“Ol’ Red” 1979 Wheel Horse C-81

Ooo, looks pretty clean and neat up in there, and those labels are a good call too. Nice job Carl!

Sweet! That's going to be cool to have.

Looking good Carl! I should really do some cable management on Kal. It's a nightmare under there. I am interested in how that Tach is going to work out.

Yes since there is a lot of excitement about the tach, I think I'm going to do a live stream on facebook installing and testing it some evening

Well I welded and notched my emergency pull start pulley and had a succesful test with it. The key thing is to remember to turn the key on lol.

I'm putting a coat of paint on that and also wire brushing and painting the exhaust.

Here's my updated to-do list:

Things I need to acquire for toolkit:
-a cheap made in taiwan 9/16 wrench
-assorted nuts and bolts(I have some in stock)
-foot operated tire pump
-spare idler pulley

Things I need to fix:
-paint wore off on rear rack, paint with truck bed liner
-paint bracket for dual throttle

Mods I'd like to do:
-trans to frame bracing
-replace ammeter with 2" tachometer
-a spare unlocked 8 speed trans that I can put in for general use

Looks good Carl.  Saw your....video.    

@Crazy_Carl you said a spare unlocked 8 speed, ive never heard of one. our do you mean 4 speed Hi and Low

@Buck It might be a little marketing stretch by Wheel Horse to call their famous trans an "8 speed" but I'm such  a die hard Wheel Horse guy I refuse to call it anything else.  If you count the two reverse speeds there are technically 8 speeds.  You can see "eight speed" clearly written on my hood in the coming pics.  Maybe that's how you tell a sears guy from a wheel horse guy by how they refer to their transmission lol.

I definitely like the look of the black exhaust opposed to the brown rusty one.  I also mounted up the pull start pulley.

I think it was a thing at one time.  Sears did it on their old Suburbans too.  What I find interesting is what they called 8 speed in the late 60's early 70's was considered 6 speed in the Craftsmans of the 80's?  Same shift pattern with hi/lo?  Count Reverse/not count reverse...  LOL

Back on topic...  The Black is a good contrast to the red as well!  Ol Red is looking great!

This is my first experience with any kind of truck bed coating.  Looks like a durable scratch resistant finish.

My to-do list is getting short:

Things I need to acquire for toolkit:
-a cheap made in taiwan 9/16 wrench
-assorted nuts and bolts(I have some in stock)
-foot operated tire pump
-spare idler pulley

Mods I'd like to do:
-trans to frame bracing
-replace ammeter with 2" tachometer
-a spare unlocked 8 speed trans that I can put in for general use
-blow tractor apart to paint it and weld/reinforce trans mount more at that time

@Crazy_Carl too funny, i use to build offroad trucks/jeeps and used bedliner for everything the biggest thing i found is prep, if you want it to last and not peel. and for a lot of them they fade, i used to just it them with a top colour(Color for you Southern Folk) and clear coat to make them last. The rack looks good how many coats did you do?

and to add to that 8 speed dilemma my truck has a 6 speed does that make it a 12 forword gears and 2 reverse? and my old Toyota had a 5 speed with 2 transfer cases with 2 different gear ratios dose that mean 25 forward gears  and 5 reverse lol Just buggin i think it was just a marketing gimmick just to try to be different.

The wire managment turned out awesome, nice to be able to quickly diagnose wiring issues should they arise. Im really bad about using whatever wire I have laying around and some wires switch colors halfway if I run out of a color partway through a project. Pull start turned out good too

LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!
I LOVE IT!!!

@Buck I wired brushed, rough sanded, washed, then applied 3 coats.

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Yes since there is a lot of excitement about the tach, I think I'm going to do a live stream on facebook installing and testing it some evening

I hope I am free that evening!

Crazy_Carl wrote:

This is my first experience with any kind of truck bed coating.  Looks like a durable scratch resistant finish.

That looks GREAT. What brand did you use?

Krylon I like the texture a lot

Look in good man, real good.

That rack texture looks sweet!  That would look good on a front bumper too.

Well the tach install was a semi-success!  The only incident I had during the live install was a hot 12V jumper wire hitting the gas pedal, cuasing smoke and melting the insulation on my aligator clip leads, but no fire and my battery is fine after that load test lol.

The tach reads really well in the high RPM range, but it reads about 250rpm high at idle so I calibrated it at 3400rpm.  The one issue with the tach is that the back light doesn't work.  I think the issue is a really low quality bulb that doesn't fit into the cheaply made socket at all.  


My updated to-do list:

Things I need to acquire for toolkit:
-a cheap made in taiwan 9/16 wrench
-assorted nuts and bolts(I have some in stock)
-foot operated tire pump
-spare idler pulley

Repairs:
-finish tach install and get backlightworking
-the go-kart gas pedal I used in my gas pedal is bending, I need to reinforce or remake it so it doesn't bend and throw the adjustment out of wack

Mods I'd like to do:
-trans to frame bracing
-a spare unlocked 8 speed trans that I can put in for general use
-blow tractor apart to paint it and weld/reinforce trans mount more at that time

Nice gauge set. Now all you need is an oil temp gauge. Maybe make one out of an old manual water temp gauge. Pop the cover on the face and change the writing in it. Then you'll have a true triple gauge setup.

that tach looks so right in there, great job man

Man you got my ich to follow what @Thunderdivine did again and hook one up to my opposed. :-)
https://www.atltf.com/t2388-how-to-hook-up-a-diesel-tachometer-to-a-briggs-opposed-twin-or-any-briggs-with-ac-out

My tractor has had issues with a varying idle.  I was carefully watching the aluminum throttle shaft in the carb and noticed that the sheet metal bracket on top was loose.  I took the carb off for the 100th time, put the shaft in my vise and carefully peened over the top with a punch to tighten it up.  After I re-installed the carb the idle seemed smoother and more consistent.

I picked up a cheap $5 air pump at the hardware store but the chuck is a complete POS.  Maybe I can retrofit a nicer one on there.

Now to the more exciting thing I finally made my bolt on trans brace.  It connects the lower two mounting bolts to factory holes on the frame at about a 30 degree angle making a triangle and adding strength which hopefully will prevent future stress cracks.

 
My updated to-do list:

Things I need to acquire for toolkit:
-a cheap made in taiwan 9/16 wrench
-assorted nuts and bolts(I have some in stock)
-foot operated tire pump
-spare idler pulley

Repairs:
-get tachometer back light working
-paint trans brace

Mods I'd like to do:
-sheet metal over open part of frame to protect gauges from underneath
-strengthen and serrate gas pedal
-a spare unlocked 8 speed trans that I can put in for general use
-blow tractor apart to paint it and weld/reinforce trans mount more at that time

I think Ide be tempted to weld in something more across the angle iron closer to the upper mounting point. Or perhaps in the middle.

Than paint it black.

Nice job on the trans mount! Might act as a rock slider of sorts too, so stuff doesn't just get stuck on that vertical frame piece.

Very nice job.  Red is just about bullet proof!