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.