# Roto-Hoe Tiller



## Shawn (Apr 2, 2008)

Well, I just got my hands on an old Roto-Hoe tiller. The GF's uncle had it in the shed and it has not been used in 10 years, but looks almost new. I need to see if I can get it to fire up this weekend.

I wanted to see if anyone knows if there are parts/manuals around for them. In think the carb is going to need to be rebuilt.

Thanks....


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## bajiay (Apr 8, 2008)

Just type in the brand and model number on the net and see what comes up. That is what I do for everything.


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## Shawn (Apr 2, 2008)

Thanks. I have put in Roto-Hoe company and keep coming up with people looking for information just like I am. I just thought some of you seasoned people might have a sliver of info.

I want to get the tiller working so I can turn over the garden. (This year will be better... Was over run with weeds last year. I think they came from the peat moss).


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

I just checked and Ebay has a variety of Roto-Hoe instruction and parts manuals available for sale. You will need to know your Roto-Hoe model number to see if yours is listed.

When entering a search be sure to use corrupted spellings to gain the most hits. As an example if a person were looking for horse hames also search for hanes. You will find many people selling on Ebay don't even know what they have. Hanes clothing items are often found under Haines.


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

We have an old roto-hoe. Although we ourselves haven't used it for several years (now have raised beds and don't need it) several others have borrowed it. Once a belt had to be replaced by the borrower, but I don't know where he got it. He said he replaced it for the use of the tiller. 

Seems to me we were told that Troy Built bought their patent, and roto-hoes arent made any more. (Could be wrong about that) Not that this helps you. Just wanted to say it is a real work horse and everyone who has used it loves what it does. It's too much for me to run, though, and DH or neighbor had to come run it for me. But it did a great job.


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## Shawn (Apr 2, 2008)

I stopped by the one of the repair centers today and talked to the guy about the unit. He said he has not seen this model or manufacturer before. He was going to check and see if he can get a carb rebuild kit for it.

I guess I will put of tilling until next weekend until it is running.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

If the problem with your tiller is a motor problem, you really don't have to have a tiller manual , an engine manual will get it going. Eddie


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

With the carb removed a good spraying with carb cleaner may have done the trick without a kit. If he gets it might as well install it but if not try the clearner.


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## mduncn52 (Sep 8, 2007)

I had a Roto-Hoe rear tine a long time ago. It was a hard working and reliable beast. In the 1970's when I bought it new it was made by MTD in Valley City, Oh (suburb of Cleveland). Back then MTD was still making a quality product. Boy I wish I still had that tiller!


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## Bob Senffner (Apr 13, 2009)

I have a roto hoe for sale. Model 990 - 18" till width, Techumseh 7 HP motor (HH60). Great heavy duty machine. Reverse and 4 forward speeds. I am asking $300 OBO. 704-788-7892 Concord NC.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Welcome to the forums Bob. Glad you decided to join in. You might want to put your ad over on the barter board forum to see if you will get more traffic for it there.

I a 3pt. unit on a tractor as well as a BCS two wheeled tractor and tiller attachment so I'm not in the market.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

I have the 990 Roto-Hoe with the Tecumseh engine, (H60) along with the parts manuals and promo manuals. I also have the add-on shredder attachment.

The Tecumseh technician's manual is available online for free if you do a little searching. The engine is rated at either six or eight HP depending on whether it has the cast iron sleeve or not. 

Now about that carb.. It is actually a simple beast, a series 1 carb that is old enough it isn't fully covered in the tech manual. High speed adjust (bottom of the carb bowl) is 1 1/4 turns from full stop, idle jet adjust (side of the carb, just above the bowl) is also about 1 1/4 turns. Both need tweaking after a warm-up. If the engine hunts at full throttle, you can adjust a lot of that out by tweaking the high speed. If it still hunts, and stalls when you try to go to low speed, the idle jet is clogged. You can adjust the stop (top of the carb) to keep it from dropping down too far in the hunt for correct speed, but you won't have an idle, and will have to stop the engine with the spark shorter spring. It is not a big deal if you understand it.

You can also fiddle with the governor set screws to limit the hunting, but I advise against that, it'll make it much harder to start even if you get it set right.

To start the engine, spray a short blast of starting fluid on the air cleaner at the same time you are slowly pulling the staring rope. This will pull the ether into the carb throat and cylinder. The next pull, pull hard with the engine on full throttle, and choke on (that lever with the arrow end at the top of the carb). The engine should start, and immediately want the choke removed.

Tecumseh stopped making small engines last November, and with this being an older engine, you may not be able to get a rebuild kit. If that is the case, you should be able to just buy a newer series 1 carb and bolt it on in place. (The governor will likely have to be reset.)

VERY IMPORTANT --- Before you run the engine, you should remove the gas tank (it'll twist to the side once freed) and cowling Leave the starter bolted to the cowling) and check for mouse nests and dirt, blowing it out with a air compressor. Spray off the dirt on the carb with air and then carb cleaner, and use a graphite based lube on those moving parts. The dust will get mixed with surface oils and create a coating. You can drain the old gas by removing the high speed needle from the carb bowl. Oil is 19ounces of SAE-30. Now that gas has alcohol in it, drain the gas completely for winter storage.

There is a V-belt that drives the gearbox that drives the wheels. Chances are this has stretched. If you remove the vertical safety cover and look at the way the upper pulley is mounted, you can see a couple of nuts on the support box, down at the bottom, where you can loosen the nuts and pull the support box up a little to tighten the belt.

