Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

I bought this utility blade a few years ago and put it in the corner. I dug it out last week and started cleaning it up. A lot of wire brushing some sanding, a little bit of welding and some hammering with a BFH. There were some egged out holes and wear on a few pins. A few tig welds and some filing got it back in working order. Today did some painting and it should be ready to assemble it. Plans are to install on a 444 with rear tire chains and 200 lbs of wheel weights. Pics of completion to come. Harry

Very nice Harry - all of those repairs I need to do to my blades lol. With tire chains and weights on my 444 it's quite the snow plowing machine. Nice thing about pushing snow is that your new paint will stay nicer longer

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Looking like a new one! Nice job Harry!

Very nice work @Harry !

The cutting edge was toast. So I have to do some work making a new one. The shoes looked to be in relatively good condition except for the right one is bent. Heavy 1/2” bar stock, someone must of hit something hard to bend it. Nothing a little heat and a BFH on the anvil can’t fix. I figure a lot of snow use the 446 with snow caster. A little snow use the 444 with utility blade. No snow work on another project in the shop. I’ll tale the last option everytime. Harry

Looks great @Harry . But how do you paint this time of year without getting over spray all over everything in your shop ?

I use Case quality primer and paint which I brush on. Rusty area are wire brushed to remove scale then painted with Rustoleum rust reformer before primer. All paint was brushed on using a cheap dollar store brush. I have found with Case paint the brush marks disappear in the drying process. If it was a hood or fenders I would spray it. All attachments are brush painted. Harry

Harry wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 7:27 am I use Case quality primer and paint which I brush on. Rusty area are wire brushed to remove scale then painted with Rustoleum rust reformer before primer. All paint was brushed on using a cheap dollar store brush. I have found with Case paint the brush marks disappear in the drying process. If it was a hood or fenders I would spray it. All attachments are brush painted. Harry

Harry , if that is brushed on . You must have been Rembrant in a previous life .

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 1:20 pm

Harry wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 7:27 am I use Case quality primer and paint which I brush on. Rusty area are wire brushed to remove scale then painted with Rustoleum rust reformer before primer. All paint was brushed on using a cheap dollar store brush. I have found with Case paint the brush marks disappear in the drying process. If it was a hood or fenders I would spray it. All attachments are brush painted. Harry

Harry , if that is brushed on . You must have been Rembrant in a previous life .

It certainly not my painting ability.
I would say preparation has a lot to do with the finished product, but you can’t beat great quality paint. It’s more money but the end product is worth it. Harry

Harry wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 1:07 pm I would say preparation has a lot to do with the finished product, but you can’t beat great quality paint. It’s more money but the end product is worth it.

Paint quality makes a massive difference. I have to relearn this periodically. Every time I go to Sherwin Williams to buy the industrial paints I like, I have to sit down when they give me the price. It's always tempting to go to the big box store, but when I do, I just end up angry at the crap quality, and I'm back at SW to fix the error of my cheap ways.

I am slowly making progress on the blade. Today I straightened the one skid that was bent. I noticed the bottom of both skids were very worn. So I first built up the bottoms with low carbon wire by tig welding stringer beads across the surface. Then I welded stringer beads using a hard surfacing rod that is for abrasion. The surfacing electrodes were for stick welding, so I took a hammer and knocked off the flux. Then used them with the tig welder. Painted them which are drying by my wood furnace. Should be ready to bolt on tomorrow and mount the blade on the 444. These should last my lifetime. Harry

Sounds like that blade did a lot of work before you got it. I’m glad you’re able to get it back in shape. It’s about ready to go push some snow!

Great work Harry!

I’m not sure who used it. I purchased it from someone who bought it for his 448 and never put it on. He was selling GT also because he purchased a new Kubota. Harry

Almost ready to mount on the 444. Harry

Harry, not sure if you have selected a cutting edge yet, or indeed what you final use will be but a few months ago I bought on Ebay a plastic edge, I think it was 54 inches, a couple inches or so wide for a blade and am reworking it to use on one of my snowblowers. Comes as just a strip with no holes so could/can be used as any cutting edge.

I wired up a ammeter on the 444 today. I never liked the generator light. I forgot to take a pic of it. Checked over the wiring since the battery was out. Buttoned it all up and the K321 fired right up with a shot of starting fluid. Then decided to attached the utility blade. All went well until the lift arm was MIA. I had it in my hand two weeks ago when I painted the blade. I walked around the shop looking everywhere I thought I may have put it. I hope it comes out from hiding soon. Oh well on to the next project, it will show up sometime. Harry

Looks great @Harry! Don’t feel alone, I do that all the time. Just this morning I sat one of my gloves down and it magically disappeared! Phone, keys, nuts and bolts, whatever else I set down seems to disappear before my eyes! When I do find it back it usually instantly remember putting it there!

