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Hi! I’m new…long time reader. Here is my C160

July 18, 1980, Billy Joel's "Glass Houses" album tops US charts, featuring "It's Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me".

Billy lives about 4-5 miles from me in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Across the street from his house is his boat, the Downeaster Alexa. It is the most stunning example of a Downeaster style boat that I have ever seen. Downeaster Alexa is one of my favorite songs, as it truly tells the story of the struggle of our local baymen and has many references to our local waterways and towns. The song also has a great video.

I would often run into a father & son at the Barber Shop. Richard, the father was a night security guard at a local Hotel - the place where the Company I worked for would have their annual Christmas Party. One year, after the party, my Boss's tipsy wife started to play the piano in the lobby - and not very well. Richard comes over to disuade her from playing & my Boss gets in his face. I intervened - it was all OK once she stopped. We all went off to the Hotel lounge where Richard told us the night Billy Joel did the same. He had returned to the Hotel after his local show, and was playing when Richard told him to stop - it was after midnight - but once he recognized Billy Joel, said to play as long as he wished. That became an informal sing along with the other Hotel guests that lasted until 4 AM..... Put a price on that - up front & personal with "The Piano Man" himself..

Keep the seal on after packing with new grease and they'll be perfectly fine. Waste of time and grease filling that entire wheel hub with grease IMO. (For normal intended use anyway) However, If you're "4 wheel'n" with it through the swamps and puddles every week then I would recommend removing the inner seals and flushing them out with new grease through the zerk. Mowing the lawn or towing a trailer, not so much. We have the technology they didn't have back in the day with the seals, so use them until they fail many years down the road and let your grandchildren replace them when necessary. (Stay away from the stamped steel bearings sealed or not )

IMO, the sealed bearings are the way to go. They keep the grease in where it is needed and keeps the dirt out. No need to fill a wheel hub with a pound of grease that makes a mess. The low RPM of these sealed bearings should insure a long life.

Hi, I'm old. to the Really nice working rig. C-160 .... one of the best Wheel Horse made. Mine didn't work....she just played at the shows.

I did a repair to the tail of the C81 hoodstand and posted the repair on the forum. I actually used 2 hoodstands, as one had a good left side, the right half of the other was cracked but not broken off. Made up 2 lower patches of 1/8 x 1-1/2 angle iron and welded them in.

Glass Houses will always hold a special place for me. First album I ever owned. I needed it for a music class report back in elementary school. The lyrics are listed in the album jacket.

I installed the rubber floor tiles 2x2 in my enclosed that lock together. Unfortunately they began to buckle a lot and I have to physically cover the lifting or should I say cupping joints with flatstock metal. I hope this floor holds up better than mine did. it is a tough call on best flooring to install in these trailer. Yours looks good Kev!

I've been using sealed bearings for the front wheels for quite some time now. Excellent results. I decided to try them on a mower deck with some hesitation. The first deck is on the 5th year now and no issues.

The motion control on Wheelamatics is anemic at best relying on two little springs to hold tension on the placstic plate. Here is something I am setting up to put on my neighbors 1075 or my 875. You need to get the motion control with the big cross spring from any later hydro gear or piston to piston sunstrand. It will fit right in the only glitch is the later one had different bend in the control lever. So I cut off the one from the late model and am grafting on a cut off from the older style. Shaft collars and set screws are temp until I check the alignment .

The 520HC and later models of the 520H had bumped up console plate with an extended plate that allowed the rear console screws to help with the seat load. After welding and reinforcing the broken area, you might want to look into spacing the console cover up and utilizing the holes mentioned. Part #1 is extended and part #6 is bumped up.

Not just you. Common problem with this series tractor, have seen several 300 series broke here. I have repaired 2 that I have by welding metal under broke piece, seem to be working fine. I can't seem to find pic of repair but here it is before fix. Not a biggie but I always try and check this area when looking at a tractor I'm interested in and makes for sumin to show seller and may take some off price.

