Case 644 for sale
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:43 pm
So, This tractor is well vetted as I never really felt there was not something that I could/should fix. I am asking $3,500. I know I have more than that into it. But, you have to give up some of that because you get to use it.
In the pictures, there will be a rear weight box and that is not included. It is only still on there because I still use it. It had a 3-point at one time. I had 29-12.50x15 tires and spacers on it. And the pile of parts that were all hand loaded and turned into a tractor.
These pictures are all the pictures I have of the 644 from 2015 when I picked it up to the present.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hu2bzMx6aMbwhKye6
If you have sharp eyes you will see the bucket has a bolt-on option. I made a cut-toothed bar to bolt to the bucket for when I need to scratch the ground or have a sharp edge to cut with. That is included.
So, I have a 644 and I have quite literally touched every part of it. When I got it, it was already disassembled and ready to be completely overhauled. And then it sat in that state for years. Changed hands a couple of times. And then I got it.
This was before I was known as the Hemlock Case Guy. I was still green. I had never even seen a 600 series Case in person before. So, I downloaded a copy of the parts manual and that was my only way to know what goes where and what else goes in places that I could not find in my various piles of parts.
I got it back together. I got it running and operating. I got to find a whole bunch of other things that needed to be fixed. Lucky for me, casecoltingersoll.com was still filled with all the OG members and I had someplace to go to ask questions. I sure needed them when I found most of my cylinders were leaking. Those things are not easy to do when you do not know enough to know how much you do not know. But, at least I knew that much. It is a lot worse when you do not know how much you do not know.
The 644 came from one of the Carolinas and I suspect near the ocean. The whole thing was surface rusted. But no rust on things like the cylinder shafts. It took a lot of metal preparation and a good primer paint. I thought I picked a good top coat. But, it has faded and flaked off over the years. The primer is still good and not really any rust.
After the painting came the time to assemble the many pieces and check for the operational status of the various operations. Some I was able to find and fix the first time through and many came after it was all operational. The Kohler 321 it came with ran fine and smoked a little. It had a starter generator. I was able to source an overhauled stator 321 from a golf course maintenance shop. It was like this as I went. The engine was now zero hours with a fresh overhaul.
I did discover after many years that the Kohler vibrations caused a chain of events that had me scratching my head. I had a bad oil leak at the suction hose area of the oil tank. When I removed the oil tank I found that the area of the tank all around the nipple was cracked. I looked at it and thought that it has to be something moving to do that. But, I did not see how that was even possible. So, I had the tank brazed and soldered since a used one was nowhere to be found. Soon after that, I was losing power on the hydraulics. I looked in the oil tank and saw very foamed oil. It is sucking air. The pump inlet was just sitting in the hole of the pump. It was no longer press fitted. I needed at least a new pump piece that included that exact same nipple because I had no room for even a 1/4" longer pump to fit. I eventually sourced that. But, why did that happen and the tank cracking was never given a why? I am a why person to my core. What I figured out was that a single banger creates so much vibration that the tank support being up from like a lone stand was vibrating. That vibration was moving the oil tank enough to crack the tank and pull out the pump nipple. I installed a very basic brace to the tractor frame from the tank support and that whole ordeal is now behind me and I finally got my why.
In between all this was the banana plate thing that takes way more parts than just that plate to get it right. O-rings on the bucket control that only did not leak for about a year. a small leak in the oil tank, again. I just leave those now at this point. It is a 1974 with a gazillion hours on it. I even got to swap out the rear-end.
The last things I had to fix are now solved. This engine just did not want to start when it was winter. It just would not crank fast enough. And then it would get hot in the summer and shut down. But, then it would run fine when cooled down. I found that the timing was way of. Every time I tried to tighten the screw on the points it was changing the points gap. Fixed that and so far I have run it for hours without it getting too hot. Then I replaced the battery with an AGM high-cranking amps battery and it spins much faster when it is cold outside now. Lead acid batteries have gone way up in price and the AGM batteries have stayed about the same price. So, I picked the better battery. It was not made by optima but it uses the same advanced design for a superior battery.
