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Picked this up over the weekend for $200 form a “picker” in the area. Besides the tractor it came with a 36 Rear discharge deck and a 42” dozer blade. I also noted the slot (or Celvis, not sure what) hitch on the back. He pulled it out of the woods at a widow’s house due to her wanting to relocate and needing to liquidate the estate of her late husband. Once I got it home and on the surgery table, inspection lead to find the motor seized (likely due to the “tractor” exhaust) as well the most of the electrical shot. Obviously the tires are blown out and will need replacement. Other issues that were noted were the seat (or the lack of I should say), the clutch rod hanging because it snapped in the middle and various rusted hardware being snapped off or corroded. Got it on stands and the heart removed and somewhat broken down tonight. after removing the head and covers, I found the piston and both valves seized in place. The cause is definitely water getting into the intake as the exhaust side is more stuck then the intake. More to come soon after some ATF and Kroil work their magic on it.

I don't know if I have ever got a machine that wasn't at least cracked here. If I was to say what the weak link is on these machines it is here. Fortunately it does not cause any great harm as the machines run along just fine like this but like Sparky, I just can't leave it and get them welded up.

At the very least, installing a nice thick fender washer underneath when bolting the front fender bracket into place should help spread the load and possibly stop it from cracking again.

There was once a very successful farmer from Texas who started gaining interest in his ancestry. After doing some digging, he traced his lineage back to a small town in Ireland. And lo and behold, they were a family of farmers. So he packed his bags and took a trip to Ireland to visit the small town to see if he could track down some of his kin. After landing in Dublin, and driving an hour outside of the city, he stopped in a pub to grab a drink and start asking around about his family. The Texan sat down, ordered a pint, and started talking to the Irishman sitting at the bar. After explaining his story and the purpose of the trip, the Irishman responded, “You don’t say! I’ve never heard of your family, but I’m a farmer as well. Tell me, what’s it like farming in Texas?” “Gladly,” the Texan said, “farming in Texas has been quite lucrative for me. If you started out in the morning, and drove west, you could drive all day before you reached the end of my property. And if you started the next day and drove East all day, you wouldn’t reach the end of my property. Same thing North and South, you could drive either direction all day and you wouldn’t reach the end of my farmland.” “Ahh, I know what you mean,” said the Irishman, “I’ve got a tractor like that as well.”

Does that have the rubber isolated engine "wobble plate" mount? If the cushions are original, the rubber may be getting bad. I had trouble with a C-125, and that was over ten years ago. If the engine vibrates too freely, it can cause the float to bounce around so much that the carburetor bowl floods. At least that's what I convinced myself was going on. The replacement cushions were stiffer and seemed to cure the problem. They were still available, though pricey, back then. Don't know about now. No guarantees, just something that fell out of the cobwebs of memory.

You didn't mention what year but they are likely the same. It couldn't get much more basic other than an older model with nothing. Here's the wiring for a 76 B.

Looks like you got your money's worth. Three things to check. Since I saw a plow in one picture... check the "F" plate on the frame where the Unidrive bolts on for cracks around the 4 bolt holes. A very common issue as plowing flexes that area to a fatigue failure. A disapointment, not a show stopper. Inspect the ears (tabs) on the lower steering block for cracks. Plowing can induce twisting forces into the frame and break the block - easily replaced. The Unidrive - since so much of the tractor is rusty, I suspect the Unidrive's innards may be too. If so, it may be able to be fixed - but consider swapping in a later known good 6 or 8 speed. I did the 8 speed on my 854, @Handy Don did the 6 speed on his. A bit of work, but well worth it. The picture below is from another 854 I picked up for parts - that frame was severely cracked & twisted.

not only welded but, reinforced is a good idea too.

Gonna be a while. I put 500 miles between me and that grader blade today. Basically, for offset, the arm that holds the blade has a pivot on the 3 point hitch. There is a semi circular plate with multiple holes allowing the arm to swing right or left 45, may be 50 degrees. For blade angle, it has a pin and pivot on the end of the arm and a circular plate with holes around the edge on the blade allowing the blade to rotate 360 degrees with lots of angle choices. For blade tilt, I discovered that what I thought were the bolts holding the blade to its pivot pin bracket actually allow the blade to tilt. The upper bolt is the tilt pivot, and the lower bolt has maybe 5 choices for tilt position. There have been enough repairs and reinforcements done on this blade that the tilt feature is not readily visible. I noticed a well painted over manufacturer tag on it this morning. Forgot to take a picture of it, though. Would be nice to track down how it is assembled. The 3 point hitch has an adjustable leveling link between the right hand lift link and lower link that gives maybe 4" of tilt across a 6' blade - not enough for a ditch. Did more back filling than excivating when I tried to run it down the ditch. This feature works pretty well with the box blade to put some crown in the driveway, though. I also discovered that when the ripper teeth in the box blade are fully extended, they can catch the 12" plastic culvert I had imbeded in the drive. I had the 2 teeth on the right fully extended and the rest set shorter. Old EJ kind of grunted and jumped when he snagged the culvert, but kept on moving. I thought I had snagged a root. I think I can chop up a culvert coupling and glue it over the hole so I won't need to replace the whole 20' culvert.

Definitely following as the 854 is one of my favorite models, however, I may have to take that one off your hands because the serial number is only 4 after the one on mine, my serial number is 40473

IMHO and experience... If you need a snowblower - get a two stage. They have the serious advantage of being able to operate at slower tractor ground speeds while having less tendency to load up. Not none.. less. Trina and I do basically what's outlined by several above. Nearly all snows nowadays get the plow blade. She absolutely loves moving snow. We can all agree "seat time" is excellent. Here, we don't use a Wheelhorse for mowing. We do use them 4 to 5 months a year for snow removal. We have to plan far ahead for much larger storms that don't melt. Our plowed area is a good strong 10 to 20 feet past the desired clearing zone. If we're home we would rather plow a large storm multiple times than use the snowblower once, then plow to scrape the surface clean. We are currently using the Ariens Commercial walk behind snowblower. I have a Wheelhorse Dual Stage one I'd like to try sometime. Perhaps this year and perhaps being mounted on the Briggs 20 HP Vanguard V twin powered C160-8.

September 22, 1994, the television sitcom Friends, about six young adults living in New York City, debuts on NBC. The show, which featured a group of relatively unknown actors, went on to become a huge hit and air for 10 seasons. It also propelled the cast—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer—to varying degrees of stardom and success in Hollywood.