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I have been messing about with an axe from the farm that was always around the place. That hickory handle has a shape and a feel you just cannot find today. The tool I used to clean the head is a harbor freight poly brush of which I do not remember the proper name.The two small he ammers looked pretty rough so about five minutes of cleaning the heads with the tool and then heating the wood with a torch to blacken it ( in stages so it does not dry crack) and then scraping and sanding it makes them into really nice hammers. After light scraping and sanding the blackened surface you can wet sand with linseed oil to turn the black into a chestnut reddish patina that's just beautiful. The larger ball peen hammer has the original crap varnish from the factory. The two framing hammers were signed up with the tool as well as the Doyle titanium which is a challenge. The cut down one is what I wanted for a bench hammer and body hammer. Those were both Harbor Freight and I reshaped the heads to smooth out the lines. Optional step is to run many coats of Danish oil into a scraped and sanded hickory handle and then sand it down flat and start the hand rubbed coats of linseed oil. The old gunstock guys would often use abrasive rotenstone in with the hand rubbing to polish the wood to a higher sheen. Thus is to no great purpose except to practice wood and metal finishing for other projects. I like the fact that oil finishes do not require anything special in dust free or temperature control. The tool gets into small corners and is s not prone to catching or throwing bristles. I stock up on them during thirty percent off on all items under ten dollar sales at harbor Freight

Todays operation was a total success, pulse this morning was around 110 -125 and not very strong, now it is 60 +/- and very strong.

Hang in there! (get the three angle valve job if they offer, high performance!)

October 17, 1978, Village People released "Y.M.C.A.," on its way to hitting #1 in over 15 countries. The disco anthem that turned every wedding, gym, and stadium into a dance floor shaped like four letters.

Maybe something to take your mind away or not? Well a few months back, before the big show, I ended up with a gout attack that turned septic. The infection attacking some tissue that was aggravated by loose metal in my right ankle. Long of the short, lots of antibiotics, two surgeries my foot was saved and 3 months later, I am kind of walking again. My wife in the mean time is taking care of me and the kids chipping in on the yard work etc. Then it gets worse. My wife falls and breaks both legs, one ankle just cracked and the other in a fixator, more surgery and screws and plates. Just perfect timing I still could not walk. Can't drive, can't cook, can't can't can't wow. Through the grace of God, good kids, good friends and neighbors, we got through it. (At least my issue, she is still mending) Something ironic, the Dr. that operated on me also did her surgeries. When she was in the OR he came in and said, you know I been at this over a dozen years and this is the first husband and wife procedures I have done. He said he has done relatives but not a couple. I told him that we are going for the preferred customer tee shirts. He laughed and looked at the nurse and said, maybe we can have buy 4 and get the 5th surgery free? You know like the coffee punch cards!

Success! This morning my pulse was 110 -125 and not very strong and now it is 60 +/- and very strong. Thank you to all who offered prayers, I am a firm believer in their power.

Reminds me of my trip to Rochester to get the cardiac cath done. My wife is horrible with directions and city driving. Plus she grips the steering wheel with a death grip at 10 and 2 and never budges. She followed the ambulance and out the rear window I could see her "drafting" the ambulance. All the way thru the lane changes, can of worms ect. We get to the hospital and I asked the ambulance driver how fast he was going. He said 80! I laughed. My wife met me at the ER entrance white as a sheet!

EXCELLENT news!!!!!!! See ya at the 2027 BS

I only saw in person one other fiberglass hood! Yes they made a fiberglass rj hood early on. Wheel Horse made the first fiberglass hood for the Senior, the earlier and bigger Wheel Horse. . My understanding is the supplier of fiberglass was from Indianapolis. The first photo is from a Senior ad piece. Second shows fiberglass hood in a private collection in Toledo, Ohio that i saw several years ago when i bought a 603 Wheel Horse from my friend John “ Brrly” Campbell! John had stored some of his tractors in this business building. The former owners main office was used to store a number of pristine restored Wheel Horse tractors! The last photo is the fiberglass hood Wheel Horse and as i have been told and recall they were called an RJ 25!

I'm believing for your total healing in the mighty name of Jesus. I declare it done with faith believing that it will work out for God's glory for we know that all things work together for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. I know that you are doing your best to follow God and you are called according to His purpose. If you ask anything in His name it shall be done. Whenever two or more agree in faith believing it shall be done. I know there are many more here in faith believing with you. Amen.

