Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

I drained the hydraulic oil two weeks ago. The cylinders were retracted to push as much oil back to the tank. The backhoe boom is fully extended in the air with a piece of channel under it to support it. Since the tractor is up with jackstands supporting it, I thought it would be a good time to take a good look under it. I knew the banana control plate was a problem last summer, so that was a good place to start. I could see there was a bit of wear on the plate and the one control rod had a lot of play it it. I removed the control plate and the rod with ball socket that goes to the valve body spool. The lbh has a cylinder under it to lift a mowing deck. Who would ever mow their lawn with a lbh. Since the control rod to lift the cylinder has never been used I switched it with the one that controls the movement of the tractor. Since the control plate didn’t look to bad for wear I TIG welded up the wear areas and the ground the welds down. Painted it up and now it’s ready to reinstall. Harry

Looks good @Harry ! I’m sure you’ll notice the difference. I was able to do similar repairs to my 648 and it helped a lot!

That’s why I say I’m cheap. Being a maintenance welder for 30 years it’s what I do. I can’t always fix something but when I can I do. I’ll spend that money on a new hydraulic hose or paint maybe. Harry

Harry wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:15 pm That’s why I say I’m cheap. Being a maintenance welder for 30 years it’s what I do. I can’t always fix something but when I can I do. I’ll spend that money on a new hydraulic hose or paint maybe. Harry

I suppose tig welding is better for finer weld fixes like this one. Nicely done @Harry , it shows you've done welding for that many years. If I did that it would look quite different.

A few Mig welds would work fine too. It all grinds down the same. I just use the Tig because I have it available. Harry

Still cleaning up the 644, the closer I look the more I see. PO had hoe attachment pins held on by heavy wire. They didn’t come loose I just didn’t like the way it looked. They were replaced with big cotter pins. I had to remove the rear wheels to get some of the wire removed. I noticed dirt and grease on top of drive motor. Cleaned it out and saw motor mounting bolt out and laying on top of motor. Tight area to screw it back in lock tight on threads. The other bolts were tight. The front of the tractor had oil film every where, hydraulic oil leaking on oil cooler connection. Since oil is drained a good time to remove oil tank and cooler. Cooler was plugged with dirt and oil and fan was missing three blades. Cleaned cooler in cleaning tank then carefully straightened bent fins. Fan was old and brittle, had a new one on shelf. With all that it probably was not cooling the hydraulic oil at all. This morning installed the tank cooler and new hose. When I buy hose I usually get a piece a foot longer than I think I need so I had some hose in a drawer from the 646 oil filter project. I’m getting anxious to get this down off the jackstands because I want to check the valve settings and timing on the Kohler 321 before I can say it’s ready for use. Harry

That's quite something to find, a bolt that's almost gone and the cooler all plugged. I bet it feels good once you get each of these issues fixed, one at a time!

As you can see from pics I installed the oil cooler with new hoses and clamps. Oil tank was also cleaned and remounted. Oil filled in tank and checked for leaks, found none. Greased all zerk fittings on the hoe and the loader arms and bucket. I noticed that there were no zerks on loader arms where it connects to the tower. Support rod for loader arms is slightly bent. That’s another project down the road. I redid the one on my 646 which was an extensive welding and machining project. It took me almost a week to complete it. I take my time being retired now. Tomorrow I hope to change the engine oil and check valve adjustment and timing. By the time I complete the 644 it will be time to check over the 646 and make sure it’s ready for discing the garden. That will be another posting. Harry

Great job @Harry ! You made some good finds and repairs. That tractor is going to be ready to get some work done when the weather breaks!

I don't know how you cleaned the cooler so well, looks like new. The old chipped fans are a sore view on my machines. The new fan looks real nice @Harry .