@Harry The one benefit to forgetting is the fitness program it provides. I get more exercise walking around my shop /house trying to remember where I put something down or what I was suppose to be doing than I ever did at a gym .

Just start looking for something else, you'll find it right away. Then good luck with what else you are looking for.

I told my wife about not being able to find the lift arm. So we go to the shop and look together for thirty minutes. No where in sight so she heads for the door to go in the house. Suddenly she shouts “ found it.” It was on the top of my tool cabinet. I must if walked by it many times and even removed tools from the box. There it was hiding in plain sight, go figure. Harry

My theory is that gremlins hide them. Then they put them in plain sight, just to play with our minds.

Hiding things is what all those "Elf on a shelf" are doing the other 11 months of the year .

Here are some pics of the upgrades I did. No more generator light. Maybe I can use it for something else, anf ideas? It needed a new battery too. Harry

Maybe a Low gas indicator?

@Harry 350CCA should spin the engine on the coldest of days. That battery should last a long time.

The die Hard is the Batteries I get from my local Car Quest , good batteries . As for the light , oil pressure switch . That is what I run on the 446 blower tractor .

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 6:38 am The die Hard is the Batteries I get from my local Car Quest , good batteries . As for the light , oil pressure switch . That is what I run on the 446 blower tractor .

David oil pressure light, I like that idea. I never seen one on a Kohler. Harry

Harry wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 8:48 am

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 6:38 am The die Hard is the Batteries I get from my local Car Quest , good batteries . As for the light , oil pressure switch . That is what I run on the 446 blower tractor .

David oil pressure light, I like that idea. I never seen one on a Kohler. Harry

I was thinking you working on your onan powered tractor . But a low oil lever switch because it is splash would be trick , but might be more pita to do than it is worth . Pto engaged is an another .

The 444 has a Kohler in it. The 446 a Onan. I never gave the splash oil system a thought. I can always not use the light. Harry

I've got a 350CCA battery cranking my 16HP vanguard. I moved my 4 year old 250CCA battery to a generator I had (also 16HP vanguard powered). The 350CCA battery still cranks that little vanguard with authority even as its approaching 4 years old. The extra $15 or so I spent on the battery was well worth it.

Regarding the oil pressure light, I can see it being useful but only if you see it in time. The vanguard engines have an optional oil pressure switch you can wire to ground out the ignition coils shutting down the engine. I think the vanguard manual may list two different oil pressure switches with different trip points. I may still have some notes on the switches. Kids happened and that project never got done. Wiring the switch to the ignition coils and a light for diagnostics is probably a good idea.

I’m adding chains to the rear tires of the 444. I would like to add some wheel weights but only have two 50 lb. Weights. So I fabricated wheel adapter plates to bolt on the doughnut shaped weights. It will only add 100 lbs. but that might be enough. It turned out to be a nice couple of days in the shop doing what I love to do. Working on my Case GT’s. Only have to mount the chains on now. Harry

Nice work Harry! Looks great. The weights fit perfect do you know what they were from?

JSinMO wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 6:37 pm Nice work Harry! Looks great. The weights fit perfect do you know what they were from?

The had on the back of them red tractor company. I figured they were from a walk behind garden tractor. Harry

That worked out well Harry , Looks like hub caps .

As always Harry, great fabrication job!

Put the chains on today. These were chains that came with my 446. They were still in the bag for the last 30 years. I never looked at them until today. They are four link chains and one needed to be shortened up by one cross chain, because it was a little longer than the other. Now on to get the hood prepped for prime and paint. Harry

I got the itch today to try out the 444 with the 54”utility blade, even though the hood is being repainted. It worked terrific and was surprised how fast in low range I could remove snow. I angled it both ways and it was nice. Only problem was it was cold out there with no cab. I guess I should have bundled up better. So maybe I look for a cab which we all know are not easy to find. So maybe I could build one. Harry

Looks good @Harry ! How's the engine on that nice tractor?

That Kohler seems to have a lot of power. After bringing that GT home it sat a few months because I was in the middle of working on the engine of the 646. Finally I got it into the shop and pulled the engine and put it in a table. Took the head off and found a lot of carbon build up. So much the intake valve was stuck open. So decarbon and set the valve lash, new head gasket and torque the head bolts. Carb taken off cleaned it checked float setting and installed with new gasket. I checked the compression but don’t remember at this time what it was. I mowed with this GT a little but then had generator problems. After getting it rebuilt I plowed the gardens with it. It’s been a good runner but like most GT’s that have set awhile you have to shake out the bugs. Harry

Did some more prep on the 444 hood today. Found a couple cracks in sheetmetal. Found one before priming the other after. I lot of work to prep but that’s what required to get a good paint job. Harry