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Hello all and Happy Saturday Night!! Perhaps 2 or 3 years ago I dragged this one out of a small field with 4 ft high weeds on the side of a small engine mechanics place that works out of his house. It had been there ALONG time... let's say 10 years+... and before that it was at "some guys" house outside again in the weeds... Yes I paid for it and another parts tractor that is seriously J U N K... Today I dragged it out "of the weeds"... pulled carb bowl and gave it a blow out with carb clean and hit the points with a flat file She started right up and sounds real good.... freaking amazing You cannot beat a Kohler K or a Wheel Horse-- PERIOD Tony

Making a handle with a plane his father made at his age while using the bench that I made.

Here I thought I was jumping into an electrical thread…. Great job Cas!

So here it is… my newly acquired 1977 C-160. Drove 89 miles one way to scoop her up… So far here are the obvious things that will need doing… 1. Oil change 2. Check/ charge battery 3. Investigate why my electrical hoses were leaking smoke while I was trying to unload her. 4. Repair or rewire those smoking hoses. 5. When I get her running, flush and refill transmission. 6. Rub down her work clothes with a penetrating fluid to freshen up her threads. 7. Replace front wheel bearings… hope the lack of which did not ruin front spindles. 8. Replace shifter boot. And that’s just a start… here are a few pics…

Well, I've been off the grid for a bit but am glad to be back in NC and catching up. I had the good fortune to walk right back in to meeting with @Farmer Bill who had a couple in his barns (literally) that needed a new home. Very timely for me and it was great to meet with him. This might help me finally get "Rudy" into the shop for an overdue rehab and still do what I need to do on the property this spring. These have been sitting a while but look to be original and I'm really glad to add a second k-341 to the stable. I might have to repower the 312-8 if history proves true, not a huge issue, but the 165 and tiller look to be very promising.

All after pics..... I'm working on it again, changing things up a bit on the ol 1257.

Didn’t like the double upright set up and didn’t have the heart to cut the bottoms off of the stock ones. So I made some new bottoms. Now the uprights are just one piece. Once painted, probably won’t even notice the extended brackets.

Took a little trip today, and look what jumped in the bed of my truck…

Exciting day today! Rylee’s second tournament. 5 practices ever. She entered into the girls division, something not every meet has. Her first bout, she pinned the girl in 41 seconds. Second, she was pinned after some tough competition. That girl ended up placing first. Her third round, she won by points and time and placed second! I’m so proud of her accomplishments, and even other club’s parents were pointing out her strength and potential talents. Awesome day!

Yesterday I started reassembly of the 36" mower deck anticipating the arrival of my seals and bearings in about 10 days. I got the belt tensioner bar bolted back on with new nylon bushings and got the wheels cleaned up, bolted back on, and replaced the grease. Today I sharpened and balanced the blades.

I went over to the shop this morning and dropped the deck, drained the fuel, changed the oil and put her on charge. She had sat for a couple years but runs like a top! Sounds great. The gear box is smooth as silk. I need to get a shifter boot, battery, mount some tires and do a few other things but she should be tilling ground soon!

Man, this has turned into a really good thread! We have an old water heater at our place in Virginia that's holding on for dear life, and there's so much here that we can use when it comes time to replace it. Lots of information, different perspectives, and a good healthy discussion, I love it! Thank you gentlemen!

Tore the transaxle apart I took out of the D200. She wouldn’t have lasted long if she was able to move. She just sat and made noises. Now I see why. The bull gear bolts were loose and one axle side gear was missing some teeth also. I have another transaxle that needs attention but we are way past that point

Well, I did it. Not the B80 O posted about yesterday but a pretty nice 417A. Came with a relatively complete second tractor, 2 total decks, 2 total front blades. It has no leaks, fires up almost instantly and for its age looks pretty darn clean in my opinion. Now the fun begins cleaning up the deck for some paint and spring duty. Might get to plow with it this winter. I need to find a manual so I can get some new plugs, filters, etc. I'd like to get a 'new' seat but other than that i'm excited to start tinkering and using it. The pictures aren't great, I just wanted to get it put away so I could return to family stuff.

This happened today. @WheelHorse_Kid asked our neighbor Kyle for some help heating his engine block on the C-121 in hopes of getting the rusted pipe out. The exhaust has been broken since he got it. Now before anyone comments about Kyle’s work truck let me say this. The kid works for our local Deere dealer but collects wheel horses. I don’t have a set of torches at home and he happens to have them on his truck. We were unsuccessful today but already have the plan in motion to get the last of the pipe out of the block tomorrow with some cutting and a chisel. I added a photo of Kyle on my 753 driving with Aiden my oldest son. Kyle bought his first wheel horse from me when he was about 14 and has hung around here since. It created a friendship and we have gone on countless tractor runs, to dozens of shows together. Back before he started working we spent many long nights working on tractors in the garage.

