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I worked at the Hershey Medical Center at the time and we were given the option of going to work or staying home since we were within 20 miles of TMI. I went to work anyway because I was essential to the hospital and felt it was my duty.

I was going a couple miles to pick up a long shute snowblower and a 42” SD rusty mower. Free mind you!! I got talking with the owner and i said “whats this tractor?” The owner said it was a Sears w/ cast iron briggs 8 or 10 hp, with plow (didn’t run due to electrical issues) and it was free too!! Well, i loaded a bunch of free parts and a sears tractor and was headed off!! I was taking pictures of the Sears tractor and came across this, a serial #. I was wondering what year it is? Im into WH, not much of a Sears guy, pretty cool ol tractor! Im just gonna sell it.

I was able to work on my tractor today. Given this fact I have some progress to share with y'all. Started by going back to work on the engine. Ignition components installed. Engine buttoned up and ready to mount on the frame. With the engine ready I moved on to the chassis. Front end assembled. All the fixen's installed on the tranny. Where I left off for the day. Tune in tomorrow for more progress, hopefully.

My 2016 rookie year at the BS when we brought a bike and did a motor scooter PA tour we rode by it. We were on the 441. Quite a incredible complex. I told Cindy to hold her breath. On this date I was a 18 year old kid punching holes in the north Atlantic on a nuclear powered submarine with more than a few nuclear weapons on board. When news of this came over the wire there was plenty of talk at the scuttlebutt that we wouldn't have a home to go to. Since we didn't know exactly know what was going on the skipper assumed it might be a nuclear attack on the US and ordered us on high alert. Height of the cold war back then. We had WSRT (weapons systems readiness tests) every day on every watch for a week until more news came across. Later the Captain said it was good training and ordered steak & lobster for the crew.

Trail riding the 420 - LSE back in 2021 caught on the trail cam. Come on up @c-series don let's get some hours on that ole girl.

Retapping completed and bushings installed too! Should last a long time now.

Kohler, Tecky, Briggsy all painted their heads from the factory. Whilst I agree, too much paint would be a deterrent to cooling a couple of coats aren't going to amount to a hill of beans!

March 28, 1979 A partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the US results in the release of radioactive gas and iodine into the atmosphere, but no deaths.

That’s a C-81 that someone changed the decal or made new ones. There was no D-81

@JCM When I do finally get up there I will bring my LSE and we will put some time in the clock! I think it’s getting ready to turn a whopping 25 hours on the meter! Also like to bring my 418’s to put next to your 418-A. But I would also like to show you my Work Horse GT-1800 and my restored C-Series and that all original C-101 I picked up last year. Now that I think about it I’m definitely going to need a bigger trailer 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I was 4 hours from finishing the four quadrant model testing of the Raccoon Mountain reversible pump turbine project. This involved about 40 hours of instrument calibration and testing that I did not want to lose, so I stayed and finished the project. When I left work, about 15 mile from TMI, the streets in York were deserted. I thought, what a nice drive home with no rush hour traffic.

The Nuclear Power Plant I later became an operator for was under construction at the time of TMI. Some anti-nukes held a demonstration and released helium filled balloons at the site with messages that said this would be the fall-out zone in the event of an accident. As the balloons were released the wind shifted and all of them floated out over the ocean. During my twenty years as an operator we studied incidents large and small including TMI as part of our training. The operators at TMI 2 were attempting to manually overcome the situation rather than allowing the automatic safety systems to trip the reactor and make up for the coolant that was being lost through a malfunctioning valve. Training at that time was not as intense as it became in subsequent years. Though Nuclear Power lost some of its luster 47 years ago the benefits of improvements made in safety and training are undeniable.

Sent ole Blackie down the road today. Kinda sad as I bought her back in '95 brand new. Brought my second born home from the hospital in it. Dino splilt his wine in it. Cab corners gone and lot of rust but hopefully keep him out of trouble and he's real good mechanical. Sold it to @jeremi3210 's boy Jacob for a buck. Figured what the heck only get a couple hundred for on market. He's a good kid and due to get his DL the end of next month. 'Sides he does a lot of work for me at plow day and camp. Now i can really boss him around! Certain stipulation tho are grades in school and no more missing or tardy! It's more than road worthy yet but Jer got a brand new 10k trailer and wanted to take it's 🍒 Really a nice rig. 20' and very wide. Get a few GTs on it.

Looks like a big block Tecky under the hood.

Nt really a problem. take off teh big Plastic shroud and put on a old fashioned round A/C cover.

I've used a 48 with a 10hp several times. More hp is always better but unless you're cutting very heavy grass your 10hp will be fine. Will it struggle in some places? Probably, but it will work if you slow down.

