What's everybody doing?

My neighbor spent all day steam cleaning and I spent all day with peeps and on the phone minus getting the 48" deck from 2 posts ago done late this afternoon.  

1st call was from NY at 8:30AM and they just kept coming.  I had a customer from Southern Michigan that was supposed to pick up an ignition switch today for a 71 Raider 10 with a Tecumseh on it (old 70 amp high power switch) that was already here in town at 10:30 this morning.  He drove 7 hours here for it but they pretty much don't exist NOS and I still have 3 left.  This was the busiest Monday ever for calls for Wheel Horse parts from all over the US. I am worn out from talking, I'd much rather be working...  

 

Doing what I like best, saving more good parts then blasting + organizing them.  I need to get the big bench cleared so I can start on another project I've been wanting to do for a long time, more on that later...  

The latest parting got 14 more steering supports to redo.  After they're done there will be 32 rebuilt ones in stock and ready to go.  They were all steam cleaned yesterday so they had all of the bottom bearings and grease fittings removed today and got blasted.  Tomorrow they will all get put on the mill and be fitted with the new fancy German bushings.

Another new tool came in today and this thing really does what they say they will do.  It's an induction type heater.  Just slide it over what you want to heat up and in 30 to 60 seconds it is cherry red.  It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be as you can see in the 4th pic below.   I fought the last automatic assy all I could then waited for this to come in today.  It was apart in about a minute with this new tool.  Well worth what it saved in time + saving parts.  The cost is also way cheaper than acetylene or filling torch tanks in general so it's a win win.  

 

I can't say enough good things about this heater.  It works as miraculously as everyone says.  

It breaks a rod adjustment trunnion loose in a few minutes, 2 65 year old steering wheels came off easy, 5 minutes each and by hand.  A tower lift handle was off the rod and out in 15 minutes.  8-10 minutes got the entire bottom of the handle over 500 degrees and it spun right off.  I usually dread taking some of this stuff apart but not anymore...   

Finished up 14 more steering support rebuilds today.  Now there are over 30 of them blasted, rebuilt and ready to go, and a lot of them have been sold or used on tractor work in the shop already.  

My neighbor pulled some more engines off of some short frames and a 654 that someone had cut up the hoods really bad.  The 654 had some other nice parts on it that were pulled off so they won't be outside for the Winter.  The engines junked were all Briggs engines that were never put on Wheel Horses anyway.  If it doesn't go on a Wheel Horse it doesn't need to be around here...  

After that he started back on the 520's in the lot.  There are 6 more of them still out there to check out.  The first one was locked up so it was torn down for the good parts and the rest put in his truck for junk.  You can see from the pics it was really bad. 

The last pic is the one that my neighbor will do Monday morning.  My job Monday morning other than returning phone calls will be to put up all of the latest blasted parts like all of the automatic shift parts, steering supports, and other things so there's room to put more parts from the Onans and other tractors coming apart...

 

Started on the one brought in last night and it is parted out, it had a broken rod in the rear cylinder.

The next 3 all purred like a kitten, one started as soon as we hit the key.  Needles to say my mouth was wide open in surprise...  One of them is also a Baja edition that was run in the Sahara Desert.  I got pics of 2 of them running on the forklift but was so excited I missed the 3rd one.     

The 3 nice motors will get pulled and kept in the shop instead of outside.  Also, one of those engines is going on one of my super nice 520's that I lost an engine on that's already in the shop under the center rack.   

The tomorrow morning job is checking out a 416 that was in the lot, then that will be the end of the Onan adventure.  If the motor on it is good I may have a heart attack lol.  

 

Just as I thought, we fired up the 416 this morning and the rear cylinder is dead.  It was all apart before lunch and ready to pull off the tractor but the next few days are back up to the 90's so we switched gears again.

After lunch I switched to putting things away and blasting while my neighbor spent the afternoon steam cleaning.  There are more parts around here than I thought I would ever see, especially for Kohler + Onan engines.  Only one more Onan 20HP to go after the 16 is done and the Onan mess will be over.  I already know it was bad because it's on one of mine I used to use with a 60" deck.  Now if I can just find a place to put all these parts...   

