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For some reason the LED tail light on my 953 didn't survive the trip to the Big Show. Stopped at Horror Fright and picked up this groovy tail light for cheap. Even had a piece of steel the right color!

July 12, 1957, US Surgeon General Leroy Burney links smoking to lung cancer.

I cut a plastic water bottle in half and slip it on the bottom of my grease guns as they hang on a nail. The bottle fits snug enough that it doesn’t slip off but loose enough to allow any liquid to seep into the bottle. Problem solved, no more drips on my work bench! Poland Spring bottles seem to fit perfectly!!

Also on the 161, there are some mixed reviews for this but I went ahead and installed some radial bearings on the spindles. Added 1/8" that I took off the top to allow access to the groove for the clip. In the process I'm reminded how much I dislike grease guns. Are any of them reliable for those of us that use them 3-4 times a year?

Been waiting a while to get this combo paired up!

Been wanting to setup a way to tow, move and lift items for some time. You know the dead tractor far from home... Recently got around to doing this rear crane idea. I decided to go simple by using a brinly hitch. Well the cable could break in up or down position. But I figured it should be good for about 500lbs at least since I had a rear dirt scoop on one and it never broke. I made it with a bumper hitch receiver and had a brinly sleeve hitch adapter on it.. I could go to a rear receiver hitch mount on the tractor for added strength. But this is a good start to see how much I use it.

I can’t get enough of seeing that train.When I see that locomotive it makes me proud to be an American. I wish I was standing there waving our flag as it rolled by. Imagine the sense of pride the people operating and just being a part of that must have. I’d love to experience that. God Bless this great nation of ours 🇺🇸

My ACE Hardware has flanged bushings and E clips in the pull out drawers.

The Ugly Bruce tractor with a bonus chicken!

Not ours but a buddy of ours

This is a lot of work without a machine shop but I really needed to get these made before I install the ARK on the 161 (the old one on the bench is from the junk pile!).

The Rural Suburban…. conquering the back .40 again.

Running 701 k161 got this from @squonk at 2025 Big Show.

414-8 with a 42” RD was the weapon of choice today. She never disappoints!

I definitely use mine enough to justify having it around. Tillers, decks, motors, all the stuff I don't have any interest in manually carrying (most everything!). Bungee cords are a must to keep stuff from swinging out of control. Mine uses the attachment points and a section of an old frame and works pretty well.

This morning I did disassembly and cleaned up everything for the new brake lining from @rmaynard and I took my old seal out to realize it’s wrong so I ordered the correct one (hopefully). I should’ve looked at the manual I have for part number from the beginning 🤦🏻‍♂️. So it’ll be a while. I just want a good brake and not roll to a stop.

ACE is the place.

To answer your question, no. Lol Here’s a must watch.

Those will stay with you, I have one set that I built in 1989 and they are still tight, don't see any ware.

New to me 161 I picked up this week

Got 416H moved over to back of garage so I can start working in it. Accumulating parts etc to start doing any repairs as well as preventative maint. Also got a few things to swap of the 1848 like the rear receiver hitch, weights, & larger wheels/tires.

I moved the clutch/brake rod to other hole at the pedal on Whitey today. Removed a bit of the pedal to make some clearance at the foot board to allow the pedal to stand straight up in the rest position for added travel. i found that the rod was already rubbing on the running board at the other end because either it has too long of a drive belt, or it’s just stretched and worn. The rod is almost touching the boss of the lever, allowing the rod to come down and make contact with the rear of the foot board. Had to use the fire wrench to get the rod adjustment to turn freely again. A little adjustment of the clutch rod and brake rod and swapped to the lower hole, i have clean clutching and brakes that will hold backwards on the hill, so i’m happy with that. Unable to engage the parking brake, but i’ve never had one anyway, so no big thing. I’ll worry about that after a new drive belt. Kept getting a whiff of fuel while i was working on it today. Found a drip hanging at the fuel tank line. After 20 minutes screwing around with the clamp, brake clean and a blow gun, and still seeing fuel leaking, i pulled the tank. A pin hole crack at the seam of the plastic tank about 1/4” away from the nipple. I scavenged through my stash and the largest tank i could find was a stupid little predator tank, so it’ll do until i locate another. Just need to remember to fill it every time before mowing. The fuel pump doesn’t seem to work very well as an “air” pump.

