1450 revival
 

Been rebuilding my recent 1450 acquisition. I've disassembled the entire machine and am now reassembling after cleaning/painting/refurbishing parts as needed. I'll see if I can upload some pics of progress to date. The hood is missing the rear stationary hood latch bracket (assuming vibration caused spot welds to fail because I can see evidence of something having been attached there). My request is: Does someone have a picture of the hood latch arrangement that operates with the factory spring latch. I need something to reference to see if I can duplicate what was once there. Thanks in advance for any information anyone may be able to provide.

Here you go

Doug,

Wow! Quick reply, thanks so much. I should be able to fab something up that will work similar to what is shown. Won't be factory, but I'm only trying to make this a dependable working machine (and minimize as many rattles as I can). With that in mind, what keeps the bottom front of the side panels from rattling against the frame rails? I see there is only the back wingnut and front spring to hold the panels in place??? Is it just pressure against the rubber weatherstripping on the "heat baffle" (IH-106501-C94) that dampens this movement? I've never heard this thing run so I'm guessing at what I think should be, or what makes reasonable sense (this is my first Quietline involvement). I have a 127 with a tiller (and spring assist) but the hyd lift spoke to me! Hope I like the 1450 as much as I like the narrow frame for the simplicity.

Here's a few pics of before and progress to a week ago:

Nothing! They just sit in at the bottom, attach together with the spring at the top front and are bolted solid with the screw at the back. Side panels don't seem to rattle, it's the hood that does all of the rattling around.

Yeah, I don’t find my panels rattle. Hood does a little.

Curious if mine will shake, something to look forward to when I finally get this thing running. At least mine has the side panels, I understand that a lot of them get taken off then misplaced or tossed. I picked up a lot of the incidental pieces that were missing (muffler shroud, tunnel cover, gearshift cover piece, etc.). I found a wonderful supplier of old parts not too far from me (western NC/SC border) who was very happy to help with missing parts (at a reasonable price too!). He is a tinkerer and ended up putting a '57 chevy small block into a 2082 because someone said it couldn't be done. The only real problem was the original axles got twisted off until he upgraded them to something a bit more stout. 200+ hp is probably more than IH had intended with the garden tractor in mind. The thing actually looks "normal" other than being stretched a bit, and the vertical straight headers he has installed that shoot flame when he feeds pressurized fuel to the exhaust stack.......quite the eye opener when you're not expecting it! Anyway, back to my more mundane project at hand. Thanks to those for answering my questions.
More pics of the progress to follow.......soon.

I am in the starting stages of reassembling a pair of QL's. Just trying to get all the pieces together for now. I will be watching your progress with interest.

Been a while since my last post but here's a few pictures of my progress.

Rear end and tower installed, engine installed (easier to get to front oil pan bolts with front axle out), front axle installed, remade head tin. Will add others as time allows. Taking advantage of "stay at home" orders to change rear deck contractor PT boards to something of a better quality. Paint parts, work on deck, next day paint more parts, back to deck. Get to work on the tractor and also keep the wife happy! Hope this thing runs when I get done. If not, it comes apart again for a rebuild. When I had the oil pan off, it looked real clean and tight inside. It's got a .020 piston in it so someone's been inside it before, just hope they knew the basics! The head tin was in sad shape so I made a new one. Should be good enough to direct the air where it needs to go.

Tractor's looking great! You do nice work.:beerchug:

Looking good, keep the updates coming.

So far so good!
Yellow engine???

twoton: Thanks for the encouragement,

finsruskw: Was a black replacement engine, rebuilt at some time. Seems this tractor has had plenty of time on the clock to wear out two engines (or maybe someone just abused them).

Mounting the tires was a real challenge. Someone in the past had put straight water in the rear tires and the rims were extremely rusted. Had to cut the old tires off to dismount (too cheap to pay someone for something that manual labor and some time can accomplish). Cleaned, ground, sanded, primed, painted the interior to be able to mount the new AGs more easily. Put tubes on all four corners to minimize leaks from the get-go. Nothing worse than going to do some work and finding a flat before you even start. :bash2: Prep and paint is not professional, but enough to make the tractor rust free and not embarrassing to sit on.

CubDieselFan: Stay tuned for more pics of the assembly as time allows.

Slowly adding more parts: Head tin and muffler installed, Muffler heat shield box and front casting installed, engine baffle installed. Virus "Stay at home" order is putting a cramp in getting supplies. Will definitely extend the date to fire this project up!

I believe the QL's all came w/black engines.