Yer an as$ Newbie... my bucket lister... looks to be in real good shape too! True... Do we need to set up a go fund me for tie downs?

All before pics.......

Several years ago I got a plow frame side stabilizer from @WVHillbilly520H Jeff. It got set aside for a few ... I figured it has a place on this tractor when I decided last fall to put the huge 60" snow plow on. There will be a tab mounted to the plow frame with a large hole to accept the downward piece. We got the engine block finished up for paint. Put it on the frame. I got the cylinder head bolted on and torqued correctly. Same for the flywheel. We also installed the 2 hoses from valve to lift cylinder. The 2 headed towards the transmission pump are in the valve.

The oblivious people standing on that platform as the blower approaches reactions are priceless.

Just because Home Depot quit selling one piece anode rods doesn't mean they aren't available. I guess they want to minimize inventory and also avoid returns because folks couldn't get the long ones in. If at all possible, I will never use the hot dog strings after spending half a day trying to get one out. My wonderful former tenant took it upon herself to have one of those things installed. The hot dogs split and spread their legs so that they could not come out the hole, the harder I pulled, the more they spread. Lower the water heater, raise the ceiling, get a shorter water heater or cut some off a solid one, but never use the hot dog style.

I have learned to ALWAYS remove the anode rod from a NEW water heater and reinstall it using Teflon tape and not tighten it excessively. My lesson was the time it took a 3/4" impact driver to remove one.

One more pic

@OutdoorEnvy A friend of mine has this vise laying around in his shop. I saw it and thought it was the same one you have. Not the exact same, but close!!

With work & other things getting in my way I have only been getting basically one day a week to work on the project. This weekend's goal was to get the Ross box ready. The Ross box that was in this tractor was from a Cub Cadet and the shaft was on inch short for this application. @WHX?? was nice enough to set me up with a Ross box that was correct for a 953 but it had some damage. The goal - make one good set up out of the two. A pic of the correct Ross box that I got from Jim. You can see that the bottom has some chunks missing and one of the threaded mounting holes is damaged. I removed the shaft and the tube from both steering boxes Unfortunately both tubes were damaged during this process but luckily I had a tube from a bed frame that had the correct outside diameter that I could cut to the correct length. I do kind of wish that I could have used the steering shaft from the Cub Cadet. Looking at the picture below the CC shaft had a better reduction than the one. CC on the right on the left. One thing that I could use from the CC box was the bottom cap. This cap is used to set the end play on the bearings. Once set there is a cotter pin installed to keep the nut/cap from backing out. The CC cap has more notches to allow for finer tuning of the end play. The cap/nut for the only has a strait slot which does not allow as fine of tuning for the bearing end play. In the pic below the Cub Cadet cap is the upper one, is the lower one. After a bunch of work, I now have a good Ross box that will fit & work as it should on my tractor. Other than this the only thing that I accomplished was getting a few more parts sand blasted.

Engine tins are on. And another excellent Wheelhorse mobile!

A salty wrangler has them in his truck at ALL times...

Eric - sometimes, you can find either a piece of PVC pipe, copper pipe, or iron pipe that will allow you to install the seal properly - sometimes.... maybe a deep 12 pt socket???

Seal # 47 032 06. Use a piece pf pipe as the driver

Here's what I came up with for now. May put the braces on later....

mmmmmm big block short frame my favorites. Been known to pay to pull some out of the weeds myself. This one took a little more then starting fluid to get running again but it is running and driving again and now garage kept. Spent 30 yrs left in the woods. Named it " Forsaken " and is now one of my favorites.

Yes, it sure did. But, did we ever get @Horse Newbie original question answered?

All I’m able to work on this weekend is reattaching the hood and headlights. Hood went on easy enough, but then I realized it wouldn’t open very far. Someone used a bolt in one of the holes in the front hitch plate to keep it from opening all the way. Had to remove the hood, take that bolt out, then reinstall the hood. Like Mustie1 says, “we do it right ‘cause we do it twice”! lol I put 2 new led’s I got from iSaveTractors in the headlight sockets, hooked up the wires, but they weren’t working. I had the taillights working just a couple of days ago! problem was dirty contacts on the light switch. Took the fuse out and cleaned all the contacts in there too. Finally Oh, and that’s a new lens with the sticker on it. Wish someone made ‘em like the original lenses.