Got some pictures of the 314 from the other day. It didn’t clean up bad and should make a good mower for my brother. Already gathered some parts like a new choke, throttle cable, clutch return spring and I did manage to score an entire wiring harness for cheap so it’ll save me from having to rewire everything that was cut out of this harness that I’ve found out to be taken and put on the 520. Still need to get a new seat and some tires for it but that’ll probably wait until it’s up and running on its own.

I kept an old coffee can on the floor under my grease gun. I had mounted a grease gun holder on the wall. The oil dripped in to the coffee can.

I made a tow bar for my Wheel Horse. Clips into the front hitch. Works great for towing a non running 8 speed.

I wrap my grease gun in an old sock that I doubled up.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2052110235671184

I could use a bag of donuts, or at least one this morning. Onan parts are going to be very high priced and the labor cost for machining a two cylinder engine will more than likely be higher than the cost of a replacement engine. The big question is "what will you be doing with the 520?" If it is for general running around and light duty stuff a Predator Engine from Harbor Freight should do the trick. Also, will you be doing the work and do you have the tools and skill set to do an engine swap? You may want to consider the Honda V Twin from Repower Specialists. https://repowerspecialists.com/collections/wheel-horse/products/wheel-horse-520-with-onan?variant=6979132817431

I find no evidence they were genuine Wheel Horse. My guess is they were homemade. The WT-30 self propelled tillers were made in 1960 for the small engine tractors. Hanging all that weight on the rear of the small tractors was a poor idea. Wheel Horse did offer a front weight to balance the rear load. They also were connected to a speed reduction unit that was mounted under the tractor. It appears this mounting hardware on your tiller has been modified to use a slot hitch. In 1964 WH offered the better designed WT 244 self propelled tiller with the wheels and a better slot hitch tongue that was able to raise just the tines leaving the engine weight on the tiller wheels for transport.

Cut some grass today.Cut better than I thought it would. Deck is a bit noisy but I’m guessing it is just the nature of these old gear driven decks. Hard to believe that the original tires still hold air after all this time

@bradleydavidgood Check out Brian at K+B Wheel Horse Parts. @76c12091520h He is in our vendors section and should have a nice fender pan at a reasonable price for you. He sells quality parts, no junk at a fair price. Brian is my go to guy for two reasons, first he’s a really nice guy and second he’s extremely knowledgeable when it comes to these tractors.

Big Boy at the Horseshoe Curve!

I didn't do anything, but I had the boy install his new tie rods from K&B Horse Parts @76c12091520h. Bruce had a blast looking around your garage yesterday Brian, thanks for giving him the tour. I'm planning to patch his deck this week.

I would have liked to see Big Boy running on Pennsylvania coal at 1/2 ton per mile, it has been converted to fuel oil.

Fuzzy Points...

Hi all, So I know this might not be everyones' cup of tea but here we are. Since we moved houses and went from 700m2 (7500 sq/ft) to 10.000+m2 (~2.5 acre) we were in desperate need of some more serious mowing capacity. Since me ol' 512D is not in running order and/or even has a mowing deck I was on the lookout for something else. Since the budget is tight because we're renovating I set my goals on a sub 1000 bucks mower. Also it had to be a frontmower rather than a tractor for ease of use and the mowing deck had to be in good shape. After a looong time I found this 'beauty': Stiga Villa classic with 3 year old mowing deck for €400,-/~$450,-. Knowing that a new bare mowing deck alone costs about 300,- I did not hesitate. Not much to look at but does the job. Easy acces and simple construction. Simple gearbox and chaindrive, 1 reverse, 5 forward gears. Good ol' B&S 12,5 HP (Quiet I CANNOT agree with) Since buying it I changed the oil, sparkplug aircleaner(s) and added a new seat. After mowing two times it threw a belt so I replaced that aswell. Funny story about the front wheels and axle on the mowing deck.. they are almost always worn out, as were these. Although the wheels being plastic they had ground down the 16mm (5/8") shaft to about 10mm (~3/8"). So bought a set of new wheels which cost about $15 each and thought of buying a new axle. I mean how much could a piece of 5/8" x 3,5ft round bar possibly cost, right? Well, Stiga wanted $110,- for it Luckily our local 'tractor supply' sells C45 axle steel or 'silver steel' round stock by the metre which cost a whopping $6,50! Bought that, cut it to length, drilled and tapped an M8 hole on each end and re-assembled everything. Back to mowing again! Note: this was the before situation. Don't know why the wheels were'nt installed symmetrical here.

