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26K views 95 replies 20 participants last post by  Bruce Dorsi 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hello all! I just found out about this forum and joined last night. I thought it would be a good place to find and offer help to other tractor enthusiasts. Before I tell you about my find, let me give you a little of my personal history (for those that might actually enjoy it). If you're not interested, please skip to the next paragraph...

When I was a kid growing up, my grandfather had an old Bolens tractor. Although now for the life of me, I can't remember what year or model it was. I want to say that it was a 1254, 1220, or G14 model? I thought it had a Wisconsin 14HP engine on it though, but I could be wrong and it could have actually been as low as 10-12HP? I know it was a single cylinder engine and it had the exhaust out the side that faced forward with the heat shield on it (looks like a machine gun sticking out of the side of the hood). It had a 6 speed manual with Hi/Lo range and had a 46" mower deck on it (that wouldn't fit in my dad's truck between the wheel wells). He also had the wheel weights, tire chains, snow blower attachment (although he NEVER used it!) and a plough! This thing was fully loaded for back in the day! I loved riding it around mowing his lawn for him when I came over to visit. It had some power to it and did a great job mowing. I always thought it was weird how slow (and quietly) the starter seemed to turn the engine over, but it would always start! Unfortunately, about 10 years ago, he got rid of it since it was becoming harder to work on and parts were getting hard to find. I think he had a problem with something on the deck breaking if I recall? The engine also might have been having troubles (points not working right, etc?) and was hard to start and lacked power it used to have. In any event, he traded it in on a new John Deere tractor that he's had since. It has been a good tractor for him and has been pretty maintenance-free, but I just don't like it as much as the old Bolens. It lacks character, I think!

So, I have been mowing lawns for people (mostly friends and neighbours) lately for some extra cash and it takes so long to do it with only a push mower, so I decided to look for a tractor to speed it up a bit. I searched my local Craigslist for some time, but mostly only found people selling newer (less than 20 years old) Craftsman tractors with the occasional John Deere or Cub Cadet or Murray or MTD/White, etc... Now my dad has had a Cub Cadet 1440 tractor since before I was in High School and that has been a good tractor for him. (My brother and I used to use it to mow lawns when we were kids too, so it has some mileage on it!) But Cubs and JD tractors always seem to go for so much money and I was looking for something cheap (especially since I figured if I bought a used tractor it was going to need work regardless - even if only belts and blades, etc...) But I finally came across in late May someone selling on old Bolens 850 about an hour south of Albany. It looked perfect, the price was right, and it reminded me of my grandfather's old Bolens... so I knew I had to have it! I went down to check it out and it was all complete. The battery in it was dead, but the owner had a jump-box he used to start it and it fired right up! I took it for a spin around and mowed some of his yard with it and it ran great! It didn't mow too great though and left streaks of unmowed grass, so I figured the blades were shot. The clutch also felt odd as it would disengage if you put the pedal to the floor, but wouldn't engage until the pedal was pretty much all the way up and then it just seemed to lurch forward like you just popped the clutch. The tires looked pretty new on it too. He told me he had to replace the back tires on it when he got it since they were all dry-rotted. He just bought it to use as a brush cutter in his back yard, but ended up buying a newer Kubota 24HP (or something huge) with a rear rotary mower on it. I paid $150 for the Bolens and the guy wouldn't go any lower on it since he said he paid $120 for the two rear tires on it.

Well, 4 weeks later, it is still sitting in my garage half torn apart and waiting for parts! lol... I figured it would be a project, but I didn't realize how much of one. All the belts on it were pretty shot. I mean, they worked, but were pretty ratty looking and I knew they were the first to go. Little did I know how hard it was to replace stupid belts on this tractor! You have to take half the tractor apart to get to them. The deck you literally have to take all apart to get to the deck belt as well. So, I figured the tractor was already all tore apart anyways at this point, so might as well go all out and do it right once. I stripped the deck down and washed all the crud off of it, put some rust converter on the underside, and primed and painted it. It was already painted white (with some of the original green showing through) and I always thought it looked weird with the original white/brown/red/green paint scheme, so I painted the deck white to match the hood and fenders. The closest match I could find was "IH White" at the local TSC (Tractor Supply), so I bought a couple spray cans and a quart of tractor and implement paint in that color. The deck is all done (just about) and starting to get it put back together. It looks great with the fresh paint on it! (Just have to see how long it will last for!)