The plot thickens1 My wife managed to get lost going home the afternoon, pulled into an auto dealership to get directions, stumbled and fell in their parking lot and was transported by ambulance to the same hospital I am in. She has a sprained or strained ankle and bunch oh abrasions and bruising, nothing serious The people at the dealership were kind enough ta let the car stay there and they have the keys in the event someone else was going to pick it up, Sounds like a good plan with one exception, she was lost and doesn't know where she was or the name of the dealership. A few minutes on MapQuest and I had a couple of potential dealerships. Third phone call and I found out where her car is and they will be there until7:00 pm so she will get an Uber to pick up the car.

That Doyle is a titanium head. Maybe you are saying your boss has a titanium handle as well. In any case, a straight claw hammer pretty much sucks to pull nails. People hook them in and twist to the side to gain leverage and the grain is running the wrong way and she snaps off. The Doyle and even the Pittsburgh hammers can be returned to the store and they give you a new one for life. I probably took ten Craftsman broken hammers back for free ones I have a hundred year old English pattern hammer with a very steep claw angle and the wood tapers to about an inch where the head joins on. Still in the original hickory. Amazing how easily that little thing pulls nails Titanium is s not what it's cracked up to be. If you swing it very fast it will perform well. Fast can lose accuracy as a lot of the online videos prove. Maybe one guy out of ten shown swinging one looks productive with the rest missing and bending nails. Too heavy can mess with your elbow. Sixteen to nineteen ounce fits my body and strength level. The kids with their 400 dollar hammers use a nail gun so much that it's their wrist and not the elbow that suffers IMHO. I have been driving nails since before nail guns showed up . The fun stuff was driving in old oak barn bems or worse yet beech wood horse stables Sorry I wrote a book about hammers again.

A lot of cast pieces will have casting part numbers that identify which mold they came from and have no relation to the finished sizes. "new style" rods as I recall have studs with bronze locator pins (compression fit) and serrated flange lock nuts in the rod cap , while old style rods were precisely located with matching "puzzle piece" indents and used fine thread bolts and hardened flat washers and lock washers through the cap and into the rod . new style came about as the old style was prone to the bolts coming loose and eventually stripping the threads under repeated thermal expansion cycles.. Much like many carburetors might share the same casting part number, but their final part number and specs will vary depending on their jetting and linkages, etc... I'd never rely on a casting part number to identify a part for a specific purpose .. Much like the K301-K321 rods which have the same stroke, they'll have the same casting part number, but the rod part number itself may vary depending on the oil dipper configuration and finished bore diameter...

I remember going with my step grandpa in his mid seventies El Camino and wood deck converted boat trailer to pick up my new Work Horse GT-1800 in 1984.

if it fits you'll be fine, remember the oil hole on the rod cap faces the cam.

Stupid cars!

That's pretty much what I was thinking. You could also do a DPST between the horn and the ignition coil. Cranking the engine wouldn't let it start, but it would blow the horn pretty good.

I can think of quite a few relatively easy ones. Starter interrupts and fuel shut-offs are easy. Timer-controlled issues are even better, but a little more complex to set up.

When I framed in the walls for my unfinished basement I did it all with screws. Hammers and i do not do well together.

Continued prayers on your behalf, and for your bride. Richard a pacemaker is probably a good thing, you'll be like the Energizer Bunny, you'll just keep going and going.

Here's mine. I probably posted it's picture before but if a fellow only has one... Bought it new in 1971 for $3,688-still have paperwork. I like to tell folks "Two more payments and this puppy is mine!" Had it restored twenty five or so years ago. Drive it about one thousand miles a year. Just got through replacing the points and condenser. Local auto supply sold me a lifetime warranty set in 2013--good grief the price of points and condensers have went up--$64 if I had to pay for them.

Continued prayers for you, your family and medical providers...

I was given "options" 2 years ago when I had Afib & Congestive Heart Failure... A Pacemaker would be a lifestyle game changer that I was not wanting to accept. NO more Electric Welding ( MIG, TIG and Stick) for me. .. Luckily, I did not have to go that route.

My boss bought a hammer that looked much like that Doyle. And he was showing us just how great he thought it was going to be, so he was going to pull a coated nail out out of a stud, and the handle broke off just below the head. We just couldn't stop laughing. He bought a titanium hammer after that fiasco

Methinks the Casting Number for the STD and the .010 undersize rods May be the same - just depends on the big end finished bore size??

And didn't miss a beat! Pun intended

Rainy evening here so in garage tonight. Got the 702 ready for winter.

Looks like you made it out ok Richard! My family was a GM family in the 50' s through the 70's. Grandmother had a 59 Biscayne with the cat eyes and bat wings and then a 60 Impala. Uncle graduated from college with a 57 Belair and traded it for a brand new 65 Impala SS. He later had a 73 El Camino which was based on the Malibu. I was thinking about that car/truck the other day. I took my dog for a walk in my old home town and drove by a shop and lo and behold there's an identical El Camino on a lift! I wonder what became of Waldo's El that drove him nuts?