These are tough little machines that don't have a lot of the safety features on current tillers. I like that, but be careful. The bolo tines are fantastic for chopping up clods, but they wall wrap dog chain and roots around the drive. I till with a pocketknife and have other tools at the ready.

Out of curiosity, what are they charging on eBay for the manuals? Maybe I could make a buck or two.

One other thing - run the engine at or near full speed. When tilling, there is a lot of work the engine is doing and it needs that full airflow from running at speed to properly cool it.

And Roto-Hoe is out of business. Has been so for a while. It is designed well enough that parts can be easily fabricated, and the gear-box is a timkin box that shouldn't give problems. The tires do have a tendency to go flat. You may want to use tubes or snot/slime in the tires.


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## Shawn (Apr 2, 2008)

Thanks for posts back today. My original post was from a year ago. The unit was nice and clean, but I could not get it to stay running. I have purchased a new motor to place on it. That is a project for this weekend so I can till up the garden in the back yard. I am also looking at running it along the fence line on the side yard to get more planting area.


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## Krazybob613 (Apr 19, 2009)

I own one - purchased new around 1982 and Yes it is built like a tank and Yes it will bust through anything as long as you are strong enough to control it!

The best thing about them is that they are built heavy and built of common parts - on the rare occasion that a repair is needed a trip to the hardware store or auto parts store will easily locate the pieces needed. The engine is an 8HP Tecumseh and when it fails they are as easy to find as fleas on a deer! The belt drive system is simple and easy to maintain but you will want to have spare belts on hand at all times - they do wear a bit faster than you might expect, especially the one running from the jack shaft down to the transmission, I think that is due the the dirt it is exposed to. If the engine runs and the transmission operates in all gears then it is certainly worth $100 to buy.

I have discovered that when breaking heavy or hard packed soil that the best method is to remove the rear tine shield and drag spike completely (if they are still there) and to break ground in Reverse! This will cause the tiller to tend to dig in instead of try to run over the top of the packed soil and it also does a fantastic job of pulling rocks up to the surface making them easy to remove from your garden plot.

Bob


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## dean2575 (Apr 19, 2009)

My dad bought one many years ago and lost the repair manual. We need the tine shaft bearings for it. I don't have a clue where to get them. Can anyone help me? If anyone would even have a part number for the bearing that would be a start. Thanks.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Any good bearing shop such as Industrial Bearing and Transmissions, IBT for short.

http://www.ibtinc.com/ Take yours in and they will match it.


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## MoHardy (May 24, 2009)

I just traded for a roto hoe and am looking forward to using it. It has an 8hp Tecumseh engine that I have a 12 volt starter that will fit it. I haqve been repairing small equipment for over 30+ years and I see no reason that this tiller would not be an asset to a home gardener.
The design is very easy to maintain, and parts are conventional that require no oem or manufacturer specific to keep this running. It is very heavy for a small area but I think any gardner would do well with one and could trade the use of it for in kind with another.
I will have mine up and running very soon and would be glad to answer any questions needed, any one needing parts or info just e-mail me and I will answer as soon as I can, my roto hoe even has a carter carburator and as long as I have been repairing small engines I can never recall seeing that type carb on a small engine...
Mo


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

Before you go paying a lot to either rebuild a Tecumseh Carb or worse yet have someone else rebuild it, you can buy a new one for about $80 through this company:

http://www.psep.biz/index.htm

I bought a new one for my Troy-Bilt and it took all of 17 minutes and some fresh gas to have the tiller up and running. Repair shop wanted $172 for the job.


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## nancy237 (May 29, 2008)

bajiay said:


> Just type in the brand and model number on the net and see what comes up. That is what I do for everything.


Be prepared for all types of sites if you are googleing "roto-hoe" LOL

I learned the hard way when my son was doing a book report on beavers


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

I have one of these tillers.... the problem is the carb on the eninge... there are some jets in it that are built in and can not be replaced.... before you work a year on it like I did, go out and buy a new carb.... or better yet, if you can find one cheap enough, a different brand engine (Lawsons and Clintons are just as bad). I worked and worked on mine. The enigne would run, but bog down under load and was always hard to get started. I found out later that there were built in jets beside the replaceable jets, and that the only solution was a new carb.

The belt drive is sort of flunky.... and it takes a football field to turn one around, but you can often find them for a great price, mainly because of engine problems.

Oh yeah. When I bought mine the belts were acturally hooked to the "clutch" idler backwards.


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## MoHardy (May 24, 2009)

Well the best part about my roto, the engine is Tecumseh but it has a Carter carburetor. The company that sold the 'hoe's still in existence and the mechanic an I were laughing about how either one of us has ever seen a 
carter carb on a Tecumseh eng......

Of course the tech was maybe 25....I am 57 and have been working on Tecumseh's longer than he has been alive....

But the thing with the Tecumseh's is that many of there carb's are interchangeable as they are governed engines and only need moderate amounts of fuel on a regular stream. Like a nascar race car on a restricter plat raceway...takes a little time to get up to speed but once it is there...away we go.......

But a Carter carb is not a standard carb for a Tecumseh so this should be interesting,,,and after all I will be installing an electric starter to make things way easy...I am an old guy ...lol:goodjob:


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## Shawn (Apr 2, 2008)

o&itw what is the right way for the belt? I put the new motor on Friday, and reinstalled the belt the way it came off. Right now it is going under the idler.

I was hoping to get everything tilled today while the turkey is smoking after the parade and service at Veteran's Park in town.


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