A Gift From A Dear Friend

[bowtiebutler956 650]

 I've had a good friend (Gary Seaton) who has been battling with cancer of the spine for awhile now. I got a call from his wife Friday (9 days ago), and she said he was back in the hospital, and wasn't expected to pull through, so we loaded up and headed to Edmond Oklahoma. Gary was one of those people you couldn't help but love. He was the kind of guy who would walk up, put his arm around you, and say something encouraging. He was a true follower of Christ, and behaved like one.

 With that said, I had a great time visiting with him in the hospital, and even though he was in pain, he always had a smile on his face, and was happy to see me. While I was there, he grabbed my hand, and told me he wanted me to have his Case 222 garden tractor. He said he had always intended to get it fixed up, but had never got around to it, so he asked me to fix it up, and take good care of it. That is exactly what I intend to do, and this will always be a very special machine to me. We left OK on Monday, and got a call on Thursday that he had passed away. Please keep the Seaton family in your prayers, as they have suffered a great lose.

 The old Case runs very well, and both the engine, and hydraulic drive work great. The Case trans is not a hydrostat, its a true hydraulic drive with a pump bolted directly to the engine, and a large hydraulic motor bolted to the rearend. It has both high, and low range, and unlike a hydrostat, it is completely silent. All you hear is the engine load, no whine from the trans at all. It has a hydraulic deck lift as well. The old Kohler K301 runs very well, with no smoke or strange noises.

 I guess I wouldn't call this a restoration thread, as money is rather tight right now, but at the very least, everything will be repaired that needs it, and it will get a good coat of paint, and new decals. This will be a very special tractor to me. Here are a few pics. Thanks

 

Matt

 

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,295]

Sad story...sorry for your loss. Gary picked the right friend to do his tractor justice.

I always liked the syling of the Case machines.

Mike............

[AMC RULES 37,125]

R.I.P. Gary. 

[RMCIII 838]

Definitely can emphasize with that situation. Family is in prayers.

[dclarke 4,032]

Sorry for your loss, Matt. That's a nice tractor, I had one several years ago. I'm sure you'll take great care of it.

[JimmyJam 542]

Sorry for your loss of a good friend. Gary and his family is in our thoughts and prayers. His "last wish" tractor is in good hands!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!

[953 nut 54,999]

Gary is free of pain and with our Lord. We pray for the Seaton family and for you in the loss of a dear friend. Every time you ride the Case Gary will be riding with you.

 

Thank you for sharing this with your  family. May God bless you.

[bowtiebutler956 650]

 Thank you everyone for your kind words, and prayers.  I will continue with updates, as the this project progresses.

 

Matt

[bowtiebutler956 650]

 Right now, I'm just trying to get everything that needs to be fixed taken care of before I tear it down for paint work. I started by pulling the original gas tank out because it had a crack in it. I thought I could repair it, but it was so brittle, I accidentally put my thumb right through it. Oh well. I ordered a replacement from Joe's Outdoor Power for $30. It temporarily has a  gas tank in it, which fits quit well, surprisingly. The PTO clutch wasn't working correctly, so I removed it to see why. It had a completely destroyed bearing in the front cam plate, although nothing else was damaged. So two $6 bearings later, it was working like a champ. The motor mounts on the shaker plate are shot, so the engine is just sitting on the frame, which makes for a lot of rattling with this old thumper (which can be heard in the video). I found a place where I can get them for $10 a piece. This really is a very solid machine. I think I should be able to start tearing it apart in the next couple days. Here are a few pics of what I've been working on. Thanks

 

Matt

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4G987_T8tc&feature=share&list=UU3UhD4f8Vgbfm5QthyqHXvQ

[oldblue1993 98]

Looks Like your getting the work done on her pretty well and she is in really good hands. sorry to hear about your loss and I bet your progress is being well watched.

