Leaderboard

Try this: Used for years on old colored fiberglass boats... Just rub it on.

Been working on this C-160 since last fall. Engine completely overhauled tranny resealed. Looks better than she did....but I do not enjoy sanding prep painting etc The hood that came with her was chopped a bit and has holes. I have a similar hood that is not cut. I am thinking of trying the Marvel Mystery oil or some other wipe on finish as opposed to serious stripping repainting. What would you all do...

Here’s from in South Glastonbury:

The only bummer to having lots of Tractors is maintaining the batteries and trying to keep the Mice out ....!

I decided to try these out. These look much better that what you see else where, because of fitment. Others have to be retap the holes on the bladder. Also the T has to be filed to fit into the 1/2 turn notch. I think these are so far and looks much better that aftermarket junk.

We were treated to a little sky spectacle tonight. That's the camera enhancing it, but these are more accurate to what it looked like from our deck

Snapped a few pics…phone camera brought out the color way more than the naked eye for some reason.

Here too! And an hour north in Greenwood Maine.

Scotch Brite pad then Penetrol

On my 1974 C160-8 with the Tecumseh engine I used a 3M Scotch-Brite that was the coarser of them. Maroon. Brown. I don't know what color we want to call that. In principle the idea worked out well but in reality it was a little too coarse. It worked absolutely excellent in removing the dirt, grime, dust, whatever had accumulated over the nearly 50 years.... But it was a little too aggressive on what paint was left on the tractor. I do have one other 1975 C160-8 with a Kohler engine that I'll be building in the future. That has nice straight ish sheet metal so I'm very likely to try using a finer grade of those Scotch brake pads to see how it comes out. I'm not sure on what chemical but it does kind of bug me that soaking something with oil would present serious paint adhesion problems later if I decided to strip and recoat. I just used water this last time.

I could see them for the first time here on Long Island! Went to the beach by my house but didn’t have my phone! Pretty awesome.

We see them in York County, PA. I never saw them so wide spread.

What ever one happens to be in the drawer!

@pfrederi personal experience is a simple 2 step process , use an aerosol penetrating oil to totally spay down the areas , let it sit for days , then a clean oiled soft cloth , never sandpaper , for an initial wipe down , might even break thru the grunge , then I use a mineral oil rub down , if its going to break thuu , the mineral oil will do it . at that stage , like a 6" electric palm buffer , with cleaning wax , all the time you are retaining patina and original base coating . think the older units look best with oiled patina look , never shinny just clean and rust free. recovered a lot of neglect with this process, like to leave them in the sun , to heat up and draw in the lubrication , do the same thing on mower decks . patina look and rust free , pete

Soldering the wires creates a drastic change in the stiffness of the wire where the solder ends. This will cause a fatigue failure in the wire when subjected to vibration. This is more likely to happen on a connection to a device mounted to the tractor (switch, coil, etc) than in a splice in the middle of a wire run. I had a 1973 Triumph Spitfire a long time ago that I had installed a capacitor discharge ignition system in. I had cramped and soldered the power connections. Left me stranded in a left turn lane in the middle of 4 lanes of traffic when one of the wires broke off where it solder ended a couple of weeks after the installation.

Just picked up some plug-in connectors and wire clips the other night. Tonight I'm going to go through, and solder & heat shrink my temporary connections and reroute the wires correctly.

Nice to have power out there for lights and even auto float chargers etc.

