[wjohn]

I made a trip last night for some stuff that caught my eye. The Commercial 10 is fairly complete and is a 1966. The deck weight is a nice bonus. I wonder what entity owned it with that number stamped on the hood.

The 5240 is a 1979. I always liked the 500/early 5000-series white hood color scheme, and I've been keeping my eye out for an 8HP recoil start tractor with the low hood. The steering brakes should be interesting. Both engines turn over. I will need a shroud for the 5240... I'm guessing it was taken apart because to the junky recoil start mechanism that Kohler used, but that's just a hunch. The rotary cultivator and 40" deck also appear to be from the '79-'80 time frame and are probably original to the tractor.

The sickle bar, toolholder cultivator, L parts transmission ('47-'48ish with that Edison AJ magneto?), and very early rotary plow gauge wheels also came with. The complete '48 L in the corner is from a previous haul and was going to be my winter ballast. It just stayed in for the ride.

I'm just racking up more projects that I won't touch in the near future :hide:

 

[wjohn]

Here are a few pictures from the ad when they're not all piled up in my truck bed.

 

[gravely1964]

Looks good John :thThumbsU Com 10 and pull start 5000 cool

And yeah know the feeling of adding projects for a later date :fam32:

 

[DJ in WV]

I love them both! I'd love to have a 5000 series but I'm going to get my C10A done first.

Nice haul on the implements too.

 

[sharkman]

I don't believe I have ever saw a steering brake on a 8 hp pull start!

 

[Canary Al]

Must have loaded that with a crane, John?

 

[wjohn]

I don't believe I have ever saw a steering brake on a 8 hp pull start!

The original owner was either just cheap or didn't want to mess with electric start. Either way, they were my kind of person. I think you lose way too much visibility when you go with the big dooky electric start hoods. I'm not the biggest fan of Gravely's steering brake design but they're better than no brakes at all.

Must have loaded that with a crane, John?

The seller had a brand new Mahindra compact tractor, so that plus some shoving around in the bed made it all fit. He said he got tired of breaking axles on his Yanmar.

I just noticed today that someone welded the coil to the shroud on the Commercial 10. Still trying to figure out what the letters on top of the hood are.

 

[wjohn]

As far as starting the K181 on the 5240, does anyone know if there's any reason that this pulley kit wouldn't work? Jack's only lists it as fitting an M8 and doesn't mention the K-series equivalent. I think it's probably discontinued, but I might be able to find a used pulley somewhere and ditch the weak recoil setup.

https://www.jackssmallengines.com/p...er-Recoil-Assemblies/4175519S /758283/s

 

[devans]

The original owner was either just cheap or didn't want to mess with electric start. Either way, they were my kind of person. I think you lose way too much visibility when you go with the big dooky electric start hoods. I'm not the biggest fan of Gravely's steering brake design but they're better than no brakes at all.

My 5200 doesn't have brakes and stopping it is no big deal at all. I've never seen brakes on an 8 horse either.

As far as starting the K181 on the 5240, does anyone know if there's any reason that this pulley kit wouldn't work? Jack's only lists it as fitting an M8 and doesn't mention the K-series equivalent. I think it's probably discontinued, but I might be able to find a used pulley somewhere and ditch the weak recoil setup.

https://www.jackssmallengines.com/p...er-Recoil-Assemblies/4175519S /758283/s

I don't know about that pulley but I have the cast recoil setup and it's pretty stout. The stamped one not so much.
The cast recoil is rounded where the stamped one is flat across the face. Cast ones are harder to find but I can keep an eye open for you if you'd like.
Here's mine.


As much as I love using my 5200 I bought it before I knew what I do now and would have held out for a 5240. I do plan on converting mine at some point.

Great score by the way.

 

[wjohn]

I don't know about that pulley but I have the cast recoil setup and it's pretty stout. The stamped one not so much.
The cast recoil is rounded where the stamped one is flat across the face. Cast ones are harder to find but I can keep an eye open for you if you'd like.
Here's mine.


As much as I love using my 5200 I bought it before I knew what I do now and would have held out for a 5240. I do plan on converting mine at some point.

Great score by the way.

