Wheel Horse Charger 8

I'm actually more excited to see you get this one running because it's geared. Just look at how cool that shifter looks. I do have a soft spot for hydros though. They're nice for bucket work, chore work, and moving trailers around.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Man, I love me a Wheel Horse. I'm hella jealous. What's that steering wheel from?

I have no idea, I got it from a local guy who had it on a bigger wheel horse pulling tractor he was parting out. So maybe it is a go kart wheel or something custom? I had to weld a tube to the bottom of it to adapt it to the steering shaft. Then I welded a nut to the top of the steering shaft so it could stay bolted down tight.

Crazy_Carl wrote:

I'm actually more excited to see you get this one running because it's geared.  Just look at how cool that shifter looks.  I do have a soft spot for hydros though.  They're nice for bucket work, chore work, and moving trailers around.

Yeah I am hoping it moves allot quicker.... It does have a belt so I am hoping to test it this week, it has no wiring but I can jump start it, just to drive it around.

Only thing I have left to do before testing is mounting one front tire.

Going to pulley swap her?

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Going to pulley swap her?

Maybe, I need to see how fast it goes, its a 3 speed & I do have a mowing deck in nice shape for it.

I am for certain pulley swapping my simplicity, I want that to be fast.

Its fawking snowing here again, so its killing me getting some of these projects rolling.....

GUYS I am having a brain fart here with my belt routing.... I don't know why I cant figure out how to get it around the shifter? All I can tell now is that I need to take the seat and rear sheet metal off and slip it over the shifter. Or take the shifter out, I dont know seems like im missing something.....

Yeah it probably has to be pulled up and around the shifter, just through the shofter hole. That's how most tractors with a Peerless 600 are I believe.

I'm gonna go with AK on that.

My center shift weed eater with a MST is like that.

ok I will give that a shot tonight, see if the belt will go that way...

Ok so feeding the belt thru the shifter hole worked and got me what I needed, but the belt I have is the wrong size. It was just wedged under the tractor when I got it so no idea what it was for. Will try and find a correct one later.

Finally got the right belt & this thing is hauling ass.....just doesn't stop really.... (this is the gear trans 1975 A-800)
It is running ok, has kind of a sputter where it will run smooth then make a blip out the exhaust. I played with the adjustments with the carb a bunch. I didn't rebuild the carb but I did disassemble and clean out.  So I guess I will get the rebuild kit & see how that works out.

The tractor is narrow so it is tippy when its going fast.

Nice! The low gearing in these Wheel Horses makes them torque and wheelie monsters.

It's pretty rare that I need to get a rebuild kit for one of these lawn and garden style carburetors. Most of the time I can get away with spraying a ton of carb and choke cleaner into the main and idle passageways and blowing it out with compressed air. Sometimes I'll soak it too. Every now and then I'll need an O ring for a needle valve or the bowl gasket. Even if the needle is a little rusty I'll polish it up with a scotch brite pad or a the polishing wheel at work. Sometime the rebuild kits that come for these carburetors are very generic and the parts don't perfectly match up either. The float adjustment is really really important too.

I bought a rebuild kit for my buddy's snowblower that wouldn't idle, but ran mint at full throttle. I'll took out the welsh plugs and really thoroughly cleaned everything. I put it all back together and it still wouldn't idle. I hate that gremlin.

One day I may get me a taste of Wheel Horse. They do look fun to play with.

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Nice!  The low gearing in these Wheel Horses makes them torque and wheelie monsters.  

It's pretty rare that I need to get a rebuild kit for one of these lawn and garden style carburetors.  Most of the time I can get away with spraying a ton of carb and choke cleaner into the main and idle passageways and blowing it out with compressed air.  Sometimes I'll soak it too.  Every now and then I'll need an O ring for a needle valve or the bowl gasket.  Even if the needle is a little rusty I'll polish it up with a scotch brite pad or a the polishing wheel at work.  Sometime the rebuild kits that come for these carburetors are very generic and the parts don't perfectly match up either.  The float adjustment is really really important too.  

I bought a rebuild kit for my buddy's snowblower that wouldn't idle, but ran mint at full throttle.  I'll took out the welsh plugs and really thoroughly cleaned everything.  I put it all back together and it still wouldn't idle.  I hate that gremlin.

The other problem I had with it is when I took the carb off I took the muffler off & it was rusty & the guts (baffle) inside of it fell out, so basically it is just shooting exhaust straight into the tin can with no baffle thing to deaden the sound much. I don't know if this can mess with how it runs.

I straight piped the go-kart I used to have and it ran rough and backfired so I put the muffler back on it.

The baffle missing won't effect how the engine runs mainly. The backfire that happens, if it's happening is from air getting to the hot exhaust and reigniting it, mainly just annoying when it happens. Usually a sign that the engine might be running rich if the backfire is big, but mostly just the air getting to the exhaust gasses.

prancstaman wrote:

The baffle missing won't effect how the engine runs mainly. The backfire that happens, if it's happening is from air getting to the hot exhaust and reigniting it, mainly just annoying when it happens. Usually a sign that the engine might be running rich if the backfire is big, but mostly just the air getting to the exhaust gasses.

Personally I love it when you rev er up, drop it and it gives you 3-4 little backfires. So I run mine rich on purpose, haha!

@prancstaman Thanks. I learned something new today!

threw a belt out in my yard riding around, took a few hours to get unstuck & a few tractors, got my jeep stuck too, the mud out there is 8" deep of goo from all the rain etc.... good times




i finally got it home by taking off the rear tires & putting it in this little trailer

oh what fun,  at least you had nice weather for this

Crazy_Carl wrote:

oh what fun,  at least you had nice weather for this

if it was cold i would have left it, but then again the ground would have been frozen and it wouldnt have happened.....

Finally got the tractor fixed, with a new belt and new clutch pulley and the flywheel key flew away somewhere on the test drive. ugh Putting a new ignition in my little wheel horse tonight so hopefully that will be a driver soon....

My third one with the Tecumseh engine, locked up... I had it running finally & it puffed some white smoke, then the engine froze. It will turn with a breaker bar on the flywheel but with all your might. Gonna ditch it for a OHV motor.

Locked it up? huh that suxs. love the wheel horse! ,looks good

biggasmowers wrote:

Locked it up? huh that suxs. love the wheel horse! ,looks good

Yeah I spent two months playing with the fuel pump and carb it ran for about 30 mins total since I had it, shut off & the starter wouldn't turn the flywheel. I can barley do it with a breaker bar, nothing cool happened like and explosion or piston flying.

Wow what a bummer.  Did it have oil in it?  Kinda sounds like it seized up.