And now you are relying on the marginal WH brake to stop it. Best to travel in Low Range while towing...

If you can use a drill, it isn't a difficult job. Information

I've been hanging my grease gun in a spot that's low on the wall and keep an old rag under it. Best compromise I guess.

I'll bet Amazon comes to your house.

smallenginewarehouse.com (repower kit) 23hp B&S Vanguard $2248.00 free shipping as of today. You will be hard pressed to just get the top end of your Onan done for much less and you still don't have a new engine. I did a repower on a Simplicity 18hp a few years back with one of their vanguard 18hp kit, took about 2 hour with the help of a neighbor, probably less time with out the added adult beverages. It fired right up and has been running just fine for the last 4+year, also the Vanguards are easy to work on and parts are readily available. The folks at SEW are easy to work with (765-946-3812).

Choke on the left makes more sense. Parts diagram shows it as a toggle kill switch on the left, which probably isn’t correct.

Not around here!! The local Lowes fasteners section is an absolute joke. The drawers resemble a campsite after being raided by a bunch of feral rabid raccoons. And the local Home Depot "streamlined" their selection to about half the size it was 2 years ago.... marketing genius I guess.

My bolt holes are 7.5" side to side and front to back are slots variable for about 5-10". This is the most attractive seat I've found so far and has one bolt pattern that matches: CountyLine 18.5 in. Kubota Tractor Seat Another option, but no details on this one about bolt pattern options and if the seat comes apart to be able to drill new holes or relocate the rails. GFYSHIP Universal Tractor Seat Anyone replaced the seat with something they like that mounts well? Thanks!

I’m getting the 68 back together.I wired it up using a solenoid and a 103990 Ignition switch as suggested by @953 nut it was tight but I found a spot by the tower. I put on a new drive belt ,had to cobble together some fuel line wile I wait for replacement line. There is a outer bearing that should be replaced on the generator.It wines a bit even after greasing both bearings but is working fine. Today I’ll flush the trans and replace gear oil. The deck is ready I just have to sharpen the blades. I have to say the 68 commando has an interesting drive set up for the deck with the gears and belts but everything seems to be good.’ Shes running great with zero smoke . The intake valve is slightly out of speck and I’ll have to replace that too. But she’s running great let’s see if I can post a video IMG_2212.mov

Raining here so snapped pic in basement of C160 waiting to go out side and play

We had a really good time this year with lots of joking around and bust'n balls the whole way! It was worth everything when he chose that tractor and took off full throttle in 3rd and kept going until we couldn't see him anymore. Jay yells to his father "I guess you'll see him at home" LOL We did work on it for quite a while on Friday to get all the small things in order SO MANY different people helped out and made this possible but it all started a while ago with @ebinmaine Eric donating 2 tractors when the discussion of building a tractor and giving it away to a youngster started right here on RS. When people got wind of a donated tractor happening lots of people helped out and many of the vendors stepped up too and donated some of the things we needed. Thinking we could try and do this every year so the WHCC can have a 17 year old and under raffle every year. Who's got a roller? AND, they let me wire the next one too! A 603 my father bought. We took off the briggs engine and transplanted a S/G Kohler 8 hp on to it.

A new chapter for “JackRabbit” has begun… @Edward Teach (Zach) has “horse traded” with big brother @Coulter Caleb and now the 418-C is his. His brother took possession 9 years ago this December which makes Caleb and Zach the same age when it became theirs “13”. Because “Teach” has Blackbeard already, he wants to build JackRabbit for mowing and blowing…still plans to use Blackbeard for occasional mowing but regular ground engaging duties. He has a lot of plans for JackRabbit but I’ll let him share those as he sees fit. I’m pleased that it is going to stay in the family… just wait till you see the creative hand of this young man at work with this machine…

Moving more firewood this morning. This second load was a monster.

A solid ground will remedy most flickering. Usually a ground jumper between the frame and hood is sufficient. I have LEDs in all my machines, and none flicker. My 867, Bronco 14, and both Classic series.