Thanks Don. I'll keep an eye on my local Craigslist, but if you come across a decent one let me know. That might be the best option since I have to find a shroud anyway even if I just go with a plain old rope pulley. It kind of stinks that all of my engine numbers are missing. The pulley wouldn't bug me, though, since I'm used to the old Ls and older BCS units with ACME engines.

Your advantage with the 5200 is that you can jump straight to a 6-lead Swiftamatic swap, right? Won't even have to remove the worm shaft if I have my facts straight.

My 5200 doesn't have brakes and stopping it is no big deal at all. I've never seen brakes on an 8 horse either.

Oh, it's not the stopping part of the brakes that you want. You're right that they pretty much come to stop on their own. I honestly don't think I've ever used the brakes on any two-wheel tractor for plain/emergency stopping. The advantages of turning and getting unstuck when one wheel is spinning are what I like.

I don't use them much on the BCS for getting unstuck because it has a differential lock, but on Gravelys that was a pretty rare option limited to non-Swiftamatic tractors (so two-speed 4- and 6-lead machines, such as your 5200) so the individual wheel brakes are the next best thing there. They do get used to sling the 53" sickle mower around fence posts. On the 5240 they'll probably come in handy with the 40" deck now and then.

I've seen steering brakes on quite a few Pro-8s and some 5260s but they're pretty uncommon on the manual start units.

 

[devans]

No problem John. I can't guarantee I'll find something but I'll keep the peepers peeled. I can give you the numbers off mine but you'll still be missing the serial number.
I looked into the swifty swap and came to the same conclusion you did, I should already have a six lead. I just need to get off my dead and on my dieing.
What you said about the brakes makes sense. Mine would dig in running single wheels but pretty much stopped doing it when I went duals. Plus brakes parts are big bucks so I don't see that in my future.

 

[wjohn]

No problem John. I can't guarantee I'll find something but I'll keep the peepers peeled. I can give you the numbers off mine but you'll still be missing the serial number.
I looked into the swifty swap and came to the same conclusion you did, I should already have a six lead. I just need to get off my dead and on my dieing.
What you said about the brakes makes sense. Mine would dig in running single wheels but pretty much stopped doing it when I went duals. Plus brakes parts are big bucks so I don't see that in my future.

I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mind sharing your spec #. Your tractor is a few years newer than mine so it could be different, but it would still give me an idea. I'm guessing that mine should be 30676D... Does that jive with yours?

 

[devans]

I'm on shift today and tomorrow, I'll let you know on Monday when I'm home during the day.

 

[GravelyNM]

Well done and nice haul. I am still looking but more like waiting to fall in my lap, a debris screen, screws and spacers for the flywheel/fan for my Comm 10. I have the cover and fan guard. It all works OK but I think I am going to have to remove the tin to clean grass, etc. soon. BTW, mine is 1018, if I recall. Also, the pictures are 4 years old and the ball is bolted underneath now. It was like that for 35+ years!

 

[wjohn]

I'm on shift today and tomorrow, I'll let you know on Monday when I'm home during the day.

No rush, obviously... Like I said, these are on the list. To throw another wrench in, I'm wondering if this isn't the original engine. At least the block is probably different; maybe they swapped cranks. There's no dipstick and then the engine components are a different shade of red. It turns over nicely and definitely has compression, though. There was also a brand new spark plug in it.

The Commercial 10 will need more work... Take a look at that carb. I also included a picture of the nice weld job for the coil. It also looks like the hood might have originally been yellow. I feel like I've seen a couple Commercial 10s or maybe 10-As that were all yellow, but I'm not finding any pictures when I search.

I also managed to knock the quick hitch horn out of the 40" mower frame, snapped a picture of the Edison AJ mag, and noticed that someone had rebuilt the sickle bar at some point.

 

[wjohn]

Well done and nice haul. I am still looking but more like waiting to fall in my lap, a debris screen, screws and spacers for the flywheel/fan for my Comm 10. I have the cover and fan guard. It all works OK but I think I am going to have to remove the tin to clean grass, etc. soon. BTW, mine is 1018, if I recall. Also, the pictures are 4 years old and the ball is bolted underneath now. It was like that for 35+ years!

