Steve's C-160 Darn Slow Project.......

[River19 87]

Well, with the COVID19 quarantine in full force I have been working on building out the interior of my new shed (moved to this house in August and had shed built in September or so).  Plenty of organization projects, built the workbench, shelves, a mini loft for fertilizer, built and equipment rack for yard implements etc.  And of course this is the home to the 1975 C-160 Auto........the tractor my father bought used in the mid 1980s (I could always pull the actual classified ad from back then as he clipped it and gave it to me in 'his tractor folder').

 

Today I spent a couple hours working on some Tractor things:

• Pulled the fender and finally replaced the rear hinge bracket
• Pulled the mower deck (won't be used on this property most likely)
• Stowed the deck in its new place at the back of the shed
• Power washed (gently) the 160
• Stowing the deck allowed me to move the Honda blower into the shed (next snow is my fault)
• Then moved all the kids into the pool to make sure there is plenty of room in the man cave.....and there is.....

 

I am waiting on some oil and new plug etc.  I will be doing an oil change, new plug, air filter, rear end oil change..........I'll be picking up a new cart and harrow for some projects here at the house in NH and I'll start the impossible hunt for a mid mounted grader for the 160.......I have a better chance at striking gold.

 

I will be asking stupid, obvious questions and I appreciate the passion you all have for Wheel Horses.....they really are amazing machines.

 

Oh.....and I put gas in it today and low and behold it fired right up.....

 

PS.  The K341 is a 12 fin..........not the more desirable 13 lol oh well......

 

[ebinmaine 67,267]

Excellent.

 

Great to see that rig getting some love.

Nice shed/workshop setup.

 

 

When the time is right us locals will have to get together and have us a meet n greet....

[River19 87]

Total side note.......When we bought this property last year (newly built home on 4.5 acres) everyone was worried about how we would handle the driveway in winter.....it is about 550' downhill to the house (the drainage away from the house is well engineered)......even the Fed Ex guy was like "you know we get real winter around here".....and frankly, our cabin is 40 miles south of Canada in VT so as far as I am concerned south/central NH winter is fine.  BTW, the UPS guy has no issues, Fed Ex guy needs to grow a pair....but I digress....

 

Plowing down to the house was not an option as that would lead to mountains of drifts and tons of unwanted run off and melt by the house.....

 

My solution was that Honda tracked blower, the biggest one Honda makes....was looking at the largest Ariens as well and every dealer that sold both said "buy the Honda"......I literally sold a truck to buy the blower.  It was amazing this year....first snow was a December 30" dumping.....might as well jump in the deep end right?  It laughed at it and chucked it 50'+   The ability to tilt it up and down is perfect for gravel driveways like mine.

 

OK back to Wheel Horse stuff.....

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,267]

1 hour ago, River19 said:

I'll start the impossible hunt for a mid mounted grader for the 160.

We have a manual one Trina uses on the 867.

Love it.

 

You may very well be able to build one from an old plow.

I've posted all the measurements on Redsquare in the past.

 

 

[River19 87]

2 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

We have a manual one Trina uses on the 867.

Love it.

 

You may very well be able to build one from an old plow.

I've posted all the measurements on Redsquare in the past.

 

 

 

Interesting.......just for my own clarification so both my brain cells understand......buy an old plow for the blade as they are much more common than finding the grader in working condition if at all.....dismantle the plow blade from whatever mounting bars etc. it is attached to.....figure out how to mount said blade to lift "arm" below tractor....

 

Here's the challenge....I don't weld (I can do a lot but not weld yet)......so how do we fashion up a mounting mechanism for said blade?

 

Thanks for the ideas......

[ebinmaine 67,267]

I don't have a junk plow but we do have several, and a grader of course. So we could measure and remeasure as needed.

 

I'm teaching myself to weld now.

 

I've seen online that someone cut a plow maybe close to half (?) Lengthwise and fabbed brackets, indexer etc to do a hand made grader.

@pullstart had considered it at one point. That was why I did the measurements.

He's a fair hand with building stuff and several others.

We'd figure it out.

 

 

Add a little bubble gum... Done.

 

 

 

[oliver2-44 9,679]

2 hours ago, River19 said:

I'll start the impossible hunt for a mid mounted grader for the 160.......I have a better chance at striking gold.

 

. I also have a C-160 great machine.  I actually found an NOS grader blade down here in Texas a few years ago.  As scare as Wh are down here if I can find one, I'm sure you will.  Probably just have to drive a little, mine was an 8hour round trip, 

[Pullstart 62,785]

I have a mid mount grader and have been considering offering it up for trade for a tractor with a 10 pinion limited slip rearend...  

