I acquired an old John Deere 826 snow blower from a coworker who is moving from where I am (upstate NY) to southern California so he suddenly didn't need it any longer.

I had a bit of interest in learning how old the machine was due to its build quality and weight when we transported it to my home.

After quite a bit of research and phone calls to my local John Deere dealer and to John Deere themselves, no one could tell me with any certainty what the serial number that was stamped on the back meant as far as year of build.

I ultimately found the information inside the parts manual for the snow blower which I purchased from GreenPartStore - Parts for John Deere Lawn Tractors, John Deere Lawn & Garden Tractors, John Deere Mowers, John Deere Attachments, John Deere Accessories .

My machine is stamped on the back: W2121 014370M. It has chrome handlebars. It has a short chute and no electronic switches on the handlebars. I learned that the engine it was equipped with when I received it dates to 1978 as it is an HM80-155013E 8118C. It has the original Lauson carburetor on it.

I am doing what one would call a restomod to it. I purchased a NOS Tecumseh LH358XA 10hp engine and I am equipping it with the 7Amp - 84 watt coil and accompanying 5 magnet flywheel. Additionally I found and purchased a NOS headlight kit that came with the original recoil mounted 18 watt generator for just the light. My intention is to use the larger alternator to run heated hand grips.

I have stripped the entire machine down to parts and everything is getting evapo-rust treated, sanded, cleaned, primed and painted back to original colors. I am attempting to save as many decals as I can to make it look original. Once I get to the reassembly stage I will take some pictures to post up.

I have rebuilt the differential by overboring it out to 1" to place oillite 1" x 7/8" bearings so that the slop is gone out of the axle assemblies. Cut the old axles off of the wheel mount plates and made new axles because they are no longer available and I'm having custom oillite bearings made for the outer casing because the casing is rusted and worn so the factory 1.125" OD would be too sloppy to hold the bearings in place. I bought a chunk of SAE 863 Iron-Copper which is what the original bearings should have been made of.

Since I can't get my wife too interested in the time and money I'm spending on this I hoped I might have an audience on here...lol. Keeps me sane while waiting for the good weather to return and I can work on cars again (my real passion). Next year I'll hopefully have a heated garage space... fingers crossed.

to the forum hondacivic90ed


Don't tease, post some in progress photos. We love to "watch" a build


You're in the right place as most of us try to hide our addiction, ah , sorry ... hobby from parents, spouse's, co-workers, GF's, and everyone else who just doesn't understand.

Ya, show some pics man

Come to think of it that tends to be everyone around me that I haven't fixed a snow blower for (except here)

Here is the only picture I have on my phone right now. Albeit poor but I'll put some more of progress soon.

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Some pics of progress.

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looking good!