Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Nice fixing, soon you'll have a fleet of Case tractors running around!

More progress with Maxine... She can see in the dark now!
It's part of the rewiring process, The original plastic lenses had melted and I had been debating the replacement options for a while... I settled on these 6" LED Combo spot /flood lights. They had been mentioned on a FB group or a forum somewhere and I decided to give them a try. The assembly is quite thin, and was perfect for mounting behind the grill. The lens dimension was pretty close to stock, but the back of the housing was too large to fit in the existing opening - Yes, that meant I got to play with cardboard and practice my CAD skills and you get a quick visit to the basement workshop I measured up the reflector section of the lamps and decided to widen the openings by 3/16" on each side, hopefully enough that I wouldn't be blocking any of the light when they were on... and if things didn't work out the original lamp assemblies would still fit. and they looked pretty good - not perfectly square (but that can be tweaked later when I do a proper restoration) The wiring was run down the right front corner of the grill
And used a weatherproof Deutsch connector at the bottom corner so it would be easy to disconnect if I had to remove the hood (and I will, I found a couple of cracks that will need welding eventually) I also added a 2nd connector so that I could add additional lights (possibly magnetic mount)
The wiring is zip tied to one of the hydraulic hoses running back from the cooler assembly - We'll see how it works when it has been running for a while - There are also some noticeable grooves rubbed into the cooler hoses - that's yet another job on the to-do list I can't wait to see them in the dark

Nice installation, outcome looks great. I like how you ran the wires down the side because with the hood closed there's not much room between the cooling fins and the grill. Thanks for sharing with the pics.

Nicely done, they look great! I know you’ll be thrilled with them at night. I’ve got the same melted lens situation on the 648 I may have to look into this at some point.

I got those original plastic lenses at, I Save Tractors, for my Case 446. I then put LED bulbs in the original sockets.

Gerry, you should make a trip to NS. There’s a deal there waiting for you.

Noel

Thanks Noel... I'll stop by and say hello when we are on the east coast again, I can imagine what that Tracker looks like underneath. They rust pretty quickly once they start... would have some issues if I brought another one home -

Looks good Gerry . Just make sure the muffler shields are good . Most LED modals like that don't like heat and the circuit will shut down if get to hot .

Gerry thanks for the post on the lights and the Amazon pic. I've been procrastinating on changing the old lights on my 400 series GT's. Harry

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 7:32 am Looks good Gerry . Just make sure the muffler shields are good . Most LED modals like that don't like heat and the circuit will shut down if get to hot .

Thanks for the reminder about LED's and heat - Fortunately Maxine's muffler shield is in good shape, although there may be a missing shield on the left side - over the exhaust pipe where it exits the head - That one is gone.

The heat issue was one of my hesitations before going this route. I've done aftermarket LED floodlight installs on forklifts at work. They always had lots of cooling fins on sturdy aluminum housings and the lights were mounted out in the open with good airflow. But that style of light just didn't look right bolted on the front - I wanted something that looked a little more "updated but still stock" look These lights have a super thin plastic housing, and not much in the way of cooling fins - That's why I was being overly cautious about not making the holes in the grill too big. If it doesn't workout it will be easy to put the old lamp assemblies back in place and just buy new lenses for them.
I also put a fuse on the lighting circuit to prevent blowing out the main fuse if there is an issue with the LED's or a short in that harness going up to the lights. I also ran a dedicated ground wire in the light harness, it's connected to one of the bolts for the cooler support.

Battery hold down... It's been really warm and sunny the last few days here so I've been spending a little more time working in the BigSky Shop™ Was getting ready to button up Maxine and kick her out of the tent garage and I remembered she didn't have a hold down for the battery - in fact all of my 3 Case/Ingersoll tractors have loose batteries just hanging out - waiting for a big bump to see if they can hit the underside of the hood.

I found some misc brackets in my Dad's collection of treasures lately and figured with a little modification they would look like factory original parts... Finished one for Maxine yesterday, and I'm making a 2nd for Max today...
If anyone needs a hold down, I've got enough material to make a couple more...