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Just can't do the bending over for long periods anymore. Think it's called getting older, which by the way stinks. So I had to come up with a way to bring the tractor to me.

I recently bought a non running D-200 because it seemed to be pretty original with decent tires and what appeared to be a good 48" deck, knowing it was a gamble (and the price wasnt that great) Got her home and immediately ripped all the rotten fuel stuff out and mounted a temporary tank.Thing started up right away and sounded great...but.... after 2-3 minutes here comes the smoke! HEAVY smoke! out of the right cylinder. So I get it out of the shop and find the Sundstrand is working great, engage the deck and cut grass for 10-15 minutes and the thing runs great with good power, but its smoking bad. I put fresh oil in hoping rings had just stuck and with clean oil maybe would clear up - nope, wasnt gonna happen. I begin to look into rebuilding it (and yes I had heard some of the tales of scarce parts) Despite hearing Brian Miller at A-1 Miller was a bit difficult to contact I tried there first since he supposedly has the necessary parts for a build - minus connecting rods! Well, apparently the stories are true, I couldnt get a peep out of anybody there. During my, seemingly hours of, digging into research on the "Big Three" - K482, K532, &K582 I found that the piston/rings for a K321 would interchange with the 532 but that was all - no gaskets. When I wasnt prowling the web for info I went ahead and pulled my engine, finding that I had a .020 bore and apparently? when assembled after boring, the rings on that right cylinder were stacked with the gaps facing down causing oil to get by there?? at least that was all I could see out of place. The cylinder walls were beautiful and the crank also, The right rod had a slight stripe right down the center that made me a bit nervous. Going back to the web (ebay) I found one of the suppliers of the overhaul 'kits' offered standard K-321 3 3/8" pistons/rings and also .020 & .030 over, I order a pair of those. Still needed head gaskets, pan gasket and exhaust gaskets. Parts Tree actually had the exhaust and pan gaskets, and a reasonable price! I kept trying different search wording to locate head gaskets and finally hit on a guy that had 10 of them at $12 apiece! I jumped on them! Was also continually prowling for a connecting rod and a used one finally popped up for bid - after 5 days of anxiously waiting, got it for $36 I now had all the parts!! So fellas If you got a broke big twin, just maybe you too can find parts. The pistons/rings for a K-301 12hp are apparently a match for the K-482 18hp, and a connecting rod for any of the 'Big 3" will interchange. (the one I got was out of a JD 582) I got it back running yesterday and after about an hour of run time everything seems to be OK -- no smoke!! I had plenty of time waiting to round up the parts so I did a bit of clean and paint on the engine. I even rigged up a pretty nice set of 'stacks' for it! End result was that I feel a lot better about my purchase now, it seems to be a really nice tractor.

The horses w/ batteries came out for some green grass today. The poor guys w/o batteries are stuck in the barn.

My dad has a New Holland lawn tractor and he and my brother have put hundreds if not thousands of hours on this thing since 2000. Now the engine is in bad shape and they have a "parts" tractor and my brother says he will swap engines.....some time... My brother just came over and asked "do you have a mower I can borrow"? Kind of hard to say no when he knows I have 10 running GT's several with mowing decks! Guess I could give him the push mower

Howdy. New guy here. Signed up a while back. Finally took some time to poke around here today. Just did my first post today after discovering and ordering Straight From The Horse's Mouth book. Looking forward to reading it. I was born in 1963. My dad started buying WH tractors about 1960. He sold new Chevys and Buicks. He and the local WH dealer traded business. So he had a new tractor every couple of years and the dealer had a new Chevy every few years. So I've grown up around them and have a fondness for them to this day. I got my first one, a .68 Commando when I was 24-25. Soon after I bought a '77 B80 in 1994 and still use it to mow and push snow. I've recently purchased a '77 B100 project to get the mower deck as mine is rusting out. It needs some putting back together as the engine was overhauled several years ago and the owner passed away before getting it running. I've just ordered some missing parts to get it running. May need some help and advice before too long. Thanks, Todd

It's not very often that they come back "the same", go by your Gut Feeling on loaning your tractor. Sometimes it may take weeks or months to finally find out 'what's different' after you get your loaner back. I would much rather go and cut their grass myself, and not if they are doing commercial grasses (other peoples), "no-way". Plus, you never know how long it may gone and hours per day it may be used. You know your own brother best.

Yep, use ramps. Block the wagon so it won't move. I then can wheel it around where I want it. Yes Denny the AC has been my favorite item in the shop at the moment. Got to keep the shop shut up because skeeters and other flying biting critters. One can only put so much bug juice on. Even got critters that say "Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead and go right through the bug juice. So I closed the shop up and using a old AC unit that was tossed out because neighbor did not like all the noise the fan made. Lol But yeah the wagon works great. My back is loving it. Should have done it long time ago.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend this Year's Show. Books are still available at www.wheelhorsestory.com I hope each of you have a wonderful time. Sunshine, friends, family, food, and of course WHEEL HORSE! Regards, Michael Martino

If you spent time lurking here, you know we need photos of your GT's!!

