Willis's 74' Bolens (rolling thunder)

as many if yall know, i have a 1974 bolens FMC 1055/ G-10. its all stock right now, aside from a cobbled up muffler off of an old mercury sled. its powered by a 10 horse tecumseh HH-100 flathead. its shaft driven except the clutch is a belt. i dont have any too serious plans for it. my main things are tires, re-paint it, lights, maybe an alternator mod. No im not going to pully swap it or any of that BS.. it goes fast enough for what i do. i dont have the slightest clue what it has for a transaxle, other than it is limited slip, much like a G-80 locker chevy used.
tires- snow hogs, tri rib or X-trac (front) bearclaws on the back
paint- some shade of a green. my buddy has a tractor with a cool paint color, i might use that. i want to do green paint and accent everything in black... on 2nd thought, thats too common. i might do firetruck red. after all, i AM a firefighter..
lights- i want to put headlight covers (like from a yamaha warrior) over the cutouts in the hood (hence the name "Deathglare") i want to put marker lights on the sides of my fenders, markers on the hood sides, maybe a few strobes if i can find them cheap (i plan to plow with her) and 2 red taillights on the back cutouts. then implement lights on the hood like i had before and one single backup light. gonna use as many LED's as possible as an attempt to make it easier for the starter gen.
alternator mod- i have 2 spare pullys that never get used, 1 of which is the PTO. i am thinking maybe getting a cute little alternator and mounting it somewhere. it was brought to my attention that i wouldnt want the starter gen AND the alternator on 1 battery, so i might get another and build a box for the back of the tractor. its a tube frame so i could just slip it in the frame and use a hitch pin so i can remove it and put it on during the heavy use season (winter)..

hope yall like it, and i will have some pics tomorrow sometime..

well, these pics arent the greatest, but i found these on my computer, so here they are.

that trailer with the wood in it looks like it has seen better days

Hmm. This looks like a good candidate for a custom muffler....

jay, thats why it is on my front stoop being will-afied.. im in the process of strengthening it. almost done.
red, yeah, you dont say.. i am thinking maybe a small stack with a cylider style muffler and ofcourse a raincap

well, ive been saying i was going to do it, and i finally did. Deathglare got a stack tonight. that foolish lookin sled exhaust was being junk, kept carboning up and was making me lose power. stack isnt perfect, but it works, sounds nice too.

Looks great man! Rain cap? HMMMM?? Thats a must... lol. glad you enjoy it, now we just need a video of the romp so we can hear it

i plan on it as soon as i get some more fuel. right now i have a mtn dew can as my raincap, until i can get to TSC

here is a vid of the stack, forgot to post it..

well, i did it in today... went back in the woods with the new re-vamped dump cart to grab some more chunks of pine tree. going in with an empty cart was fine, but coming out? different story. it was working pretty hard in 2nd. 3rd was not an option unless it was flat. had a hard time with a few hills so i had to go down to 1st. i was asking quite a bit of the little 10 horse. anyway, about half way home i started losing power. almost wouldnt do 2nd gear.. so i popped it into first and ran about 3/4 throttle, then switched to 2nd a bit later cause it was downhill... well, i imediatly lost almost ALL pulling power, quick power shifted into first and then i smelt it.... that gut wrenching smell of metal on metal.... then the squeeling hit. it wouldnt even pull in first, i actually had to pull the governor wide open to keep it moving. i eventually lost it and it died, whole area filled with smoke, jumped off and investigated. i originally thought it was my clutch idler but that was still moving freely and wasnt too hot to the touch. i next checked the carier bearings for the driveshaft... BINGO! seized solid. i was still a chunk into the woods so i soaked the snot out of it in WD 40 and got it moving... starting again was a chore, but i got it moving. then it was balls to the walls until i got it home. (about 200 feet) it died again right in front of my "garage".... i'll try tearing it down tomorrow

so, just an update here, maybe a future mod. this thing has always been coldblooded, it takes almost years to warm up in the winter, and wont run without the choke if its below 25 degrees F. now, if i plow with this thing like im planning to, thats a problem. a BIG problem. so, what im thinking of doing is making a dampener or plate to put over my grille. similar to what goes on diesel trucks. it probably wont do much, but it may restrict the air flow a little. here is a sketch i made in MS paint.. and NO it wont be red, probably diamond plate. let me know what yall think.

But red is the best color!

