Leaderboard

April 21, 1967, General Motors (GM) celebrates the manufacture of its 100 millionth American-made car. At the time, GM was the world’s largest automaker. General Motors was established in 1908 in Flint, Michigan, by horse-drawn carriage mogul William Durant. In 1904, Durant invested in the Buick Motor Company, which was started in 1903 by Scottish-born inventor David Dunbar Buick. Within a few years of forming his company, Buick lost control of it and sold his stock, which would later be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Durant made Buick Motors the cornerstone of his new holding company, General Motors, then acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Reliance Motor Company, among other auto and truck makers.

Your engine is splash lubricated with relatively wide clearances when compared to a modern automotive pressure lubricated engine, I would go with 30 as stated in the engine manual.

McMaster-Carr is the adult version of "Acme". The mail order place where the Coyote got all is stuff to do in the Road Runner.!

I bought one of those years ago. Very handy to have.

Buying cable in bulk is a better idea but for no more often than I do it I just pick up a cheap throttle and cannibalize. I discovered I needed one for my Dino project so I got this at Rural King a couple days ago. I'll fit it to the original control and cut it to length as needed. The Z bend tool I have gets the job done OK.

Sounds a lot like me getting older!

Got my donor wheels together for the rear. I don't have any more wide rears so I'm gonna have to make a set from two different pairs. The pair with the surface rust has a way wrong offset. They came from a Ford LGT. The tires on Ford pair would not break loose at the bead, even though they were clean. I had to use a 3 foot 2x6 and the weight of the Tundra to break them. Hopefully I can gain another skinny pair of wheels using these as well. We will see...

Or, maybe he could just take the blower housing and wear it like a Flavor Flav clock to show off his Teccy allegiance!

Man, this is a rough crowd………I love it 🤣🤣🤣

Nice work so far. Seals - some folks opt to pop off the inboard side seals, exposing the ball area so you can externally grease the. Others remove both seals temporarily to flush the supplied grease(?) and repack with a Lucas grease. Then replace the seals. A better non greaseable bearing. Your choice.

Looking forward to hanging out again! Although 11:00 am is my limit due to the wife's birthday party. Can't wait to see the look on her face when I roll up with that truck project! LOL. I didn't tell her anything about it and don't plan to either! I'm just gonna blame @Sparky and how he needed me to take it so HIS wife doesn't know HE bought it! She likes Mike so that should soften the blow a little.

I keep bulk cable & sheathing in stock. It tends to get shared between @WHX??, my friend Joel & me. Think I've had the same 2 rolls for 4yrs now and there is still a few tractors worth left.

Good! Sick of looking at that through my windows (just kidding, no windows on that side of the house)

I have used Rotella T1 30w for years, summer and winter without any problems. IMHO it is the best oil for these older engines that is made. Bob

T-6 is not going to do anything better for you engine than T-1 (30w) or T-2 (40w). Full Syn and Blends in these old loose tolerance dirty port engines just burn off some of it after a couple of hours of use. Rotella T-6 is expensive overkill for these old flatheads.

@wallfish @Sparky John had bought a doodle bug from Zagrays to screw around with... I stored it for a bit and Sunday he gets to take it home from the Belltown Tractor Show. Has a Tecumseh 16 OHV... so it will never run!! Lol sorry Bill!!!

When I bought my B80 it came with a front dozer blade and a 36" mower deck. The deck was in pretty sad shape, all three spindles were worn out and frozen, and the rear of the shell was open and it had a cobbled together side discharge chute. The deck model number is 95-36MS01 which is supposed to be a side discharge. I don't know why the back was missing, but it was pretty obvious that the side chute had been reworked rather poorly. For my use I need a rear discharge so I took on the task of converting it to rear discharge. I put an ad in the Wanted section for anyone that might have a section of deck available and got no responses. So, I ended up using pieces of shell from the rusted out 36" deck from my 1966 656. The decks weren't really the same but I was about to cut various sections out and piece them together to eliminate the side discharge opening. This is what it looked like before I started. This is the deck I robbed piece from. The actual curved section was remarkably close to the 42" deck only the sides were taller. After a bunch of "custom" art work I ended up with the following: Is it pretty? No. Will it work? I think so. It's not going to be a full time mower, I needed something smaller than my 5' ztr to mow between a line of trees and a fence. I have all the parts for rebuilding the three spindles thanks to a couple of forum members, so the next task is to assemble and install the spindles. The bearings that I bought have seals on both sides. This deck will not be used more than a half dozen times a year for maybe 60 minutes each time. Would there be any reason to not just leave the bearing seals in place and forgo greasing through the spindles? I should add, I found a NOS rear chute on ebay and will be installing it as well. Thanks! Brad

Back rims are painted for the diesel it All most done

ooooookay! thanks must have missed that one.

