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1970's Homelite T16 Lawn Tractor


Homelite_man

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I inherited a 1970's Homelite T16 lawn tractor that was built by Allis Chalmers. I have been working to restore this tractor for a few years now but have not been able to find another tractor like it. Are there any other late model HOMELITE T16 owners out there?
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Michael, Welcome to the club. I have a 1974 T-10 which I have had nearly every bolt out of. It's not exactly the same as a T-16, but I may be able to answer some questions. Mine has a gear drive 3 speed transaxle with hi-low. There are other members with T-16's also. Jim
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Welcome If there is another Homelight owner out there somewhere you will find them here. I never saw so many blue allis tractos untill I joined up. Good info and someone will always offer help here.
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Jim, Thanks for the quick reply. I have the tiller & front blade attachments, but the mower deck was rotted and tossed. I have spent a lot of time and money to get the tractor working. Until this week, I could not find any information about this type of tractor. I would like to find a mower deck. Mine is hydrostatic drive. I know there is supposed to be a release somewhere so it can be pushed when the engine is not running, but I have yet to find the release. Michael
quote:
Originally posted by JimDk
Michael, Welcome to the club. I have a 1974 T-10 which I have had nearly every bolt out of. It's not exactly the same as a T-16, but I may be able to answer some questions. Mine has a gear drive 3 speed transaxle with hi-low. There are other members with T-16's also. Jim
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Welcome to the club! I have a T-16H I'm running and a T-16S for parts. Very rugged garden tractors. I just finished the mechanical work on the T-16H in January, The Homelites are out there. I found the T16S in Eliot, ME and the T16H in Rochester, NH. Both over this last winter. Love to see some pictures of yours!
[img]/club2/attach/larry8200/T16H.jpg[/img]
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Larry, Mine looks like the T16 you posted with the yellow rear. I tried to post a picture but the picture file was too big. I have to figure out how to reduce the size. I am in Kittery, ME. Eliot & Rochester is not far from where I live. My tractor came from Alabama. I will post a picture soon. Do you have or know where I can find a mower deck? Michael
quote:
Originally posted by larry8200
Welcome to the club! I have a T-16H I'm running and a T-16S for parts. Very rugged garden tractors. I just finished the mechanical work on the T-16H in January, The Homelites are out there. I found the T16S in Eliot, ME and the T16H in Rochester, NH. Both over this last winter. Love to see some pictures of yours!
[img]/club2/attach/larry8200/T16H.jpg[/img]

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Look into a AC 300-400 for the deck for it. Yours look like maybe a simplicity built with the seat being able to raise.
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If yours is a hydro. The free wheel lever is on the back right hand side. Like in the picture above.The Allis built Homelites used right hand discharge decks. The deep decks prior to the 300-400 series were left hand discharge and made by Simplicity. Allis made there own decks on the 300-400 series and the Homelites when built in Lexington, SC.
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Michael, Do you have the mule drive (2 pulleys ahead of the front axle) and a working electric clutch/pto on the front of the engine? You need both of those to operate a mower deck. Homelites do not have a mid pto like their Allis Chalmers cousins.
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Jim, I do have the mule drive(currently detached), and the electric clutch does work. Looking at pictured from owners manuals online, I think mine is made by Allis Chalmers because of the round head lights. The Simplicity models looked like there was a metal square shaped guard around the headlights. Michael
quote:
Originally posted by JimDk
Michael, Do you have the mule drive (2 pulleys ahead of the front axle) and a working electric clutch/pto on the front of the engine? You need both of those to operate a mower deck. Homelites do not have a mid pto like their Allis Chalmers cousins.
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First, it's always great to welcome another Homelite owner to the club. Check out all the posts by rfsmith1952 using the "search the forums" feature at the bottom of the "discussions" pull down menu above. Bob recently spent much time getting his Hommie running and there's lots of knowledge available in those posts including the two types of Vickers transmissions with opposite action "free wheel" levers. If original, the straight up position is "run" and the tilted right position is "free wheel". And with this older unit, the brakes don't work when in the "free wheel" position.
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Looks like the plate was bent back and release bar was broken. So I should be able to turn it clock wise to release?
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Hi, Welcome to the club, first there is a sticky in the show and tell section with a picture resizer, once the pics are resized they might look like this DSC 101 (540x680), you must remove the parenthesis and numbers to post the pics. Follow the instruction for posting with the sticky in talking tractors. Second where your lever snapped off I believe the lever would be lifted upwards to disengage the Vickers transaxle so you would be turning it counterclockwise. It will help a lot if you rock the tractor back and forth a bit while engaging or disengaging the lever (stub)
quote:
Originally posted by Homelite_man
Larry, Mine looks like the T16 you posted with the yellow rear. I tried to post a picture but the picture file was too big. I have to figure out how to reduce the size. I am in Kittery, ME. Eliot & Rochester is not far from where I live. My tractor came from Alabama. I will post a picture soon. Do you have or know where I can find a mower deck? Michael
quote:
Originally posted by larry8200
Welcome to the club! I have a T-16H I'm running and a T-16S for parts. Very rugged garden tractors. I just finished the mechanical work on the T-16H in January, The Homelites are out there. I found the T16S in Eliot, ME and the T16H in Rochester, NH. Both over this last winter. Love to see some pictures of yours!
[img]/club2/attach/larry8200/T16H.jpg[/img]