Another thing to mention about these toys is when raising the gate do so very slowly and careful not to let it slam. You get rough with it the torsion cable can come off the spool then you have a mess. Ask me how I know. The only way to fix it is take the spring tension off and rewind. A real PIA. I don't know why they don't use assist springs on the hinge like the campers. would eliminate a lot of hassle. Use slit pool noodles over the cables so no one gets cloths lined and easy to see when loading or backing off.

Straight out of the box. Maximum lazy. There's no heat buildup at all on the front wheel bearings. It kinda sounded like I used these bearing on the deck spindles. Nope. But I did use a sealed bearings. I don't remember the brand.

Thanks for all the replies, I truly value all your advice and opinions. I also felt that pumping half a tube of grease into the wheel hub when a teaspoon of it in the right place would do the job. So, I'm going to open them up flush the OEM lubrication out, repack with Lucas tacky red and seal them back up.

I took the 42” deck off the 312 because after mowing the fire station lawn. It started to make horrendous noises. After some investigation, the slack adjuster was loose and the bolts holding in the spindles were too. I tightened them down with a wrench this time, but still may put some blue locktite on the spindle bolts, as a bit of added insurance. I also checked and filled the spindles to the top with grease. The grease was coming out the center spindle, so I know that was full. I was being a bit like @peter lena and making sure moving things were lubed up non moving were tightened down and things were good.🙂 I had to fix the 308’s rear left tire as well. it had sat and lost air breaking the bead. My 9 year old nephew decided to stop by then so he got a lesson on how to fix and reattach a tire. I got another set of hands. He was all for moving the 308 out of the workshop in first gear so I could clean out a bit and start to put things back. No pics as it was a busy day.

I have had this box about 45 years. Some stickers have come and gone. A lot of them were held on by magnets.

There, fixed it for you!

Took quite a few pics from the seat of my tractor, and mostly of the crew I was hanging with. @wallfish @Retired Wrencher and Paul (wallfish’s nephew) and Brad (my son).

Picked up the remnants of this 310-8 today. At some point in its life it was repowered with a 12HP kohler that is currently stuck. Transmission is free though which is great. Not sure what direction I’m going to go in with it since the engine is stuck and it’s missing a bunch of stuff like wheels and tires, carb, fuel tank… the important stuff. A part of me kinda wants to piece it back together. We’ll see what’s happens.

I’ve been in this toolbox for over 25 years. I’ve never decorated it up with stickers like some guys do because i’ve never really found many that i was ok being “stuck” with. Kinda like deciding on a tattoo. I guess that explains why i have no tattoos either. But these stickers were an obviously worthy addition.

I ran myself over with the 1076 this morning. Looks like I still have to do some adjusting on the motion-control tension. I was trying to investigate the loss of power with the blades engaged and the vibration of the tractor while running is enough to knock it into gear.

You can power it from I or the battery they only draw 4-6 amps WH didn't use a relay ...a fuse might not be a bad idea. To me relays add another potential wiring failure point.

Nope

Most carburetors with an enrichment circuit must have the throttle completely at the minimum (idle) setting for the enrichment to function. I rode motorcycles and snowmobiles for years and found the majority had no clue how they worked.

thanks for the comments. Last year, I just changed the impeller and plate. This year, it got a new housing, plate, and impeller. The old housing had scratch marks. Light ones, kind of like 320 sandpaper leaves. Don't know if that was the issue or not. The BF20 has an enrichment circuit instead of a choke. I think that is where my cold start issues are hiding. Recent tinkering has improved it, but not eliminated it.

