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The ol 1257 got new home made tie rods today (greasable.)

Finished a repower. I plan on looking at the K301 when I get time but for now my 312-8 lives again thanks to a Magnum 10

Zach is working on Blackbeard this weekend and I had him install his rear wheels so that we could move the frame around…

We've all seen them used as throttle locks, but this is a whole new level.

From the farm

I made it usefull

Far from fancy, its a side shot!

Haven’t done a lot this winter with my boys like I’d would have like to but I did manage to get some front wheel weights installed just in time for Spring. 😂 Gitty up

Finally got around to getting tubes for the AG tires that came with the C-100 and got em put on. Size comparison is big ones are 23x10.5-12, the small ones are 22x7.5-12. Quite a difference. The 312 in the back just to get them both some sun

I have never owned this model. So, I saw it did not look too badly beat up. When I got there did not even Idle some carb cleaner runs much better. Choke cable is frozen so using my cable lubber to unfreeze it. Will take time. A good cleaning is in order. Fluids look good. As they say fun is the chase. Have you ever seen these front rims or even tiers? Those rims do not look stock. Hope you enjoy the picks.

So, I found out I need a new chain tensioner on my blower. Looked it up (PN 957699) and almost fell out of my chair! $83 and change. Said to myself' "I can make that". End grain will be the wear surface. (original was wood btw) Easy, peasy! I did it, and it works perfectly and when it wears out I'll just make another. This is VERY hard wood.

Got out for a birthday cruise. Made it to the pond where I rarely go as it’s not mine or my neighbors. Whoever bought the property did some tree clearing a couple years ago and hasn’t set foot on it since. I know I know..,it’s still trespassing! But I don’t tear it up, just roll thru and snap a pic or two. Had to find a break in the stone wall to cross back into friendly territory

I cleaned my RJ’s, did some maintenance and started up the tractors to do some laps around the observatory! Getting these ready for the Big Show in June is going to be a great event! RJ tractor of the real should turn out the Wheel Horse lovers big time! It all started for me with the RJ.

I got the top spindle nylon jam nuts replaced on the mower deck and tightened just enough to take the thrust movement out without slowing down the blade movement. Also got the deck idler pulley mounted and the new belt on. I got the transmission out of the house and back where it belongs and filled with heavy oil and about 25% Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer. I got the input drive pulley back on so that it won't crash into the case as it was and torqued the set screw. I got the wheels/tires back on and lug-nuts torqued. It looks like a lawn tractor again. I have about a weekend of putting the rest of the pieces/parts on to try the rebuilt transmission and mower deck out.

Frustrated with two parts packages lost in the mail in one week Made the best of it and moved the 312-8 to the house with a lot less room to work but more convenient. Swapped wiring harnesses and bolted the M10 on. I'll probably fire it tomorrow

Finished the early model 301 Jenny today.I only had a couple bolts and screws left over so feeling like I’m getting better putting them back together

Well folks. I'm declaring this project "Done for now"!! I finished up the wiring. Bunches of white light forward and reverse. Plenty of flashing amber for the road. Some up front side bling too! The plow angle tightening works awesome! The Wood lever knobs are in the perfect places. There'll be many adjustments and changes over the years. I'll need to determine the actual source of a minor transmission leak. Also fix a side gasket. I'd like to add a plow frame side stabilizer and plow feet.

Wile some of you were blowing or pushing snow, I was putting out some mulch… Sunny and 70 something degrees…

The 953 that I'm working on has a Donaldson oil bath air cleaner. When it came to me the packing was gone from it. I packed it with coarse stainless scrub pads & inserted a screen over the top of them to hopefully ensure that no pieces of the scrub pads could get sucked into the carb. Is this a good idea or not??? If not, does anyone have a source for the correct packing? Out of my realm here.

Time to give a little update on Blackbeard! We have completed 5000 miles of travel since January 24 for our mission work but we are back in town for 11 days and trying to get the paint work finished as much as possible! Zach was so excited to get his new tires rear tires mounted and ready to be installed. I decided for the first time ever to build a “makeshift” paint booth in the shop. It works really well. I am using the 8’ garage door track for the “supports” and I’m a pleased with the results. Keeps the red “dust” off of my white metal walls, keeps the dust off of Zach’s fresh painted parts, and makes a good environment to work in… Lots and lots of red! Zach was curious about how we would take the decals off of the hood. I showed him how to use a heat gun and a putty knife… then clean up the perimeter with the sander. the hood in no means looks as good as Dan’s @Achto work but for a kid—he is doing a great job! He loves laying down paint! I need to get him with Dan one of these days to show him how the pros do it! I love these moments with him in the shop—the guy time is such a blessing!