Picked up a RJ35 over the weekend. The guy I bought it from says it's a 1955. It has a K91 engine, that runs pretty good, and has a 5003 transmission. From the little research I've done, I found that the 5003 trans was a dealer installed option. The trans is dated 024-9. The tractor is in decent shape, came with 2 good decks, deck belt cover and a homemade hitch. Needs a few things like a drive belt cover, correct seat, exhaust shield, steering wheel has a chunk of the rubber missing, one hub has an broken tab and uses a through bolt, etc. Right now, I'm having issues with the belt/trans. There is not enough slack in the belt when the pedal is pressed to stop the drive pulley from rotating, thus I cannot shift in to gear. I bought a bit longer belt, but that did not work. Any thoughts on what the issue could be? And as always, here are a few pictures.

I would highly suggest that while you have the engine apart, locate the T & A timing marks on the back side-edge of the flywheel and lightly sand the area of both. Then paint the letters with white paint so they are highly visible. This will facilitate mechanically timing the engine, and if you have an inductive timing light, you can fine tune the gap after she is running.

Had a couple of minutes last night late. Got a little farther. Using welding clamps to secure it to the boards for now. I'm sure I'll be moving things around and don't want to drill 20 holes. I will need to locate the holes in the fender pan and don't want to mess that up. I'm going to put the top frame on the floor and flip the whole thing upside down and assemble the back half. Take off the seat and then set it all back on the tractor. I think it's the only way to get it close to where it needs to be,

Probably the same person that let you in Craig?

It has been a long time since I last posted on this thread. I was speaking with a member here who really knows these old trucks and we worked out a deal to have him take the truck from where I left off to finishing it enough to run and drive. He has been picking away at it when time permits and I have to say I could not be happier. Last Friday I went to his home shop to check it out and try and start it for the first time. I attached pics of when he picked it up and a few videos from Friday and today. Looking like she will be ready for Kent this year and also my Meet and Greet in October... woo hoo !! IMG_0414.MOV IMG_0375.MOV IMG_0377.MOV IMG_0413.MOV

Got it registered today, its legal to drive on the road!! So here in Connecticut when ya walk in to the DMV (Dept. of Motor Vehicles) you wait in a line to get a ticket with your number (this can be anywhere from 2 minutes to 20 minutes)....then you wait for the number to be called. I've been to DMV enough to know what being 59 numbers away from being called means...OVER 2 HOURS OF WAITING! So I've been there about 15 minutes and I'm leaning against the back wall when some guy gets fed up of waiting and storms out, and leaves his ticket behind. Hmmmm....what do I do....grab his ticket which is almost 20 numbers closer to being called than mine and in another 40 minutes it gets called and 10 minutes after that I'm walkin outa the DMV with a brand new registration in my hand! That little score saved me about 45 minutes of waiting. Gotta pay it back right?..so as I'm leaving I see a guy with a ticket that says D813 and I hand him my D786 ticket and his eyes just about bugged outa his head! It felt great! Finally the truck earned it keep tonight and hauled the wife and I and our little boat out to the local lake . Mike...........

Here are a few pictures of my All Original 312-8 with PECO Vac. Came outfitted from dealer just how you see it. I bought it from original owner a bit over a year ago. I only use it late fall for clean up. I modded the bag system so removing when full is easier. I also did freshen up the deck with a few patch welds, complete strip and re-paint. Tractor is how it came back in the day. Hope you all like pictures. MU

Yep, that's gotta be the reason it won't run. I also found the intake valve had 0.001" clearance , so I ground the stem to get 0.006". The exhaust was Ok. Would It have been built this way or is it common for the intake to loose clearance? Also found the points were set at 0.009". Cleaned and reset to 0.020". One side of the hood bracket was broke off , so I fixed that while waiting for new engine parts delivery. The holes in the hood bracket were really wallowed out, so I drilled them out to 1/2" and installed 1/2 X 3/8 bushings made from nylon tubing, then welded on brackets for a 3/8" hinge pin. " THATS ALL FOLKS" Mrs K just called dinner.