I like to install tenders with two-pin bullet connectors with rings on the other end, and run the connector out through the grill, so that you can plug in without ever opening the hood. Both should be replaced as a set. Also, cars with this set up need a reset of the battery monitor when replacing the batteries so the charging profile updates and doesn't over-charge.

Tire shops! After changing and fighting tires for more than 20 years , I take them down the street to the Mennonites! Funny story about that shop. When I first moved here in 88 there was a old barn. he was a farmer/tire dealer. You had to catch him when he was there. He had a folding chair and a little tackle box for money. Then later I was working at Napa. He had kids, lots of them and they grew older. They built a 2 bay shop off of the house. The boys helped with the farming. The wife and girls ran the tire store. She would call for a case of hand cleaner once a month. They used it as tire lube. I would deliver the cleaner and there would be these 2 girls about 8 yrs. old wrestling a farm tractor tire with a couple of tire spoons. One day I was driving by and here's the mother wearing turd kicker boots rolling this giant tractor tire down the driveway by herself! When the boys got old enough to run a business they got sick of farming and built a Taj Mahal tire shop and they stay relatively clean whilst the hired help get all crappy.

Finally got my widened wheels painted today. They actually look better in person than in pics.

It can be done. I can probably even find you the parts to make it just a switch you can flip.

How about crossing the start position on the ignition switch to the horn?

Some more imaging was done this morning. going to have a pacemaker before I can leave and probably a valve job soon.

Stay strong in the face of adversity Richard!!!

Leather Man, Glen Hughes, was a brother in my fraternity. Genuinely nice guy.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen

I came across this guy a few days ago in a group of tractors I bought from an estate. It appears to be in early production 1955, and has a fiberglass hood. It has welded on nuts for the grease zurks on the front steering, a solid bar axle stop no muffler clamp holes or shifter stop it also has a suspended fuel tank without a stand, along with a cable brake. The steering mechanism does appear to have been changed as the steering shaft is the only unpainted metal on the entire machine. The steering links appear similar to the rest except the steering link attaches to the top of the drag bar on the one side and then downward on the other like standard. It has a 1200 Clinton 152 series and a large diameter rear end pulley.... The previous owner had it for 30 years. And it's exactly how he received it. I'm curious as to what the experts think? I know these little guys have had quite the life since new, but the lack of modification holes, and the completeness make me wonder if this truly is a survivor? I have more pics but hit my 16mb limit

Best post of the week! Way to go!

We have available the outer spindle pulleys ( # 106074 ) for mid 70's thru early 80's 48 inch side discharge decks with the keyed spindles. These are brand new, never installed pulleys. Price is $40.00 each plus shipping, continental US only. Private message me here, or call / text during normal business hours. DO NOT COMMENT ON THIS POST AND NO EMAILS . If you see this ad they are available and prices are current.

Hope you are in recovery and feeling better, Richard. I keep checking this thread to see if there is any news. Thoughts and prayers.

Here are some more pictures including the unpainted steering column and the rear end

Update: This tractor is now for sale locally. I know of this guy who has the ad, he's always having tractors for sale, so I'm sure he bought it at the auction to flipped it. Currently he wants $750 for it. Here is his ad: "OBO 14 hp Kohler ,48 inch  adjustable deck ,in front ,sharp Blades , no smoke. Tire chains ,runs like a top ,ready to mow today. It is a really fun tractor to mow with. It’s cool ,quiet spindles ,no rust.nice tractor!!!" If anyone is interested, pm me and I'll send the link, or just search fb for deals in my area. Pics from the ad:

Someone please call a doctor, @T-Mo has lost his mind.

That front carriage is a desirable thing

Neil, if you can not get them to crank, but you want to turn over the engine so it may start...you can pull a running tractor up to one that will not start (face to face) and line up the pulleys that are on the engines. Take a long fan belt and figure 8 it between the two horses...you need to figure 8 the belt so the engine is cranking in the right direction. Place in neutral with the key on and tension the belt enough to turn over the engine. (I can usually just push the two horses apart). This may at least get them started so you can move them. It beats pulling on a rope. How many tractors were in the water?

After looking for a replacment bushing at several part stores I was unable to buy a exact replacment bushing but I did find a 3/4od /1/2id brass bushing that I sanded down and then cut to fit the starter shaft. I put super glue on all the cracks on the magnets and then put it back together and on the tractor and all is good now. There is no hesitation when starting at all, the only thing left to do now is figure out how to rebuild the electric pto, it only partualy engages.

I got one in my toolbox. It'll loosen the big nut on the mule drive as well. Nice to have. Mike..............