@peter lena I put Stabil in any gas can I fill. Great stuff. I try and always get ethanol free gas for my small engine equipment, haven't found a close local source yet but haven't looked hard. Pretty sure that the PO was using regular with ethanol. I'm going to be tearing it all the way down anyhow, I'm sure the seals and hoses are eaten up from it. I strongly dislike 3-1 multipurpose. It varnishes like WD-40. I hate WD-40, not good as a lube and Aero-Kroil is way better for breaking. There is 3-1 motor oil, it's a straight SAE grade. It has a little blue electric motor on the bottom of the label. It's great stuff for bearings and pretty high speeds. Especially oillite bearings. I use it on the bearings of my Craftsman/Atlas lathe. I also dislike white lithium grease, ain't good for nothing but caking up into clay. I've done some work on food service stuff or drinking water stuff, can't remember, but it was required due to its non-toxicity, so it's got that going for it. For control cables, I usually use Triflow. You get the penetration but it leaves behind a film of Teflon as well. With the research now showing how bad microplastics are for us, especially PFAS plastics such as Teflon, it probably give us all cancer but it sure does work good. I will likely be replacing the cables on my WH. I'll pickup a tube of the HD green grease and play with it. Never used it that I know of. Have used the green grease for chainsaws. --- Long day, didn't get pictures of snow plow. Kitchen ceiling started leaking at 8:00p. Father in law is coming tomorrow to see the new place and will be here for several days. Joy. I'll try again to get pics tomorrow.

My new shed landed today! 10x20 in Sage Green, two double doors and two lofts. Will easily hold 6 tractors with room to walk around them, maybe more if I jam em in.

That will work, however you will need the pulleys that clip into the mid-mount Tach-A-Matic, rear axle mount and lift cable. Good news is that those tines on that tiller are in great shape with plenty of life left in them.

Thank you!!

Since your tractor is a 1986 model it is very likely that this is your mower deck.

As good as the rest of the tractor looks it would look very odd with a patina hood. Sand it, paint it, you will love it.

Fair

Call Lincoln at A to Z Tractor, he probably has what you need. https://www.a-ztractor.com/

Another mower followed me home today... I'm like a magnet these days! LOL! The price was right at $70. It's got a 12HP Briggs and Stratton I/C engine, I got it placed in the Wheel Horse and was thrilled to see that the bolt pattern was exactly the same as the original Tecumseh from front to back: And I've got good clearance in the front: The air filter looks a little awkward... I may try to relocate or at least do a different cover so it looks a little better: I'll need to do some research to figure out where a battery was supposed to go, but there's a spot where I should be able to house it: The fuel tank? I'll either need to modify the steering console thingy or find something else... The last item is a question... well, two questions. I measured the vertical height of the upper pulley on the driveshaft and it's about 1/4" higher than I need. Question #1, I think this is what y'all meant by adding a spacer... I just need to add something of the proper height to the shaft above the pulley assembly to get the vertical height set right, right? Question #2, I don't have any plans to use this guy as a mower. Is there any reason I couldn't chop off the lower pulley? Jonathan

Which Scotch Brite do you use Mike?

No worries. I'll throw an ad up.

I'm not by a long shot a wiring expert so take this for what it's worth which is very little. Several years ago I read on forums involving off-road vehicles and boats that a lot of people were going away from using soldering because the wires occasionally will break off at the point of attachment. I believe it's to do with tempering and heat treatment while soldering is going on. I stopped doing any soldering at all quite a while ago and have had no problems yet. Even battery cables. I bought the correct heavy duty crimping tool and I heat shrink every connection no matter the size.

Yeah but fun to come up with ways around that.

@ebinmaine I believe you’re correct about there being a manual on adding hydraulic lift to a manual lift tractor. I may have one, but I thinking not. I’ll look tomorrow. Finding the implement spring might be a challenge, but as you know you can find the rest of the items needed to add a factor lift assembly. I’d start by soaking the rock shaft with the penetrating oil of your choice.

I was into a Pierless transmission in a Craftsman mower maybe 30 years ago. That one was using grease, not oul.

I'm not familiar with that particular type of transuhmassion so take this for what it's worth.... On our heavier duty cast iron transmissions we ALWAYS change flush change disect or even disassemble the entire unit. Not sure if that's SOP on a Peerless but I'd be likely to tackle it.

@JCD removed , my brake pad years ago , after going over to hi temp / stress grease in every bearing , the entire unit spins with ease . pete

I always remove my PTO brakes. Makes it much quicker to change belts . And like Don noted, less hours on the big needle bearing.

Ha ha Good Eye! Yep These gals were and still are the Best of friends to this Day! Think you know they weren't going to use these Machines and were only Posing for me the Photographer!

That looks like it was for a front end loader. The ARK500 I had required a piece like that to hold the subframe up, and the wings were for the side upright braces.

