Foot Control Hydro - New Life for Old Tractor????

[leeave96 487]

I put a deposit today on two of Matt D's foot control kits for my 520H tractors.

A bit of background:

My first Wheelhorse was/is a 314-8. It is my favorite Wheelhorse in my fleet. Later, I bought a nice used 520H with the swept forward axle and my F.I.L. gave me his 520H with standard axle prior to his passing. So I got one tractor that is hands free operation, the 314-8 and the other two 520H's that require keeping the hand on the hydro lever for the most part while using them (my property and others I mow are somewhat hilly/lumpy vs flat). Not really a problem.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I bought a MTD Cub Cadet lawn tractor - for my Wife and Boys to use, something that is uncomplicated, starts everytime and is loaded with safeties. They can run the tractor anytime without my intervention. Much to my SURPRISE, this little tractor is pretty nice - ESPECIALLY the foot controled hydro. It is a pleasure to drive to say the least.

I've since bought a couple of IH Cub Cadets and a Simplicity garden tractor - just for kicks, all hydro and all lever controlled.

Did I say I REALLY liked the MTD Cub Cadet foot controlled tractor and how it drives???

So other than the hydro lever control is OK for me and of course the "cool" factor for these old pieces of iron, I think to myself, what if all my old iron was hands free direction control - either foot control or gear drive? It kind of leaves my hydro Wheelhorse, IHCC and Simplicity tractors out of the picture. I'm not really interested in buying a $6,000 or more garden tractor just to have foot control hydro and I can't bring myself to parting with my 520H tractors for more gear drive Wheelhorse tractors.

So along comes Matt's hydro foot control kit....

This is going to be a VERY interesting experiment. If the foot control works as advertised (and I'm positive it will), my hydro Wheelhorse tractors have new life in being daily drivers and workhorses. I can see with this conversion, the Wheelhorse hydro's being as modern as any tractor on the market today.

It makes me wonder why Toro didn't design a foot control like Matt's (I know they had their own) and make it standard. That mod alone would have modernized these tractors and the line-up of "Classics" could have lived another day. Not bashing the 5xi tractors - they are fine too and of course have foot control hydro.

If the foot control works out (and I think it will), I will be a very happy camper with my entire fleet of Wheelhorse tractors!

As I get into receiving and installing and using this foot control, I will update this post.

Any discussion regarding foot control on these "classic" Wheelhorse tractors is welcome - the good, bad and ugly too, in addition to those who have already installed foot control and their experience with it!

Thanks!!!!!!

Bill

[Wheel-N-It 2,967]

Bill I reallyreally thought about buying one for my 417, but I should probably not do that until I can first put some AG tires on the rear (for better grip and traction). Sometimes when mowing if I get a little over-enthuastic trying to mow where I shouldn't, I can get stuck. Having a hydro lever allows me to put the machine in motion while pulling the machine out of the area I got it hung up in. I have tried to do that with my JD325 (two foot pedals), and thats an easy way to get run over. I have come to the conclusion however when not using my worst judgement of where to cut grass, the foot pedals are a great way to go. Good luck with yours, and keep us posted.

van

[CRE1992 135]

Bill I reallyreally thought about buying one for my 417, but I should probably not do that until I can first put some AG tires on the rear (for better grip and traction). Sometimes when mowing if I get a little over-enthuastic trying to mow where I shouldn't, I can get stuck. Having a hydro lever allows me to put the machine in motion while pulling the machine out of the area I got it hung up in. I have tried to do that with my JD325 (two foot pedals), and thats an easy way to get run over. I have come to the conclusion however when not using my worst judgement of where to cut grass, the foot pedals are a great way to go. Good luck with yours, and keep us posted.

van

I have not used Matts kit yet but others seem to like it very well.

I have a JD 325 and would rather mow with it than any wheel horse I have had. The twin pedals is a nice feature, and the power flow bagger is purely awesome for picking up leaves.

[Hydro 130]

I have Matt's conversion on my tractor and have posted about it. You will not be sorry especially now that he has upgraded a bushing to a bearing in the kit.

