini barn. Been wanting one for 5 years. Of course it had to be red.