Wheel Horse RJ 35

[Stigian 1,234]

Afternoon/evening all it would appear that somehow I have an RJ 35 on my bench

Unfortunately it isn't actually mine but belongs to a chap you all know and love.. Neil.. Yep the very same Neil who happens to be a moderator around these parts..

 

 

 

 

 

So why is Neil's RJ on my bench?

Well, Neil brought it up for Nigel in the workshop next door to do a bit of work on it, get it running, driving and maybe more.. I offered to help and it so happened that I had some space on the bench..

It's also nice to have a break from the quad for a while as I've missed working on Wheel Horses

 

It didn't take long to get the belt guard and hood off..

 

 

 

The first job was to have a look at the engine, it has good compression and after a bit of plug and plug lead cleaning it has a spark

 

 

 

I expect with a temporary gas tank fitted and a bit of move juice the engine should come to life.. Something to look forward to on Monday

 

 

The engine pulley is not quite in the right place on the shaft, it should be closer to the engine..

 

 

 

Me thinks the pulley needs to turn a little on the shaft as well..

 

 

 

Having not worked on an RJ or any really early Wheel Horses before this er.. brassy bit on the back of the pulley confused me for quite a while until I worked out it's the reverse er.. cog

 

 

 

In fact the whole drive belt system confused me for a while until I disconnected this spring and then everything fell into place..

 

 

 

 

Speaking of belts, does anyone know what part number/size the larger rear drive belt should be?

 

I need to fit this nice new throttle cable..

 

 

 

But has anyone a photo of the clip/small bracket thingy that holds the cable outer sleeve to the carb please?

 

That's all for now folks, more action as it happens..

[redrooster 83]

Love the round hood!

[chris sutton 610]

Try this Ian.

Tractor 1955-1957 Ride-Away Jr.pdf

Under manuals, has all the belt size's

Edited January 21, 2017 by chris sutton

[meadowfield 2,570]

A sweet thing to have on your bench indeed.... 

[Stigian 1,234]

On 21/01/2017 at 9:25 PM, redrooster said:

Love the round hood!

 

 It is rather nice isn't it

 

 

On 21/01/2017 at 9:27 PM, chris sutton said:

Try this Ian.

Tractor 1955-1957 Ride-Away Jr.pdf

Under manuals, has all the belt size's

 

Thanks Chris

 

 

On 21/01/2017 at 10:27 PM, meadowfield said:

A sweet thing to have on your bench indeed.... 

 

It is indeed Mark..

 

With the RJ's engine having a good spark the time had come to look at the carb..

 

 

 

An interesting find behind the carb... Me thinks that gasket might be a bit small!

 

 

 

Everything moved freely in the carb, so with a new gasket made (your see it in an up and coming video) the carb was bolted back on and a temporary fuel tank lashed up.

 

 

 

A few pulls of the cord (steel cable in this case!) and the engine coughed into life and ran for a few seconds before stopping, which was just as well as the carb was leaking fuel from around the float bowl in vast amounts!

 

Off with the carb again, ahhh there's the problem!

 

 

 

As luck would have it Nigel had a spare carb which I could borrow to check out how the engine runs..  Thanks mate

 

 

 

A few pulls of the cord later and the engine didn't start... One "big" pull later the pull cord came off in my hand but the engine did start, run and sounded very nice until it ran out of petrol and I gave myself a shock from the HT lead! 

All of which you will see in a video of course

 

I thought I had snapped the steel cable pull cord thingy (I hadn't seen on either) until a saw how long it still was and checked the (not so) snapped end!

 

 

 

As it turned out the nut that holds the end of the cable on was loose and the steel cable had simply pulled out!    Phew

 

 

 

While we have the pull start assembly apart let's turn it over and have a look..... What the???

 

 

 

Pull the cord and the center changes into a hexagonal shape!

 

 

 

Which grips on a hexagonal shaft on the flywheel!

I've never seen a pull start that works like that before... Me likes

 

 

 

Then this happened

 

 

 

 

More of an RJ update for you chaps, let's have a look at the hood/bonnet shall we..

 

The top had these rather worrying filler bubbles.

 

 

 

which when prodded with a screwdriver looked more like this!

 

 

 

 

Interesting, a repainted gas tank with no fuel tap (Neil did mention it leaked ) and lot's of paint cleaned off the bottom!