[Wheel-N-It 2,967]

QUOTE from CRE1992:

I have a JD 325 and would rather mow with it than any wheel horse I have had. The twin pedals is a nice feature,

END of QUOTE.

CRE, you have been here longer than I have. I'm not brave enough to openly admit that! (but same here) :eusa-whistle:

[Tankman 3,515]

Sold my '07 Cub Cadet SLT 1550, had the hydro foot pedal (toe/heel actuator).

I mow fairly flat and, the '73 Horse auto I have works fine, no problems.

I had doubts 'bout the automatics, leary. The Horse automatic with Sunstrand pump

has never let me down.

No BIG box items here, ever.

[CRE1992 135]

QUOTE from CRE1992:

I have a JD 325 and would rather mow with it than any wheel horse I have had. The twin pedals is a nice feature,

END of QUOTE.

CRE, you have been here longer than I have. I'm not brave enough to openly admit that! (but same here)

I do not have a problem admitting something that is true. Wheel Horses are great tractors and I feel are more heavy duty, but the JD 325 is much more comfortable to mow with. Plus I got a killer deal on it. It came with a front mount dethatcher, snow thrower, deck, power flow bagger, and dump cart for $1000. They normally sell for a lot more than that!

Sold my '07 Cub Cadet SLT 1550, had the hydro foot pedal (toe/heel actuator).

I mow fairly flat and, the '73 Horse auto I have works fine, no problems.

I had doubts 'bout the automatics, leary. The Horse automatic with Sunstrand pump

has never let me down.

No BIG box items here, ever.

The John Deere 325's are not box store tractors. They cost almost $7000 new. However they are not as heavy duty but are far more ergonomic when it comes to mowing.

[Ken B 3,116]

Charles that might be true about the 325 but I'll never find out for myself. As you know, some of us just like to sit back and kick it old school. :ychain:

[stickman21 0]

Hi guys, been a member for a few years this is my first post hope this works. I have Matt's pedals on two of my 520s and they work very nice and I'am happy with them,much easier to use than the hand lever.I plan on getting another pedal for my snow blower set up.

[Wheel-N-It 2,967]

Charles that might be true about the 325 but I'll never find out for myself. As you know, some of us just like to sit back and kick it old school.

Weather tomorrow is Sunny. Cold front limits the high temp to 68 degrees. I might have to kick it old school on the WH 312-8speed. I need to cut at least 3 acres. The JD325 will sit in the garage, but I might let the WH417 and JD140 H3 and Cub Cadet 1650 sit in the Sun for a while on display B)

[leeave96 487]

Update:

I received Matt's foot control kit (2 of them) and got busy working on my 1992 year 520H tractor. Column mounted hyro control and swept forward front axle. My other 520H is a 1988 year model with the hydro lever coming from the floor/hump in front of the seat. I'll probably get to that tractor at Christmas break.

I laid out the kit per Matt's picture in the installation manual to make sure all the parts/fasteners were there and got to work.

First thing I did was remove the cover plates over the floor plate that covers the hump in front of the seat and the vertical one on the hood stand. This gives me access to the guts of the hydro linkage. Next I removed the left and right side panels and right foot rest. Most all of these bolts required a 1/2 inch socket. I had to drive out the roll pin holding the parking brake lever/tab and used a small finishing nail with the tip ground flat as a pin punch. The purpose of removing the parking break tab was to allow the left side panel to come off.

I keep this tractor pretty clean, but I was amazed at how much grass build-up was present behind these plates and spent a fair amount of time vacuuming everything out.

I'll continue with more later, but attached is a pic of all how dirty the innards of this tractor were when I pulled off the cover plates.

Bill

[varosd 1,185]

Looking good Bill! you are right in that the grass crud can build up in a lot of nooks and crannies. the foot pedal intrigues me and if I had a column shift 520 it would be a no brainier. I kinda like having the motion control, of my '88 520, right at the fingertips. hopefully I can try someones fab work at a future show !! :D

[leeave96 487]

I waded into the foot control install a bit more today and had some good success and a few glitches to overcome too.

I'm not sure how to put pics and text in order, but here is a description of what I got accomplished with some pics. As I said in my earlier post, first thing I did was layout all of the components in Matt's kit.

