Tim's 74 Raider 10

The PTO engine bracket has been cut up, modified, and may be a part of the problem with all the PTO damage.  There's a home made piece of pipe in the upper swivel that is way too long causing a lot of play and has egg shaped the arm.  When removing the bearings I found the outer edge of the main PTO clutch pulley has been rubbing on something and is beyond repair.  The outer metal for holding the clip for the outer retaining ring is almost gone.  Now we need a new housing, bearings, seal, etc...   

The main drive pulley is too close to the engine causing some misalignment in the belt and cutting into the brake rod.  Something else to try to get loose so it can be set up right.

I've been all over the creation this morning and can't find anything that will fit to make the oil drain work.  To start with I thought NAPA or Ace hardware would have something but nope.  Now the oil pan will have to be changed.

I've spent a hours and hours and hours trying to figure ways around this to save some money on the repair but there's no other way to fix this right.  All of this mess and money spent over bad mechanic work and not doing things right to start with...     Be careful who works on your stuff...  

 

A few pics of the rearend going together.  New keys, a new left hub, new case hardened locks + jam nuts, and my world famous red dots Tim.  

I dug out a super nice woven brake pad for it that will last longer than all of us.  It's blasted and the paint is drying on it now, it can go on in the morning.

I finally got the crank pulley loose to line up the belt and found out why it was so hard to get off.  The pic after it was blasted doesn't show how bad it is but it was hammered on...  The wetness under it is prob mostly penetrating fluid, but the older crud on the seal and backside of the pulley tells me it was leaking for awhile so it's getting replaced while we're there.  The outside of the pulley will also get a quick check on the belt mill to make sure it's good and flat before it goes back together.  

 

Motor is off and on a turn table.  These are just some pics of other things found.  For cryin out loud if you have to disconnect a wire to remove a motor don't cut it, just remove the terminals...     (First 3 pics)

I think I found out how the light wire was crushed.  The clip prob wasn't removed and wire tucked under the frame to protect it like I do.  (4th pic)

Throttle + choke cable damage.  (5th + 6th pics)

Someone's shoddy attempt at threading the underside of the oil pan to fit the Wheel Horse.  (Last pic)

Tim and I have suspected this service engine was taken off of something else and retrofitted for the Wheel Horse.  Some of you watching this topic prob suspected the same.  With the oil pan being threaded (not from Kohler) it's the final piece of the puzzle.  Everything was made to fit the Wheel Horse and not a single thing I've seen so far done right, just lots of shoddy mechanic work.   

 

On a good note for a change, the inside of the motor looks great and when it runs it's quiet as can be.  Next question is something for you to look at Tim.  If you wanted the correct dipstick on it so it's easier to check the oil and refill this would be the time to do it.  The 2nd pic shows 3 holes where the Wheel Horse original dipstick bolted on with a freeze plug drove in it.  It also has an original dipstick tube in the pic sitting on the block.  The last pic shows the plug from the inside right above the balance gear at the top right.  Its right below and to the right of a cast iron nipple that's a part of the block.

It would be easy to knock out with the oil pan off.  

Also I sell the tube and dipstick pretty cheap, especially compared to Toro.  The last screenshots show a 12HP Wheel Horse engine from a C-120 same year as yours.  The part brought up with a price is the dipstick only.  Talk about sticker shock, and it doesn't include the gasket, bolts, or the tube which is discontinued.      They must be hard to find, I checked and only found 1 on eBay for 137.77 + tax and 8.10 shipping, no tube, bolts or gasket included.  Peeps are nuts...  

The last 2 pics are the actual parts and correct part numbers.  They are near perfect which is also hard to find.  

 

The PTO side main seal is in and if you notice it has black ultra permatex on it.  I do this with all of them.  I coat the outer seal and inner bore then put it in.  It's a Kohler original seal but these seals can be put in by hand with just your 2 thumbs and I never liked that.  I coat them to sort of "glue" them in to make sure they don't move later.

I think everyone on the planet knows by now I have this problem called OCD.  I was in the back jammin to the 80's + 90's weekend on my fav radio station that's on the internet (screen shot below if you're interested), and thought I need to clean up the frame so the motor can go on beginning of next week.  I cleaned it up and it looked really nice.  I thought it would look super nice if it was stripped and painted, not that anyone will see under the motor but it does look nice...  

