“Ol’ Red” 1979 Wheel Horse C-81

Rich If I ever go to Haspin or something like that I’ll put in a real keyswitch, and it won’t be a TSC one.

I’m trying this solder fix on these homemade battery cables.  Hopefully they won’t losen up anymore.

Love that your fixing up a old wheel horse, they are tanks. if your looking for more wheel horse offroading vids, check out my Channel lots of vids of my old Horse and lots of my buddys wheel horses and sears tractors. here a vid that got pretty popular a couple years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyatmTnog3Y&t=415s

Yeah, those shouldn't come off now. You use a torch with solder? Doubt a soldering iron with those would be doable.

Creepycrawler wrote:

Love that your fixing up a old wheel horse, they are tanks. if your looking for more wheel horse offroading vids, check out my Channel lots of vids of my old Horse and lots of my buddys wheel horses and sears tractors. here a vid that got pretty popular a couple years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyatmTnog3Y&t=415s

Thanks for turning me onto that.  Wheel Horse mudding and crawling videos are scarce and hard to find on Youtube.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Yeah, those shouldn't come off now. You use a torch with solder? Doubt a soldering iron with those would be doable.

I tried my 30 watt soldering iron and it didn't work.  I have access to a 150 watt gun style soldering iron at work, but who wants to go there on a weekend and I justed wanted to get this fix done.  So yes Rich I did end up using my mapp gas torch.  I held the connection with the barrel part of the lug up, heated it up to temp, and put melted the solder in there.

Just a brief update on this machine. One day I wanted to address the bad head gasket on this motor. Upon removing the head I discovered that the piston was pretty loose in the cylinder so I removed the motor and dropped it off at the machine shop where my 12hp Kohler already was being rebuilt for my C-125 that I mow with.

I just received word today that both motors are done, which cost me only $1000 to have both done. That includes new points and condensors for both, new bearings, pistons, and a new carb and balance gears for the 12hp. I'm really excited to get both motors back in the tractors and start them up. There's going to be some exciting thread updates, videos, and pictures to come.

Looking for the updates! Sounds exciting!

Those ol' Kohlers will outlast all of us now that they are re-built, gaurantee it, haha. Looking forward to some off-road action with the newly re-built power plant Carl!

No more removing the engine to change the oil anymore.   It’s going to come in handy after I run the motor for a couple hours to break it in.   I’m running 30 weight Brad Penn break-in oil, then I’m going to run 30 weight Brad Penn oil because it has zinc in it that’s for flat tappet cams.

I wouldn't have used barbed fittings myself, probably crimp fittings, but I'd bet it'll be good for what you're doing. Definitely better when you dont have to make a mess changing the oil haha. Do I see some anti vibration mounts?

I have something like that on my Honda clone on my Suburban.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

I wouldn't have used barbed fittings myself, probably crimp fittings, but I'd bet it'll be good for what you're doing. Definitely better when you dont have to make a mess changing the oil haha. Do I see some anti vibration mounts?

My original thought was to use hydraulic hose but it seemed overkill.  My 1984 C-125 came from the factory with an oil drain hose that uses something like Parker PushLok style barbed fittings with no hose clamps or crimp sleeve and it's held up well for about 34 years so I think this should hold up pretty well.

The 8hp has a small block so it's spaced up off of the motor mounting plate with spacers to get the crankshaft in the right location.  That motor mounting plate is then affixed to the mounts on the frame using 4 shock mounts.  The 3 Wheel horses we have all have that same setup.

I finally got the motor back in and running!  The internals sound good and I don't hear anything out of the ordinary.  It does run a little rough so I think I need to do a thorough carb cleaning.  I made a video of me struggling to start it and eventually the first start up.  It's the first ever video I actually edited so let me know what you think.

Looks good, there was a bit of surging there.

That thing shouldn't ever get stuck!

Wheel Horses do make good off-roaders.