Many years ago, when I started out as a maintenance planner, we had issues with a cutter gearbox on a mining machine. Big money gearbox (6 figures). The box was lubricated with 460 gear oil (sae 140). The box also had internal passages of hydraulic oil for extension cylinders. One of the internal passages failed and was allowing the hydraulic 46 to fill the gearbox and seep out of the breather diluting the gear lube. At the time the spare was in rebuild. We had about six weeks of production left in the schedule for the machine. A decision was made to just keep running the machine and changing the oil every three days. We estimated the dilution rate was maxed at that point. The OE was against the decision and recommended we shut down the machine. That was not an option. The oil supplier felt it would be okay, of course with a disclaimer. Actually, the dilution was far worse than anticipated and we ended up just running the box on hydraulic 46. When we removed the machine from service, and the box inspected for wear, there we no issues found. It actually led to the OE changing the oil spec to a lower viscosity oil. I'm with Ed on this one, I believe those WH eight speeds would run just fine on 10w30 and get lubed better. Might have a little more gearbox noise tho. In the hydro's I have moved from motor oil to premium tractor hydraulic fluid. THF is a 10w30 weight and has a vitamin package that is more inline with the application. Of course at the time when these machines were built, the oil selection and technology was not nearly as good.

Back in the '70's I worked for an old German carpenter. Pretty much no-nonsense sort of an old man. Great to learn the trade from. One day he was out overseeing the setting of a septic tank. The other worker, in his 50's, and I (in my early 20's) were inside the house staining woodwork. CJ pulled a woman's skirt out of a bunch of rags and dared me to put it on and go out by Denzel. I went out and stood next to Denzel who wouldn't look at me and he exclaimed "It's getting harder and harder to get good help." I replied "Have you tried getting a decent boss lately?" The three of us worked together until Denzel retired, in his 70's and CJ died from lung cancer.

Here's the Workhorse GT1800. It went to a new home with @Stepney today. And our snow team.

Interestingly, I live 45 miles (the way the crow flies) from Three Mile Island. If you draw a line between my house and the island, at the halfway point you come to town called Spring Grove, PA. Spring Grove is known for the Gladfelter Paper plant. On many a day we can smell the "cooked cabbage" odor of the paper processing. So I figured that on that fateful day, if I could smell the paper processing, the nuclear iodine was not far behind. Was I worried? Maybe just a little.

I had the same image until the Amish bought the 36 farm next to me for growing produce. The first step they took was to locate enough water to irrigate the 25 cleared fields. Instead of dousing with copper rods or a forked peach branch, a high-tech engineering firm was hired that used seismograph to map out the water table under the farm. Two locations were selected and 400 ft wells were drilled. The water is lifted from the wells and pushed thru the irrigation piping without using any pumps. Liquid fertilizer is injected into the water as required during the growing season. A diesel powered air compressor is used to power the waters air lift system. https://ebrary.net/121258/environment/lift_pumps_principle_working_lift_pumps That one compressor is also used to power air motors that operate some power tools and a generator that is used to charge batteries and the electric fences. Most of the equipment is wheel driven, but some of the equipment, sprayer, brush hog,, fork lift, grain drill, has battery start Honda engines. Propane is used for lighting and refrigeration. Wood is used for home heating and cooking. Coal is used to heat the greenhouse. With the exception of the fork lift that is used to load and unload trucks, all of the equipment is moved by the owners horses. Outside trucking companies are used to deliver and spread the lime and fertilizer and to haul the produce to auction. The only connection to the GRID is a land line phone located 200 yds from the house in a phone booth. Although they accept any help from my wifi. After the first years harvest I was watching a cover crop grain being drilled. He stopped and showed me the sorgum seed bag that said do not feed to horses and asked me what that meant. I said it probably meant the seed was coated to help germination, but I would check it. Goggling sorgum for horse feed, I learned sorgum can cause health problems for horses. I printed the info and delivered it to the farm. He was very careful to keep the horses away from the sorgum and never planted it again. Another time he came to me asking if I had seen his dog Ginger, a beautiful Husky/Shepard. I had not, but we drove around all roads in the area around the farm and I drove the same route for several days with no sign of Ginger. About a week later he came to my door and asked if I could contact the ASPCA . I invited him in and we got on the lap top looking for a phone number which I gave him. Then I clicked on pictures of lost dogs and luckily found a picture of Ginger. I offered to take him to pick up the dog, but he declined saying his hired driver would take him. Two days later I saw the dog back on the farm. I am thankful the Amish had deep enough pockets to out bid the developers when this farm was sold at auction 6 years ago. I know not all Amish make good neighbors nor do all English, but I am thankful for mine.

The tire chains are worth the price of admission....

You might find that the bulk of your steering wheel play can be adjusted in just a few minutes. There is a nut in front of the gears that takes a 3/4" wrench, remove the cotter pin and turn the nut in till the steering wheel just begins to bind and then back off just a bit. If the nut turns in so far that the cotter pin might not hold it, add a washer or two behind the nut.

