Raider 9 Project

[M1N1ON 11]

So the grandfather in-law is a self proclaimed hoarder. He has two barns full of old tools, trailers, and junk. I recently purchased a new house and we were talking about getting a riding lawn mower to both mow and plow snow. He says he has an old mower in one of the barns and if i can get it out, i can have it!

Low and behold i dug out an old Wheel Horse Raider 9! It is complete and stock. It was in decent shape but could for sure use some TLC. I got it home and here is my progress...

Here it is after i pushed it around the garage 20 times while i moved in and got settled. It had wheel weights and flat tires.

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And as i started digging into it.

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The battery obviously is shot and the wiring harness has been chewed on by something. I ended up cutting out some of the wires because they had rusted together.

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Pulled the head off to see if it was all rusted out before i tried turning it over. If it was seized i was going to put a motorcycle motor in it. Oh well...

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I got tired of cleaning the head by hand and cleaner. I got this angle die grinder on sale from HF. Also picked up some fine abrasive pads for it. Worked great.

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Learned these things can get a little squirrely. Set it down on the bench and it turned on and grabbed my glove. Luckily it just burnt my skin a bit.

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Got the tank off and started looking at the wiring. It is a mess. Its clearly been spliced into 5 different times and chewed into. I am trying to find a wiring diagram but everyone I find has a different layout.

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So two questions, is there supposed to be play in the rear-most pulley on the trans? and does anyone have a good wiring diagram i can use?

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

Found this in the file section
 

You might want to search through these results, I found some service bulletins, etc. later on in the results

http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/search/?&q=raider%209&type=downloads_file&page=1

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2016 by WNYPCRepair

[roadapples 6,981]

Good find, and   

[953 nut 51,413]

               Love to hear of  being passed down in a family. Sounds like you have a good grasp of what needs to be done.

Glad to see there is lots of room in your garage, these little RED stallions are a bit addictive.

[dells68 7,494]

Good luck with the motor.  Techy's can be a little finicky sometimes.  Not that I'm partial to Kohlers or anything.

[Ed Kennell 35,493]

 to the   M1n1on.       

 

That's a great project tractor. Was your wife's Grandfather the original owner?   Is he involved in the redo?

 Don't let these Kohler lovers scare ya.            rules

[dells68 7,494]

If I have to be honest, I had a gocart when I was a kid that had a Tecumseh on it and I couldn't kill it.  It was one tough little motor.  Dad eventually sold it to someone else who also got some good out of it!

[Achto 26,458]

10 hours ago, M1N1ON said:

So two questions, is there supposed to be play in the rear-most pulley on the trans? and does anyone have a good wiring diagram i can use?

First, . It looks like Brian found you a diagram already. As for the pulley there may be slight play of the shaft in and out. There should be no side to side play of the shaft and no play of the pulley on the shaft.

[M1N1ON 11]

13 hours ago, achto said:

First, . It looks like Brian found you a diagram already. As for the pulley there may be slight play of the shaft in and out. There should be no side to side play of the shaft and no play of the pulley on the shaft.

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This much?

 

 

Also the pulley looks busted. How difficult is this to remove and replace?

 

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14 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

 to the   M1n1on.       

 

That's a great project tractor. Was your wife's Grandfather the original owner?   Is he involved in the redo?

 Don't let these Kohler lovers scare ya.            rules

 

Thank you! The Grandfather is not involved, he lives about an hour away from us in the summer time but migrates down to Texas for the winter. He has been getting a kick out of the pictures I've been sending him. He is the original owner, it was parked in the barn since 96'.

 

He also has an old cub cadet "mid size" lawn tractor. It pains me because he parks it wherever he is done using it in the yard, flips the seat over and walks away. Leaves it like that all winter, full of gas, battery connected, middle of the yard. Comes back in the spring, flips the seat over, and it starts right up. I take every precaution with all my equipment and half the crap doesn't work come spring.

[M1N1ON 11]

Anyways got the belt off (ish), figured out the rear pulley was damaged as described above. Not sure how i will fix that. Also need to get the mower deck off?

 

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Found this junk...

 

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Then here is where i got mad, broke some stuff, cussed a lot, and walked away. I needed to get the flywheel off because the wires coming out of the charge coil where sheafing so i was going to splice into those and put some heat shielding on it. I was messing around with the flywheel and looking up online how to get it off. I rented a puller for Vatozone and while using it, busted part of a fin off. So then i saw online how a guy just used a pry bar and it popped off. Well.... i was already heated and P.O.ed so i tried it and well....

 

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Does anyone think this will still work? Should i just replace it? I didn't want to have a ton of money into this project and these all look expense...

[M1N1ON 11]

Just went out to go look at it again. Now i just want to start it on fire.

[Irv 115]

  While I admire someone taking on a project like that, unless it is a tractor that is sentimental to you, I would tend not to try to bring that one back. Looks like it's been used and abused and it will cost you lots of bucks to restore into a running, dependable unit. I would look for a decent C or 300/400 series tractor with the attach-a-matic and much more readily available attachments (decks, blades, blowers). Be patient and you should find one at a reasonable price and in much better condition than your raider.