 

 

 

What's going on under (or is that above?) the tank?

 

 

 

Soooooo... Someone has ground back the filler smoothing out the underside of the hood/bonnet to weld on new fuel tank straps! 

I'd guess when the hood was painted no tank straps were fitted.. It so happen that the strap welds are in the same place as the filler cracks above!

 

 

 

Who ever did it thought something sucked as that's what it looks like has been written!

No idea why when I upload this photo it turns it sideways!

 

 

 

Oh, and the top of the tank never got painted!

 

 

 

Out with the grinder and a workshop full of filler dust later it was good to see the rust was surface rust only, and only where the filler had cracked...    And a random pop rivet!

 

 

 

As the bonnet/hood has quite a lot of ripples under the filler, there was no point in taking it all out only to replace it.. So with the surface rust carefully cleaned back to bare metal the first layer of filler went back in..

 

 

 

Easy sand no pin holes filler eh! At least the easy sand bit was right.. No worries, a second skim will sort it.

 

 

 

Meanwhile I catch Nigel dancing with some masking tape and a bench full of RJ parts!

 

 

 

Some parts like the gear (I'm not sure it should be called that!) lever had never be repainted, so here it is with all the thick surface rust cleaned off awaiting some red oxide primer.

 

 

 

Some parts in the "need to to have the paint flattened back to give the primer a good key" Que

 

 

 

Some primed parts hanging about the place.

 

 

 

The hood now looks good with a fresh coat of red oxide primer, I'm happy with the overall shape of my filler work, there's a just a couple of little spots that are annoying me.. I will sort them tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jaymon74 84]

Project is coming along great! 

[Stigian 1,234]

On 01/02/2017 at 6:47 PM, Jaymon74 said:

Project is coming along great! 

 

Thanks Jaymon

 

More progress..

 

Getting the knackered tyre off the front wheel rim was fun, the tube put up more of a fight than the tyre!

 

 

 

Does anyone know what the random hole in the wheel rim is for? It doesn't seem to line up with anything on the RJ and I'd of thought it would have two holes for bolting a wheel weight onto!

 

 

 

I wondered why the paint off the bottom of the gas tank had been stripped, someone has done a solder repair..

 

 

 

What's Nigel spotted in the tank?

 

 

 

Nope, it's not a mini star system but quite a few holes instead!

 

 

 

 

Some detail brought back by cleaning up  the pull start casing..

 

 

 

Cleaning up the rear wheels.. Someone at some point had flattened the paint back to a beautiful smooth finish and then for what ever reason gave them a quick (very quick) spray with grey primer..   The odd rusty bit cleans up very easily

 

 

 

The other rear wheel decided it wanted to leak water on my bench!     10psi later and water was pouring/bubbling out all over the place!    I'm not looking forward to popping the tyre off the bead to clean the water out and see how badly rusted it is inside!

I must remember to take a photo of the tyre valve tomorrow as I've never seen one like it!

 

 

 

A hint of things to come

 

 

 

Not forgetting of course

 

 

[Stigian 1,234]

Really moving on with the RJ rebuild now, the frame has been cleaned up, primered and the underside has been top coated hence why the frame is on it's side

 

 

 

Is this strange two part valve arrangement a USA thing?  We had never seen it before!

 

 

 

 

 

Top coat time,

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile I find this old WH rear wheel with bolts welded through from the outside (not by me I should add)... 

 

 

 

Makes a perfect tool to hole the RJ's front wheel for a clean up.  Note the crack in the paint...

 

 

 

Well, the crack is actually in filler!!   Someone did like the ol bondo in the past!

 

 

 

And to bring this build thread up to date, lot's of freshly painted panels and parts

 

 

 

 

 

 

[evanloock 221]

The 2 part valve is to allow for fluid (weight) to be added to the tire before airing up.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,278]

As always I really like your detailed pictures. Keep up the great work. Can not wait to see the finished RJ. Cheers from across the pond.

[C-121uk 183]

Amazing job Ian, I hope I can get mine to this level of detail! 

[AlwaysLookin80 1,308]

I can't stop coming back to this post. It's awesome 

[neil 2,409]

I'm getting itchy teeth now , I can't wait to get junior home , amazing work chaps , I hope you are having fun and enjoying the restoration 

[Stigian 1,234]

On 11/02/2017 at 3:03 PM, evanloock said:

The 2 part valve is to allow for fluid (weight) to be added to the tire before airing up.