I kind of re-ordered some of the steps in the kit a bit to keep like thing working at the same time so if I say I did this and then something else and you installed one of these foot control kits, in no way does my mixed-up way of installing the kit take away anything from Matt's instructions as they are great. I just can't leave well enough alone..

More later...

Bill

[Hydro 130]

Looking good Bill! you are right in that the grass crud can build up in a lot of nooks and crannies. the foot pedal intrigues me and if I had a column shift 520 it would be a no brainier. I kinda like having the motion control, of my '88 520, right at the fingertips. hopefully I can try someones fab work at a future show !!

I drove a 520 like yours and really liked the longer arm. It also seemed more natural to me to operate but I do like Matt's conversion for the simple reason the tractor is able to return to neutral.

[skrusins 128]

I got Matt's foot pedal for my 314. It was a easy install and the directions where great.

I left my column mounted control active and found that I can use both at any time.

Which made it great for me in what I need.

Thanks Matthew your fine thought out work is appreciated, I hope you got your well fixed.

Stan

[mattd860 161]

I got Matt's foot pedal for my 314. It was a easy install and the directions where great.

I left my column mounted control active and found that I can use both at any time.

Which made it great for me in what I need.

Thanks Matthew your fine thought out work is appreciated, I hope you got your well fixed.

Stan

Stan - I forgot that I contacted you about my well problem. It ended up being a bad check valve by the pressure tank. The hissing sound I heard was the water being force back through the semi-closed check valve. Once I replaced that everything worked good again.

Bill - I hope you enjoy the kits! Looking forward to hearing more about how the install went and seeing some more pictures!

[leeave96 487]

Update: Finished installing the foot control kit on my 1992 520H and aside from a slight adjustment, it works great - but...

Getting there was a chore. I've got a ton of pics, installation tips, lessons learned and will be posting over the next few days.

Thanks!

Bill

[Wheel-N-It 2,967]

Thank you Bill for giving us the pictorial process of installing the foot controls. I hope its soon!

[leeave96 487]

After I pulled the covers on top of the hump and the steering column, I pulled the LH and RH side covers. I had to remove the parking brake actuator tab to get the LH side panel off. Liquid Wrench is a very good friend when taking off some of these screws/bolts. I also pulled off the running board on the RH side.

[leeave96 487]

Next I laid out the parts I took off the tractor and lined them up in order of dis-assembly so I could re-install in the reverse order without getting everything mixed-up. The seat is a nice place for wrenches, etc. too!

[leeave96 487]

One thing I noticed in an otherwise very dirty tractor internals (even with a clean exterior) was the rear fins on the Onan were super clean. Don't know how the underside of this tractor got so caked with grass and dirt the engine was the opposite - super clean. I'm thinking the grass/dirt/dust problem might have came about from using the 42 inch rear discharge deck on this tractor for a couple of years. For those that have a RD deck and hydro, I'd be interested in knowing how much debris you encounter. If the 42 inch RD deck is guilty of this, it might only be used with an 8 speed tractor and not a hydro where air cooling is so important for the tranny.

[leeave96 487]

Next-up, I pulled the hydro cam shaft and cam. I then drilled the 1/4 inch hole per Matt's direction, deburred the hole and gave the area a shot of black paint to cover the newly exposed steel.

[leeave96 487]

After I pulled the hydro cam and drilled it out, I assembled the bearing to it. One of the things I did a bit different was to use some small OD 1/4 dia washers instead of the lock washers supplied with the kit. I got these washers at Advance Auto. Somewhere along here I deviated from the order of assembly/mod in Matt's instructions in that if I was working one area of the tractor, i.e. hydro cam, I just stayed with it until it was finished or nearly finished. Note my pics show the lock washers, but later I changed them.

[leeave96 487]

I found a pic of the 1/4 inch washer I used vs the lock washer.

[leeave96 487]

After this, I installed the hydro cam lever to the hydro cam via the hydro cam shaft. I found the hole in the hydro cam lever with respect to the hydro cam shaft to be a line to line fit - good, but I had to file just a touch to get the shaft through. Most likely just paint thickness or a tad of inward closing of the hole when punched maybe? Anyway and easy fix.