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So today was productive repaired the backyard gate got the c1054 6 speed going then the steering linkage decided to pop out. MAX FINALLY DRIVE HIS 1277!! Drug the sears out of the front yard and started to put the Techumseh back together. received_909210250400591.mp4 received_909210250400591.mp4

Picked up this tub cart today.

My hardest worker, most dependable, always ready 310-8 has developed a problem. I used it earlier in the week and it smoked pretty bad. It's never done that, even as recently as two days before. It also used about 1/2 quart of oil in about 20 minutes, and barely had power to pull the 42 inch deck. I'm thinking it broke a ring or something, but it's definitely got issues. I rebuilt the engine about 20 years ago. The cylinder had a gouge in it that required .030 bore to get past. Guess I'm gonna have to go in and see what's going on. So I'm gonna pull the Magnum off and repower the 310-8, hopefully just temporarily. I have to have this and my 520-H ready for mowing duty. Luckily I have a couple to work with.

I don’t know how to say this. My good buddy Max had a warm heart and was always on the go. Sure, he ate more than his share, but he meant well with his intentions. It happened when nobody was around and it was quite the shock to find him still. I’m not sure what his age was, but we joked that the greys in our beards were just wisdom anyway. He never told me when he was going to show up, he was just there when you least expected it. RIP buddy. Sorry. I had to.

I cut the grass one day last week and all went well; the new belts appear fine so I put the guards back on today. I also put some traction tape on the foot rest as I have to unmount similar to a Horse "of course".

Just had a idea and I decided to do it I put a HH100 Tecumseh big block on my 856 originally had a k181 8 horse small block kohler that I had laying around it popped wheelies in 3rd I have yet to get a belt the stores are closed till Monday but she runs and all with the larger front pulley being double the size I bet she’ll be a little bit quicker too I got a 6 speed transaxle I’m rebuilding now to put in it too to make a short frame hot rod in a way

I am pretty dang excited about this one. We’ve been married 15 1/2 years and when we were dating we house sat for Grandma and Grandpa while they were in FL and TX. I’ve loved this truck ever since! Obviously, Norman will always be special to me. This one might mean even more. There will still be some PO fixes that will make me shake my head, I know. But it’ll be shaking with a big ‘ole grin on my face! He tried paying me $100 for plowing their drive this morning. They toss money at me every so often for that. He wouldn’t accept money for the truck, so I tossed the Benny on the TV stand and told him I’ll give him $100 for the truck

Found a replacement for the Cadillac, My winter plow truck with a broken frame. It’s a ‘92 Chevy 2500 with the 6.5L Turbo Diesel. It’s not fast, but it’ll do what I need and I have front and rear plows for it too. It’s Mrs. P’s grandparents’ wood truck and needs a little TLC but it has good bones!

Have been toying with the idea of a FEL for my GT 14. Closest thing I found was going to run into $$ and being as old as it is I really didn't want all the potential for hydraulic problems (valves, leaking rams, etc). Plus if I need an actual FEL it would have to be a 4 wheel drive Kubota or something similar based on my terrain. Wanted a simple bucket to handle moving some dirt, topsoil, mulch, etc. so I fabricated a used ATV bucket coupled with a 1000# linear actuator. Added 200# concrete rear end weight with a converted 200 amp service box attached to the 3 point hitch. Simple, works like a charm and total cost around $1000! Yes I know its not an FEL, never claimed to be....BUT it beats a shovel and wheel barrow!

Installed some new barrels in an IH 656 this afternoon. As always having the correct tool for the job makes thing much easier. In this pic I'm pulling the old cylinder sleeves out of the block. Block machining had its tolerances at the factory, so much tolerance that the o.d. of the sleeves had to be adjusted to fit the holes. They did take the time to label their tolerance though. O.D. needed for the holes in the block were marked at the factory on each cylinder A - D. If you look close at the pic you can see the stamping next to the cylinders. This engine had 1 A bore, 1 D bore, and 4 C bores. The new sleeves that I received fit the C bore perfectly. The D bore was almost .001" larger the the C bores so I measured all of the sleeves and found one that was .0005" larger on the o.d. than the rest. I installed this sleeve into the D bore. For the A bore in this block, I used a rigid hone to clean the hole out to fit the sleeve. New barrels installed, block cleaned up, good enough for today. Doing this job at a relative's place in an unheated shop so when then sun gets low & the cold sets in, I call it a day .

