Archive through February 05, 2008

[ccarney]

Kraig -

A small tidbit I found is that the Pto lever end where the fiber button goes is forked. I looked in the first TC-103 and the drawing indeed shows that the end of the lever has a slot, and not just the hole for the button. I don't have a pic of the tractor right now, but if you've a TC-103 it would probably show the lever that way. I've never seen any other lever like this. I don't think many levers got out with the slot as opposed to a hole.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Craig, cool! I never noticed that forked PTO lever before. Good find! Did you find the forked lever first or did you check to see if it was forked?

 

[ccarney]

Kraig -

Actually I was looking for that difference as I was aware of it from study of the R1 version of TC-103 which I've had for awhile. It was kinda cool to see that 415 has that difference. I understand why they didn't stick with it for long, as the fiber button on 415 was long gone, with a (cringe) hex head bolt in its place! The pto clutch is somewhat damaged as a result.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Craig, seeing that they are held in by a lock nut, would one of Dan H's brass buttons work in there.

 

[ccarney]

Kraig -

That would be ideal. Then the button could be clamped despite the slotted design. I assume Madson's has them?

 

[bjames]

Craig, I was wondering where the "tag" was located and where they stamped the s/n.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Craig, I believe that Madson's has them, I know CC Specialties has them on their website in the PTO section.

 

[rhammond]

Mark C., I have two of those decks that I was happy to find about three years ago on ebay. A fellow from up in the great mid-west was closing a dealership, and had posted a 20-25yr old 38" deck on ebay. I bought it, and then was talking with him about using it on my <sorry for the post-IH mention here> 1604 (aka 582 special (aka, a weaker 582)). When he mentioned that he had two more, still in the boxes, I bought another one. I think I paid about $275 each for the kits, but then the shipping ran about $100 each, thru DHL or some such. Still, I was happy with that price. The 1604 had the wider belt, so the undercarriage and mule drive just fit perfectly (took about an hour to two to change out), and I even had a lot of use out of the ~25yr old 5/8" new old stock belt, up until my 16hp briggs did a oil smoke swan song of death. Up till that point, the 38” deck was killer. Not a wide swath getting cut, but man you can move fast… and, I’ve got a very, very non-flat yard, so it did a neater job than the wore out 50” deck that I’d been running on the 1604 (50” was too big for the tired 16hp briggs and a gear drive). I've been eyeing my old 129, thinking that the second deck would be nice under it, to replace the patched up 44” deck that its got (and I’ve got a 149 that’s waiting to get running, for the other deck kit). But, like you, I’ll need to change out that main deck pulley. If you find a standard pulley for the change, like from TSC or somebody, let me know (or if someone else knows that, please do the same). Seems like a great deck, so far (I put about 100hrs on mine, prior to the death of the 1604). Russell.

 

[ccarney]

415 is a bona fide prototype. The "415" was stamped on the reduction housing like production tractors, after the IH "QFE" tag was removed from the frame:

Pattern casting numbers can be found on both rear axle tubes, and the front axle, like "409." This is the only prototype 70/100 known to me:

 

[bjames]

Thanks Craig, I almost bid on that tractor.

I also noticed a cable going from the pedestal to the grill casting. Was that from a po hack?