Neat! MTF member CrazyVet has one with SN 825, I believe. These are all pretty early units. I can keep my eye out for a debris screen for you, although it might not be impossible to make since you already have the cover. I think it's just some kind of stock sheet perf/screen material that is definitely thin enough that it would be easy to form. You could roll it over a piece of pipe that's the same diameter.

I guess the another thing to note about the Commercial 10s besides the fast ground speed is that they had lubrication issues on slopes with the shallow oil pan. I think this also changed with the C10-A.

 

[GravelyNM]

I use mine for mowing on mostly level ground and plowing my 1000' driveway in the winter. The ground speed is great for those purposes although I am hardly ever at WO throttle.

 

[devans]

No rush, obviously... Like I said, these are on the list. To throw another wrench in, I'm wondering if this isn't the original engine. At least the block is probably different; maybe they swapped cranks. There's no dipstick and then the engine components are a different shade of red. It turns over nicely and definitely has compression, though. There was also a brand new spark plug in it.

The Commercial 10 will need more work... Take a look at that carb. I also included a picture of the nice weld job for the coil. It also looks like the hood might have originally been yellow. I feel like I've seen a couple Commercial 10s or maybe 10-As that were all yellow, but I'm not finding any pictures when I search.

I also managed to knock the quick hitch horn out of the 40" mower frame, snapped a picture of the Edison AJ mag, and noticed that someone had rebuilt the sickle bar at some point.

Interesting. I think you're right about the engine being a replacement. In the second picture you'll notice the grunge build up which is normal at least for the K181 but there isn't much of anything on the transmission right next to it. I'd expect there would/should be some. I doubt the engine was torn down at all and was just swapped over as is, lost interest before it was fully reassembled and the tins were lost in the shuffle. I hate to say it but if it were me I'd pull the engine and check that the crank was right for this machine. It would be a pity to ruin the planetary because of that. I'd also be on the hunt for the dip stick and tube, they show up on ebay quite often.
Maybe CV has one, he may even have the tins your missing too.

The yellow on the hood of the C10 is interesting too. Is there any yellow on the outside of the hood?
That weld job on the coil bracket looks like my work, I need more practice. But at least the coil shouldn't fall off. :fing32:

If your interested and want to look at pictures for reference here's a link to my photobucket album.
Don Evans's Library | Photobucket

 

[wjohn]

Interesting. I think you're right about the engine being a replacement. In the second picture you'll notice the grunge build up which is normal at least for the K181 but there isn't much of anything on the transmission right next to it. I'd expect there would/should be some. I doubt the engine was torn down at all and was just swapped over as is, lost interest before it was fully reassembled and the tins were lost in the shuffle. I hate to say it but if it were me I'd pull the engine and check that the crank was right for this machine. It would be a pity to ruin the planetary because of that. I'd also be on the hunt for the dip stick and tube, they show up on ebay quite often.
Maybe CV has one, he may even have the tins your missing too.

The yellow on the hood of the C10 is interesting too. Is there any yellow on the outside of the hood?
That weld job on the coil bracket looks like my work, I need more practice. But at least the coil shouldn't fall off. :fing32:

If your interested and want to look at pictures for reference here's a link to my photobucket album.
Don Evans's Library | Photobucket

Thanks, those pictures are a nice reference. I always get a kick out of the alpaca attacking the snow blower.

I have "trust issues" when it comes to random work done on the engines of old tractors, haha. I'd be surprised if the crank weren't the correct one, as that should be pretty obvious when somebody swapped the gears but you never know. I'll be doing some checking before I try to start it. I did recently miss out on a running $75 parking lot blower on CL that had a K181 with the cast recoil start assembly. That's probably the best thing for me to keep an eye out for.

There is yellow under the white on the outside of the hood, too, but it's not as prominent.

 

[devans]

Look at the 816 album sometime(last page), he chews on that too. Anything you want pictures of let me know and I'll do my best. I forgot about the numbers you asked for, sorry. I'll get them.
I might be going to a swap meet this Sunday, if so I'll keep an eye out for a recoil.