Thanks everyone! Today was a quiet day, took a tractor ride in the woods and did grocery shopping with my wife. But yesterday the wife and I met up with my son and his wife and my daughter and her boyfriend got a late lunch and then we went bowling! Fun times!! Left to right: son, wife, me, daughter, daughter in law and daughters boyfriend…

@SylvanLakeWH Please do not put the saw on the hood of your tractor, 😳 you’re making me cringe 😬😂😂

Have a Great Day

Nope, not this… KungFu grip pulling weeds out, and placing rocks. Then arms and back shoveling mulch…

HHHOOOWWWAAARRRDDD!!! POWER!!!

Another one done. It’s been sitting here for 3 years, waiting to come alive. Following has been completed: 1. Engine harness connector replaced with 2-Deutsch connectors. 2. All wiring has been replaced/repaired/upgraded including, removing the fuse block and replacing with sealed, ATC fuse holders. 3. All electrical connectors have been cleaned, blown out, and packed with dielectric grease. All terminals were cleaned as well. 4. New Battery 5. Entire fuel system was removed, flushed, and all new hose and filter added. 6. Trans was drained, flushed, and new filter and oil put in. 7. Fuel pump vacuum hose was replaced. 8. New drive belt installed. 9. All new bolts installed with sheet metal and coated with anti-seize. 10. New tail lights installed. 11. Engine oil drained, cleaned the inside of the pan, and installed a new filter and oil. 12. New seat fitted and installed. 13. Rear hitch pin removed, cleaned, anti-seize put on and reinstalled. 14. New air filter and wrap. 15. I’m sure I’m missing something…lol 16. Power washed entire tractor long ago when I bought it. Going to it’s new home, soon! IMG_8245.MOV

Naaaww can't be right... done in only 16 pages?!?! Hey Richie @19richie66 little early for 5/5 but it is 3/5... thinking we need a new holiday at 3/5 !?!?

I have cut the ends off, turned the ends down to 3/8", threaded them to 3/8-24 and installed replacement ends that are readily available. Course you do need a lathe to accomplish this.

It's not done it that Read Headed Horse doesn't light up. and you may need a Flux-capacitor with all thoes lights.

Nice! But...

Cut up my old miter saw table and made a small bench for my portable bandsaw with swag bench. Oh almost forgot added a light to it so I can see my cuts. Might help me stop messing them up

Did a machine for an Automotive OEM near the Manchester Airport back in the 1990's. A large conveyor loop, had to transport HOT - live steam hot, 150 lb molds in and out of the oven... Conventional plastic glides would not work... They told us to use a wood material called Arguto - knot free hard maple that was impregnated with parafin. It was a stable material - cut and formed like aluminum bars. It performed like ice under a skater - the parafin melted under the pressure, then re-solidified immediately - stuff wears like iron.......

Removed storm damaged white pine branches. City is doing one time chipper service tomorrow for residents... The E-141 did a great job hauling to the street... looks like i'll lose 5 white pines total...

Storm clean up...

This is my first post and i figured id make it about what started me in this hobby. This is my grandfather's 857 he bought new in 1967 and was used for many years on the farm the engine blew up and they got a replacement, later there was issues with the fuel and they didn't have time to properly fix it and later it sat in the barn. My dad saved it from being scrapped in the early 2000's and it sat in our garage until about 3 years later i formed an interest in garden tractors and it became my first project. After many discouraging hours of work and help from my dad, fixing the fuel pump and fuel system and later replacing the piston rings it was finally in somewhat working order. Even though i like all my tractors this will always be my favorite. Thanks for a read, Ducky

Hope you get the kitchen cleaned up! The scrambled eggs and spam hit the spot!

Happy Birthday Mike, thank you for all you do to keep Red Square going strong for us.

Do not allow any battery voltage into that ignition wire. That will burn up the windings in the coil. The ignition is self powered and when the ignition wire is grounded it shuts the ignition off. Not grounded it should run.

I serviced the 520-H, changed deck and drive belts, and mowed three acres today. Surprising how much the Fescue already grew this year, but it's knocked down now. The modded deck on the 520-H is a mountain goat! Still testing different things with it, like height adjustment- but once finished it will get paint and a permanent tractor to carry.