This is how we moved massive , heavy items! dad made this 3 x 7 or bigger sheet metal skid with a chain and ring attachment welded to the front to attach over a ball on the rear of our 1054s. (Or other tractors). The torque and power of a wheel horse could pull this thing with no problem! Dad made three of these drawbar hitches that attached to the backside of the 1054/953 tractor rear hitches . It did not interfere with the rear slot hitch either

Everyone has made some great comments for you here. I’ll add just one more: Add some type of connector in the wires to the bezel near the hood pivot. Be sure the hot side is female type or at least in a boot so you don’t have a hot connector dangling if it comes loose. If you need to remove the hood for maintenance, it’s far easier to just unplug and go.

Well, I knew this was going to be a learning experience... it didn't even occur to me to check the dimensions of the engine on the T100, turns out it measures 11.5" from the shaft center to the front edge, whereas the A-100 only has room for 8.5" (maybe 9" max). Oops! I'm not overly concerned, my wife actually took a liking to it when she saw it so maybe it too will get some life breathed back into it one day. Back to Facebook Marketplace I go, this time a smidge wiser. Jonathan

Thanks guys. I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly HOW this will work, but knowing that one of these replacement engines CAN work is exactly what I was trying to determine as step one, so mission accomplished! I appreciate the ongoing help. Jonathan

You’ll be hard pressed to find an engine shaft 4 inches long nowadays. Just over 3 is more common. But, you can use spacers to set the pulley that goes to the transmission on the 3 inch shaft. Also- vertical engines often use a welded collar with both pulleys that is held in place by a bolt into the end of the engine shaft. Finding a comparable replacement shouldn’t be impossible.

OK... it's needed. LOL! I found a few possible replacement engines, ones I've zeroed in on are a Briggs and Stratton 28D707 and a Kawasaki FB460V. Here is where I'm stumped. Both have a 1" x 3.15" long shaft according to my research. The Tecumseh that came with the machine has a shaft length of approximately 4.5", but the pulley that I really care about (the top one) has a 1.75" drop (picture posted earlier). Could a pulley be installed at specific height on a new engine or do I need to be looking for an engine that has a shaft length of 4.5" so I can remove the pulley pair from the Tecumseh (upper belt and lower belt) and install it on a new engine? Hope that makes sense, thanks in advance! Jonathan

You're doing great! No worries. CALL 📞 ☎️ Lincoln at A to Z. He's pretty knowledgeable about tractor-ology in general. Good guy. He may even have some additional insights for your model.

I can't say that I am surprised, but the more I dig in, the more I realize that I need to dig in more. While the transmission shifts freely, I discovered the brake was frozen and the main top pulley was in pretty bad shape so out it came. I stripped my first rusted bolt while removing the caliper (documentation is pretty fuzzy so not 100% sure that's what it's called), probably won't be the last. To my surprise I found a worm in it! LOL! I have no clue how the brake works, and found some replacement pads at A-Z Tractor but can't figure out if they'll work... part of tomorrow's learning. Current state for the poor old guy, hoping I can save him!

Per request I moved to here

It didn’t make sense to some people when I got my 1994 520H, and my 1984 Work Horse GT-1600, but I had an interest in the 520H, even though I didn’t need it. I had never had a real small garden tractor. Now I’m infected. While I will admit that your project is in a good bit worse condition than what I started with, I kind of do see your point in “giving it a shot.” It just seems easier and more sensible to spend money on an older piece of equipment or tool that is quality made than to spend the same money on something that is not made nearly as well and will most likely not outlast what is already 40 years old. So… I had fun with my 2 so far (kinda working on a 3rd), and glad I did it.

A significant pulse can be expected from the crankcase while running. As the piston moves up and down the volume of air below it changes causing the pulse you are seeing.

Jim as fellow 856 owner that seat is the price of admission. Looks savable. Just take your time with it dry it out in a sunny room put some leather conditioner on it and re-pad if needed. I hope you put some time into this one. I did this one this year.

Clean it up and keep it original! But I always say that! No resto on this rare machine! Very nice early production 1955 one of the first 100 made I believe!