Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Picked up this old wheel horse today, mainly because it was not far from me and it's pretty complete . Belonged to a fellow who passed away in an accident last fall and his wife was cleaning things up. It will run if I keep squirting carb cleaner into the throat of the carb so I'll take the carb off and have a look. The throttle cable is not the original one. I'm not sure what the purpose of that angle iron standing frame is for. Just trying to figure out what model it is as the decals are gone. It has a 10 hp Kohler which I'm not sure if it's the original engine or not and a 3 speed tranny.

Looks like a nice tractor! The only reason I've only got Case garden tractors is because I like the idea of interchanging attachments among them. Otherwise there were some wheel horse tractors for sale around here that I was definitely tempted by. It'll be interesting whatever you find out about it!

I was doing some research. Assuming the 10 HP Kohler is original, I believe it is either a 1055 or 1056. But I'm certainly not a Wheel Horse expert!

Original Wheel horse's like that have a huge following in North America . Most of the GTs of that erra were built to last . Each had there own positives and negative on how they worked . Be interesting to see what you can digg up on it .

The angle iron's CURRENT purpose is to hold the blade in the air.


I"m guessing its original purpose was to be a light bar, for plowing snow in dark conditions.

Just a guess.

Bob

I tied the rope on the blade to hold it up while loading because the bar that goes from the blades frame to the tractor lift is missing. The fellow's wife didn't know where it was.

The engine in the old Wheel Horse was smoking pretty good and just not running right so I pulled the engine and tore it apart. Discovered a cracked piston skirt caused from a crack in the bottom of the cylinder and kind of a bulge so something smacked the bottom of it, most likely a connecting rod. The piston is .020" over so it has been apart. So gotta replace the engine. I have a Kohler K341 16 horse in a shed so may give that a go.

Too bad! Is the repower fairly uncomplicated?

I 'm not sure how difficult it will be but I don't think it should be too bad. Apparently all the K series blocks from 10 horse through 16 are the same dimensionally so bolting in shouldn't be a problem. The biggest issue might be the pto as there were variations in length and diameter of the pto shaft portion depending on what the engine went into. I'm not out at the tractor to check that right now. However, the 16 horse I have has a double pulley on the pto end already. The set up may work as it is for powering the tractor if the pto from the 10 horse won't fit. I don't really need a pto on this tractor anyhow as I have no pto driven attachments for it.

Wish I had a k341. I like the Kohlers and have only up to k321.

Was out at the cabin so had a look at the Kohler K341. It will be a drop in. The pto shaft portion is the same length and diameter. Took the head and oil pan off the K341. Decided to pop the piston out. Looks like this engine has seen very little use. It is still standard and everything looks to be in very good shape. No scratches or scuffing to the cylinder walls and the valves and seats are very nice. So I will paint the engine red and throw in a set of rings. This engine has the balance gears and from what I've read most say to leave them out on reassembly so still have to decide on that.

Just a question out there to any one maybe reading this. On this old Wheel Horse, the engine is bolted directly to the angle iron frame. Would it be an idea to put a piece of inner tube between the engine and frame to possibly dampen vibration? Inner tube shouldn't create a height problem when tightened down. Or not necessary?

Maybe one of the guys with more knowledge will jump In as I can only speak in general terms on this. I see no reason not to try it, but I think inner tube will be to thin to notice a difference once you tighten the bolts. In my experience dampeners are made of pretty thick rubber.

I assume your tractor was solid mount originally. I have one tractor that I have to perform bolt checks on as routine maintenance. For whatever reason it has the right, or wrong, vibration that loosens bots. Others that are built the same way have no issues.

Before Jeff posted I had similar thoughts, that it's not enough to make a difference. The 244 and all the 444s I got have the engines mounted on the round rubber dampeners. My 644 has a k321 from a John Deere, and the PO bolted it right on the frame with several steel plate squares stacked as distancers. Not sure I can feel the difference in vibration.

puttputt wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:33 pm Just a question out there to any one maybe reading this. On this old Wheel Horse, the engine is bolted directly to the angle iron frame. Would it be an idea to put a piece of inner tube between the engine and frame to possibly dampen vibration? Inner tube shouldn't create a height problem when tightened down. Or not necessary?

There were many back in that era that were hard bolted , that is why they had balance shafts in them . But it has been well documented about the balance gears failing . But i beleave that was mainly due to high shock loads on the crank shaft . Inner tube will not stand up to the heat , oil and pressure . It will just cause a loose condition . If you want an inexpensive rubber mount , get the swab kits from an older model truck like this . Comes with cupped washers and a free bolt for future projects.

Thanks for the comments. After some thought, I will likely just mount it directly to the frame as it was originally. There were/are many of these old Wheel Horses out there still in use that are mounted that way so for the amount of use it will see with me I will stick with mounting it directly. If bolts come loose fairly easily maybe I'll look into installing thicker mounts.

Worked on the Wheel Horse a bit last weekend. Took the block to a retired mechanic I used to work with. He has a valve grinder. He cleaned up the valves and seats and deglazed the cylinder. He said it took nothing to clean it up. I painted the block and the tins. So I'm waiting on a gasket set and rings. I had a shifter boot ordered from ebay but it was lost somewhere through the global shipping program. So I have to re-order from somewhere else.

Hard to find someone to do that nearby, and that would do it at a decent price. I'm fortunate to go to Toronto sometimes where one member of our forum has a full set of tools to do it and at a decent price. The grinding of the crankshaft is another matter altogether

Eugen wrote: ↑Wed Sep 07, 2022 9:27 pm Hard to find someone to do that nearby, and that would do it at a decent price. I'm fortunate to go to Toronto sometimes where one member of our forum has a full set of tools to do it and at a decent price. The grinding of the crankshaft is another matter altogether

Yeah, hard to find someone with a valve grinding set up today that's close. The price to have the valves and seats cleaned up and cylinder honed was cheap---FREE!!! Doesn't get any cheaper than that. And the fellow I took it to was a very good mechanic in his day and still is. He has rebuilt a number of vintage John Deere tractors and stationary engines etc as a hobby.

I got lucky and bought an old Black and Decker valve grinder not far from here, but I got nothing to cut valve seats. Those sets are pricey $$$

Eugen wrote: ↑Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:00 pm I got lucky and bought an old Black and Decker valve grinder not far from here, but I got nothing to cut valve seats. Those sets are pricey $$$

@Eugen I have a seat cutter.