Kevin's Bolens 850 Project Photos: Before Pictures: Work in Progress Pictures: Trouble with the Engine Pulley... A Little Write-Up on the Tractor: I bought this Bolens tractor at the end of May 2012. It is a 1967 Bolens 850 tractor with a 38" mower deck. It is powered by a Wisconsin S-8D 8.25HP engine and has a PTO shaft driven mower deck. I have to admit that it's a pretty neat system for a small home-use tractor and not a farm tractor or anything. Most small garden tractors use belts to drive the mower deck, not a PTO shaft. Granted, the PTO shaft is driven by a belt off of the engine, but the power from there to the deck is shaft driven. But it makes the belt much shorter and less prone to wear as it has fewer pulleys and angles to go through. I bought it from a guy about an hour south of where I live for $150, which the brand-new rear tires cost him $120 supposedly... Since then, I have torn it all apart and have been working on restoring it. Many pulleys were cracked on it, the belts were shot, the blades were shot, the deck was in rough looking shape (although completely intact and no rust-outs, which is very good!). It looks like it has been used for quite some time without greasing it or adding gear oil to the differential. I just greased the front PTO mount and it took a good 15-20 pumps on the grease gun before any grease started to come out the ends, which isn't a good sign. But, it DID quiet down the shaft when I spin it by hand. It was loud as hell and sounded like metal-on-metal! Hopefully I'll get the parts I need to put it together soon and I can be off and running with it (finally). It has been occupying the garage (as opposed to occupying Wall Street) for going on 4 weeks now while I have been awaiting parts. I decided in the meantime while I'm waiting for parts that I would paint the tractor (or at least the white parts, and no that's not racist). The deck is just about done (although it seems everytime I move it the paint on the runners gets marked up and I have to keep touching it up). I've started on the hood next, even though it really wasn't as bad as I thought. Most of the black shit all over it came right off with some Simple Green and a hose. But there are still some sizeable rust marks on the hood, so I figured I'd paint that and the fenders too. July 1, 2012 Photo Update: I haven't exactly had the best of luck with the hood and fenders so far. I sanded and wire wheeled some of the paint and rust off of them to try and prep it for paint. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, so I decided to try some primer on it to see if it would cover the old cracked paint, but it wasn't looking good... So, I looked around for same places that do sandblasting to try and strip down the hood to the bare metal. However, prices were kind of expensive ($75-$100/hr for sandblasting, with 2 hour minimum...) One guy even suggested that I may end up with holes in the hood or the metal could warp sandblasting it because the metal is thin. He suggested that I just use some paint stripper on it to get it to the bare metal and save money on the sandblasting. So, I bought this for $12: to try out on the hood and fender. I figured, what have I got to lose? Unfortunately, I already wasted another $6 in primer on the hood that would have to be stripped off. I pulled the fender off as well and tried stripping that too before I did anything else to it. Here is the fender as I took it off of the tractor: Here are the results of the paint stripper so far: ...and the fender: Unfortunately, it didn't seem that the paint stripper did all THAT great of a job, but it did take a lot off I have to say. I'll bet the sandblasting would have yielded better results, but then again I would expect it to if I'm paying $200+ just to remove old paint... I'm going to look today for a good wire wheel or some type of grinding attachment to use on my drill to get the last of the paint and rust off. In the meantime, I got the new brake pads installed on the tractor with some new Grade 8 bolts. The stupid roll pin that holds on the small rear brake pad with the aluminum mount refused to come out, so I ended up having to take it to a machine shop to have them remove it for me. Fortunately, I ended up getting that little task done for gratis! Thanks, Wolf Road Napa Machine Shop!!! The adjustment bolt was missing on the brake/clutch pedal linkage as well, so I replaced that with a fresh bolt and lockwasher as well: I also got the new PTO pulley on and greased up the front PTO shaft mount: So, I'm getting there, slowly but surely.... Still waiting on the rear wheel bushing so I can put the wheel back on... (and the garage is looking pretty cluttered and messy right now...) I'm getting really antsy about getting this back together and running soon!!! Can't wait to take it for the first mow and see how it works!!! If you would like to contact the author of this micro-blog, please send an E-mail to: Kevin Pittinaro                               |   Next Page -->