I found this ToteGote at an estate sale yesterday its got a 1960 briggs so I assume thats the year. I was very excited got there bright and early I was surprised nobody else was fighting over it. Very nice patina I thought it was original paint but now Im pretty sure its not. I also got a disassembled roto tiller from the sale and Im glad i did because the expanded metal sides were in with the tiller parts. And they have the original paint on them which is a lighter green. The last pic is what i believe was the original color. Im going to leave it as is. I almost dont want to ride it and get it dirty lol. All I have had time to do sofar is pump up the front tire and wipe off some of the dust. The tank clean I bet itll start right up. Its been in the shed untouched atleast 10 years probably more. Do these have any sort of rear fender? There is a little piece of aluminum hanging down from the seat to keep dirt off the head but im sure thats not original. The only other thing im concerned about is the belt. Liiks like it will work but i dont know for how long.
ToteGote 1960 Barn Find
- Thread starter jeep2003
- Start date
I know it looks complicated but its just the additional jackshaft behind the torque converter that you dont normally see on bikes. It needs the extra gearing because the chain is so big it cant be reduced enough with just one set. I dont know the sizes off hand but the first set is #40 I think and the rear chain is like #50. I guess they didnt want it to fall off or stretch thats for sure.
Thanks guys. I had a minute to work on it so first thing i wanted to do is straighten the valve stem on the back tire and get it pumped up. Then the valve core broke in half. The part that seals was stuck in there real good but I managed to pull it out with a pick that had a bit of a kink on the end. It took some doing. I never had that problem before. Sometimes they get stuck a bit but never come apart. Then I tried to drain the oil and the drain plug was stuck tight. It would just bend my 3/8 wrenches and strip out the plug. Eventually i got it loose with some vice grips. There wasnt much oil in it and it was very black. So I gassed it up to get it started and then the tank started dripping. Turns out it wasnt a clean tank after all. The bottom had lots of holes all around and it was all epoxied over. I didnt have another tank like that so I picked one up on ebay. That was just annoying because I had a few of those tanks that I sold last year. Then I pulled off the aluminum mud guard and Im going to make a new one and get it as close to original as i can figure based on Richards drawings. Id like to do that before I ride it anyway because the yard is an absolute mud pit after the month of rain we had.
I got my new tank on. I like it better than the old one because its got the 3hp sticker on it. But it was silver so i sprayed it flat black then rubbed oil on it. Now it matches perfectly. I started it up first pull fired up and rode it around a while. It smoked like a freight train and seemed low on power. So I pulled the head to check it out. The bore looks not too bad. I guess stuck rings so I pulled the clutch off and im gonna pull out the piston to check it out and clean out the block. The salsbury clutch has a cracked hub at the keyway. Its pretty bad but i guess i can weld it up so it doesnt break out completely.
