74 C-160 refresh and mod

[tbarnhart 240]

Here is a few looks of my one and only horse. I received this tractor along with a house I'm living in and it has cut a lot of grass over the years. It never had much red paint since I've known it and it had gotten to using a fair amount of oil. Last winter, I overhauled the Tecumseh HH160 engine, but didn't do anything with the rest of the tractor. This winter I decided to give it a complete refresh. Since joining REDSQUARE, I've discovered that this is a somewhat rare, love-it-or-hate-it, tractor with the ovh Tecumseh. Just my personal preference (don't flame me for this), but I kinda like this thing. Impressive power and great fuel economy, and you never have to adjust points. I started off with some new Deestone rubber. 23x10.50 in the rear and 4.00x8 tri rib in the front. Thanks to Matt (Bowtiebutler956) for pictures of his tractor and tires. It makes a perfect match on the original rims. Finally in March, I got the time to begin the teardown. No picts of the actual work, but it was hours of cleaning, sanding, priming, painting, etc. A shout out to Terry (Vinylguy) for working up a decal set. A few things were different on my early 160, but he replicated everything perfectly. Definitely a class act. A shout out to Dave Meyer (chev0545) for the absolutely mint '73 48 in. deck. It still has some original paint on the bottom. I didn't paint it, the paint is original. My old deck was very thin and warped and growing a few holes. There are a few other mods and upgrades as well, but we'll see if y'all can pick them out. More picts on that later.

[Wishin4a416 2,191]

Nice looking machine. Like your choice of tires.

[Jake Kuhn 1,555]

Nice horse! 

[redrooster 83]

It looks great. Nice job! [emoji122]

[chazm 413]

Nice ....

[AMC RULES 37,130]

 Big block Techy power!

Turned out very nice indeed.  

[can whlvr 993]

very nice lookin tractor,you did a great job even if it has a tecky

[tbarnhart 240]

I can't say anything bad about the Kohler big blocks-I grew up with a 321 in a jd 214. I would be curious to know how many of these c-160s came with the Tecumseh. I understand it was only the '74 models because of a shortage from Kohler. If anyone has that info, it would be interesting. I know some of these Techy parts are getting hard to find, but I think it is kinda cool.

Edited May 19, 2014 by tbarnhart

[C-101plowerpower 1,605]

nice bit of kit, do i spot a stainless muffler under that hood?

 

 

Koen

[tbarnhart 240]

nice bit of kit, do i spot a stainless muffler under that hood?

 

 

Koen

Yea, you found one of the upgrades. Keep looking. More picts to follow when I get to my other computer.

[tbarnhart 240]

When I got this tractor, it only had a round, can style muffler on a 1 in. pipe straight out the side. I never did like the thing and always hated how loud it was. Mowing after dark, I could see fire coming out the side. I wanted a more original muffler that would be a little more effective. I had thought about a stack, but decided I wanted to keep everything under the hood for clearance under trees and a cleaner look. An original Nelson muffler was non-existent and pricey, so I decided to make one out of stainless. Here's what I came up with.

The main shell of the muffler is a piece of stainless from a submersible well pump housing. The in and out pipes, as well as a small piece inside, came from a 1 1/2 in. shower grab bar. That stuff is an art to weld, but I was very happy with the way it turned out. Nice and quiet with a pleasing burble under load. No, I'm not going into production. It took way to long to make for anybody else to afford one.   What else do you guys see different?

[Stigian 1,234]

A nice clean looking machine, great work on the muffler

[Ken B 3,164]

The tractor looks great, nice work!

[tbarnhart 240]

Here's a few pics of one of the other upgrades that I've done to this tractor. I've read here on Redsquare of other people who thought that their blade speed was too low to develop good suction and make a clean cut. The standard answer was that "It is what it is"-if you want a high vac deck, buy a newer mower or use the 37 in twin blade deck that cuts better. I know that most commercial mowers run their blade tip speed between 18000 and 19000 feet per minute. After a little calculating, I realized that my blades were nowhere close to that. The larger/inner groove in my PTO bell was worn quite a bit and I had trouble keeping the belt tight enough that it wouldn't slip, so I decided that I didn't have much to lose.   I chucked it up in my trusty lathe and cut everything down to a 2.5 in. diameter. I found a old pulley in the "spare parts bin" that I think came off of a JD spindle. Into the lathe it went and out it came with a 2.5 in Inside diameter. Drill and tap 4 holes for 1/4 in. bolts and I have a 5.5 in PTO pulley.   Calculated blade tip speed is close to 17,500 fpm. It seems to cut better and I hope the increased speed will allow me to cut in 3hi and still leave a clean cut. There's no reason an old horse can't cut as good as the modern Z-turns. The Tecky still seems to have plenty of power. I haven't tried it much and if it seems to be too much, I can always find a smaller pulley to put back on. Adaptability-that's the WheelHorse way!

[tbarnhart 240]

One more mod to give a few picts of. Lots of people complain about the poor headlights in the c-series. A 1156 bulb just isn't very bright and the reflector assembly isn't that great either. Replacement bulbs that give more light also often give more heat and melt the plastic lens. My brother kept giving me grief about my lights compared to his old Sears tractor that has honest sealed beam lights. He pointed out some small rectangular halogen driving lights and told me I needed them in my horse. I took a piece of aluminum plate and shaped it to match the original headlight lens, then cut out holes to place the lights approximately where the original lights would be. I had to make a few clamps to hold the lights into the back of the plate, and used the mounting screws to hold it all together. I asked Terry to come up with a decal for the front plate and he sent me a black and chrome decal that is just perfect. Here's some picts. What do y'all think?

[Martin 2,132]

I like all the mods. you made them all look part of the tractor and not out of place.

the lights really finish off the front.....

[tbarnhart 240]

Thanks for the compliment, Martin. I tried to improve the weak spots in the design and yet retain the charactar of the original tractor. Everything I did is reversible as well-original parts will bolt right back on. I forgot to mention, the lights are 55w H3 halogens and really light up the night. Its now possible to mow after dark.

[Jparkes43 329]

Wow it's lovely, your doing what Im doing with my resto mod (), resorting it but improving bits of design to your liking.

James

[rustykan 140]

One more mod to give a few picts of. Lots of people complain about the poor headlights in the c-series. A 1156 bulb just isn't very bright and the reflector assembly isn't that great either. Replacement bulbs that give more light also often give more heat and melt the plastic lens. My brother kept giving me grief about my lights compared to his old Sears tractor that has honest sealed beam lights. He pointed out some small rectangular halogen driving lights and told me I needed them in my horse. I took a piece of aluminum plate and shaped it to match the original headlight lens, then cut out holes to place the lights approximately where the original lights would be. I had to make a few clamps to hold the lights into the back of the plate, and used the mounting screws to hold it all together. I asked Terry to come up with a decal for the front plate and he sent me a black and chrome decal that is just perfect. Here's some picts. What do y'all think?IMG_1402b.JPG

IMG_1405b.JPG

What do you have invested in this modification? I really like it! Any chance you might want to make another?

[tbarnhart 240]

The lights were about $20 at Wal-Mart. The expensive part would be the time to carefully cut the aluminum plate to the correct shape and get the holes for the lights in the right places and the correct size. My first attempt, I got the hole for the left light a little to tight around the glass lens and it cracked. I had to get another set of lights and make sure that the light had a little movement all around. So far so good. Terry got me the decal. He custom made them for me but I'm sure he has the pattern and could make some more. I don't really want to make any more but I would be glad to help someone fabricate something for themselves.