I did a little extra blasting on some parts that were off as well.  The PTO brackets, engine shroud, coil, and choke cable bracket are already painted satin black and will be ready to put on Monday.  The coil mount, condenser, and starter solenoid will be left as is.  I'll put pics of the painted stuff later because it's time to go.  

 

Everything painted last Sat is ready to put on, I missed a few pieces so they were blasted and done this morning.  I blasted the PTO engagement rod and found out how the PTO housing was eaten up.  Pics explain it all.  There is an unusual amount of wear on this piece everywhere.  Once it gets to the point where it can be put on I can do a little more investigating.  The main bracket still has to be spaced out and put on, the main drive pulley belt alignment done, clutch put on, and the PTO bearings + seal still need to be done.  After that it will get a closer look but will more than likely need the rod replaced.  

After finding the PTO eater culprit (is that correct english?) I moved on to getting the motor on and starting test fitting and aligning things.  The motor was capped and masked up and painted upside down before I left last Sat.  It was ready for the oil pan this morning so it could be flipped right side up to paint from that direction.  It was the best way to get everything painted right since it was on the bench without having it all torn down.

The 6th pic with the blasted parts in it shows a bolt with a broken lock washer (on the white cap).  It's the bolt that holds the main throttle swivel that was really loose.  I can see stripping out the housing like they did from lack of a nut behind it but not sure how they broke the lock washer, it's formed on the bolt...  Some peeps can break anything I guess.     In the 7th pic it went where there is now a yellow zinc grade 9 bolt under the coil.  Where that bolt goes in is one of the 3 nuts I welded on under the cover that was stripped.  The other 2 nuts I welded on are for the starter solenoid that were also stripped out.

It's not done but starting to look pretty good.   

 

The PTO bracket is aligned and mounted.  I tried a lot of things but there just wasn't enough room to use a spacer with the lip going around.  The only real solution to make it solid was slotted automotive shims to get it perfect.  They should also make it a lot more stable than a smaller spacer.  

The belt is aligned and the clutch disc on.  Next up was making the PTO new.  The custom tool I made for the backset for the seal many years ago is one of the best tools I ever made.  Just put it in the press and it's perfect every time.  Just for info for peeps reading this - the blue lithium in the pic has a lot higher dropping point than even the best regular grease.  Regular grease is 320 degrees and the blue lithium is 520.  It's mainly used for marine applications, cv joints, and disc brake bearings that run at a lot higher temps.

As much trouble and cost of parts replaced here to get everything back to new I can't see using used parts with any wear, but there's also plenty of new rods and clevis parts here.  

 

The tractor part is done for now.  It was going to be an entire restore but the mechanical work needed to prevent further damage to other parts went over the basic restoration cost just getting it back up to where it belongs.  I rounded up a NOS flywheel screen that belongs on this motor from another Kohler dealer that looks really nice on it.  All 4 wheel bearings were replaced with precision bearings and shimmed, they are good as new now.  The headlight wire was replaced and the lights are working now.  It has 2 of the 50 SMD 5050 chip LED bulbs in it we stock here, they are quite blinding.      It has been run in and all of the leaks in the engine and rearend are gone.

It will be back later and we'll get into the restore and dig into some other things it still needs.  The parts it still needs like tire rod ends, cables, etc, won't damage other things so they're not as important.  I'll continue those things here in this topic when it returns.

Next up is getting another deck for it.  The one that was on it would take more than it's worth to fix it.  I'll get some pics of it first of next week when that little project begins.  

 

As mentioned before Tim brought a 42SD deck that would cost more than it was worth to fix it right.  He only uses this deck for about 15 mins when mowing, then does the rest with a zero turn.  This deck is a 1996 model 37" that is a really nice solid deck.  It had a little noise from the right spindle and after taking it apart there wasn't a lot of grease in it and the lower bearing was rusty.  

I was surprised when I went in the back to check on parts I have everything for this deck.  There are NOS housings, spindles, bearings, wheels, and even the correct blade set kits here.  I tell a lot of peeps I have no idea what's back there NOS until I get part numbers and check and here's another example of that lol.  

Anyway, with the blaster back in operation late today the original housing got degreased and blasted and looks really good.  Hopefully I'll get some time to put the new bearings in it and put it back together tomorrow.