dart451 wrote:Hello all,
all the plates are long gone....
check the engine for date codes.. 8 HP is usually the Horse model, and before MTD bought them , Garden way (and before them, Troy-Bilt company itself) only went by serial number on the Horse model - Serial numbers are engraved or stamped on a flat spot on the cast iron gear housing on the right top side surface (between the handle mount and the right wheel) serial number can be used to get a model year range, and there are other means to identify between Horse 1, Horse II, Horse III, Horse IV, and so on they varied in engine HP so you could have anywhere from 6 HP to 10 HP on an older Horse model, typically would be a cast iron tecumseh of Kohler K series originally equipped.. I've re-powered them easily with the Harbor Freight Predator engines There's variations in the drive bets and pulleys, some later models had reverse, earlier models did not, some were 1 speed, some were 2 speed (or 4 speed, if you count Hi-Lo ranges) and later on they did have a means to de-clutch the tines (and as mentioned, you could add other implements to those, much like the gravely walking tractor or BCS machines) but for the most part, the more commonly found ones, the tines turn at the same time as the wheels (Since they mostly had 1-piece solid worm shaft that drove both wheel drive gear and tiller drive gear) Word of advice, if you want to really preserve these older ones with Bronze worm gears, make sure you use older NLGI GL-3 (or 2 or 1) in the gearboxes - later Gear lube specs (I think NLGI GL-4 and later) had additives to them that would eat the bronze gears over time.
How poor are they who have not patience. What wound did ever heal, but by degrees? - Iago (Othello Act II, Scene 3)