The next big problem was that just about all the pulleys on it were cracked or damaged! The PTO pulley looked like it was broken off and re-welded on the shaft crooked. It "worked", but wobbled badly on the shaft. So, I had to hammer that off. Two out of the three deck drive pulleys were cracked and the belt tensioner wouldn't keep proper tension on the belt. The main drive pulley on the engine was cracked as well (the low range pulley was cracked in half). But, finding these pulleys was very difficult and they were expensive! Fortunately, Farmersville Equipment had them all. However, I had a MAJOR problem, which brings me to my first main question that I have (finally, right?)

I managed to get the engine pulley off with a prybar and some PB Blaster. The shaft key looked pretty beat up though, but I managed to get it back in the slot in the crankshaft. I got my new pulley in the mail last week and tried putting it on. It was a total pain trying to get it to go back on though! I even used some steel wool to try and clean the shaft off and sprayed it down with some more PB Blaster to help the pulley go on easier. It was still tight. I tried to fit a piece of wood in there between the pulley and hammer, but there wasn't enough room, really. So, I just used the side of the hammer and tried to gently tap it on. It went on about 1/4 of an inch then seemed to just stop. So, I pulled it off, greased up the shaft and pulley a bit more, and tried again. It went on about the same amount, then seemed to get stuck again. I gave it a few more taps and then the pulley cracked on me! The low range pulley sheared right off - $100 down the drain!!! I was so pissed!!! Fortunately again, Farmersville happened to have another pulley - but it is his LAST ONE. I still haven't gotten it yet, but I have to be SUPER CAREFUL with this one and treat it like a delicate porcelain tea cup (since evidently it is for some reason...) If this one breaks on me, I'm SOL without a main drive pulley to run the tractor! Does anyone know a good way to get this pulley on without breaking it? I bought a rubber mallet this time instead of trying to use a nailing hammer, so IDK if that will help? Why is this pulley so hard to go on? Is it supposed to be a tight fit? It has allen set screws to hold it on the shaft, so IDK why it has to fit on so tight that you have to practically break the pulley to get it on! (BTW - YES, I did take the set screws out of it before I put the pulley on. It didn't even get far enough on the shaft where it would have hit the screws anyways...) Could the shaft key be an issue? I tried again (after breaking the pulley) to put it on without the key in place and it was still hard to go on and got stuck in about the same spot. My only other thought would be to get a very small wire brush on a drill to try and clean out the inside of the pulley before I try to put it on. I'm just really at a loss here and can't afford to break another pulley trying to get it on the engine! I'm so close to getting this tractor functional again, I'd hate to have to scrap it or something.

-Thanks,

-Kevin
 
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#2 ·
Welcome to GTT!
We would love to see some pictures of your Bolens, Pictures would also help us know what were dealing with(pulley's ect.)
These Bolens are tough machines and are fairly easy to work on once you get accustomed to them.
Have you printed out a partslist / owners manual for the 850 yet?
 
#3 ·
I was just working on posting some pictures! I have to edit them in Photoshop first to make them small enough to post. I do have the manuals and parts lists for my tractor and mower deck. That's how I had to order parts for it! I have more photos coming too, but here are some shots of the tractor and deck just after I got it as I was working on stripping it down:





















Here are pics of my original engine pulley that I pulled off. You can see the crack in the low range pulley:







Here is the shaft key that I pulled out too. Could this be an issue with getting the new pulley on?



Any thoughts, comments, or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
The key looks pretty banged up, It could have gotten flared out from hitting it which may be the reason you cant get the pulley back on. You may have to get another key or try and file down the one you have and see if that helps.
The pulleys should slide on by hand and should not need to be hammered back on.
 
#5 ·
Well, like I said, even with this key off, the broken pulley I have won't go on nicely onto the shaft for some reason. Could the inside of the pulley need to be wire brushed down to clean it up so it will slide on? Here is the best shot I could get of the engine crankshaft (it is kinda buried down in there) to show what it looks like. Seems pretty clean and smooth to me:

 
#6 · (Edited by Moderator)
How does the end of the shaft look?
It wouldn't hurt to sand out the inside of your pulley.

Are you sure the guy gave you the right pulley part number 1717287? These pulleys were also used on newer models such as the G10 and they had a different part numbers 1717336 & 1731271
I believe they are a different shaft size

Have you measured the ID of the pulley?
 
#7 ·
Congrats on the nice Bolens. You should take your time with that pulley to make sure nothing gets damaged. You will have lots of help from the Bolens experts here.
 