Did get to do some welding today. I'm thinking this part will be hardtop. From there to the windshield post will probably be much like a canvas type Jeep bikini top.

@WheelHorse_Kid spoiled me on Tuesday. I went in super early to plow at work. He went out and plowed our whole driveway, path to my parents house and where we turn the tractors around with the wood trailer. He’s not home so My Wheel Horses are sitting mad at me in the garage. After 8 hours in the plow truck for work I brought the truck home and plowed the heavy wet snow with the truck. Took 5 minutes vs the hour it would have taken the horses to bust it all up. Still do have a little horse work maybe in a little bit Or maybe just see if it melts. update… I sprung Alex from his moms for a while today and he plowed a tad with the 604 and then used my bronco 14 with the 2 stage that came on my grandfathers 1848. His first time ever snow blowing. The wet and heavy bogged the 18hp vtwin a few times but it handled it. This was the first time ever using the wheel horse 2 stage for either of us. I personally think the ber-vac 2 stage I have does better and isn’t as heavy on the front end as this.

Hi everybody, I have recently been very lucky to acquire a 520LXI which appears to be in very good condition ...... except for the steering which has various problems including loose track rod ends and the infamously weak front axle pivot. Given that this machine has only done 250hrs, it really does highlight the weakness in the design. I found Snowmobileaddict's and Pullstart's repair threads (both excellent solutions might I add): but decided on a slightly different solution: As both discuss, the weakness lies in Toro's reliance on a thread to withstand the sideloads....and what happens is that the thread wears down very rapidly at the same time as the hole in the 1/4" chassis plate wears oval. They should have used a plain shank bolt in a thicker chassis plate and simply used the thread to clamp it. But isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? In my case, the wear wasn't too bad but it was exacerbated by the two pin-plate mounting bolts and the big nut on the pin all being loose. Never-the-less, it was there. As imperial bolts are not that easy to obtain here (do-able but might take a while at considerable expense (and today is Sunday!), I decided against Snowmobileaddict's solution. Additionally, I DO have a welder and decided to beef up the front plate thickness (Pullstart's method) . To retain the 'clamp down onto a shoulder' method of the original Toro pin, the 5/8" thread should have a plain shank to take the side loads. That would have meant making a new pin which I had already decided against, but it means that none of these three solutions actually clamp the front end of the pin à la original. All will tend to squeeze the two chassis plates together. I'm sure however, that all are significantly better than the original system, so may be this won't matter? (Ask me in another 250hrs!) So, my solution adds a small threaded sleeve onto the 5/8" thread of the pin, just to extend the plain shank through the front chassis plate and into a welded on bush. The original large nut is retained too. All initiaĺy went well: I turned the weld on bush (round not square in my case - easier lathe work!), I opened the hole in the front chassis plate with a step drill (actually to 22mm which is almost 7/8" - this means the extended plain shank WILL go through the axle!) and started on the threaded sleeve....turned to length, outside diameter (22mm) and then discovered I didn't have an internal threading tool small enough to to cut the thread! I also didn't have a 5/8" x 11 tap (I have 3/4" and 1" but NOT 5/8"!) After considerable muttering and routing about, I found an old 5/8" machine tool t-slot bolt and stole the nut from it (I don't have a lathe or milling machine that huge) and turned that down to 22mm O.D. It was then just a matter of reassembling it all and welding the bush on. I used Loctite type studloc to glue the threaded sleeve in position (easily removed later if required using a blowlamp). All done without removing the axle. Eh voila! Much tighter steering and the tractor doesn't wander about alarmingly any more.

He’s doing great. Parts look fantastic. Keep it up Zach!

@Sparky Mike have a great Birthday! Take a ride in the woods now will ya?

@Sailman here is a playlist I’ve created on the subject if you care to browse videos Fluid Filling Tractor Tires

I hope it has a light touch to the power steering!! "Necessity is the Mother of Butchery" Picked up a C81 roller once, all that was left of the steering wheel was the steel hex overmold insert. There was a rusty pair of cheapo knock-off locking pliers on it to steer with. He told me I could have them too! Good enough to hold parts together for welding.... Bill

That grey duct tape is so passe. 🙄 Gorilla Tape. 🦍 The ONLY way to make a steering wheel for me. 😂😂😂 I like the plywood dash/door panel too.

This is how it will look mounted.