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On my way home from picking up 4 tractors and lots of parts. Some will be for sale in PA at the show, just not sure what yet. Two tractors definitely stay with Emory and I.

So i had a brand new 06 FLHT when i was 19, loved it, rode it. Life started happening, quit my job of 8 years went to school to become a Mechanic, sold my Bike to do it, had a kid on the way all cards were in the air. Im happy to say that my wonderful wife, 5 years and 2 kids later told me to go buy a motorcycle again. 2 days later i brought this home..... 04 ultra classic and im loving every minute of it!

Small progress. Of course the calcium ate holes in the rims, so I patched up another set. Got the front and rears painted today.

Decided to blow the dust and grass clippings off my K341 thumper. I like this beast almost as much as my GT14’s.

Down to the bones. Frame repair, strip and prime.

Ended up going to the local Walmart tire shop to get em mounted today. Got them installed on the tractor, along with the new Xtreme mower clutch. Greased it all up, put the deck on and ran it around the yard a bit. All ready for mowing season.

Helps the mounting process, to get some heat into the rubber before you start. Easily accomplished by leaving them out on the hot asphalt for a few hours, mid summer. Make sure you flip 'em a few times to evenly distribute the Sun's heat. Sounds crazy, but you'd be surprised how much easier the hand mounting process goes.

model # 1-6231 with 12 hsp Kohler ...Transmission #5060 10 pinion limited slip with mower deck and snow blade.

Made it to the first pull of the season with the GT-1100. Grandpa ended up placing second. Thanks for all the help guys!

You need to get one because Skittles AND that custom 2 seat hot rod are supposed to be coming.

Took Skittles down to the bare bones. Put the frame on the rotisserie and got it all stripped, wire wheeled and primed today. Also fixed the crappy weld job on the front. Someone popcorn welded a thick piece of steel on the front to the real thin factory piece. Scuff it and paint it tomorrow and let it bake a couple days. Front axle and side panels are next.

Today was the plowing contest at the show. There were 11 total people. I used one of Bob Rentzels case tractors. It was my first plowing competition but I did pretty well. Next year I will have a wheel horse put together for plowing, but the case was a good tractor to start on. Here are a few pics of the plots afterwords and Bobs rig that I used.

Rebuilt a Wheel Horse seat my sister helped save w ith new black upholstry vinyl, repainted a bunch of RJ and Suburban Wheel Horse clutch parts, wanted to get my RJ transmssion on the RJ frame today but found a problem with the brake shaft not tur ning and had to contact Stevesaurus for some advice. I was gettting ready to put the new oil seals in the brake and drive sfates (the big oiil seals) and then fill with fluid. But I did a check on axles, drive sfat and brake first. Good thin I did. Steve says I need to take a look at teh way the muchroom gear at teh bottom of the brake sfat goes into the bearing and how high the bearing sits in the bearing race. It is bound up tight and needs to move freely . Will get to that tomorrow! I have anoterh RJ transmssion that is unpainted but operates well. However, I have not taken a look inside it yet. Two other ones I have need major work and may not have 100% surviial !

Nice catch! (the Wife I mean!) Bike's nice too...

Nice set of front wheel weights. $175.00 EDIT: Weights spoken for!

Seeing a boat coming in my neck of the woods is either on one of the rivers (barge) or something on a trailer that is never going to fit through our Work Zone...lol. I love watching the big ships, just wish the coast wasn't so far away. Sarge

Now I wanna go watch The Hunt For Red October!!! Randy

Thanks to all who have posted comments, thoughts and suggestions on this topic. All tig weld done on the valve seat counter bore. Machining finished, seat installed, and finished putting the engine back in the 520 today. Sounds good as new. Special thanks to Boomer for the detailed discussion about the couple of years of questionable casting material in the Onan's, and trading thoughts on my assumptions and calculations on coefficient values of the block and the steel seat. Having replaced the same seat at 680 hours, with a .010 oversized seat, pressed at .004, and now again at 1480 hours, I was looking for more resolve, with the intent to wear out the engine before I have to deal with another loose seat. With that, I went with a .007 press fit, and staked the casting around the seat, as a result of calculating the coefficients of both the aluminum block and the steel seat, with some assumption, and the green light from 35 year local master machinist. As I assembled this thing though, I stewed over why Onan, or any engine designer, would blow air across the engine, across the exhaust port, and then across the intake, and then wrap sheet metal all around it. So in the process of assembling the sheet metal and shroud, I decided to experiment, and made a 1-3/4" hole in the top rear of the flywheel shroud, and the same in the side of the sheet metal shroud that covers the exhaust/intake and valve cover area on the back cylinder. I then acquired a piece of 1-1/2" i.d. flex tube (like you used to see coming off the heat shield on a '60's or 70's model car's exhaust manifold), up to the air snorkel on the air cleaner housing. I connected the one end into the hole on the flywheel shroud, and the other end into the cover over the exhaust/intake and valve cover area of the rear cylinder, and sealed both ends. After I finished the rest of the assembly, fired it up and left it get to operating temp and then hit it with my heat temp gun. As suspected, the change in temp from the front to the rear cylinder was significant. Temp checking the block, in the jug area where the intake seat would be, front cylinder = 204F-210F, rear cylinder = 170F-175F. Interestingly though, the intake runners right at the head were both about 220F-225F, which is understandable, given the exhaust pipe passes just above the intake runner. Exhaust temp, was 325F, on the pipe just above the intake runner on the rear cylinder, which is in the immediate area I installed the 1-1/2" flex tube. The exhaust pipe on the front cylinder, just above the intake runner was ranging 350-355F. All temps taken at 3300 rpm. I'm considering adding flex tube to the front end of the flywheel shroud, and sending a shot over to the top of the heat shield on the front cylinder (intake valve side). One last note of interest, when idled down to 1200 rpm, within two minutes, rear cylinder temp dropped to 150F-155F, front cylinder only dropped to 189F at best. Throwing this out there, see if anyone has tried this on any 520's. Pics attached. Thanks again to all, look forward to further comments or hearing about your own experiments.

