C-120 Mystery Part & Engine Mount Question

[Polaris2007 4]

Hello All. I'm just beginning a restoration of a 1977 C-120 8-speed. This will be my first Wheel Horse restoration (but not the last). I have two questions so far. The first one deals with a rusted part that fell out of the tractor while I was tearing it completely apart. I found it laying on the shop floor, and I don't know where it came from. It's shown in the picture with the question marks. Anyone know what it is?? The next question deals with the engine mounting bolts. The two mounting bolt holes on the right hand side of the engine (pulley side) overhang the side of the frame, and consequently have no bolts in them The arrows in the other two pictures point to the holes with no bolts, just as I found them. The engine was attached to the frame with ONLY the forward and rear bolts on the left side! What's the deal here??? Anyone have any opinions?? Thanks in advance to all that offer any comments. ---Jon H.

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,348]

For help posting pictures check this post

:scratchead:

[Polaris2007 4]

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[Polaris2007 4]

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[Polaris2007 4]

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[bell 11]

I believe the piece goes directly in front of the transmission, on top of the frame. A filler panel.

The other 2 bolts should go through the bottom of the oil pan on the right side.

Hope this helps, JB

[bell 11]

By the way....

:scratchead:

[Polaris2007 4]

JB,

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm foreseeing a really friendly bunch of people here, and a wealth of knowledge as well.

I'm still not clear on the right side engine mounting holes. There are only four holes in the lower "pan" of the engine for mounting it to a piece of equipment. ONLY the two on the left side of my engine are located over the frame, and had bolts through the holes. The other two holes (the ones on the right side) are outside the frame.....it looks like the engine is too wide for the frame. As soon as I unbolted the two bolts on the left side, the engine was loose. there was nothing else holding the right side of the engine down. Does anyone else have a C series with the two right side engine mount holes hanging out over the edge of the frame? Could it be the wrong pan on the engine? I'm at a loss here.

--Jon H.

[ol550 830]

There should be two threaded holes in the bottom of the pan with bolts installed from the bottom. :scratchead:

[Polaris2007 4]

Ding!! The light went on!!! That makes perfect sense. What threw me was the fact that the two bolts you are refering to were not present when i removed the engine. I took the two left side ones out, and the engine was loose. I HOPE and PREY that they just vibrated out, and that when I check the bottom of the engine tomorrow, I find just threaded holes, and not sheared off bolts filling the threaded holes. Thanks again guys. Jon H.

[Duff 206]

Hi, Jon, and !

Bell is right - the really badly rusted piece of sheet metal is called a debris shield. It mounts just ahead of the tranny on top of the frame, and they are notorious for rusting out.

As to the engine mounting bolt situation, I don't know much about C-series, but I've heard on some WH tractors the left hand bolts go through the engine holes and through the frame, but on the right side they bolted up through the frame into tapped holes in the bottom of the engine block, leaving the normal mounting holes hanging out over the side of the frame. My guess is this was to allow for changes in engines without having to redesign the entire frame which is common to a wide variety of models. On yours, the motor may have been removed for service (or could be a transplant) and someone either forgot to replace the bolts or couldn't figure out the system and just left them out.

Don't know if this helps at all.....

Duff

EDIT: I've got to learn to type faster! ol550 beat me to it, but I'm glad to know my info is accurate. Whew!

[Don1977 604]

I bought a C-120 new It's been a great tractor, but I don't know who was running the company then. Quality control was not that great at the time. I found a few things over the years that was not complete. Here is the part that fell out of your tractor. Yours has the front corners rusted off. If you will notice the two holes on the back of that piece has no bolts. The frame has holes but the sides holding the brake shaft and fender bracket does not have holes. I drilled the holes and installed bolts when I put it back together. The 48" mower base I bought with it they had to replace the wheel and roller bracket because the roller bracket was welded on crooked. My guess is that a lot of C series tractors left the factory with out the other bolts in the engine.