Wheel Horse 1075 Resto

[Damien]

My wife and I bought a place on five acres with a shop and two sheds a couple months ago and I have decided its a good time to get my old Wheel Horse 1075 back in service. What started out as an engine rebuild, new tires and replacing the seat has turned into a full restoration to spite my wife who said my "crappy old mower" isn't good enough. She can be very supportive sometimes. My goal for this project is to have a nicely restored garden tractor that I can use around the property when needed. This machine is still going to see work and I want to make sure it will be around another 50 years.

The 1075 model was produced in 1965 and uses a 10 hp Kohler and hydrostatic drive transmission. My dad bought this one about 25 years ago for $100 from a friend that could not get it started and was sick of it. Dad worked on it a little the night he bought it finding the valve on the fuel tank was turned off. Ran like a champ when he turned the fuel on. He did call his friend afterwards to let him know what it was and ask if he wanted it back but his friend had already bought a new mower and wanted nothing to do with it.

We used this mower until about 1999 when I took it to my Small Engines Class in 9th grade. I did get it put back together and it did run pretty well until it developed a rod knock. Turns out I put the connecting rod in backwards. We had the crank reground and replaced the rod, but it never ran right again and it was parked. My parent's yard it too small to use a rider since Dad built the shop anyway. Dad gave me the tractor a few years ago and I did have it running, abet poorly, and did drive it a for a short time around the yard last summer so I is not the complete basket case my photos may suggest.

First, I pulled to engine to have bored .010", and have a valve job done with new valves. I had the head and deck milled to clean those up as well. I also cleaned up the bowl area on the intake and exhaust ports and put a little radius on the transition area. The parts have all been stripped and cleaned with Evaporast before being primed and Painted with PPG single stage paint. Pictures to come.

[rusty76]

I'll watch. I like older lawn mowers.

[GR8-68]

I love old lawn mowers also, I have an old John Deere I planned to resto

[flashed]

Im in .

[rusty76]

My cousin got ahold of an old Pennsylvania rider. Had a rear axel like a car. Really cool. I dig'em.

[Damien]

So the engine is mostly back together now. I need to take a couple dents out of the flywheel cover yet and am waiting until I have a few more parts ready for paint.

[Damien]

This is how it is currently sitting. I need to put the wheels back on and roll it outside to pressure wash the transmission down. I don't think I'm going to dig into that too much. I'm concerned I won't find many parts or seals for it.

[b454rat]

I'm a wheel horse guy too. Don't have any old ones right now, but hoping to get a round hood again. I believe you can still get parts for that tranny but not sure, I personally don't like hydrostatic, but building one for the g/f to use. Go to red square, all the info you will ever need. I have a 520-8 speed that I mow with, with a 60" deck doesnt take long!!!

[Damien]

Originally Posted by b454rat

I'm a wheel horse guy too. Don't have any old ones right now, but hoping to get a round hood again. I believe you can still get parts for that tranny but not sure, I personally don't like hydrostatic, but building one for the g/f to use. Go to red square, all the info you will ever need. I have a 520-8 speed that I mow with, with a 60" deck doesnt take long!!!

We bought a used Exmark Lazer Z with a 60" deck that is now our main mower which gets the yard done in about 3 1/2 hours. Getting the Exmark is what helped me decide to do the full resto on this. The original plan was just getting it running and usable. The Wheel Horse is more of a back up, but with a 42" cut it is going to take a few more passes. I looked around a little on Red Square and found some good information. I didn't want to register over there, because I'll likely never go back once this is up and running.

[Damien]

After about two years of distractions with other projects and now an eight month old son, its time to get back on the Wheel Horse (pun not intend).

One of the hold ups was figuring out a way to clean the old paint and rust from the axle without the need to disassemble it or cause it to leak. I picked up some POR15 for a C10 project and realized this should work well on the tractor too. I've coated the tractor frame, rear axle and a couple other parts along with my 12 bolt.

The POR15 worked great and is tough as heck. Make sure you don't leave any runs or brush marks that will need to be sanded out. I started with the recommended 320 grit and worked my way down to 80 grit. Once i sanded the runs down I worked my way back up to 320 and a final scuff with red Scotchbrite.

[Damien]

I'm using PPG Omni single stage on this for a couple reasons. These single stage paints are tough, stick to everything and if I should ever want to buff out scratches there is plenty of color to work with.

The wheels are easy enough to pull off and repaint once I get all of the red parts out of the shop so they have not been done yet. It is good to see this going back together.

[Clyde65]

Well done! My parents had a 12 horse Wheel Horse garden tractor, had a few implements too. That thing was a beast, always started even when we had snow to plow!