Love the sound of a good ol' K Series. Haha, nice goin' Carl! I love how you're keeping the original engine in the old girl. These old garden tractors need an engine with a big 12v coil hangin' off the side haha.

Thanks for the compliments guys.  My vision for Ol' Red is to keep it a "classic" or "vintage" garden tractor that's been modified for off road and some utility use.  Keeping the original motor going fits that theme really well.  These Wheel Horses are great platforms to start with, they can take a lot of abuse, and handle great off road.

This is my current "to do list" for this tractor:
-thorough carburetor clean
-front bumper
-automotive style key switch
-5" engine pulley is on its way to my house
-maybe a foot throttle but I don't think this motor with its heavy flywheel and current carburetor would like it
-cut the worn-out non-replaceable ends off the factory tie rods, weld on bolts and install replaceable rod ends.

Something to consider, A pulley cover/deflector or you will be spraying  if you get it or the belt wet.

Foot throttle will work fine.

That'll be so cool, another suggestion is tire chains.  Make a world of difference even with crazy aggressive tires.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

That'll be so cool, another suggestion is tire chains.  Make a world of difference even with crazy aggressive tires.

Yeah I have about a 1/4" inch of clearance between my tires and my floorboards.  I'd rather not chew them up and I like the center of gravity where it is so I don't have plans to do any kind of lift.  Have you ever seen a log skidder with no fenders and aggressive canadian style tire chains?  That'd be a cool look for a mud tractor.

mightyraze wrote:

Something to consider, A pulley cover/deflector or you will be spraying  if you get it or the belt wet.

Foot throttle will work fine. Very Happy

In sticking with my "classic" look I will be reinstalling the orignal belt guard.  Just wait and see.  Maybe one day down the road I'll try out a foot throttle.  I just have so many projects I want to get done before I get to that point.

Cool, good deal.Don't get yourself overwhelmed in projects or none of them get done. LOL

I put on my new 5" pulley and 5/8" x 85" belt and did a speed test.  It topped out at 10 mph which seemed pretty good to me.  It can get from point a to b faster and I have a great low range.





I'm going to work on the carburetor next so I can get the motor running smoother.

So after thoroughly cleaning the carburetor and adjusting the float the motor runs like brand new.  Jeesh you think I would have already done this since I went through all the trouble of having the internals rebuilt.

I made this video just so AllisKidD21 can listen to it purr like a kitten.



The new belt rubs on the belt cover in some spots so I'm going to try to just bend it out of way to get more clearance.

Yeah, I think that these larger Suburbans and Wheel horses, being so high up and everything, shouldn't go too fast.  10 sounds good.

Can't wait to see you drive it!

There are some videos of this thing mudding on page 1 of this thread. That's when it had its stock 4" engine pulley, now it has a 5".

I crossed another item off my to do list today. I installed a key switch.  I hooked up the ignition wire and the rectifier to the same ignition terminal which made the most sense to me.





Here's what I had to do to make my stock belt cover work with my 6" engine pulley.  I really didn't want to take a grinder to these beautifully well made old parts, but what I had to do to make it work was pretty minimal and I think I maintain the stock look.

I just drilled a couple of new holes in the foot rest to move the lower belt guard forward.



I had to take a little bit out of the top flange of the belt cover.



I removed most of the bottom flange and a mounting tab on the forward lower portion of the cover.



I made a couple of cuts and bent this piece up where there was an existing notch in the dash to get more clearance for the belt.



I also installed some very simple belt guides.  The belt hasn't come off since I put these on.



The belt does rub a little more than I'd like on the brake linkage so I have plans to change the geometry of the linkage to gain more clearance.



I have a shorter 84" belt on its way because my clutch is almost at the end of its travel and a shorter belt would reposition the clutch arm when the belt is under tension to give me more clearance on the underside of the dash.

My to do list is getting pretty short for this tractor now.

-install shorter belt
-rework brake linkage
-make modified tie rods
-install a new clutch pulley
-make a custom front bumper