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

But red is the best color!

lol, would you be offended if i made it a murican' flag?

willis923 wrote:

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

But red is the best color!

lol, would you be offended if i made it a murican' flag?

Not really. I think it would bug you more than me

this is just my opinion, but I would just take care of the carb issue the 2 wiscos i had would both run in very cold vweather with the choke off, maybe your a tad lean on the jet?

Creepycrawler wrote:

this is just my opinion, but I would just take care of the carb issue the 2 wiscos i had would both run in very cold vweather with the choke off, maybe your a tad lean on the jet?

nope, if anything, its a tad rich. i might just rig a way to preheat the air, like what blows over the cylinder head.. but it still does take for freaking ever to warm up, like upwards of 10 mins before it wont backfire when i throttle up or dump the clutch, or stall

just a little update on this hunk. got the shaft free'ed up. havent torn it down, gotta make a tool run. its been way to cold anyway. i might try to fire it up and romp it tomorrow if the driveshaft cooperates. trying to get some trails broke in after this foot+ of snow

I love that vid on the first page. Nice trails, and nice fieldstone wall crossing too! The stack sounds way better than I expected it to. Looks like it needs some bracing though, before it breaks off. That's a good workhorse for sure!

About being cold blooded... I'm not convinced it isn't something else causing the "attitude". Normally, the colder the air the better for intake and cooling alike. Jetting would be the first thing I'd play with, even though it seems like it's rich, it may be rich on the main and lean on the pilot or vice-versa.    (It could be too rich and too lean at the same time).

good to know. i never knew it could be both at the same time. and thanks on the trails and stack and whatnot. its not too floppy, it vibrates a bit, but the problem is that i dont have a place to brace it. i'll be damned if i put a hole in it anywhere

Yep, If it idles nicely but dies or chokes when you open the throttle, then the "high speed" jet needs attention.  OTOH, if you need to throttle it up or run it with the choke on to stay running, then the low speed needs adjustment.  Get it to idle nicely first, then tune the main jet.

I took my stack off when I changed motors.  I miss it, but haven't had time to figure out how to brace it either.  Bracing the stack is really important though.  It's a long lever-arm which can put a lot of fatigue on the engine, especially when vibrating a lot.  Maybe you could put a muffler clamp around it and run threaded rod to the hood or something?  Keep us posted!

T-Dub13 wrote:

 Maybe you could put a muffler clamp around it and run threaded rod to the hood or something?  Keep us posted!

i want to avoid drilling a hole anywhere, plus i'd have to un-do it every time i go to start it or anything.. so thats out. i'll take a look tomorrow. not running right now anyway, and i doubt i'll be able to run it all winter with all this snow

yall know me. cant leave well enough alone and fix something. but with 3 inches of snow melting fast, who can? so out i went, got it started, 2nd pull (not bad for sitting 2 weeks) and went for a romp. went out back on my trails and everything came undone. the whole thing started shaking and rumbeling and then it all stoped and smoothed out, with the occasional clunk or 2. got out front and heard a ping and some grinding and found this (pic at bottom)..... now my driveshaft has about an inch of play in all directions..   so i guess now that i have the right tools, its time to rip it down. ive decided im going to flip it up on its ass end so im not crawling around in the muckluck. got my tools, so once the ground freezez up a bit, up it goes, under the knife, or wrench for that matter. might take a vid or 2 when i do it

well boys, here she is... not a very good pic but its what i can do right now, after i get the shaft done i can get better pics.







my plans go as follows
-paint- fire truck red with black accents
-proper exhaust with cylinder type muffler
-tires- Kenda Bearclaws on the rear, TSC ags on the front
- Bumpers- front and rear, quick attach rear (more to come on that)
-front mount slow blade
-lights!
  -front headlights
  -marker lights
  -tail lights
  -LED mini bar/ rotating teardrop
-headache rack. ROPS to mount the lights on
-possibly an alternator with aux battery. or replace the starter generator
-undecided on this one- Federal Q-siren
-i have to get a seat too. one can only take so much of having a bolt stuck up where the good lord split ya


so those are my plans, to paint, i'll be tearing it down pretty much to the frame. pull the dash, hood, fenders. powerwash the hell out of everything, sand down the hood and fenders, paint, then take care of the frame, engine and transmission. there is so much grease, i might leave those 2 things alone, and just shoot the rest of it in self etching primer and black paint..

Pretty sick lookin rig man... betcha can make it bulletproof!

thanks! really, aise from a few little bugs, it is bulletproof