As mentioned in another topic I'm still alive and kicking. After being unemployed for a while I'm back to work now for about two months. My previous occupation for nearly 12,5 years was at a industrial rental company (welders, generators, compressors, lighting etcetera) at several positions. That came to and end so I had to go look for something else. Long story short, I found a job at a agricultural mechanization firm. They were looking for a mechanic and we came to an agreement. Besides being Claas dealer (tractors, combine harvesters, silage equipment) they also do maintenance on some others tractors and machinery. Since I started working there I've done several jobs and learned a bunch. Good news is I actually enjoy what I'm doing again and have a lot less things and people riding my you-know-what. Below some pictures of what I've been working on. Brand new water tank. Needed some extra lights, snorkel on top, removed the pneumatic braking, switched around a few hydraulic functions and made a control box for the added functions. Snorkel. Simple control box. Combination as used for dust control. Brand new Claas Arion 630. Had to be stripped and painted (externally) in company colors. From the original green and red to black and blue. Brand new Arion 630. Taking fenders and hood off. Bare tractor. New color. Later the rims were painted black Added some valves and hoses for extra hydraulic couplings at the front of the tractor. Also set up for dust control.

…so I brought some reading material with me while I’m in Guam to satisfy my tractor addiction. I’ll be hitting the Guam Home Depot Monday or Tuesday, I’ll see what they have for tractors . Surprised to see the Kmart is still here and equally surprised that there IS NOT a Wal-Mart on the island! Or a Dollar General !! On my second flight from Chicago to Hawaii there was a veteran of Iwo Jima sitting behind me! Real nice guy (97 years old), I did chat with him for a couple minutes. He was hard of hearing and planes are kinda loud so we didn’t chat much. His son was taking him to Hawaii, I assume to visit Pearl Harbor.

Happy Saturday all!! Big show is getting close!! Alot of "Horse Play" today... Sold and delivered one to Scituate R.I. Sold snd delivered one to Brooklyn C.T. Picked up two headed to scrap... Feels good goofing off with tractors Ahhhhhh... may none of us loose the Wheel Horse spirit or run out of tractors EVER Tony

While striping the paint off from my gas tank today I noticed that there was a lot of flaking paint on it. This is never a good sign as that usually means that there is a leak some place. Really made me wonder because the inside of the tank looks like brand new. After getting the paint off I found history of a JB Weld repair. Sorry but as this tank showed, JB weld is usually not a long term tank repair. After cleaning things up completely it looks like the seam either rubbed through on something or someone hit it with a grinder. I silver solder the seam, spread a baking soda past on it and put some gas in to see if I had the leak fixed. It was fixed but noticed a leak around the petcock plate. Gas was leaking around one of the rivets. Dump the gas out, clean the area well, and silver solder the rivets. Put gas back in and it has been sitting for 4hrs now with no leaks. My solder job ain't real pretty but it's holding.

I’ve wondered the same thing many times. The rates of consumption for consumer goods is truly astounding. If your town of 10500 people averages 4 people per household and a quarter of those households need a riding mower and replace it every ten years, that accounts for 65 of them right there. If the area is growing with more homes being built and there is a surrounding area also shopping there it adds up to a surprising number of new mowers being sold. And if they don’t last even ten years…geez. I used to work at a place that made, among other things, handles for the big trash cans you wheel out to the curb that the automatic truck grabs to dump into the hopper. We made 6000 handles per day and there’s only one handle per can. And our customer wasn’t even the biggest maker of those big trash cans. Also heard a story on the radio about a mattress recycling business in New Jersey. I wondered how that could possibly be a viable business. Then they mentioned that in the US over 50000 mattresses were thrown away every single day. And each contained about 20 lbs of steel in the springs. So that’s 1-million pounds of scrap steel. Per day. It seems impossible and it still makes me wonder where all this junk - including mowers - goes. I guess it could illustrate the point that even small changes in consumer habits applied across the board do indeed make big differences. For a time, Wheel Horse was the largest purveyor of lawn and garden tractors. They must have made gazillions of them back when they were really cranking them out in the 70’s. Steve

Reminds me of a new Safety Kleen driver we had once. He walks in with no hand truck carrying 2 15 gal drums of parts cleaner 1 in each hand. Our parts guy asks him his name and he stops, sets the drums down, lifts his belt buckle and it says " AL " "My name's Al "

Here's the only picture I can find of my old 94 6.5...put many miles on the old girl between here and Amarillo TX hauling transmissions to the shop we used to have them rebuilt. If you drove her right she'd get right at 20 MPG out on the highway. Had to replace the PMD twice, relocated it the second time and had no more issues, but that was the only issues I had with the truck in almost 80k miles of driving.