#8 ·
Welcome to GTtalk,

If you can get a file in on the shaft, you can file it long ways and see if it has any bumps or nicks in it that would cause the pulley not to slide on. I bet the end of the shaft has been hit with a hammer at some point and is mushroomed a little.
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
I thought this pulley was made of cast iron, which is near impossible to weld or repair if you could even find someone who could do it. Plus, I'd imagine it would cost me more to fix it than to find another used pulley to buy. I have not measured the inside diameter of the pulley nor the diameter of the engine shaft. You could be right that the end is mushroomed out a bit from being hit with a hammer. If that is the case, how can I fix it? I already "sanded" it down a bit by hand with some steel wool to clean it up, but I doubt that would fix the shaft if it has a taper to it or something. I'd hate to have to pull the engine out just to fix the pulley...

I did have quite the problem getting the pulleys and drive shafts out on each of the spindles on the mower deck. Looks like they've probably been taken apart before to replace bearings and the shafts were pretty mangled and had hammer dents all over the ends, which made it very difficult to come apart and go back together. Any way to recondition the shaft ends without taking them to a machine shop to be turned on a lathe or something? I got the spindle assemblies all back together and installed with all new bearings (I pulled the end seals out of the bearings when I installed them so they will be greaseable with the fittings that are there). However, I have yet to install the drive pulleys onto the spindle shafts. I hope they won't be a problem like the engine pulley and I risk damaging them to install them. That's why I'm hoping for some tips to clean up the shaft ends!

[On a side note, I noticed that some of the deck spindle bearings were replaced with newer sealed bearings that were not set up to be greaseable. Which was kind of funny because the spindles had been greased, but it just sat in the space between the bearings and didn't actually grease the bearings at all! All of the bearings seemed pretty shot and you could hear the balls grinding around in there badly and it was kinda hard to turn them smoothly.]
 
#11 ·
[sub]Oh, and yet another side note... since this is a bit far off from where I am in the project right now. However, when I bought the tractor and took it for a test mow, the engine seemed to run odd to me. The throttle cable works, but it doesn't seem to control the engine very well. It seems to have two speeds - idle and full throttle! There's nothing in-between. If you start to slowly pull the throttle out, there's a delay and then the engine starts to rev up to full speed. When you push the throttle control back in, it does nothing until it's all the way back in and then it goes back to idle. Once I got it home, I sprayed down all the throttle linkages on the side of the engine with PB Blaster to try and free them up. But it seems to all work okay. The throttle isn't directly connected to the carburetor like on a newer engine though. It goes through a Rube-Goldberg-ish series of linkages and springs and rotating shafts before it attaches to the carburetor throttle plate control. Of course, this is far from a more modern engine, so I just don't know much about how they are supposed to run. Is what I'm describing as "irregular behavior" actually normal operation for these old Wisconsin engines? Are they supposed to run at full throttle until you get them under a load? It seemed to start to bog down once you get it in gear and moving with the deck running. Could it be I have a governor problem with the engine? If so, that seems like a very involved and complicated fix as you have to take the engine apart to get to the internal governor. Plus, parts for these Wisconsin engines seem hard to come by as well.[/sub]

[sub]Here is a shot of my engine plate too with the model and serial numbers:[/sub]

[sub][sub]
[/sub][/sub]

[sub]
[/sub]
 
#12 ·
You are correct , the pulley is cast iron but it can be repaired.
I would follow what others have said and file down the end of the shaft as there is a good chance the end has mushroomed out from someone hitting it. You probably will be better off to use a metal hand file to take some material off the end of the shaft as you will be there forever if you are using sand paper.
 
#81 ·
mine was broke in 2 an welded back together an vibrated like crazy so the doner 850 had a good one
 
#13 · (Edited by Moderator)
UPDATE: Went out tonight to work on the tractor and got a lot accomplished. Put the spindles back on the deck and put the (lower) PTO pulley back on. That pulley DID seem to slide on real easy, so I'm thinking you're right and the engine pulley should similarly slide right on. Took a file to the banged up shaft key to try and smooth it out, which turned out okay. (After I went on a wild goose chase to try and buy a new one, but after trying every hardware store I could find, no one had one that would match it. They had 1/4" square keys (which is the size I need), but they were all only about an inch and a half long and the key I have is about 2 inches long.) Then I took the file to the engine shaft. After a quick once over, I tried to slip the old pulley back on and it started to go on much easier this time! It still got stuck about half-way up the shaft, but it's still progress! I only worked over the end of the shaft where I thought it could be mushroomed a bit. If I run a file down the whole shaft, it might just do the trick! IDK WHY I should have to do this, but who knows what that shaft has been through, I guess? Just hope this works!!!

There should be no issue if the pulley isn't a "tight fit" on the shaft, right? The key should keep the shaft from turning without the pulley turning and the set screws should keep it firmly on the shaft without it falling off, right? So, might as well file down the shaft enough so the pulley slides right on with no fuss then, right?