 

Thanks for that, I wish I had those on my old 312-8 when I filled the over sized (massive) rear tires

 

 

On 11/02/2017 at 9:54 PM, elcamino/wheelhorse said:

As always I really like your detailed pictures. Keep up the great work. Can not wait to see the finished RJ. Cheers from across the pond.

 

Thanks Jim, not long now until the little RJ is done.

 

 

On 11/02/2017 at 11:18 PM, C-121uk said:

Amazing job Ian, I hope I can get mine to this level of detail! 

 

Thanks Ewan, having seen the pic's of your Cadet you more than have the skills

 

 

On 12/02/2017 at 11:52 PM, J.A. said:

I can't stop coming back to this post. It's awesome 

 

Glad you like it, it is a sweet little machine.

 

 

On 13/02/2017 at 11:39 AM, neil said:

I'm getting itchy teeth now , I can't wait to get junior home , amazing work chaps , I hope you are having fun and enjoying the restoration 

 

Your start dribbling when you see the next lot of pic's Neil         Yep, having great fun doing this restoration, it's nice to see it all come together now..

 

 

Yesterday the little RJ started going back together, lift cable first followed by the engine.

 

 

 

I put a couple of bit's of inner tube on the frame before dropping the engine on.. It makes it easy to line the bolt holes up and stops the frame getting scratched while moving the engine about.

 

 

 

Cleaning out the grease nipples in a little petrol

 

 

 

Pulleys and drive belts on.

 

 

 

Front axle and steering on.

 

 

 

The crowning moment..... The tank isn't fixed under the hood yet, but we just had to have a look

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not much left to do, the paint for the wheels and the fuel tank sealant should arrive tomorrow, and I need to sort the carb out now the rebuild kit has arrived..

[953 nut 54,844]

1 hour ago, Stigian said:

I put a couple of bit's of inner tube on the frame before dropping the engine on.. It makes it easy to line the bolt holes up and stops the frame getting scratched while moving the engine about.

That is a great tip,       That old RJ is looking GOOD!   

[stevasaurus 22,632]

Ian...fascinating thread on Neil's RJ.  Did you do electrolysis on the inside of the gas tank?? 

[Jaymon74 84]

Looking great!!

[nigel 150]

5 hours ago, stevasaurus said:

Ian...fascinating thread on Neil's RJ.  Did you do electrolysis on the inside of the gas tank?? 

No Steve it would of fallen to bits, all we have done is cleaned it right out ( there was not a lot of rust in it ) flushed it then today ian wasn't in so I put tank sealer in, a lot of it 😁Now we will leave it for a week to go hard and hope it's filled the holes, it's worked in the past for us, but we will see 

[Stigian 1,234]

On 15/02/2017 at 4:17 PM, stevasaurus said:

Ian...fascinating thread on Neil's RJ.  Did you do electrolysis on the inside of the gas tank?? 

 

As Nigel said, no     

I do miss having an electrolysis tank, a very handy bit of kit you get going and leave it to it for a few days

I'd love to have another E tank, but due to my workshop now being on a nursery (the plants growing kind) no leakage can be risked..

 

 

On 15/02/2017 at 4:20 PM, Jaymon74 said:

Looking great!!

 

Thanks Jay?

 

Neil's RJ is so close to being done I can almost taste the first test drive

 

A few detail jobs, the points cover was missing a gasket so I had to make one...

 

 

 

The exhaust was missing a clamp and little doo dat that clamps between the exhaust and frame... Sorted

 

 

 

The foot pegs didn't have the optional? foot rest thingys (I don't even know if RJ's could be ordered with them?) so Nigel put some rubber shrink wrap stuff over the pegs to give a bit of grip and stop the paint wearing away.

 

 

 

Sorry Neil, a change of plan for the wheels... We thought gold would look much better and Nigel had all these cans of wheel paint kicking around you see..........

 

 

 

Only kidding

 

 

 

A second coat is needed at this point.. As is first coating the other side

 

 

 

Wheels second coated and bolted back on...... I can't help but grin every time I look at the RJ

 

 

 

[rjg854 11,299]

B   U   T   FULL 

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,278]

@StigianYou and Nigel do amazing work. You need to take a trip across the pond  for a meet at the Big show.