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See this post for many pics of the freewheel lever: http://www.simpletractors.com/club2/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=118316&SearchTerms=homelite I can't see "the plate was bent back" in your pic above, but I believe you have the orginal Vickers. As you stated, the lever would be rotated clockwise to freewheel the tractor. As others have stated, rocking the tractor helps.
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Welcome to the club. There are some homelite guys out there and the tractors are compatible with certain ACs and Simplicities. I have a Simplicity built t-10 and an Allis built T-12. Like you, it took me about a year to get the T-12 going. I went all the way in and repaired the drive/neutral lever (aka "Shift Shaft") It was just corroded and wouldn't move anymore. The hydro was weak before and weak after the fix. I ended up swapping out the complete rear end. That part came from an Allis HB112 or HB212..one of Maynards tractors. Now, I never did anything like that before, so I relied on the club members for guidance, and they came through. Just post your issue and some pix and someone will give you a good answer. Here's some video of it running, this just happened last week:D http://youtu.be/2hWLBSSeLps
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Here's the thread on the shift shaft, go down pretty far and there are some pix of what it looks like in there, and how it works. http://www.simpletractors.com/club2/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=118407
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Thanks for all the info. Your tractor looks like its in great shape. I am waiting for the snow to melt so I can work on mine. Hopefully I can get the wheels to unlock with the release. I think I am going to try and make it look original so I will have to paint it this summer. I hope I can find a mower deck. Michael
quote:
Originally posted by rfsmith1952
Welcome to the club. There are some homelite guys out there and the tractors are compatible with certain ACs and Simplicities. I have a Simplicity built t-10 and an Allis built T-12. Like you, it took me about a year to get the T-12 going. I went all the way in and repaired the drive/neutral lever (aka "Shift Shaft") It was just corroded and wouldn't move anymore. The hydro was weak before and weak after the fix. I ended up swapping out the complete rear end. That part came from an Allis HB112 or HB212..one of Maynards tractors. Now, I never did anything like that before, so I relied on the club members for guidance, and they came through. Just post your issue and some pix and someone will give you a good answer. Here's some video of it running, this just happened last week:D http://youtu.be/2hWLBSSeLps
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Welcome Homelite Man. I have 3 Homelite T-16H. Each has a deck. I will be checking to see which is a decent enough deck to sell. I am in Northern Michigan. I can't figure how to resize pics yet either or I would have htem on here. Glad to see another Homelite Person on here.
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Michael, I see Hamman got a hold of you, he may have some decks. Uh, Roger, I do have something that cuts the grass. It's green and I don't want to talk about it...:O
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