I also got the new brake shoes installed and adjusted (hopefully correctly adjusted!) Replacing all the hardware with new Grade 8 nuts, bolts, and washers too as I take stuff off. Most of the old hardware is so rusted, I'm surprised it comes apart as easily as it does. But almost everything that has come off has been tossed and new hardware installed in its place. (Unless it is a weird length or some specialty hardware that I can't find anywhere.)
 
#14 · (Edited by Moderator)
For a new key, you can go to any bearing house and buy it in any length you want, also Fastenal carries it as well as TSC. If one of our Site Sponsors doesn't have the pulley you need, you might have to watch Ebay. The pulley is Cast Iron, that's why I said you would have to get it "Brazed" up and turned down to proper size..
 
#16 ·
Welcome to GTtalk , I agree that you pulley could be repaired if not just filing the sharpe edges and seeing if it vibrates for the piece missing or damage the belt . On shafts , bolts , spark plug threads , anything that I might have problems removing , I use a proudut call anti- sieze ,you can get that at auto parts store , good luck , Al
 
#17 · (Edited by Moderator)
Whenever a key is banged up like that along its sides, it is because the pulley was loose on the shaft. ...The back & forth movement of the pulley "hammers" the key, and upsets (raises) the metal on the crankshaft at the keyway.

Do NOT file the entire crankshaft !!!! .....You only need to file the very end (if it is mushroomed), or along both edges of the keyway. ....If there are burrs where the setscrews from the pulley scored the crankshaft, you can file those spots as well.

You should not be trying to make the crankshaft smaller, or the bore of the pulley larger. ....Cleaning rust is advisable, but filing of the crankshaft should only be done to remove "high spots" which are preventing the pulley from sliding onto the crankshaft.

As others have said, the pulley should slip onto the crankshaft (leave the key out), without having to drive it on with a hammer. ....It should not be loose or wobble on the crankshaft.

I have learned that it is often easier to insert the key after the pulley is installed on the crankshaft. ....Using anti-seize on the shaft & pulley bore is a good recommendation. .....Once the pulley is slid onto the shaft, rotate the pulley to line up the keyways, then insert the key. .....The key may have to be tapped in with a hammer, but at least you are not hammering on the pulley. ......Filing the lead end of the key (4 sides) slightly will allow it to start into the keyways much easier.

Your old key is too worn to consider re-using. .....A new key, or 1/4" keystock, should be available at any equipment dealer, most auto parts stores, or a bearing supply house.

Now, about your mower deck --- When you try to reinstall the pulleys onto the spindle shafts, the same techniques apply, except half-moon (woodruff) keys can not be installed after the pulley. ...File any burrs (high spots) from the shaft, but do not create any flat spots or depressions in the shafts. ....Make sure the keys are not banged up. ....If you have to hammer the pulleys on, put a block of wood under the opposite end of the shaft to support the shaft, or you can break the spindle bearing housing while driving the pulley on.

If you have the broken piece of the pulley, it can be welded or brazed back onto the pulley. .....Do not throw away the pulley.
 
#18 ·
Time for some updates! I haven't 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 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!!!

(More to come soon....)
 
#21 ·
If you dont get all the old rust and paint off the first time the paint job wont turn out too well.
Yeah, that's why I want to wire wheel it as best I can down to the bare metal. It does have me a tad worried though as I didn't remove all of the paint off of the deck before I painted it. The paint on the deck didn't look as bad as the hood and fenders and I did sand it with 60 grit sandpaper very well before I painted it. I think I almost put TOO MUCH paint on it though to try and get it as perfect as I could because when I went to put the spindles back on with new Grade 8 bolts, the paint started to crack and push out from around the bolts when I tightened them down. The paint has already started to peel off by the dischange chute as well because I laid the deck on this edge to put it against the wall temporarily while working on other parts of the tractor. It wasn't that the paint wasn't dry either before I moved it. So, now I'm already touching up the paint job on the deck... Don't want to make the same mistake on the hood! (It is a bit more noticeable...)

I'm also thinking of just leaving the brown parts alone for now, especially as it would take too much effort and too much time to disassemble the entire tractor to paint the frame. It honestly doesn't look too bad either - it held up a lot better than the deck, hood, and fenders. I'll just throw some Simple Green on the frame and hose it down to try and clean it up and see how it looks. Plus, might give it a unique look to have a "restored" looking hood and fenders and deck with the original old, worn looking frame? Have to see how it turns out.

I also need to get new decals for the hood and mower deck. Has anyone had any experiences with applying these vinyl decals? How hard are they to apply right and get them on perfectly straight? Should I take it to a professional to have them applied or is it pretty easy to do at home?
 