I have mowed with both a 312-8 and a 310-8 . As long as you cut dry grass at the correct adjustment height and the grass isn't ridiculously tall you should be fine. I never really noticed a big difference between either model mowing with both of the engines being Kohler Magnums. However I would suggest the 42'' side discharge. Just my experiences.

I was told that ATF will condition and shine up an old tire. I have some I plan to use at some point and give Putt Putt a semi retirement

Back on th 520-H! Been a long winter and it's time to get this 2000 hour basket case to work! Tackling some of the outstanding issues that would cause to it to be a burden to use or otherwise be unreliable. The goals is to fix the major concerns, then put it to work this year taking care of my parent's place. After it proves itself this year, we will make some time to get more detailed with it next year. First step is the awful steering. Replaced the tie rod ends, which took up a significant amount of slop. The gear reduction system still needs shimmed/adjusted to get the rest of the play out, and the front axle will need reamed/bushed to take care of the negative camber issue. The larger issue that we are going to deal with later is the steering quadrant not being properly welded in respect to the main fan gear. We made temporary accommodations for this by adjusting the tie rod ends to balance the steering as best as possible. Video detailing some of our findings:

The lighter motor recommendation came out in a service bulletin in the mid 60's. It was to minimize the suction effect on the shift rails with hopes to minimize getting the transmission stuck in two gears. A short time later they came out with another bulletin with an actual mechanical fix. Using the lighter oil ended up in a few owners manuals and was never changed back. But so many of these transmissions lead a long life being lubed on water and sludge just keep something slick in there. I use 80w90 in mine.

Factory routing for small block Kohler models. This is on my 867, yours should be th same.

14 year old Elam making perfect zero turns this morning. Video Project 3.mp4

The arm where cable is attached is tighten behind the the governor bushing. The arm also controls max RPM of the engine.

Is a 16hp Magnum bigger than a 12hp? I have a 12 in a C-175

I did this so I had a longer throttle lever throw.

@kpinnc or @953 nut might know the availability better down there. I'm under the impression that a 16 HP in NC is rare as hen's teeth. A Magnum would hit the hood on a C series.

I always understood taking pictures of Amish was forbidden ...the graven image thing. After becoming friends with my new neighbor, I asked. He said he had no problem with pictures of his activity but they are not allowed to pose for pictures. Different strokes for different folks and sects.

Green, red, yellow, blue, they're all the same, all can do the job, all can break down, and all can cause you both joy and pain. I see beauty in every color, every brand.

I've always thought that changed when the shifter rails issues got better. Thicker oils would definitely add to the "sticky" of the rails. But I would agree. If all I had on hand was 30w, I would put it in the tranny at least temporarily. But I would be sure to dump it and use 80w if I was using the transmission for plowing, heavy towing or anything that really stressed those bearings. Not to open the oldest can of worms on earth (oil discussions), but 30w oil is at best a compromise in engines. It's barely thick enough to protect working surfaces, but in air cooled engines has to be thin enough to provide a degree of cooling as well. In a geared transmission that never gets hot, the heavier 80w oil offers much better protection for the bearings.

Since it is unlike metals I would use anti seize, just don’t over tighten, the torque should be reduced because of the lubricant. It would be a good idea to run a tap in the holes and use new bolts of the same or higher strength, and if you go a bit longer it would get you into better threads.

SUCCESS!

That's exactly like I read in some manual. Forget where. But, it didn't seem unreasonable. I ended up doing it three times before the torque was set to the proper ft lbs. It's not hard, just takes patience to keep going out there and starting her up.

No not unless you have some fin plugging that reduces cooling. For a putt around resto painting fins will have no adverse effect. If you are going to work the snot out of it yes just a light coat or nothing. No head paint no matter what the tractor is used for. This motor @Achto just painted got it with just regular paint and will only darken or burn off around the exhaust but for a show tractor will be just fine.

Finally another update. I managed to source every individual piece to install a slot hitch. All pieces came in over the last couple weeks and today finally had some time to put every thing together.also took the AG tires off the 77 for temp use on this one so I can dig out the garden.

Thanks! That was our second guess. Since he has headlights, I guess he can use for decoration in his shop! Great work on the decals by the way!

That decal goes on the front if your tractor does not have headlights.

Pretty much whatever kind of gear oil you have laying around. Anything between 80w and 80w140. Gl4 or gl5 does not matter because there's no brass or other yellow metal inside a Wheelhorse transmission. Quantity is 2 quarts.

Here is a !971 Raider with black wheels.

Only EVER just lightly oil the THREADS.. (not the heads or washers) anti seize compound while it might seem a good idea will severely throw off your torque readings and allow you to overtorque the bolts leading to head warp and gasket failure.