In the pictures, there will be a rear weight box and that is not included. It is only still on there because I still use it. It had a 3-point at one time. I had 29-12.50x15 tires and spacers on it. And the pile of parts that were all hand loaded and turned into a tractor.
These pictures are all the pictures I have of the 644 from 2015 when I picked it up to the present.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hu2bzMx6aMbwhKye6
If you have sharp eyes you will see the bucket has a bolt-on option. I made a cut-toothed bar to bolt to the bucket for when I need to scratch the ground or have a sharp edge to cut with. That is included.
So, I have a 644 and I have quite literally touched every part of it. When I got it, it was already disassembled and ready to be completely overhauled. And then it sat in that state for years. Changed hands a couple of times. And then I got it.
This was before I was known as the Hemlock Case Guy. I was still green. I had never even seen a 600 series Case in person before. So, I downloaded a copy of the parts manual and that was my only way to know what goes where and what else goes in places that I could not find in my various piles of parts.
I got it back together. I got it running and operating. I got to find a whole bunch of other things that needed to be fixed. Lucky for me, casecoltingersoll.com was still filled with all the OG members and I had someplace to go to ask questions. I sure needed them when I found most of my cylinders were leaking. Those things are not easy to do when you do not know enough to know how much you do not know. But, at least I knew that much. It is a lot worse when you do not know how much you do not know.
The 644 came from one of the Carolinas and I suspect near the ocean. The whole thing was surface rusted. But no rust on things like the cylinder shafts. It took a lot of metal preparation and a good primer paint. I thought I picked a good top coat. But, it has faded and flaked off over the years. The primer is still good and not really any rust.
After the painting came the time to assemble the many pieces and check for the operational status of the various operations. Some I was able to find and fix the first time through and many came after it was all operational. The Kohler 321 it came with ran fine and smoked a little. It had a starter generator. I was able to source an overhauled stator 321 from a golf course maintenance shop. It was like this as I went. The engine was now zero hours with a fresh overhaul.
I did discover after many years that the Kohler vibrations caused a chain of events that had me scratching my head. I had a bad oil leak at the suction hose area of the oil tank. When I removed the oil tank I found that the area of the tank all around the nipple was cracked. I looked at it and thought that it has to be something moving to do that. But, I did not see how that was even possible. So, I had the tank brazed and soldered since a used one was nowhere to be found. Soon after that, I was losing power on the hydraulics. I looked in the oil tank and saw very foamed oil. It is sucking air. The pump inlet was just sitting in the hole of the pump. It was no longer press fitted. I needed at least a new pump piece that included that exact same nipple because I had no room for even a 1/4" longer pump to fit. I eventually sourced that. But, why did that happen and the tank cracking was never given a why? I am a why person to my core. What I figured out was that a single banger creates so much vibration that the tank support being up from like a lone stand was vibrating. That vibration was moving the oil tank enough to crack the tank and pull out the pump nipple. I installed a very basic brace to the tractor frame from the tank support and that whole ordeal is now behind me and I finally got my why.
In between all this was the banana plate thing that takes way more parts than just that plate to get it right. O-rings on the bucket control that only did not leak for about a year. a small leak in the oil tank, again. I just leave those now at this point. It is a 1974 with a gazillion hours on it. I even got to swap out the rear-end.
The last things I had to fix are now solved. This engine just did not want to start when it was winter. It just would not crank fast enough. And then it would get hot in the summer and shut down. But, then it would run fine when cooled down. I found that the timing was way of. Every time I tried to tighten the screw on the points it was changing the points gap. Fixed that and so far I have run it for hours without it getting too hot. Then I replaced the battery with an AGM high-cranking amps battery and it spins much faster when it is cold outside now. Lead acid batteries have gone way up in price and the AGM batteries have stayed about the same price. So, I picked the better battery. It was not made by optima but it uses the same advanced design for a superior battery.