Okay I have some updates. Today I searched and found a 103” belt and with the adjuster all the way tight the 103” fits perfect. But I did make a realization and I have to take the blame. Not often I admit I messed up but I realized I put the 107.38” belt on the mule drive instead of the 105” and I put the 105” on the deck. Which explains why the spindle belt was too tight. I wrote it down wrong and never went back and re confirmed my numbers. So I guess the only good is I learned that there is quite a bit of play in the belt size so if in the future I’m in a bind I can make things work. I noticed a huge difference having a tighter belt. I was able to mow the county ditch full speed without having too poor of a cut. So I am loving this thing. One odd thing is now the deck sits for the forward so it’s not hitting my wheels but when I lift the deck the mid lift rear brackets interfere with the rear adjustment. I’m going to have to read the manual again and make sure I’m not missing anything. Few other small updates. I made a cheap drag harrow that I’ll have to get a picture of and I’m on the hunt for a plow bracket. Other than that the battery still goes dead after using the PTO so I’m going to have to look up the charging specs. I’m assuming the charging system is weak. And lastly I came across a c160 so I might be able to use for parts, I have to do some research, as well as a 24hp Onan. I’m guessing it’s far too large to fit in the area the 16 fits.

If you go that route... pay attention to the direction of the second end bends relative to the opposite end. For the smoothest action in use, you want the two ends to be within 10 degrees or so of the intended placement. If you end up 180 off, it puts a constant bind in the cable.....

How hard is it to do this? It doesn't seem like it would be easy to cut right, and that is a lot of welding too.

McMaster sells this stuff. One piece will do both treads, it sticks very well.

Lots of nice work, maybe admin can consolidate into one thread? Nice for reference.

I gave the steel supplier my building measurements, they gave me a stack of steel. Most of it is all long, I think I have used 3 pieces at length.

Nice job on those wheels! Yeller or not, they look very good!

Actually tried that one for a while... Just didn't work as well when needing to stop and back up.

I've used other tractors with the hand control hydro and I don't mind them. For me it was just an unfortunate combination of multiple factors that made the machine kinda awkward to use. If I can't relax on a machine when I'm working, then I can't enjoy it. The older I get the more ergonomics matter. I also don't keep machines around to look at them. The 520 was probably the coolest looking garden tractor in the fleet. Shame to say goodbye, but it went to an older gentleman who upgraded from his recently deceased 314 Wheel Horse. I believe it definitely went into the right hands, and the machine is scheduled for annual maintenance here yearly at the shop, so I'll get to see and care for it every once in a while.

Yes you can. Here are some other alternatives that make the job a little easier. A DIY Z bend pliers. A dedicated Z bend pliers. https://www.amazon.com/HRGDFBP-Spring-Pliers-Bending-Aircraft/dp/B0FRF4GF6V/ref=sr_1_7

That makes sense, thank you.

I’m gonna need hush money…or a breakfast sandwich and a coffee

Regardless of the material or color.

Looks serviceable. What kind of welder did you use?

I know this quote is on a post from December, but I thought about it while trying to loosen some nuts on the rear spring shackles of my 2014 Toyota Tacoma. Even with an impact wrench, I still have not gotten them loose. However, every Wheel Horse that I have disassembled from 1961's through 1996, the nuts and bolts came right off. Says something about American-made steel.

OK sooooo tomorrow is actually 3 days... Notice I'm measuring from the SIDE of the large round pin.

There was some discussion years back that said a "freewheeling" hydro was beginning to go bad. I do not believe this to be accurate at all. There may be an acceleration valve that is hanging up but my Eatons both freewheel down a hill but both are fast and strong. They do not weaken after warming up. The foot control can be a little too sensitive, at least compared to a lever, but I've really grown accustomed to mine. But I made mine up myself. It is not like the factory control.

My boat came with an anchor so I’m all set, I won’t need that OHV Teccy.

Hope you get it sorted out. My 1979 C-141 auto pulls my 42" SD deck nice and snug against the chassis and lowers it with adequate slack to let the height wheels do their job.

The "export" 518H models had the Eaton 1100 hydros, which are much more rugged than the domestic-equipped 700 series. If the tractors have hydraulic lift (no manual lift arm), and a oil filter under the rear fender, then they are 1100 series hydros.

Kinda kept this project quiet over the winter. Purchased it from @Buckeyes last year. Although I have original 4hp Kohler (w/matching patina) I decided to go with a more unique powerplant. 3hp diesel. Some modification needed to make it all work. Air cleaner wouldn't fit under hood so I had to improvise & use aftermarket. Slight modification to original belt guard mounting to get it to fit. Got original throttle lever to work w/diesel throttle control. Tried to make it look as original/subtle as I could. Usually starts on the 1st pull thanks to decompression lever. Think it will be my cruiser for when I attend shows..... 20260210_130010.mp4

This is a follow up of page # 1 post #19 on installing the indirect water heater and taking the electric water heater off line.This past January the electric rates went up and added 40 to 50 dollars to the monthly bill. We have been using the electric heater since 2010 and it was time to replace before an issue with that. Enjoying a lot more hot water now than we ever had and not have to wait for recovery at times. This replacement was long overdue and I am sure some of you tradesmen will agree, our homes are the last to do. I find after all your customers are satisfied I just don't feel like doing this on a weekend. It's tractor time.