Auction 446. The work begins.

[Eugen]

It'll be interesting to see how well it works. I don't see why it shouldn't. What do you call rock? Gravel? Here most people without a paved driveway use gravel. I got gravel too. I would not use the snowcaster until the ground is well frozen and I can let it float. Some people put a piece of pipe on the cutting edge..

[Timj]

I don't know if anybody here has done it but have seen where others have split a piece of 1 1/4" schedule 80 PVC pipe the long way and slid it over the cutting edge to save on digging into the gravel. Some have done metal pipe.

[JSinMO]

@Eugen Yes it’s gravel. I recently had a load spread on the driveway, I’d hate to push half of it into a snow pile.

I thought about a pipe one the cutting edge like you and @Timj said. I see there is a least 1 company out there that makes a “shoe” to fit a loader bucket to keep it from digging in. Since I had these pieces of steel I’d thought I’d try it. Of course it will be much less refined, but it should work the same. If it doesn’t work I’ll stick a piece of pipe on it!

[propane1]

I put my skid shoes down quite a bit. That seems to help. Most of my trouble is when the ground is not froze. Like at this time of year and spring when things are thawing out. I use rock dust on our drive ways. Think some call it pea gravel. It’s nice and small. Packs hard. Is smooth. Doesn’t hurt the snow thrower or mowing deck as much as that 3/4 driveway gravel. And both are the same price.

There now, a gravel ramble. Hehe.

Noel

[JSinMO]

I put my skid shoes down quite a bit. That seems to help. Most of my trouble is when the ground is not froze. Like at this time of year and spring when things are thawing out. I use rock dust on our drive ways. Think some call it pea gravel. It’s nice and small. Packs hard. Is smooth. Doesn’t hurt the snow thrower or mowing deck as much as that 3/4 driveway gravel. And both are the same price.

There now, a gravel ramble. Hehe.

Noel

I have the same trouble all winter with freeze and thaw cycles. Never know what you’ll get here. Some winter are bitter, some are mild, some are both!

[JSinMO]

Today I was going to bring the tractor back into the shop. Went to get it turned the key and it wouldn’t start! Choke, no choke, more throttle, less throttle didn’t matter. It would just sputter and die. The temperature was around 32F and the thought jumped into my head, “ this isn’t going to be one that doesn’t like to start in the winter is it?”
I fiddled around with it a little more then another thought came to me, “Life is hard, but it’s a lot harder if you’re stupid”. You know, as great as these Case tractors are they just refuse to run without fuel!

Yup, a little gas in the tank and it fires right up!

So back to the plan. Todays goal was to check the rear end and work on snow skies for the blade.
Tear down went easy and I think it’s safe to say nobody has been in here for a long time.

It’s always a fingers crossed moment when I open something like this up!

Hey it looks good! Bolts are tight, no broken teeth, everything moved well, no water in the oil. So it was a drain, clean out the gunk in the bottom, and refill.
I probably didn’t need to open that up, but if I hadn’t it would alway be in the back of my mind wondering if it was good to go, or ready to break.

With the back end reassembled, time to move on to the blade. Here’s what I came up with to keep the blade from digging into my gravel.

I realize it’s poorly make with crappy welds, but I say it’s FUBAR. Which of course means Formed Using the Best Available Resources! In other words I made them with junk I had laying around.
I drove around with the blade down for a bit and it seems to work fine. Didn’t pick up any gravel. We’ll see how it does when we’re actually pushing snow!

If it doesn’t work well, then I’ll take them off and put a piece of pipe on it!

[Eugen]

When working with old tractors it's normal to think of all kind of problems if it doesn't start, but it also never hurts to check if there's enough gas.


Good idea to get that transmission open. Now you know for sure it's good. It haven't done this yet on any of my tractors, but it's crossed my mind. I'm curious, are you reusing the gasket for the cover? This was a concern for me, as it can be a way for the water to get in.

About the blade shoes, I'm thinking that if you haven't picked gravel now I don't see a reason for it to happen when it snows. But one thing, how does it work if you angle the blade?

[propane1]

As I started reading the first paragraph, I was thinking it might be out of gas. Don’t worry, I’ve done it too Jeff. Nice fix on the plow. But as Eugen mentioned about angling the blade, you might want to use round disks on there when angling the blade. But maybe you don’t angle the blade when plowing snow.

Noel

[propane1]

This is what we use on the MF 14 plow tractor to keep the blade up of the ground a bit Jeff. They are for snow plows, plow skid shoes. So being round you can angle the blade what ever way you want and they work. Right now they are in non winter duty. We well put them in the other way for snow duty.

Noel

[JSinMO]

When working with old tractors it's normal to think of all kind of problems if it doesn't start, but it also never hurts to check if there's enough gas.


Good idea to get that transmission open. Now you know for sure it's good. It haven't done this yet on any of my tractors, but it's crossed my mind. I'm curious, are you reusing the gasket for the cover? This was a concern for me, as it can be a way for the water to get in.

About the blade shoes, I'm thinking that if you haven't picked gravel now I don't see a reason for it to happen when it snows. But one thing, how does it work if you angle the blade?

Your right it’s just funny that my mind went right to problems instead of check the gas!


On the transmission cover, since it’s not sealing pressure in, just keeping water out, I don’t get to worried about it. I will reuse them depending on condition. The gasket on the 648 was shot so I pitched and went with gasket maker. On this 446 the gasket looked great not broken or crumbly so it got cleaned up and reused.

I don’t know what the blade will do when angled. Let’s find out!

Well it works pretty good with the blade straight, but as you and Noel pointed out, it’s not so happy at an angle.
I saw a similar setup elsewhere and thought I’d try it. I’m calling it a partial success.
@Propane57 the blade came with round feet but I think there smaller than the one you have. They tent to not float but dig into the gravel. Maybe if they had bigger pads?
I have a piece of PVC I might try that over the cutting edge instead