[Stigian 1,234]

On 22/02/2017 at 2:16 PM, elcamino/wheelhorse said:

@StigianYou and Nigel do amazing work. You need to take a trip across the pond  for a meet at the Big show.

 

On 22/02/2017 at 0:08 PM, rjg854 said:

B   U   T   FULL 

 

Thanks Guy's... A trip across the pond would be nice, but rather unlikely as I'm not that good at flying..

 

Some machines just like to fight you, and the RJ has picked the very last stage to er.. Pick a fight!

 

With the fuel tank sealed up inside and painted, and the carb passing the leak test before it was installed the time had come to fire the RJ up and have a drive/adjust the shifter linkage..

I'm not sure if he didn't like coming off the bench or is just scared of being at ground level but the fighting started!

Problems with the pull start not being able to keep hold of the end of the cable and the re-coil wasn't!

Cable and re-coil eventually sorted only now the jaws bit that grabs hold of a hexagonal shaft on the engine wasn't grabbing any longer!

When the pull start is off the engine it works fine, but once fitted!!   

 

Sometimes walking away is the best option and go back to the problem with a fresh head.. Which will be happening tomorrow..

 

The dull weather makes the paint look darker than it actually is..

 

 

 

 

 

So what can I say about the RJ... I think AARRGGHHH sums it up quite well!

 

I don't know what the RJ has against us but it's really fighting us at the very last stage!!

 

You would think something as simple as putting the steering wheel on would be easy, but no!

When the RJ arrived the steering wheel was held on with a bent nail.. Now most of the time it's because the original roll pin? has been lost at some point in time..

Not this time.. The holes in the wheel and column didn't actually line up very well so a nail was the only thing that would fit in!

I guess the steering wheel isn't the original!

Anyway, some very careful drilling and the wheel is now held on with a custom made quick release clip thingy 

 

 

 

"Deep breath"... Now onto the engine..

 

The very nice looking Schmacke or is it Schmacko? (It's hard to read on the photo's) has been driving us nuts!

The recoil didn't want to which was eventually sorted, the the "gripping" bits that grip the hexagonal shaft on the engine decided it didn't want to to the gripping bit!

Quite why we just can't work out, nothing is broken and it works 90% of the time when not fitted to the engine..

Fit it to the engine however and it will work for a couple of pulls then stop again!

If I had to count the amount of time the recoil unit has been on and off the engine both Nigel and I would have to remove our boots and socks as we would run out of fingers to count on very quickly!!!!

 

In the end for the sake of our sanity we decided to swap the recoil until over for one that works the more normal way, which in it's self is almost a straight forward swap...

Woo-Hoo we can pull the engine over again.... But why is the engine cover moving around so much???

 

That would be because there should be a bolt where this hole is... The trouble is the backing plate is missing most of the threaded bolt hole as it had been broken off at some point in it's life!

We do have another good backing plate to swap over, but that involves a lot of stripping two engine down to swap parts..

 

Forward one step, back two or is it four?

 

 

 

It's not all bad news though, we have had the engine running.. For a short while anyway..   Once started it would run quite nice for a few mins, then start running rough, then eventually it would stop!

 

Best have a look at the carb again, pulling the pin out that holds the float in place was nerve wracking as the casting one side which holds the pin in place isn't as strong as it should be..

 

Can you spot a problem?

 

 

 

Yep the new O ring doesn't like petrol and has grown somewhat!

 

 

 

No chance what so ever of getting this jet thingy out!!!

 

 

 

It looks like someone has been at the float valve thingy already!

 

 

 

Getting it out was er... Shall we say interesting!

 

 

 

 

The carb has now been put back together and will be going back on the engine once the backing plate has been swapped over and the "will it run ok?" sequence can start over again..

 

 

What a day Thursday was in RJ land, the first job was to swap the engine backing plate over.

I didn't get any photo's of the new backing plate in place, but here's the old one against the donor engine.

 

 

 

Along with the new backing plate came updated electrics as there didn't seem and point in swapping the parts between plates....

 

So, with the engine bolted back together again it was time to see if it would run...

 

Third pull it started right up ticked over well, revved up well and sounded generally very good..

To celebrate having finally got the engine sorted on went the kettle....

