Playing with one Horse, adding another

[dtallon 320]

I had quite a "Wheel Horse weekend" this weekend. Remarkable considering we also fit in a bunch of fall family activities too. Sorry in advance for the long post, but I need to share with somebody that can appreciate it.

Friday night after work I stopped off at the local Toro dealer. I actually needed a part for my Toro push mower, so had a good excuse. When I was in there last week for an axle seal on my 854, the owner, who also lives just down the street from me, briefly showed me a Suburban and a 753 that he had in their storage area. I talked to him a little more about them Friday evening and he said the Suburban was actually set out as scrap, and a guy picked it up and brought it in. They have done some work on it, and he said it now runs great. He said he wants to eventually put it on display in their showroom. The 753 looked decent, but was missing the engine and a few other parts. Before I left, he went to the back and brought out a copy of the Straight from the Horse's Mouth book for me to borrow. Being relatively new to the hobby, I had been wanting to read that book, so it was really nice of him to let me borrow it.

Late Saturday afternoon I tried plowing with the 854 and had alot of fun. I finally got the new axle seals in, so I can keep the lube in the transmission. The engine still smokes quite a bit, but it doesn't lack for power. I had a little trouble getting the plow to stay in the ground, but I haven't had time to set it up at all, nor have I shined up the moldboard yet, so considering that I would say it was a success. As luck would have it, a 10" Brinly came up for sale nearby with the wheel horse hitch adapter on it, so I now have an 8" and a 10". There is a HUGE difference between the two. The 10" is alot heavier, almost too heavy to lift with the manual lift. Other than keeping it in the ground, I didn't have any trouble with the 8", but with a dull plow, turf tires, and no weight, the 10" got me to spin out.

I had big plans to try to set up the plows Sunday afternoon and do some more, but a new WH find got in the way. A Commando 8 showed up on craigslist cheap. How early do you call someone on a Sunday morning that posts a listing at 2:30AM? I waited until 8:30, and was the first caller, and went to get it in the afternoon. I was thinking it would be worth a shot that the 8HP Kohler would be in better shape than the one on my 854, and it had bar tires on it, which I was wanting for the 854. When I got there, I was surprised to see this "original condition" tractor had a 7HP K161 Kohler in it. Still, I didn't turn him down. He said it ran great about a year ago, but it quit charging the battery and they got tired of having to manually charge it all the time, so they quit using it. Hopefully this week I can give the engine a quick once-over and hook up a good battery to give it a try.

At this point, I'm not sure what fate awaits this Commando. I want the bar tires and a few other parts off of it for the 854. It would also be convenient for that K161 to find it's way into that 753 at my local Toro dealer, but I'll have to try to fire it up before I pursue that idea.

[AMC RULES 37,204]

Helping your dealer out with K161 now might just pay big dividends to you later on down the road.

Cool tractors and attachments there...looks like you've officially been bitten by the horses now.

[Jake Kuhn 1,579]

Sounds like quite a weekend! I like the deere in the background, how bout some pics of it? Jake

[smokin joe 31]

I seen that on there,glad you got it.Im thinking about going to get the Case tractor he has for sale.

[jbumgarner 12]

Like Jake said, the Red look great and I would like to see the Deere a little closer.

[COMMANDO6 20]

Sounds like a fun weekend! Maybe you wanna buy the 753 and stick that new engine in there?

[hcminis 1,700]

Great job Dave. You have now have two addictions...Red and Green.

[Coadster32 793]

Sounds like you stepped into it this weekend. Nice to have weekends like that for sure. Thanks for sharing.

I had a 753 that smoked a bit, but ran great. The oil was really thin, and turns out the fuel pump was leaking gas into the block. I bypassed the fuel pump, changed the oil, and she smoked no more. Might not be your problem, but easy to check. Good luck.

[dtallon 320]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Since a couple of you asked, here is my little 70 (Jake, your 60 is a nice little tractor too!). I have a 110 set up for mowing, so this one pretty much just gets used for pulling a cart, or any non-running GT's that need to be moved very far. You can read more about it here: http://www.weekendfreedommachines.com/discus/messages/17/200083.html?1347546501

Smokin' Joe - I was curious about that Case as well, and did look at it while I was there. If he had a pic of the other side of the tractor, you could see it's missing a breather, and he just put a big dent in the top of the hood moving it out of the barn to sell it. I didn't look at it real close, but those were the two negatives that I saw. He had a pair of David Bradley's and a ton of other farm primitive stuff for sale. Do a CL search by his phone number and you can see some of it. It was neat just to look at it all.

I worked on the tractors a little last night. I swapped the rear tires between the Commando and the 854, and while I was at it, decided to trade a hub since one on the 854 has a big chunk out of it. I noticed alot of play between the axle and hubs on the Commando. Not good, but at least it wasn't going to be hard to get the hubs off. As I pulled the hubs, I could see why. On one side, it was just a worn woodruff key. On the other, there was a big chunk of the axle broken next to the keyway. The hub held it all together so it still worked, but who knows for how long.

I'm afraid this Commando took another couple steps down the road towards parting out. Still hoping in the next couple nights to get the engine fired up and see what condition it is really in.

[diesel cowboy 263]

I had a peerless rear end break a chunk out like that. Fixed it by having my father silver solder it back together and it still works great. Just have to heat it up enough for the solder to flow in and bond it in place. Had to change the seal after but it wasnt to bad to do once I filed the bumps down