[bowtiebutler956 650]

 I've started the teardown, and so far so good. I'm very pleased with how things are looking, although its going to need a couple bushings at the bottom of the levers that control both the drive, and the deck raise, and lower. The replacement gas tank from Joe's Outdoor Power came in, and seems to be in good shape. The new motor mounts came in as well. I'm starting to feel a little older, as I went to lift the K301 out of this Case today, and my back screamed NO! Back when I rebuilt the K301 in my  , I lifted it out , put it on my bench, and set it back in my Horse when it was time. as you can see by the pics, I ended up using my engine hoist. Brains won out over brawn today.  Here are a few pics of whats been done so far. Thanks

 

Matt

[6wheeler 603]

Matt, I am very sorry for your loss of a very dear friend. My prayers go out to his family and yours as well. This tractor will be a very special project for you. Take your time. You don't have to spend a fortune to get it up and running. Or make it pretty. Every time you work on it, no matter how much or how little, you maybe will find yourself talking to or just remembering Gary. That time is worth every minute. After my friend passed away earlier this year, His family asked me to take his WH stuff as they didn't need it. Since then I have used alot of the parts to repair or get a few of his tractors running for them. A couple of his brothers are now using these tractors. That makes me proud. Enjoy the project. Reflect. Have Fun. That's what its all about.  Good Luck      Pat 

[bowtiebutler956 650]

Looks Like your getting the work done on her pretty well and she is in really good hands. sorry to hear about your loss and I bet your progress is being well watched.

 Thank you, and I appreciate it.

 

Matt, I am very sorry for your loss of a very dear friend. My prayers go out to his family and yours as well. This tractor will be a very special project for you. Take your time. You don't have to spend a fortune to get it up and running. Or make it pretty. Every time you work on it, no matter how much or how little, you maybe will find yourself talking to or just remembering Gary. That time is worth every minute. After my friend passed away earlier this year, His family asked me to take his WH stuff as they didn't need it. Since then I have used alot of the parts to repair or get a few of his tractors running for them. A couple of his brothers are now using these tractors. That makes me proud. Enjoy the project. Reflect. Have Fun. That's what its all about.  Good Luck      Pat 

 Thank you for that very encouraging post Pat, and I appreciate you praying for his, and my family. You are right, this is a very special project for me, and it will always serve as a wonderful remembrance of Gary. He asked me to make it look like new for him, but Gary was never by any stretch of the imagination a perfectionist. I know he would be pleased as punch with my plans for it. It won't get a lot of money put into it, because I don't have a lot to give, but it will be a sharp looking old Case when its done. There will be a custom decal on the back that will read GARY'S CASE, because that's what it will always be to me. He loved this kind of stuff, and always had the biggest smile on his face when he saw some old tractor I had restored, and I can see the smile on his face in my mind while I'm working on his tractor.

 

Matt

[roscoemi 245]

Did that dual plane intake come off that tractor?   When did they get v8's?

[bowtiebutler956 650]

 Thought I'd give a quick update. I pulled the head off the K301 with plans of removing the carbon, but instead found a rather heavy wear ridge in the cylinder, as well as 2 vertical scratches in the cylinder about an inch apart from one another, that were enough to hang my fingernail on. By the way, this engine didn't smoke at all, but I decided I better investigate. I pulled the pan, and removed the rod cap, which looked great, and so did the crank. I pulled the piston to find a wrist pin clip had come loose!   The scratches in the cylinder aren't very deep, but the piston is trashed, as can be seen in the pics. I hadn't planned on rebuilding this engine, but I'm going to have to now. I pulled the valves, and found a pitted exhaust seat. I then pulled the flywheel nut, and realized it had a sheered flywheel key, and the flywheel was over 1/8in from where it was supposed to be, and you could tell it had been sheered for a very long time.   How on earth was this thing running as well as it did? Its truly amazing. I already took care of the valve seat, as I have a really great working little valve seat cutter from Neway.  With money being tight right now, I'll have to get one of those aftermarket ebay kits for $100. My machine shop charges $30 to bore, and hone a cylinder, so I'll get it dropped off soon. Here are some pics. Thanks

 

Matt

[6wheeler 603]

Looks like it won't be too bad to fix up. I can't believe it didn't burn oil like a pig, and it ran to boot. Sometimes a guy just gets lucky. 

