1978 C 141 Automatic Frankenstein

[MainelyWheelhorse 1,339]

Last November/ December I was talking to @ebinmaine about a hood and rear end for my 312. The rear end is making noises and sounded a bit like a train. The original hood on the 312 was mangled pretty good after rolling backwards down a pit wall.  Apparently the story was the PO let a neighbor borrow it. then the accident happened.
Anyway, we made a deal and I met up with EB in January. I took some smaller stuff home as we only had my Father’s truck. I had to come back later for the bigger stuff.
This May, I borrowed my brother’s trailer, and my Father and I went to get the rest of the bigger parts. 
The parts haul ended up being, a 94/95 312-8 and a 80/90’s Workhorse parts machines, two mowing decks, a 14hp engine, two sets of rear tires, a plow, a few rear fender, and a bunch of miscellaneous parts. The biggest was a 1978 C141 Automatic parts tractor.  I figured I’d try hydrostatic as all my other tractors are 8 speeds.

Since the middle of May I’ve been tinkering here and there on the C141. I’m not done yet but I figured I’d document it.

 

 

The first run.

 

 

Hauling stuff home from @ebinmaine

 

 

Mocking it up.

 

 

Figuring out the wiring, dash and shift plates using C.A.D. (Cardboard Aided Design.

 

 

The new aluminum shift, and dash plates.

 

 

Mocking up and installing the drive pulley, and later the exhaust.

 

 

The plugs springs and cones for the hydro pump.  gasket for a K341 carb.

 

 

this is where I stopped last night. The lower dash and key switch are installed, and plugged in to the rest of the harness. The tractor and engine harness is run, and plugged in where it needs to go. The gas tank needs to go back in. It needs the fender, hood and seat back on. There are some small things left to do but it’s coming along.

 

This morning’s progress. I added in a 30 amp fuse inline with the starter installed the rectifier, a ground wire for the battery and greased the brake pedal pivot to install it Then I started to figure out where the choke and throttle lever are going.

 

The brake pedal greased and installed.
 

The negative battery ground wire.

 

 
Yesterday, I ran the choke cable and cut the slots for the choke and throttle. More progress later….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by MainelyWheelhorse

[Easton Rich 601]

[ebinmaine 71,763]

Lookin' forward to seeing this one develop.  

[SylvanLakeWH 28,077]

[Sparky-(Admin) 22,783]

Excellent!! 
  I’m actually picking up a C-141 Auto at the Wheel Horse Show next week. Will be the only WH hydro in my small fleet. 

[MainelyWheelhorse 1,339]

1 hour ago, Sparky said:

Excellent!! 
  I’m actually picking up a C-141 Auto at the Wheel Horse Show next week. Will be the only WH hydro in my small fleet. 

Thanks! ‘Same here, I figured I’d take the plunge and try it. It has the biggest engine of the fleet as well. It ought to be interesting to get used to. It’s funny and nice that the later parts tractors I got in the haul, a 312 and Workhorse. The parts bolt up with no issues. That definitely saves time. My other two tractors have Familial and Local history, so I wanted to keep them relatively stock. This will be another story as it was a rolling chassis. It’s a blank slate.