Well did a ton of work on this tractor over the last couple weeks and it is finally done! It turned out very well only a few things that are not prefect but it is a blast to drive, being my first RJ. I love the quick steering. I will post up some pictures tomorrow in the day light. Thanks so much for all the great help on this forum. I have never found a more helpful forum and the most friendly people. THANKS! James

Glenn .. I would LOVE to find an old school pin striper around here ... all my little blotches are vinyl .. sucks I know, but til I find a real live arteeest ... thats all I got!! LOL Nah once I get the bunper done ... with any luck next week, I will take some full pics toi share. I'm an ass, but not THAT much of an ass!! LOL

Yup. We gets 'em Runnin, Stoppin, and sometimes in the weeds at Hilltop Garage Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Got a few more projects done ... the running board skirts, and the trophy babe finally finished my dash labels!!! It's gettin there ... front bumper is next!!! PS .... I will find a place here, was thinking of the third weekend in JAN,(16-17) the same weekend as the Crystal River Manatee Festival ... so there will be plenty for the whole family to do, as if playin with horses ain't enough!!! LOL

If you are referring to my brother, NO....he lets dad buy the mower then he uses it! But that is what dads brother did with grandpa's mowers!

You're close. The T mark is TDC, or "Top Dead Center", and the A mark is the one without a letter and indicates 20 degrees before TDC. Time, per that instruction, to the unmarked line. That is also the line you will fine tune the timing to when using an inductive timing light. Remember that opening the points advances the timing and closing them retards the timing. So based on your picture you are too advanced right now. I'd adjust it per the procedure then use the light to get it spot on once it's running.

Todd...

Why not air 'em up to 80, and see how you like the ride.

http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/topic/57041-dont-loan-your-stuff/#comment-527285

Well, considering your battery issue....doesn't look like getting the Lawn cut should be any kind of an issue...

Good looking herd.

Not knowing if you know how to statically time the engine, here is a link to the procedure. This gets you "very close", the inductive timing light will get you spot on after it has been mechanically timed. Normally I've found that a few thousandths one way or the other gets you "spot on". KOHLER K SERIES STATIC TIMING http://mgonitzke.net16.net/tools/static_timing.pdf

Cutting wheel on a grinder or a sawzall with metal blade. Can also use a jig saw with a metal blade.

His name is Glen Pettit. You can find him in the vendors list.

Metal looks good, seems original, if there are no engine or trans issues it will be an easy restoration...I'd take it home before someone else does, but where I am, they are rare.

It appears that the shop ordered me the replacement for the #1232 instead of #1257. I'll reorder. Thanks, I will get this little guy together.

Thanks everyone! Jake - So the kit came with the angle iron frame and the transmission and all of the other components from another tractor? Any info you could share would be great.

Bend over?

It's there James !

Picked this one up this rainy 4th of July morning. Any guesses? I know, that's not much of a clue. Maybe this will help. Loaded up and heading home. One more clue.

It seems all I have been doing this summer is working on my two boats and not USING them. The past few days have been brutally hot out and I have been working outside all day. Today I decided there ain't nothing stopping me from hittin the lake after work. I took the 54 Crestliner out with the 54 Evinrude 25 hp (the trailer is a 54 as well). I went with my two Boys, Jesse on the left and Cole on the right. All three of us did some tubing. I was the only one not knocked off the tube even though Jesse tried his darndest!

Start that thread Ed!

I'm glad the rule was enforced....you let one person drive a Simplicity and the next year there will be "other brands" all over the showgrounds, JD vendors, Cub pulling tractors..etc..etc.. Mike.........

It is a 3 speed transmission. Someone put a 8 hp Briggs on it. The little feller looks like it's had a rough life but would like to see it looking good. Don't mind putting some time in on it.

Wow I think linder is trying to make our horses have to haul around a few extra pounds

I dug into the 875 this week....I think I found the reason It wouldn't run. I'll start a new post "875 redo" in restorations if you are interested.

Stevasaurus's tricycle during the annual Boy Scout parade circa 1957, It was with a heavy heart that Steve sold his prized possession for his first Wheel Horse.

I may have paid for three.....$0.30 / mile seems like too much for two. I think you got it Jack.

I hope you paid that toll for two vehicles and not one. I'm sending the WOLF after you!

Nice pics Isn't it funny how there's always that one clown at the party with a lamp shade on his head

Its quite nice actually. I guess you could say its sort of like power steering in a Wheel Horse kind of way. LOL Thank you for letting me know about the increased effort without the gear reduction. Now I know that I should for sure install the whole system.

Well here is the wok that I've completed in the last week. I've upgraded the front end to 520-H specs with a forward swept axle and installed LED headlights that are incredibly bright and barely register a draw in the ammeter. I never realized how much heavier built the forward swept 520-H axle is compared to the standard axle, which is nothing to bat an eye at either. The gear reduction steering will be installed once I get some down time and the steering wheel off. Any tips? Long term I want to install hydraulics and once it is all repainted, I'll have some decals made that identify this machine as a C-165 Super Duty, but first, I need to either make some spacers for the rear or find a decent set of 520H rear rims.