[Dave in NY]

I seem to remember adding a fitting to the axle of my H14. What was an owner supposed to do? Use a pump oil can and squirt some oil up in there when you think of it? More likely they just didn’t get lubricated. I have replaced the pivot pins on most of my tube tractors. A couple of them with no way to grease them-were worn really bad. One tractor also had the holes in the support worn so badly that I bored them out and put bushings in it. The no grease fitting idea was a bad idea IMHO.

 

[Dave in NY]

I repeated the ATF application this afternoon. Refilled it and drove it around in all the gears in both low/high range for about 10 minutes. Going to let it sit for the night and drain it out tomorrow. That should rinse it out pretty well. I suppose I could drop the access plate off the bottom too, but not right now. This whole getting the tractor running thing is still a bit on the down and dirty side of things. I will fix or replace what I have to and the rest can wait.

 

[Dave in NY]

I drained the second batch of ATF this morning and it wasn't nearly as nasty looking as the first. It was sort of a dark maroon color. I figured that would be good enough for now and filled it up with fresh GL-1 90 wt. Then we hitched up the yard cart and proceeded to move a few things around including a few pails of material I dug out of the compost heap. Muttley seems to function alright, and I believe he will make a decent utility tractor. I think for now he is a keeper. What awaits him in the future?

 

[KennyP]

Catchy name!

 

[Dave in NY]

Occasionally my equipment gets called names. Typically when I get excited/disgusted LOL. This is just one of the ones that's printable.

 

[AC.Bolens88]

I spotted yet another difference between this 1254 and my 1054 tractors. I discovered that this tractor has a grease fitting on the front axle for the support pivot pin. My 1054 tractor didn't have one. So being as the 1054 tractor presumably cost less than one of its bigger brothers, this would have been one of the things eliminated to help reduce the production cost? I'm not 100 percent sure but think that the axles that were intended to have that grease nipple had the recess for it cast right in. I have drilled a couple of axles on my tractors and added a grease fitting because I thought they ought to have one.

My Bolens 1000 and 600 has the grease fitting on that pivot pin, but my g14 don’t. When I first saw it, I thought something was wrong 😂 I guess it was an earlier tube frame thing ? I could be wrong.
Doing a great job 👍

 

[Dave in NY]

The general consensus is that the pivot grease fitting must have been eliminated to cut production cost on the later models. It also seems that most of those tractors now have worn pivot pins, and in some cases worn holes in the support casting too. Probably the engineers never expected that these tractors would last as long as they have? I think about that once in awhile as I spend several hours every week during the warm months mowing with my 1050.

 

[29 Chev]

The general consensus is that the pivot grease fitting must have been eliminated to cut production cost on the later models. It also seems that most of those tractors now have worn pivot pins, and in some cases worn holes in the support casting too. Probably the engineers never expected that these tractors would last as long as they have? I think about that once in awhile as I spend several hours every week during the warm months mowing with my 1050.

The pivot pin grease fitting may not have gotten greased as often as it should have or properly. If I remember correctly the owners manual states nothing about supporting the main frame of the tractor so that no weight is resting on the axle pin when greasing it (or the king pins or wheel bearings for that matter). As a result if the grease fitting for the pin was lubricated and the weight was still on the front axle the grease would have a difficult time getting to the point of contact between the axle and the pin which is where the grease would be most beneficial. The same can be said of the grease fittings for the king pins and to a lesser extent the front wheel bearings in my estimation. With the weight on the king pins very little grease will get into the contact area between the bottom edge of the axle and where the flat spot on the king pin is so this area would be prone to wear as well and most of the grease will exit out the top of the king pin. My dad taught me at an early age that when lubricating a front axle pivot and king pin set up on a farm tractor (as well as straight axle vehicles) to remove the weight off of the components so the grease would flow where it was needed for lubrication and to lubricate them regularly. Another factor that would have affected lubricating the axle pin would be that if any front attachment that required a PTO to drive it was mounted on the tractor the axle pin grease fitting becomes a challenge to grease without removing the PTO joint. In the case of a snow caster my guess would be that once the unit was mounted in the fall the pin never got lubricated until the unit was removed in the spring in a lot of cases. Just my thoughts and opinions.

 

[Dave in NY]

Yep, your thoughts are pretty much how that situation was I suspect. Can’t get at the fitting with a pto driven front attachment in place. I normally grease the pivot pin, steering spindles and wheel bearings when the front of the tractor is jacked up and no weight on the wheels. Like you stated, it just plain works better.

 

[Dave in NY]

I've been using the mutt [Muttley] a bit to haul the yard cart around and have started it up and cruised it around the property a few times just because I could. The more I run this thing the more I like it. But, the one thing I didn't like was the bark from the round-can, pepper-shaker muffler. Never been a fan of those things. I scrounged through my collection of useful things [junk] and couldn't come up with anything that would be a reasonable replacement. So I went and visited my buddy that has Cub Cadet parts and came home with this muffler. Had the right size inlet pipe and the outlet was oriented perfectly for this tractor. Just slipped it on the Wisconsin's exhaust pipe and clamped it down. Easy-peasy! I then dug through my stash of metal pieces and found a short piece of strap to make a support brace. I used the bolt that secures the air-cleaner elbow for the anchor point on the motor as that was close by and seemed sturdy enough. I believe this should work ok. I don't have a decibel meter so I'm not sure the exact difference, all I know is that the exhaust tone is much lower and mellow now. A noticeable difference. And it could come back off in a minute by loosening a clamp and removing one bolt. Super easy.

 

[29 Chev]

Looks good - now you can call it M M for short (muffled muttley) and be able to hear yourself think as you contemplate the next upgrade.

 

[Dave in NY]

Looks good - now you can call it M M for short (muffled muttley) and be able to hear yourself think as you contemplate the next upgrade.

Well, he was muffled already, now he's just more muffled. So maybe I should call him 3M? Short for more muffled Muttley. LOL Anyway- I think I ought to round up some 16x6.50x8 tires and get a pair of tube frame front rims back on him.

 

[FrankIII]

Well, he was muffled already, now he's just more muffled. So maybe I should call him 3M? Short for more muffled Muttley. LOL Anyway- I think I ought to round up some 16x6.50x8 tires and get a pair of tube frame front rims back on him.

Needs some lights too.

 

[Dave in NY]

Needs some lights too.

Probably at some point I'll get around to that. Right now the days are long and about dark I'm all done for the day. Typically on the forums to see what everyone out in tractor land is up to, or occasionally sitting in front of the TV like a house plant. 😴

 

[FrankIII]

Probably at some point I'll get around to that. Right now the days are long and about dark I'm all done for the day. Typically on the forums to see what everyone out in tractor land is up to, or occasionally sitting in front of the TV like a house plant. 😴

I don't usally need my lights either, but to me a tractor looks a lot better with lights.

 

[Dave in NY]

Agreed. 👍🏻