Here are a few pictures of the starter installed about an hour after we got home.... lol I need to find a belt guard for a 4 hp kohler if anyone has one....

@Ed Kennell Thanks for the pictures , the pedal cars are very nice , but the Big Question is "did you sell any buckets? " .

This one from my Mrs Rules camera...

Strong winds last evening broke the top 20ft of a pine tree in the back yard. Wanted to use the 310-8 to pull it out of the yard. Was too much for her even with Ags 10 pinion and better half standing on the hitch we just tore up the turf. Had to get one of her bigger friends out (1951 Case VAC). She hadn't been started since last Oct. fired right up and pulled the tree top a quarter mile away.

Just removed the 400's plow... and went for a backyard burn.

Let some of the horses get some fresh air today.

Such the consummate heavy duty workhorse there... thing has moved more snow than any man's ever seen.

Hey guys we were following someone Home who bought a tractor from Dad. Passed a little WH with free sign. After unloading we stopping and grabbed it. Rear tires leak badly and are being swapped now. Looks like a little nice mower. Little brother to the D180.

Looks great Tom

Didn't you tell me you needed to thin the herd out to make room for the "D": you bought from Tom? Guess you came up with a "magic shed" of your own! Let me see if I can guess which ones stay.

Here is the 1968 blade supplied for you tractor. Click on the picture. Notice the rear axle quick hitch mounts on the front of the rear axle housing. This may be what the seller calls the short frame bracket. Later on the frame was a bit longer and the hitch mounted on the bottom of the axle housing. Later again the blade width was increased from 42" to 48" and the A-frame was made to fit both the short frame which you have and the long frame models so the last blades in 2007 or so for this series of tractors will all fit. Here is a later model with the type of hitch that continued to the end. The lever to change the blade angle often needs to be reversed or slightly bend to clear pto linkage but not a big deal. Garry

You better quit stealing all the horses from down here in the flatlands. No wonder there are none for sale . Looks like your sidekick had a busy day.

Try taking the gas cap off I just had one with a plugged vent if it runs with no cap it's only 7 or 8 bucks. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater it's something simple those magnum singles rarely go down for no reason

Thats awesome Tony!

To me getting worse when it get's hot is a sign the hydro is failing. I would remove the seat pan and make sure all the cooling fins are clean. Lots of grass and grease usually end up there. If it's clean, I'd start looking for a new pump or complete trans setup

If you clamp a Vice-grip to the lip of the rim it will keep the tire from sliding.

More pics from today. Mr. Bob Rentzel with his working JD plow tractor. With Cullan Swartz at the wheel. More of Bob's collection of pedal tractors. Pullers A few old Wheel Horses and owners.

I’m currently about 5000 miles away...or I would have been there.

I did as well. I really like the c160 for mowing.

Mowed the yard today with the 16 HORSE THUMPER!!!!!!!!

I'll try to dig it out this weekend Mike, though there's a lot going on here too. Just bustin' your stones buddy.

Hi all, new to the site and hope you can assist me, I’ve purchased a 312-8 today to do up, only thing is the wiring is worse than a crows nest! I’ve put a charged battery on and nothing, no lights noises or anything, the ignition switch has been re-wired and there is non connected wires all over the place, Im just wondering if there is a good diagram to follow as I plan to re-wire it, I shall get all the relevant numbers tomorrow to correctly identify it yours hopefully, kasweld

Just picked up a 2002 520xi w/ 52 in deck and 198.7 hours on the clock. Came with a snow blower. Blower has set outside and is faded and ugly but is all there. Original owner passed away and his heirs didn’t want this so they sold it to a Deere dealership about 1 hr 45 mins from me. Needed blades and still needs cleaned up. I have a 72 inch ztr but have been looking for one of the 5xi series for a little bit. Wanted one when they came out but couldn’t afford one. Was mowing 2.5 acres with a 1974 C160 that was bought new by my dad. Story for a different time. Snow blower will be for sale or trade (almost prefer trade)

Very Nice Haul! Are the round hoods 854's?

Pretty sure... when that's done, it's done. If you know what I mean.

Hey Lars...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATE.

Welcome to Red Square! If I'm reading this right, It sounds like the starter drive moves out and engages the gear on the flywheel, but the flywheel doesn't move. Is the starter drive (Bendix) spinning on the starter shaft. Most have a pin in there to stop that, maybe its missing.

You can pick up a S/G regulator at TSC. The sores may not have all styles in stock but you can go with the saddle mount for the common location right on the S/G or a flat mount to locate it somewhere else. More expensive than online. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tisco-voltage-regulator-vr1820?cm_vc=IOPDP1 Or order one online from Pat's at about 1/2 the price. $16 http://www.psep.biz/store/kohler_starter_motors.htm A shorter belt will pull the S/G closer to the engine or it may fit below the carb on the other side if you want or need the room. Use of a solenoid for the start circuit will allow for a common key switch or you need to go with a high voltage type switch or separate push button type.

Great info guys thanks. The boy has lights already wired to the battery on board that is why we even have the battery. I am leaning towards adding the charging system so he does not have to charge battery all the time. I need to take inventory on what parts I have in stock ...

Just downloaded the pictures off real camera.

Howard, I pray that the surgery will go well and you will be restored to proper vision. The best advice a doctor can give after surgery is to rest the body part that has been operated on. We all know you are well qualified to rest your eyes. Get Well Howard!