Newbie with questions about my 1250

[nailpounder]

Greetings from the left coast where CCs are scarce. 9 months ago I saw this one in a CL add that called it a "vintage IH lawn tractor" or something like that. He didn't know how old it was or what model. When I got to his place it was parked under some scrub oaks with a layer of decomposing leaves on it, 3 flat rotten tires and some misc. tin under the leaves on the ground. He couldn't get it to start or even turnover. The battery under the seat was long dead and he had rigged up some 12 gauge solid wire to the posts with battery clamps on the ends. He then used a fullsize battery sitting on top of the right fender strapped to the seat. Anyway, I walked around the thing not sure what it was and whether I should buy it for the $300 he was asking. After awhile of hemming and hawing or something like that he dropped his price to $200 and I reluctantly agreed to buy it. Next day I dragged it into a borrowed trailer with a come-along and dropped it off next to my garage where it sat until a month ago.

I had cleaned it up a little and made an attempt to get it to fire but gave up on it until last Friday. I rebuilt the carb and installed the coil and a new condenser, checked the points and plug gap. Jumped the terminals on the starter relay under the dash and she fired. Did it again and she was running! Just for grins decided to move the hydro lever and the one full tire spun! Holy cow! Quickly rigged up the battery on the fender, filled the rotten tires and we were movin'. Yippee, never thought I would see the day that this thing move under it's own power. I have determined that it is a 1250 since it is hydro with a 12hp Kohler and it has the side covers, though they aren't installed. Some previous owner ditched the original muffler and the front ducting and removed the side covers. If you have read this far thanks, I will move on to some questions. The first picture was on Friday, the second one was tonight.