 

It is super cool and works great, but I have no true need for it compared to some of the bigger equipment around here...

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,267]

21 minutes ago, pullstart said:

I have a mid mount grader and have been considering offering it up for trade for a tractor with a 10 pinion limited slip rearend...  

 

It is super cool and works great, but I have no true need for it compared to some of the bigger equipment around here...

 

 

Toss it in the mail to some river guy in NH...

[c-series don 8,663]

Honestly I would just keep looking for a mid mount 50” grader blade. Fastenal is a great way to ship stuff if there’s one anywhere nearby the buyer and seller. I have two different types of welders,torches etc, and know how to use them. Not an expert by far but I can get it done. Unless you have a lot of time to figure out the swing/latch and keeping the moldboard level after changing positions I would just wait to find one. Personally I think the engineers nailed it with this. I have one and it works great! By the way I used to run a road grader for a living and still find this as one of my favorite/fun implements. Good luck 👍🏻

Edited April 12, 2020 by c-series don

[River19 87]

As I procure parts and supplies for a tune up, I noticed some seepage from the in-line fuel filter.  Makes sense to replace that as well.....must be 20+ years old.

 

I assume a simple Kohler or any in-line fuel filter will work, right?

 

I have SAE 30wt on the way.  I got a few new plugs.  I have an air filter.  I have a filter for the hydro.

 

Anything else I should grab and replace while I am at it?  

 

New cart and harrow are on the way....my original WH cart is up in VT at our cabin, it is relegated to ATV wood duty and stays at my friends place down the road with his ATV.  Figured a new one for here was a good idea.

 

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,267]

1 hour ago, River19 said:

any in-line fuel filter will work,

Correct.

 

Also please replace ALL the fuel line.

Try to use non-ethanol if you can.

 

[Pullstart 62,785]

Yeah, what EB said.  I have a 50’ coil of 1/4” fuel line from the parts store, every tractor that come into the shop looking like it’s been a while, gets new line with the filter.

[River19 87]

10 minutes ago, pullstart said:

Yeah, what EB said.  I have a 50’ coil of 1/4” fuel line from the parts store, every tractor that come into the shop looking like it’s been a while, gets new line with the filter.

 

Well you inadvertently answered another question by confirming 1/4" will work

 

I'll get that on its way with a filter today......any preference on filter for people or are we going with the theory of "anything is better than nothing or an old one".....

 

Thanks

[Pullstart 62,785]

I use the parts store WIX filter.  It’s something like 3303 or 33033?  Maybe a 4 in there?  I just know where to grab when I need more...

[ebinmaine 67,267]

I just try to get a clear see-through filter.

 

 

I've actually switched all of my tractors over to see through blue fuel line as well. Much easier for diagnostic reasons if you have issues getting fuel from one place to another.

 

[River19 87]

Well I think most if not all the crap I ordered for a reconditioning/makeover of the 160 is in.

 

Tires (they will wait a bit as the originals are holding air still)

Valve stems are coming in later in the month

Toro SAE30 oil

Plugs (I like spares)

Air filter

Filter for hydro (although that may wait as well)

Fuel Filters

And on Eric's strong suggestion (and a good one) a spool of 1/4" fuel line

 

In the next couple weeks I'll give her at least the oil change, plug swap, carb clean and new fuel line and filter.....

 

Fun stuff.

[River19 87]

After running the tractor the past 2-3 weekends for some projects around the yard (quarantined and all) I decided spend an hour or so doing the long needed tune up.  Changed the oil, plug, air filter, installed new fuel line and fuel filter and new air filter.  Only thing that was slightly wonky was the oil drain "tube" much preferred to unscrew from the 90 degree fitting coming off the base of the engine.  Whomever put the "cap" bolt on the drain tube last time snugged that thing up like it was going to leak COVID 19 or something......so I drained it by just taking off the whole damn tube......had a little mess to clean up afterward on the front axle as you would expect.

 

After the "tune up" she fired right up strongly.  I noticed over the years it would always stumble when raising up the throttle so going from idle to 3/4 - full throttle...... and yesterday prior to fixing things up I noticed it sounded like it may stall when at idle while I was loading the cart.  Seems like both situations improved with the new engine love.

 

Getting there.......

 

I was going to pull the cover for the drive belt to track down the e-brake issue I have but that seemed a little more involved than I wanted.  Can someone confirm the bolts that need to be removed for that?  Looks like on up front by the PTO and in the rear, but the foot board looks like it may need to be pulled to get the cover off right?

 

Thanks

[ebinmaine 67,267]

7 minutes ago, River19 said:

foot board looks like it may need to be pulled to get the cover off right

To see the whole drive mechanism the side step, belt cover and shifter plate will need to come off.