Those were some good trucks. My blood runs Ford blue, but I have to admit one of the best trucks I had was a 94 Chevy 2500 with the 6.5 diesel. That one being a 92 has the fully mechanical injection pump, not plagued with the PMD issues the later ones had. Nice find

May as well go out and buy another Vanguard. Once you get accustom to the added power on the 310 you won't want to go back.

stationed there '81-82' at andersen. just realized that was 40 years ago! came home on Christmas leave and bought my dad a wheelhorse. regards mike

Here are some close ups and video. Used 3/8 steel for rails bolted to the frame and 3/8 steel for front bracket and angle iron under actuator. Video was hard due to installing rocker switch on the tower. Battery is old so will be replacing it and have more power. bucket will lift 200-300# which is all I need to handle at a time. IMG_3308.MOV

I regret selling this c 120 to my friend. It has a rototiller, mower deck and plow blade. I bought it years ago for $800. I sold it a year later for $800 to a friend. A year after that he wanted to sell due to health problems. I told a friend that is a collecto and he bought it for $800. I should have never sold it. His mini oliver started as a gear drive wheelhorse. He brought both to the toy and tractor show in Sublette Illinois, and it hurt a little seeing the c 120. Its all original and the paint looks good. I miss this one.

Thank you @Blasterdad !… helping an iPhone illiterate out !

I had a similar tragedy occur when one of my tenants missed the on ramp - about sixty feet up: He never even got the chance to catch up on his unpaid back rent.

It was when I stumbled upon Max

That. Wasn’t. Funny. 😆

Good idea. I've been covering the steps on mine as well. Gription is your friend.

Max is getting used to steering not realizing he has more to turn than just a bit for a 5 y/o I think he's doing just fine! I'm so glad he is driving it now he never wanted to drive it because it was too loud now he has ear muffs and is happy! After he got back home he said "THAT WAS AWESOME!!" Never been so proud before and relieved I didn't restore this for him to just look at. Not that that is a problem. Lol YouCut_20230319_181237703.mp4

I had 2 of those. My favorite carts. Nice

About the only difference between the 2 are the decals. Since the model changed between 73 and 74 it was probably one of the last units off the line in 73 and they put the 74 C100 decals on it

I had the ride of shame at the WH show a few years back. A screw loosened up on my 1267 ignition switch and the wire fell off. I ended up pushing it through one of the parts selling barns past @rmaynard @wallfish and several others chortling as I was huffing and puffing along!

I love them body chevys. Grew up with late 70s Fords myself, but I had a 91 Chevy that was dependable, I now own a 95. Gotta keep ‘‘em running.

Yep that’s my 1257. I got that to fit with no issues, just made a brace doing to the motor is all.

Small Base K341 mounted on a Charger 12 no drilling no cutting required

If there is room Mike a mounting plate from small blocks. Goes on the starter mount. You could chop the coiI mount off the top and leave the coil where it is. I got an extra you want to go that route or would be an easy fab.

Looks like it is very well built and should save your back. I like the way you repurposed the electrical panel as a weight box.

https://pf-engineering.com/ Has very good plans. Well worth the investment if you are serious about building one. I built one from their plans but EB in Maine has the tractor now. Guess I need to change my avatar pic now. Here's some BASIC backhoe plans that might get you going. That's the PF hoe in the pic not these plans

Hmm, you seem like a GQ type for reading material. Looks beautiful there! Hey, just found your Instagram posting from Guam

If it light stock you are going thru can you just drill for 11/32 and suck the bolt thru with a flat washer nut & some lube? r

Trail cam just picked this up... @ebinmaine's new building... Instead of a minivan they went with this... good price... Unfortunately, forgot square hole round peg thing though...

Very cool!

Had the frame and transmission out clean it up to paint.

A friend just used an industrial punch to put a ½” square hole in 3/16” plate for my seat riser. Took at least six minutes to set up and align. Thirty seconds for the 5 hp electric motor to spin up to speed. One second to punch the hole. Awesome machine! These are often referred to as Greenlee Knockouts or Greenlee Punches. I’ve used them in the past and they work well. I’d love to have a handful of them in common sizes! Most common are rounds--easier to use as there is no alignment issue--but squares are out there.

I love @Pullstarts! fellow Michigander

I redid one I bought last summer. Really enjoy it.

Found an old netbook that I haven’t used in a loooong time. It stopped connecting to my wifi and I just gave up on it. Just got a new wifi provider and tried to connect and sure enough it did. Was able to send myself all sorts of pics that were stored on the netbook that I had forgotten about. None of these tractors are here in my collections anymore, kinda wish a couple of em were though. The D-160 was super nice! The Gt-1800 was a parts rig.. @AMC RULES has the Eaton 1100 rear now. The one with the ammo box was pretty much my first WH. Cobbled up but trusty!