[bowtiebutler956 650]

Did that dual plane intake come off that tractor?   When did they get v8's?

 Did I forget to mention I'm putting a Buick 455 in this Case?   That's the old Offy aluminum intake off the GS455 I use to own 20yrs ago.

 

Matt

 

Looks like it won't be too bad to fix up. I can't believe it didn't burn oil like a pig, and it ran to boot. Sometimes a guy just gets lucky. 

 I can't believe it either, but you can see from the video link I posted in post #9, it did indeed run without smoke. Crazy!

 

Matt

[19richie66 17,497]

Hey Matt,that's a neat story.My father,who was on here,passed away last year and all of his stuff was left in the shed just as he had left it.All his plans,problems,ideas all went with him.He passed suddenly so i didnt get a chance to go over what all he wanted to do with it all.I know some things but guessing on the rest.He had given me a 66 buick skylark(almost the same as my first car) suprised me with it for my 45th birthday.I have been collecting parts for it for the past two years and finally started on it a couple weeks ago.It turns out it needed too much work and the parts are just not available.There is no way he could have known as it was very heavily coated with bondo and what was under it had rot away.Looked good but was hiding a lot of trouble.I didnt want to do it but the car has to go and I was fortunate enough that I have some of his tractors now to work on.So like you,I am going to put more love than money into them and try and get them back into shape again.Hope to get started here real soon.Keep em going! Take care,Richie

Edited November 25, 2013 by 19richie66

[bowtiebutler956 650]

 Thought it was about time for an update. With today being the last warm day we're going to have for awhile, I got busy, and painted most of the tractor, with the exception of the wheels, and the engine. The paint isn't perfect, but its shiny. I plan on working this tractor, and enjoying memories of Gary while doing it, so this paint job will be perfect for my plans. I used some orange enamel that I still had in the shop from painting my son Danny's Bantam tractor, and I mixed some IH red (left over from painting my Toro Groundsmaster) in it till I got a pretty close match of the Case orange. This worked great with my current budget!

 I did get a call from the machine shop today, and my block is done, so I'll pick it up tomorrow. It had to be bored .020 to clean up the cylinder. The throttle shaft in this carburetor was also worn badly, so I picked up a bushing at the local hardware, and after cutting it to the correct length, the shaft is now nice and tight. I'm really enjoying refreshing this old Case, as I spend a lot of time remembering all of the great times I had with Gary. Here are a few pics.

 

Matt

 

 

[dclarke 4,032]

That ole case is gonna look brand new.  Great work, Matt.

[Martin 2,131]

wow, that looks really nice matt.......

looking forward to seeing how it looks all together.

[Jake Kuhn 1,554]

Looking very very nice matt!

[grnlark 479]

Looks great!

[btm1970 97]

its looking really good. I fixed one up the other year. I still cant find a seat. the drive system is unreal. I can pop the front tires off the ground with a blade on it.

 

im not trying to be disrespectful by posting a picture on your tread. you liked how my bolens looked. I just thought you might enjoy a picture of my 224. thanks brad

[bowtiebutler956 650]

its looking really good. I fixed one up the other year. I still cant find a seat. the drive system is unreal. I can pop the front tires off the ground with a blade on it.

 

im not trying to be disrespectful by posting a picture on your tread. you liked how my bolens looked. I just thought you might enjoy a picture of my 224. case 224.jpgthanks brad

 

 I Love Pics, and don't find that disrespectful in any way! That's a great looking 224 you have there, and I know what you mean about the hydraulic drive, its strong. These drives don't make any whine like a hydrostat either. You just hear the engine load. My 222 is an 84, which was the first year Ingersoll owned them, even though the decals say Case, the ID tag reads Ingersoll/Case. That being said, I found an OE Ingersoll seat really cheap, and even though it had some marks from having thing set on it over the years, it still looks good. Feel free to share pics anytime!   

 

Matt