[M1N1ON 11]

14 minutes ago, Irv said:

  While I admire someone taking on a project like that, unless it is a tractor that is sentimental to you, I would tend not to try to bring that one back. Looks like it's been used and abused and it will cost you lots of bucks to restore into a running, dependable unit. I would look for a decent C or 300/400 series tractor with the attach-a-matic and much more readily available attachments (decks, blades, blowers). Be patient and you should find one at a reasonable price and in much better condition than your raider.

 

I respectfully disagree? There is no rust, all the parts are there, and aside from the charge coil and rear pulley, I'm not going to have a whole lot into it. Plus it as free and i am not going to let it (being the tractor) "win". 

 

The cheapest i found one on CL was $700 and it was a bucket.

Edited April 14, 2016 by M1N1ON

[dells68 7,494]

Dr Jekle?  Mr Hide?  You there?  Just kidding!  I too get frustrated with projects, get aggravated, want to walk away, then cool down and am ready to go again.  In all due respect, I agree that you are looking at a major undertaking to turn this machine into your weekly mower.  Not saying it can't be done and well worth the time. Find a cheap crapsman or something similar to use while you slow down, really take time to do a proper tear down, and enjoy the process of bringing her back to life.  She'll be a great tractor, just gonna take time.  Ask lots of questions here and you'll find the help and answers you need.

[Ken B 3,116]

Nice project. I think you are looking at it the right way, at the current moment you are way ahead of the game as you are into the tractor for zilch. If it turns out the old Techy is flat worn out I would head over to Grandpa's place and do a little rummaging. Who knows, there might be a good engine layin around free for the taking. My advice would be to not throw a bunch of money into the current engine, a little possibly but not a whole bunch. Upgrading the current engine to a Kohler is no big deal and won't be too expensive. Once you take a little simple green and the power washer to your Raider she will clean right up, I don't think it was left outside thru the years. I think she has been used but for its age she looks pretty darn good.

[Achto 26,458]

10 hours ago, M1N1ON said:

 

Also the pulley looks busted. How difficult is this to remove and replace?

The pulley is held on to the shaft with a set screw. It will probably take a little prying to get it off after you loosen the set screw. Should be able to replace the pulley with any cast or steel pulley of the same size ID and OD. I don't recommend an aluminum pulley, they usually don't hold up.

 

10 hours ago, M1N1ON said:

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This much?

It does look like the pulley has walked out on the shaft. Does it line up with the clutch / idle pulley, or has someone spaced the clutch / idle pulley out to compensate? Does the belt seem to line up good from the engine to the trans & idle pulley? Normally the trans pulley is closer to the casing, but modifications may have been made. 

[Ed Kennell 35,493]

 I agree with Ken.....The Raider  definitely  needs to be saved especially  with it being a family one owner tractor.     It may not be cost effective to save the Tecky, but it can be replaced with a Predator for a couple bucks.

[Cole J. 71]

Interesting project you got goin' I'm working on a 72 charger 10 and have got quite frustrated with it at time, in my opinion if you get mad at walk away for a little while cool down, come back if a few hours or the next day, it will be there when you come back. Its better to take it slow and do everything correctly than fast and messed up, because that may cause problems later on that are even worse that the first. Good luck, have fun with it. Always ask question, there's never a stupid question when it come to these thing. Nice tractor keep up the good work 

[M1N1ON 11]

Why does everyone think the tecumseh is junk? Aside from the charge coil that i jacked up, everything is tight and together. I purchased a gasket kit and impulse pump diaphragm on amazon already for a couple bucks. I fully expect this motor to fire up once i put it back together.

 

Anyone have their 2c on the charge coil? will it work? Do i need a new one?

[WHX?? 46,637]

It's not that we think the Techys are junk we just know that parts are ..well can be hard to find and pricey. For what you would have in it you could easily do a repower. It is definitely a labor of love to get it going. as for the coil..yeah I think you trashed it.... Good news on the pulley a member had one in classifieds not too long ago.. see if I can find it for you.

 

Here it is ...might be what you need maybe @RedRanger can help you out....

.

[RedRanger 1,468]

1 hour ago, WHX61/3 said:

It's not that we think the Techys are junk we just know that parts are ..well can be hard to find and pricey. For what you would have in it you could easily do a repower. It is definitely a labor of love to get it going. as for the coil..yeah I think you trashed it.... Good news on the pulley a member had one in classifieds not too long ago.. see if I can find it for you.

 

Here it is ...might be what you need maybe @RedRanger can help you out....

.

Thanks for the mention.  Yes, I have the Mott's!

M1N1ON let me know if you want it.

Steve

[M1N1ON 11]

Anyone know where i can get the charge coil? is there a conversion for these?

[oldredrider 2,547]

If a member here doesn't have one, check on eBay.