#20 ·
I missed this one but I wanted to say welcome MailmAn. I enjoyed reading all of this thread. I am glad you joined and shared your progress with us with so many photographs. Thanks.
 
#22 ·
#23 ·
Well, after using the paint stripper and a 5-in-1 to scrape off as much of the old paint as possible, I went after it with a cupped wire wheel and this interesting drill attachment that I found that is supposed to be like a sandpaper wheel that is equivalent to 80 grit sandpaper. It looked better than it worked (I think) and the wire wheel did 98.9% of the work. But here is what I was left with on the hood:











Not bad, eh? I'd say it came out almost as well as it would have if it was sandblasted. It just took a bit more work on my part (and numb hands from drill vibrations...).

The only problems I see now are:

1) Try to clean up wire wheel swirl marks as best I can before painting it. Maybe use the sandpaper wheel for that?
2) There is still some minor underlying rust issues, especially on the end of the hood, that won't came clean with the wire wheel.
3) I have noticed some metal damage after I cleaned the paint off - some dents and dings, nothing major (see below).



See the dents in the left front corner of the hood? Should I try to have these repaired or just say the heck with it and paint it? I'm not making a museum piece and if I'm going to be using it to mow lawns, it might get dented and dinged up under normal use. If I did want to fix it though, what is the best way? Can this be hammered out or do I need to Bondo over it and smooth it out? I don't like Bondo really myself (I tried it on my first vehicle - a 1977 Jeep, and it turned out horrible and I vowed never to attempt Bondo body work again... lol). Here are some more close-up shots of the hood:









Here is a good example of some rust showing through the cleaned up metal:



And here's the top of the hood towards the back, also showing some rust. No wonder this part suffered the worst paint cracking and orange peeling...





I do have to say though that after cleaning all the paint off and seeing the hood in bare metal, it looks pretty cool! I contemplated leaving it like this, although I know it won't last a day as bare metal before it will turn into instant rust. I could clear coat it though to preserve the shiny metal. Should I leave it like this or go ahead with painting it white? I mean, I do already have the paint that matches the deck...
 
#25 · (Edited by Moderator)
Welcome aboard and thanks for the pics !

From what I've seen and read, I'm impressed with the amount of effort you've put in already and I know the feeling of wanting to get it back together and running. IMO 'you're already in the water and good and wet too'. Seeing how far you were willing to go with that hood, I'm not so sure you'll be alright with yourself if you don't give the body some love before total reassembly. this is the time to get as much up to your comfort level of par for an overall finish. I'm saying these things mainly because I did not go for bare metal and rushed a lot of steps that I probably shoudn't have.(which lead to adding more steps) My end product will be OK for me ; for now, it's my 1st, I plan on keeping her and it's a learning process. Bottom line, just give the process some thought while the patient is still on the table.
At the end of this season, I'll be able to say: I saved her from scrapper, neutralized most of the potential cancer (rust), and stabilized her from immediate decay and leaks. No where close to a restoration. Sorry if I got long winded guys, just food for thought. Goodluck MailmAn, let patience be a friend and I'll be lookin' in from time to time.
I'd probably spot prime those areas of minor rust( I've had some results w/ simple vinegar and some rubbin' w/ steel wool or balled up aluminum foil as a low budget option prior to priming)
 
#29 ·
I had a very busy weekend, so didn't have much time to actually work on the Bolens. I did manage to get the fender stripped down to match the hood:





Yes, the bare metal is very shiny in the sun!! Hard to get a good photo of it. There are still some bad wire wheel marks on the metal as well as some pesky areas of rust, especially on the top side of the fender. Still, it seems to have cleaned up very well and no rust holes either! Here is the underside:



I know it is probably hard to tell from these pictures, but does the fender look completely straight? I can't tell for sure, but the bottom part in the last picture looks like the metal is bent near those holes where the rear reflector/light mounts. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be this way or if someone backed into something and it bent the fender. I wasn't sure if I should try to bang it out or just leave it as is.

I also did some minor bodywork to the hood with a small ball-peen hammer I bought at Harbor Freight for $5. I wanted to try and get those bad dents out. It's better now, but not perfect. It definitely will be less noticeable once there is paint on it, but I can still tell that they are there. I was also surprised at how hard I had to wail on it with the hammer to get the dents to push out. Somebody must have hit something really hard with the tractor to put a dent in the hood where it was because it didn't want to push back out!

Now, my next step today is to get some Rust Converter on the bare metal and rust to encapsulate it and hopefully prevent it from rusting any further after it is painted:





Will post more photos soon after I make some more progress!
 
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