Vinco 33 #1 Posted July 21, 2023 Well, as I said in my intro post, I somehow got lucky enough this week to start acquiring Wheel Horses by starting at the top of the "C" line and working down from there. I bought a running, driving, mostly mowing C-195 last week, but I didn't finalize the sale and pick it up until yesterday. One big reason I put him off longer was that I found an ad for a 48" WH mowing deck, and in the pictures from the ad it showed the remains of the hood decal of a C-175 twin 8 speed. I asked him if he would sell the tractor with the deck, and he said yes, for 75 more dollars firm. A few more pictures from him showed that it looked reasonably complete and not wrecked per-se. I asked if the motor was free, and he said he didn't know but he'd check. He didn't. It wasn't. So I asked him if we could do $50 for the tractor instead of $75, and we shook hands at $60 for the tractor. The deck was $100, and it's actually really nice, so $160 plus gas money was the initial total investment. He happened to also have a front blade for a different, unknown brand of tractor that I also bought for another $55. I may adapt it to something, or it might just rust to the ground, but I am not really counting it in the C175 price. I got it home on Tuesday, and I poured ATF into both cylinders (plugs were both out, front one is MIA, but the back one is still clipped into the lead.) I topped them off last night, filling them up to the tops of the plug holes. Tonight, I went out and looked at it, and the levels in both cylinders were down significantly. So I decided to try to wiggle it a little, actually very gently with a pipe wrench for leverage. To my surprise, it actually took very little force to make the crankshaft start turning back and forth. I was eventually able to get it to turn almost one revolution, but I found that there seems to be a stop in both directions. I'm afraid it's broken piston pieces in there, so tomorrow I will try to look at it with my borescope camera. Either way, I'm not going to force it to turn through the stoppage at all. I can turn the motor both ways by hand, without the wrench. So the 17-horse is at least freed up and not frozen up. So unless the block is cracked, it's at least most likely rebuildable. Transmission is next. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ebinmaine 72,361 #2 Posted July 21, 2023 Excellent purchase there. That 8 speed alone is worth more than your buying cost. Got any pics? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pfrederi 18,628 #3 Posted July 21, 2023 Series 1 KT17 most likely broken rod and a high probability of block damage. I have several KT17s and I love them...but after overhauling a M-18 (same basic engine) I would not bother to do it for a broke KT17... to much money... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ol550 830 #4 Posted July 21, 2023 Need pictures or it didn't happen. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
