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Hello all,

I'm restoring a 1969 Sears Suburban SS12 tractor I picked up last fall for $75. It ran when I got it, but not well. It came with a plow, chains, wheel weights and two spare Tecumseh HH120 engines, one ok, the other locked up. I planned on making a dedicated snow plowing machine, but decided to do a frame up restoration. Along the way, I picked up a 42" deck and mule drive for another $50, then the angels sang down on me and gave me a custom 10xl for parts.

I now have the whole tractor tore down and most of it painted. I stayed away from the straight white and citrus orange and went with IH white and Kubota orange. I'll try to post some pics if I can figure it out...


This is when I got it.


Tearing it down.

Some body work.

Some stuff done.

I am going with Deestone ag tires on the rear, loaded with RV antifreeze and 30lb wheel weights, and Deestone tri-ribs on the front.

wow dude, awesome, hope you get it complete with no issues in the future ( knock on wood ) but so far looks like you havent had any issues,
keep up the good work man, and keep posting, i would love to see how this turns out

Well, my only hang pup is a transaxle pulley.

After soaking the steering wheel in kroil for weeks, it still wouldn't budge, I ended up cutting it off, luckily it's a common size shaft. When I drained the transaxle, I found it has the common issue that suburbans have, it was full of water, after I got it out, I replaced all of the oil seals and shifter gasket. I ended up ordering different oil seals for the axle, the factory units had an OD of 1.500, I ruined 4 trying to seat them, I ended up using 1.495 which seated fine.

I tore the engine down, decarbed the head, the piston and rings were tight and the valves were in spec. I ordered a gasket set and an oil seal for it after I scrubbed the sludge out of the block. I rebuilt the carb, but I found out that a carb from a Kohler K181 (Carter 16) will work if you modify the linkages. After the engine was back together, it got primed and painted.

The tractor came with 1 spare Delco/Remy starter/generator and 2 spare voltage regulators. I tore both of the starter/generators down, cleaned the windings, put new bearings and brush sets in, polished the copper plates, then primed and painted them. I tore the 3 voltage regulators down, cleaned and adjusted the contact points, soldered a new jumper on 1, then primed and painted all of them.

Since I got the parts tractor, I'm considering ordering another set of ags and putting duals on it, depends on how it pushes snow next winter. I may add them anyway to try to cut down on my weed eating of the banks around my property.

Been an interesting project so far, and I'm only half done, lol.

My ST12. The old war horse has been blowing snow for about 10 years. Still has the original Sears rear tires. Replaced the fronts for more traction. Frankensteined a MTD blower onto it.

Nothing wrong with that. I had an ST12 growing up, i drug logs out of the woods for firewood. Powered by a huge 4hp B&S.