It was while the kettle was boiling that I noticed bubbling oil coming out from the head gasket! No photo but it will be on the next video..

 

Anyway, as the head has a slightly chewed up spark plug thread...

 

 

 

We thought we would swap heads over as well as sorting he gasket..  Off it comes.

 

 

 

HHmm, interesting.. The piston looks quite clean, but the amount of oil on the piston is a worry!

 

 

 

I'd say that's a new piston which explains why the little engine has such good/high compresson which is also why the head gasket went pop!!

 

 

 

The new cylinder head has a slight recess about the inlet valve and slightly different fins but it bolted right on..

 

 

 

The engine now felt to have a lot less compression when pulling it over, it also ran very rough!!

Back off with the head to find it was oil coated!

 

 

 

Does the exhaust valve look like it has had a hardened insert er.. inserted?    The exhaust valve is where all the oil is coming from which means the guides/seals are shot!!

 

 

 

Oil was also bubbling out from around the exhaust itself, as you can see at some point it had been broken off and wound back in at a pished angle!

 

 

 

Quite where to go from here I'm not sure, Nigel and I did have a natter about swapping the RJ's crankshaft into the donor engine as it ran quite well and doesn't blow oil but the end of the crank is tapered not straight!!

 

 

 

So close but yet so far!! Sigh!!

[Stigian 1,234]

 

[Ken B 3,141]

Coming along nicely, If there is anyone that can get it all figured out it is you,  I'm sure of that!  A few positive notes...  The engine comes off the tractor in a jiffy, the engine is light and easy to lift and pretty easy to work on...

[Stigian 1,234]

On 29/03/2017 at 11:29 AM, Ken B said:

Coming along nicely, If there is anyone that can get it all figured out it is you,  I'm sure of that!  A few positive notes...  The engine comes off the tractor in a jiffy, the engine is light and easy to lift and pretty easy to work on...

 

Thanks Ken, yeah the engine is really light, I'm just glad it wasn't a 16hp Kohler Magnum as they are very heavy

 

Time for a long over due RJ update, and unlike my last post this one has a happy ending

 

Monday morning Nigel and I had a visit from Neil, it was good to catch up again mate, it's been a while..

Not only has Neil got a huge amount of Wheel Horse history stashed away in he's head, but he also came with gifts... 2 engines

 

Here's the top half of Neil..

 

 

 

The bottom half of Neil was busy controling the rev's of a very nice looking engine that ran as good as it looks..

The blue engine has carb and spark issues as we found out, so that's a job for another day.

 

 

 

So with a quick pulley swap the new engine went in the RJ.

 

 

 

The shade of engine red is so close to the rest of the RJ we saw no point in repainting it match 100%.. It's looks good as it is.

 

 

 

One slight problem with the new engine is the exhaust port had two studs rather than the port itself having internal threads so swapping the  exaust over wouldn't be a bolt on swap.

 

 

 

Not a problem, take a flat bit of thick-ish steel and drill three holes in the right places... A quick test fit.

 

 

 

Trim a bit of the RJ's exhaust down to size them grind the thread of it so it fit's in the flange leaving plenty of space to weld it up from the inside. (No idea why this photo won't upload the right way up!)

 

 

 

Welded up, cleaned up and trimmed to shape.

 

 

 

 

And a coat of the black stuff to make it look good.

 

 

 

Exhaust on.

 

 

 

You can remove an RJ engine without taking the hood off, but you need to remove the spark plug.

Then once the engine is back in the spark plug has to go back in using a very special tool that won't scratch the paint on the hood

 

 

 

Knowing the engine is a good, the time had come to fire the little fella up and go for a drive..

Knowing the gear shift would need a bit of adjusting to get it to shift right and even though it should of been in netural but possibly wasn't the rear wheels where jacked up before starting..

 

 

 

A running issue was soon sorted by putting some petrol in the tank, so I climbed aboard and Dennis lowered the jack, and off I trundled

 

 

 

 

After so long it was nice to finally drive the RJ, but as you will hear in the video (coming soon to a YouTube page near you) the gear selector needs some adjustment so it get's all gears and the selctor bar does not rub against the reverse disc.

Also the engine governor need a tweak to stop the engine from trying to over rev..

 

So not much to do and the RJ will soon done

 

Told you this update would have a happy ending

Edited May 24, 2017 by Stigian