Typically the drain pan will have a connection for a pipe to be run to a drain or sump pump. Here one is required in certain installations. I think I see the drain pipe running out at about 2 o'clock and dumping into the vented soffit. I guess that would work. The flexible appliance connector (FAC) is similar to corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) but different and have different code requirements. Usually a fac is required and typically have about 150% of the rating of the average home water heater. CSST has some advantages over iron pipe in that there are fewer fittings and in earthquake prone areas. It does have a lower capacity so simply size it accordingly. Bonding requirements apply. Yes, the copper looks small but remember it's a higher pressure line. Think OHM's law but for gas lines. Personally I would replace it because of the damage potential. Draining a few gallons once in a while is important. Mainly just to get it out of there but I figure on a gas unit it sorta insulates the bottom from the heat source. Not so much on electric because the elements are up off the bottom. If the crud gets to the lower element yes. I almost said but who would let it get that bad but thought better.

Funnier thing about Bradford White tanks. The 6 year and 10 year builds run down the line together. The 6 year is the standard warranty. The 10 year gets a fancy label. Nothing more. Built to Be the Best! @ebinmaine preaches this, as do I. Most often, especially on a tapered pipe thread, if you cannot loosen a fitting, you can almost certainly tighten it. Crank it 1/4 turn in, it’ll twist right out. I carry a 24” pipe wrench max and can’t recall a time I needed cheater pipes on one. The Bradford White anode is generally the outlet nipple. They do have some hex head anodes, but try to keep tank protrusions (potential leak points) to an absolute minimum. Can’t get a pipe wrench on the nipple you say? Run a pipe tee down onto the nipple and crank that tight until the nipple turns also. Back it out and likely the nipple will come with the tee.

The deck looks like it was on Omaha Beach during D Day. It looks great from 1 billion feet (internet pics lol) but the shell is NFG

Ever try to break one of those loose?? NOT the easiest thing - 1/2" breaker bar with a 3' pipe on it for leverage - barely got it to come loose... Bill

Grey painted tins.

I put the snow plow blade, rear weights and chains on the GT-1848 (which my wife has now dubbed "The Beast") early last week, when they were saying we might get as much as 11" of snow. But we only got about 3", so I didn't need to plow. However, today my wife asked me to cover up the lily and daffodil bed with "something" that would protect them from the next wave of cold, since they are already starting to peek out green. Hmmm.... took The Beast and trailer back to the old horse barn, made a few passes with the plow, and had a wagon load in about 10 minutes. Spread that out and went back for more. 2 loads was enough, but there's plenty left for other things. Maybe a new garden in the spring. We only have four 4' x 8' planter boxes right now. Dang, really wish I could get my hands on a tiller for this thing.

Yeah… probably could have took the time to grab some ratchet straps… I was in a rush…

Nice tractor but using clothes line rope and a down tailgate looks real safe!!

He hasn't been on this site in 5 years , he must be working undercover now .

Yup. My mis steak!

My cousin dumped one on me a few years ago he pulled out of the weeds - same thing - cleaned the carb - points - new plug etc etc ran a new fuel lint into a fresh can purred like a kitten .... guy told him if he got it out of the field he could have it for free... didn't remember what was wrong, left it there 20 years ago so I had to figure it out ......turned out he trashed the 8 speed - new belts -idlers -some welding - paint -wheeling and dealing for needed trans parts here and a bearing kit from the vendor it's mowing grass again -first my cousin said I could have it - after it was fixed and saw it mow he wanted it back> how much for the repairs

Plus my water heater is so close to the roof I would not be able to slide the rods up to get them out without disconnecting the water heater and moving it. Then where am I going to find a go-rill-a to hold the water heater while I pull on the breaker bar ? Nevermind… just seen post # 29…

Well, I did use some shorter bolts this time, but I should probably grind those off a bit shorter. But, no shins will get shredded. Mine got it enough from the longer ones that I think I've learned my lesson, and I'll make sure no one else gets close enough. Unless it's parked in the garage. Then you're on your own... I guess that's kinda mean - I'll probably at least drape a towel over them when it's in the garage.

The reason for the jumper is it eliminates all other possible failures between the battery and the ignition coil regardless of the ignition switch key positions. The ignition switch can fail in both the RUN and/or START positions.

Actually, yes. Maybe not every 6 months, but once a year. Funny with the newer models - you need to relieve the pressure in the tank BEFORE you open the drain - and don't open the T&P valve to do so - they almost always leak if disturbed. Funny story about tank designs. The standard 6 year warranty tanks are the most prone to buildup. The "improved" 9 and 12 year models have a built-in turbine gizmo inside - the incoming cold water hits it, swirls up the sediment and is self cleaning. Guess where all that sediment goes??? Yup, it clogs ALL the faucet aereators and the dishwasher inlet screen..... I could not wait for that one to die...