I think you're right. I have a 1000 I knew since it was bought new and it has a black engine. I also have a 1450 with a black engine and a 1650 parts tractor with a black engine.

replacement engines for the pre-QL models were black.

Not a big deal unless you plan on displaying it at a show sometime with the hood up, be prepared for the questions though.

Looks good like that though

Main reason I painted the engine was it's easier to see oil leaks and keep it clean. The engine tag is an aluminum foil label glued to the shroud. Did original engines have a metal (more durable) tag screwed or riveted to the engine shroud (so this tag is an indication that the engine might be a replacement)? I wish it was stamped metal as this one is partly damaged and closer to losing info. Also, the tag on my 127 engine is placed high on the shroud. The 1450 has the tag down low behind the frame rail where it's hard to see.

The only way to determine if the engine is a replacement, is to compare the Tractor Chassis Serial Number to the Kohler Engine Serial Number and see if the code dating puts them in the same year.

So where would the engine serial number be? I'm assuming on the engine tag shown? All I see is the model and spec number. Is that aluminum foil tag typical of an original engine?

Looking good so far! That tag would be correct. The serial number should be on a smaller tag above the other one. Looks like it is missing on yours.

Thanks for the info. Pictures sure clear up a lot of questions. Looks like my engine might be an original (although rebuilt already once before). Good planning on Kohler's side to use tags that are easily destroyed when you need those numbers for proper identification when ordering parts. Could have made more sense to eliminate the tag altogether and just stamp the numbers into the shroud.

I have three QL engines with the same tag. Only one is readable. The older Kohler engines had much more durable tags.

You are doing an outstanding job on your tractor. The paint looks flawless. Congratulations, when you are done you'll have a machine that will work hard for another 40+ years.

"8187578" would make that a 1977 engine. The Quietline Series ran from Oct 1974 to Sep 1979. So, I am quessing it is an OEM Engine.

Finally had some time to add more parts and prepare for an initial run. Had some doubts all along about condition of engine, starter and bendix operation and voltage regulator condition. For an initial $110 tractor investment it all turned out well. The epoxied broken magnet for the starter stator and bendix worked fine. The engine started on first turnover, no smoke or strange noises, regulator putting out 14+ volts. Aftermarket cheap carb works but adjustments are crude (many turns to make a difference). Next, adjusted return to neutral bracket for no creep of rear axle. Now that that's done, the fender pan and other associated sheet metal could be installed. Retorqueing the head bolts requires quite a bit of disassembly on the Quietline to access the head bolts. A rainy day will be a good time to do this. Now onto the cleanup of the model 2 tiller that I will hang on the back of the 1450. Getting the tine pipe off the output shaft of the model 2 was a challenge, but persistence paid off (along with a lot of hot wrench)! It would have been so much easier for the PO to slide the tines off occasionally, clean the shaft and lubricate than it would be to let them rust on, then have to beat them off (although, I guess it wasn't all that hard for him). :bash2: Can't wait to use the hydraulic lift on the 1450 as an upgrade to the manual lift of the model 1 tiller mounted to my 127. Even with a spring assist, it gets old quick for my 70 year old arms. Pictures are 1) After initial run and adjustments, 2) hood installed, 3) Fender pan and seat installed. Stay tuned for tiller progress!

Looks very nice. Great job :beerchug:

:beerchug::beerchug:

would like to do that to one of my GTs one of these days, if I ever get caught up on all the rest of my to do list.... gotta settle for "they run-- and function" for a while.

Just do it! Start taking things off and before you know it you'll be at the point that it makes no sense to put it all back together without fixing, cleaning, and painting things. After all, you wouldn't want to have to do all this a second time, right? Okay, so that's what happened to me Nd I'm almost done with disassembly.

Been waiting for parts to finish the 1450, so ............been working on a refurbish of the #2 tiller I picked up to hang off the back of the 1450. The parts finally arrived so back to the 1450. Installed a battery cutoff switch to eliminate any drain if I inadvertently left the ignition switch on, or a quick disconnect means if some drastic short happens. Probably overkill but it fit in the space quite nicely, so why not. Just have to get in the habit of using it religiously when you walk away from the tractor for the day. Kind of like the habit of checking the oil every time before starting the engine. Battery box fit nice and tight after trimming the frame rails 1/4" each side. Box keeps the battery clean, isolates the posts from shorting on anything, and keeps any battery acid from rusting the tractor.
And a few pictures of the progress on the #2 tiller.

:drool2:

Ten characters.