All of the automatic shifter parts are bagged + tagged.  It seems to be the same thing over + over.  Blast, label, + put up parts, clear the benches, fill the benches, clear the benches, fill the benches.  

 

As of today there are no bad Onans on the property.  Even the bad one on my nice 520 is pulled, parted out, and in the neighbors truck along with all the others.  

Out of all of them only 3 were good, all 20HP.  The 416 was done this morning and had the valve seat hanging out of it as most of them end up.

After that one was done we dug out my nice 520 from under the center rack and brought in the donor tractor to get the motor off of it.  The motor is off of mine, parted out and gone, and the donor motor is on the bench.  The motor off of my nice 520 looked like new inside.  What a shame Toro had to go screw everything up going from Kohler to Onan just so they could make more money.  It sure did cost them a lot of business and trouble before going back to Kohler in the long run...    

We started to pull the shields off of the donor motor to look it over and found a cross threaded spark plug in the rear head.  Not only was it cross threaded some idiot rammed it about halfway down the threads.  Some people should not be allowed to have tools.   

 

Geno wrote:

As of today there are no bad Onans on the property.  Even the bad one on my nice 520 is pulled, parted out, and in the neighbors truck along with all the others.  

Out of all of them only 3 were good, all 20HP.  The 416 was done this morning and had the valve seat hanging out of it as most of them end up.

After that one was done we dug out my nice 520 from under the center rack and brought in the donor tractor to get the motor off of it.  The motor is off of mine, parted out and gone, and the donor motor is on the bench.  The motor off of my nice 520 looked like new inside.  What a shame Toro had to go screw everything up going from Kohler to Onan just so they could make more money.  It sure did cost them a lot of business and trouble before going back to Kohler in the long run... 

  

We started to pull the shields off of the donor motor to look it over and found a cross threaded spark plug in the rear head.  Not only was it cross threaded some idiot rammed it about halfway down the threads.  Some people should not be allowed to have tools.   

WOW i see parts...nice seat nice tires and maybe some wiring,,,,parts........
 

That's one I used to mow with that had a 60" deck on it that killed the motor, it's also set up for a 2 stage snow blower.  The plan is to put one of the 3 good 20 HP motors on it and put the 2 stage snow blower + cab on it so it's always ready in Winter.  I'll start a topic on it when I get going on it.  

1st pic is the parted out Onan 20HP and the donor motor for my nice 520.  2nd pic is some of the next parts that need blasting.  3rd pic is a perfect running 312-8 that is quiet but smokes and the other has a 12 magnum on it with a broken rod. 

My neighbor spent almost all day steam cleaning again while I cleaned + organized more parts, and cleared the big bench to go back to parting and checking out some more engines.  I can't hardly keep up with him lol.  He got a lot more misc parts done today as well as the 2 Onans from yesterday, one parted + the donor motor for my 520.  He also did my 520 that will be reborn for blowing snow.  

One engine with a broken rod is now on the bench, and one that runs perfect but smokes, not sure what I'll do with that one.  The next one was a 312-8, it started right up and ran perfect so it went back outside 7th pic.  The last pic is a 310-8 that we will check out tomorrow and see what it is.

 

The one I thought had a broken rod was actually both compression rings broken.  The other 312 ran perfect but filled the shop with smoke pretty quick.  It was worn out and the valve guides were actually worn really bad as well letting it suck oil up through the intake valve.  I hate it when one sounds and runs so good but is just worn out in other places.  My neighbor tore both of them down today and the bad parts are gone.  The other one on the bench labeled good but smokes will have to be run on the engine tester when it's done.  I can't remember how bad it smoked.

I had some time to do some more blasting today.  I'm trying to finish the Onan parts so they can all be put away but did a few Wheel Horse parts and pulleys that were ready as well.  I think 1 good long day of blasting would finish the Onan parts that will be getting blasted.  Another long day would get all the parts not being blasted put away, if I can get days like that that is...  In all actuality it will prob take 4 days.   

It seems like 7PM is here every day faster than I think, already time to go again.