23 replies to this topic

[daytime dave]

Welcome. Nice Bolens outfit you have.  Glad you joined.  Nice beagle too.

[boyscout862]

This is a good place to start.  Soak and resoak and resoak everything.  a 50-50 mix of automatic transmissioon fluid/acetone is a good penetrator oil too... (I learned that here on GTtalk)...  take apart, clean, new grease.  Yes there are manuals here you can find too.  Use them!

 

That is an awesome tractor with attachments!  The bolens tiller is a great one!  Nice find!

 

And welcome to GTtalk.  I am glad you joined the site.  Great bunch of folks here.  Very supportive and helpful people!  And the manuals library rocks!

 

Happy tractoring!

 

I've been curious to try that but, where do you get acetone?

[HDWildBill]

Welcome to GTTalk Chucknbob.  I think your steering issue has been pretty well covered, good luck with your new tractor.

 

BoyScout; I believe you can get it at a hardware store or at least you use to.  Finger nail polish remover is acetone.

[jimbobbillyray]

You can buy acetone off the shelf at any hardware store in the paint dept. , the paint dept. at wally world, etc.

[1967bolens collector]

I've been curious to try that but, where do you get acetone?

 TSC sells it or hardware store another thing that works beleave it or not coca-cola

[Chucknbob]

Thanks for all the kind words.

You can buy acetone at most hardware stores, I've gotten it at Home Depot as well, it's in the paint section. It's also available from auto part stores that carry paint supplies.

Now back to my tractor :)

I jacked it up, the front wheels spin free, so no problem there. If you grab a wheel it wiggles, so everything in the front end seems ok.

I yanked the battery and tray, and that bushing that holds the steering column is definitely the problem. I heated it up with the torch and pumped in some grease, but she didn't budge. I soaked it with PB Blaster and I'm going to let it sit for the night. I'll check it out tomorrow and see if I can get it to budge. If not, I'll pull the steering column and get mean with it. We have a lot of snow, it's given me the itch to get it moving quick!

[KennyP]

I have heated parts (not red hot, just good and warm) and eased the acetone/ATF mix into there. seemed to help it get into the center of frozen parts quicker. I use this mix a lot. I get the acetone at Lowes (Paint Dept.).

[1967bolens collector]

any updates?

[Chucknbob]

Yeah, it looks like this now.

I ripped out the steering column and I've been hitting it with penetrating oil all day. I'll mess with it tomorrow or Wednesday, depends how long the "afternoon with the inlaws" takes.

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