I still vote for bed liner. The best hands down. It's tuff , cleans easy when @Achto has a bowel movement on it , water & oil resistant, non skid & patches easily if damaged. Moisture can not get underneath it to get trapped & cause damage. You really only need e track down the sides Kev. At times it would be nice to have some along the side wall for hauling furniture and such. No backing to screw to tho. A well built trailer would have backing in the side walls and there may very well be. My track was is 12' one piece from a trailer outfit. The recessed tie downs were factory. Buddy Massey Jason has VCT ( glue down tiles ) in a black & white checker board which is cool but gets kinda slick. I also used it on the ass end of the toy hauler after rotted out repairs. It sealed the new deck down nicely to the sidewall against water intrusion.

Mine is a 90 hp. I think it’s a 2002. Carbureted (four of them!) four cylinder with tiller steering. Starts easy every time, but does require choke the first start of the day Which I guess isn’t a surprise. I remember you posting about your 20 last year. Did you replace just the impeller or did you do the whole setup? If it was just the impeller maybe there is something misshapen or worn in the housing or on the plate under the impeller. Any chance you dock it in shallow, sandy bottom? My cousin had a Mercury motor that was hard starting but otherwise ran great once fired up. He had it tinkered with repeatedly and nothing fixed it. Carbs, plugs, etc. This went on for years. Eventually the fuel lift pump failed and when replaced the hard starting issue went away completely. Hopefully it’s something simple and cheap like that. My motor has been exceptional. My boat was previously owned by a guide in northern Wisconsin and I bought it from him in 2018. When I picked it up we talked about maintenance and whatnot. He wasn’t super obsessive with maintenance. Said oil change every year. He didn’t remember when the waterpump had last been changed and confirmed the timing belt had never been touched. He guessed it had 800 hours on it. I bet it’s more. The boat was 15 years old when I got it and he had only a small transom trolling motor on it. No bowmount. He said he back trolled most of the time. From what I can see from his current postings for his guide service he’s fishing every day through the three month summer and less frequently until ice up. So I bet the hours on this thing are really at least 1500. I trolled crankbaits with it today for about three hours, so I’m getting some time on it periodically too. But nothing like he did. I still haven’t changed the water pump so it is way way way way way past due. At least 9 years old. I bought one in June and will do it at some point over the summer. Mine is a a year where they transitioned ftom one gearcase to another so there’s a chance I got the wrong parts. Honda outboards have a great general reputation but have two drawbacks in my opinion. First, there aren’t very many dealers so service isn’t as available in most areas like it is for other brands…especially Mercury. This is a problem for getting maintenance parts. Second, Honda is clinging to carburetors on everything 30 hp and below. Other makers have fuel injection down to at least 9.9 hp. Fuel injection is one of those things that is under appreciated. The BF20 has a great reputation amoung a number of guide services in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. The Honda 20 has apparently more umph than other 20s and is still reasonably light. I’m sure that’s changing. All that said, I just bought a 25 hp Suzuki and if I was looking for another motor I’d give them a hard look. They’ve garnered a great reliability reputation, have a decent dealer network, and are value-priced. Suzuki parts don’t seem to be badly priced either. I ordered some random things recently and don’t recall any sticker shock. FWIW, the 9.9-20 hp Zukes are all the same motor differentiated merely by different ECU programming for the timing and fuel injection. The 9.9 also has a restrictor at the throttle body that is removed on the 15 and 20. This is handly as people have realized they can get 20hp from a 9.9 with minimal investment by just changing the ECU ($500) and removing the restrictor. They use these on horsepower limited lakes. Same thing goes for the 25/30. Different ECU and a $5 gasket in lieu of the restrictor. Larger engines differ just in programming with no physical differences within a power class (this is not unique to Suzuki). believe it or not, there are places that offer tunes as well. They claim 25hp from the 9.9-20 and 35 from the 25/30. If you’re so inclined. Anyway, I really like my Honda 90. I’d get another without hesitation. I’d like to find a nice 9.9 to use as a kicker since the 8hp Yamaha I use doesn’t match and it drives me a bit crazy, but if it was a standalone I’d be looking at Suzuki. FWIW, that 8hp Yammie is a bit cold blooded and apparently that’s typical. It can take a lot of pulls to fire it up first time on a cold day. It’s also a bit loud compared to the Hondas. But it’s a nice motor…just the wrong shade of gray. Steve

You learn something new everyday. I didn't know that our bodies made that

My mother has a 2013 Honda Pilot that’s closing in on or possibly over by now 200,000 miles. It’s still going strong. A timing belt gets changed every 100,000 miles and the other various consumables along the way with no big issues yet.

