Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

I picked up a Massey Ferguson MF248 mowing deck recently with a mulching kit and mulching blades. Ingersoll made tractors and attachments for MF in the early 90's. The MF248 is basically a red RM48 deck.

The deck is in decent shape for its age. The owner used it for about 7 years and then stored it in the top of his barn for the past 25 years.

I'm just starting to break the deck down and service as needed. The center spindle assembly appears to have some vertical play. Center blade adapter also needs replacing. The mulching blades look a little rough...

I disassembled and started cleaning the spindles today. Somebody previously pressed in the spindle bearings with the inner seals removed and used about a tube of grease between all if the spindles. The grease also leaked out the top sides of the spindles, was flung around the belt area of the deck, mixed with sand and caked on. Good times cleaning this mess up... I'm open to recommendations for cleaning the caked on grease off...

Both spacers on each spindle are good (exceeds the minimum length). I also removed the random bearing shield parts. These were likely from the previous set of bearings.

If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.

dhitching wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:29 am If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.

I've got an Ingersoll 4016. If a Massey collector really wanted this deck I'd think about trading for a decent RM48 deck. I drove 2hrs each way to pick this up specifically for the mulching setup. I did pick other stuff up on the trip.

Spacer lengths:
https://www.casegardentractorparts.com/c2sprmdesp.html
https://www.casegardentractorparts.com/ ... pacer.html

I've got new bearings, blade adapter and wheels on the way.
Front wheels C31500/Stens 210-088/Rotary 6909
Rear 6" wheels C25682/Rotary 6919

Rotary's 1425 page catalog https://www.rotarycorp.com/pages/catalog
Lots of parts for DIY projects.

MattA wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 9:12 pm

dhitching wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:29 am If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.

I've got an Ingersoll 4016. If a Massey collector really wanted this deck I'd think about trading for a decent RM48 deck. I drove 2hrs each way to pick this up specifically for the mulching setup. I did pick other stuff up on the trip.

Only problem that I see is that the 48" mulching blades are no longer available.

Bob

myerslawnandgarden wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 11:16 pm

MattA wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 9:12 pm

dhitching wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:29 am If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.

I've got an Ingersoll 4016. If a Massey collector really wanted this deck I'd think about trading for a decent RM48 deck. I drove 2hrs each way to pick this up specifically for the mulching setup. I did pick other stuff up on the trip.

Only problem that I see is that the 48" mulching blades are no longer available.

Bob

I've got a new MK48-2 kit with blades in the garage. Problem is the mulching blades don't clear my RM48 deck on the left side. Standard blades barely clear the deck. I can post pics... it's like the deck wasn't welded quite right from the factory. My RM48 deck also had 7 broken welds along the front tunnel which I had repaired and welded extra bracing in which is now in the way of the mulching kit. My friend who helped with the welding has since moved out of the area.

The factory reinforced that area on later production decks and came out with a kit to weld into the older decks which we still stock. The MK48-2 will fit with the factory reinforcements, that's the difference between the MK48 and the MK48-2 mulching kits.

Bob

myerslawnandgarden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 30, 2025 11:11 am The factory reinforced that area on later production decks and came out with a kit to weld into the older decks which we still stock. The MK48-2 will fit with the factory reinforcements, that's the difference between the MK48 and the MK48-2 mulching kits.

Bob

I had no idea the factory offered a weld in reinforcement kit.

This is part of the tunnel reinforcement I made on my RM48 deck. It hasn't been welded yet. Similar to the later RM decks.

Very similar to the C42389 factory kit. I guess great minds think alike. I can open a kit and post a picture if anyone is interested.

Bob

Very similar to the C42389 factory kit. I guess great minds think alike. I can open a kit and post a picture if anyone is interested.

Bob

Slow progress due to my schedule lately. I did get the new bearings installed. I'm having trouble with the center spindle housing. It was replaced with a steel housing part number C17866. It's the type with internal snap rings. Anyways I can push the bearings in by hand and pull them out with one finger. When fully assembled I can pull the pulley assembly up and down about 1/8". It's got the bearing spacer and pulley side spacers installed and the length of those parts is good. I've got another pair of aluminum spindle housings and a spare center pulley assembly I can check for dimensions. I also discovered another blade adapter is missing a chunk

I swapped out the steel spindle housing for the best aluminum spindle housing I had laying around. Bearings fit good and tight. That vertical play in the spindle assembly is also gone. I did check the existing pulley assembly shaft length up to the top side spacer against another one I had laying around. The length difference was only a few thousandths of an inch not the 1/8" plus in movement I was seeing with the steel spindle housing. Just realized the aluminum spindle housings I put in has no grease fitting but the other two do. I will get one added.
Getting closer...

I wrapped up the MF248 deck today with the same modified internal belt drive I did on my RM48.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1144&p=22829#p22829
I didn't take many pictures but it's the same thing I did last time. I put the deck on my tractor with the existing RM48 mule drive and leveled the deck. I used it to cut my overgrown lawn. It's been 17 days since the last cut... mostly due to work schedules and mothers day. Parts of my lawn were 12-15" high. The mulching deck did well. In the really deep thick grass I was down to a slow crawl (lack of engine power) and had to run over it again later on. Should work good for weekly mowings.
The modified belt drive works well. I've been running the setup on my RM48 deck for a year now.

myerslawnandgarden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 30, 2025 10:16 pm Very similar to the C42389 factory kit. I guess great minds think alike. I can open a kit and post a picture if anyone is interested.

Bob

Meant to post this a while back. Found this online. C42389 factory kit.

MattA wrote: ↑Wed May 28, 2025 8:50 am

myerslawnandgarden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 30, 2025 10:16 pm Very similar to the C42389 factory kit. I guess great minds think alike. I can open a kit and post a picture if anyone is interested.

Bob

Meant to post this a while back. Found this online. C42389 factory kit.
s-l1600.jpg

Yep, that's it. There was a service bulletin regarding this kit some years back. I think we still may have some in stock at the last price of $44.80.

Bob