I see vehicles of practically all makes and models in their “time of need” daily, so my opinions are probably somewhat biased. You can’t go wrong with a Honda or a Toyota though.

I use two 1/8" street ells as a universal joint on mine. I can get on some pretty tight zerks and still have a rigid pipe that helps to push it on the zerk.

Excellent usage. Absolutely agreed. We made our workshop space as airtight as possible. Very lightly insulated. We don't need the constant temps. Just the ability to change it when we're out there and it's too hot. Luckily the workshop is on the dark side of the building so it stays cool.

Bryl-Cream... a little dab 'll do ya! Goo for a 1950's hairdo, not wheel bearings!

If ever needed, I would not be opposed to putting a small one in this trailer. But I think we are to the point that the motorhome will be our refuge.

Recently replaced carburetor on my C-81. Also discovered I needed all new fuel line. Were a few issues w/carb, but finally got set nicely .Decided to replace ignition switch which was a doosey too. Part 130990 was part called for. Ordered off Amazon (mistake). Purchased thru Prime Line, though went thru dash nicely the threaded shaft would not sit correctly, shaft different at top of shaft. Where would someone find the correct switch, w/out trusting part # 103990?????? Also, used old switch + made all new conductors stranded. Runs very smooth! Any help appreciated!

I've only met Don in real life once but I think it's safe to say no one knows his breed.

You could have used it to make penetrating oil by adding acetone at 1:1

I tidied some of my rubber edges up, and @Lil’ Pullstart helped me snap some lines for the e-track.

I rolled out the entire door, cut it to (excessive) length, and rolled it back down. My glue pattern kind of duplicates the idea of an ag tire. I figured a diagonal grip to the wood would ensure maximum grip to a glued surface at any given time. Time will tell if that is a good idea. Like the trailer floor, I used the e-track box to roll out the bubbles and slack. A few passes center, left, right, repeat, and it seemed to flatten out well. I think the ramp worked out better than the trailer floor, but it needs to hold things by itself too. The floor will have e-track to secure it also.

I got the side door cut in. I left the rubber a bit long, so it can shed water of course.

More explanation is probably helpful. My idea is to run this up the side and staple it in place, a little glue near the cuts to make a better seal of course. I’ll run aluminum sheet along the walls and over the rubber. In my mind, it’s like building a shower pan. I don’t intend for it to be water proof, but withstand a strategic wash if needed.

Got a little more done on @Natejc_98 's rig this evening. Trina reinstalled the belt guard and right step. I got the transmission drain plug cleaned out enough to righty tighty / lefty loosey repeat repeat repeat repeat and dropped the nasty fluid. I've seen worse. It'll do with a short hours repeated flush and new fluid again. I also relocated the solenoid wire we were using for testing purposes. We had it laying around and over the gas tank. I got the harness loosened up enough to add it along side the factory taped up set and installed 3 terminals in it. What's left.......? Install hood. Refill transmission and replace shifter boot and drain plug. And.......????

I use 2 28oz tubes of HD adhesive, and the floor is glued in on bottom. I still need to cut the door opening and lay some metal over the side flaps. The back edge is still long. I may leave it a bit long, so any wet tires coming in won’t allow moisture at the edge. Let the door press seal it down, if you will. The e-track is 57 lbs and 5’ long. I figured it would work well to press the bubbles out, so I worked it front to rear a few times. I like the outcome.

Really nice Wheelhorse hauler and I can double as a portable "dog house" as needed!

Herculiner rolled on mine. Works great.