International 444, 1968. Progress Thread, Getting Going

[DJ54]

It does look like the arms should drop more. How far may be determined by unhooking the subsoiler and drop the draft arms as far as they will go, standing on them if necessary, and see if they will drop further.

Looking at it from the side it looks like the shank is if not plumb, maybe a little forward at the bottom, making the point even though it has some downward pitch may be running flat, not allowing it to drop anymore, basically running flat on the bottom of the entire length of the bottom part.

The pitch will change the more you lower it. In that case you'll need to shorten the top link to make it more aggressive on the point, pointing more downward.

If the top link is adjusted all the way in, you may have gotten the longer top link, they make 2 lengths. A shorter one should make it more aggressive. But before buying another (if that one is the longer version) unhook the subsoiler and see if the arms will drop further.

 

[dieselscout80]

This series of IH tractors has two sets of mounting points for the lower 3 point arms on the rear of the tractor.

They also have two positions on the links that run up from the lower arms to the upper point that actually does the lifting.

I don’t know which one yours are in, but that may help it go deeper. I would try the other position and see if it helps.

 

[dieselscout80]

What was the position of your draft control lever the one closest to the seat?

To go deeper the draft control lever as needs far forward and down as possible and then move it up some if you are loosing traction.

If it was to the rear it would limit your depth.

 

[FlyFishn]

I will check this afternoon. I thought I played with all the levers/stops on the 3pt and that was as low as I could get it to go. It also looks to me like the hole positions for the links are in the lowest settings. I'll dig in to it here today and see what I come up with. Its hooked to the brush hog now so I might do some work in the field mowing first then maybe switch it back over to the ripper.

 

[dieselscout80]

Here’s some information from my owners manual on the three point hitch.

 

[FlyFishn]

I played with the levers a bit. As I was thinking - I did have the levers positioned, as I can tell, "normally" in the position the 3pt would go the lowest it could.

That said, I bent the levers and guard/guide plate a bit so I could get the pin on the round knob lever to go up and over the depth control stop slide plate. Now the pin is inside the depth control slide plate, as opposed to free above it.

In this position the 3pt now goes much deeper. However, I am not thinking the way I did this is "right". I shouldn't have to bend things and force things, I don't think?

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the depths before the new lower position and after. I can't recall if this was "all the way down" or not, the tractor did bog down and spin wheels when the load got too high - what I would have expected from the get-go.

Here are some pictures of the draft control etc. They aren't very good, but hopefully with my description above you can see and understand what is going on.

 

[FlyFishn]

We got a 2 bottom dearborn plow. Over the ripped ground it was a bit tough to get the plow to turn the ground over, it liked to catch the "sod" on top and clog with the carpet patches.

That aside, when I came out of the field after running the plow the most (didnt finish, got too dark so I continued the next day) the exhaust was glowing red. With the hood off sine I've been working on the tractor the glowing exhaust caught me off-guard. It was a substantial red glow coming from the engine at dark.

A friend of mine is suggesting that the fuel mix might be way off.

Thoughts?

Another issue I found is the wide track width of the drive tires does not work well with the plow - the right side drive should sit in the bottom of the furrow with the front steer tire. That doesn't happen - the drive sits above and rolls over the turned over ground.

After I took this picture I switched sides - I was plowing over the turned over ground going this direction. However, that made no difference in the sod clogging the plow.

test

 

[dieselscout80]

We got a 2 bottom dearborn plow. Over the ripped ground it was a bit tough to get the plow to turn the ground over, it liked to catch the "sod" on top and clog with the carpet patches.

That aside, when I came out of the field after running the plow the most (didnt finish, got too dark so I continued the next day) the exhaust was glowing red. With the hood off sine I've been working on the tractor the glowing exhaust caught me off-guard. It was a substantial red glow coming from the engine at dark.

A friend of mine is suggesting that the fuel mix might be way off.

Thoughts?

Another issue I found is the wide track width of the drive tires does not work well with the plow - the right side drive should sit in the bottom of the furrow with the front steer tire. That doesn't happen - the drive sits above and rolls over the turned over ground.

View attachment 1576341


After I took this picture I switched sides - I was plowing over the turned over ground going this direction. However, that made no difference in the sod clogging the plow.

View attachment 1576342

View attachment 1576343
test

You have solid non-adjustable wheels. With the AG two piece wheels or the power adjust wheels one can adjust the wheel spacing to let the tire run in the plow furrow.

There is a good thread on here that explains how to setup a tractor with a moldboard plow.

 

[DJ54]

Dieselscout80 is absolutely correct. You have pressed steel wheels and they are set as narrow as it will go. Whereas a tractor set up for Ag./row crop use has a 2 piece set up with a center dish, and looped rim. Width can be adjusted by setting loops on either side of the center dish, or even flipping the concave center dish is or out. And more than likely on an Ag. tractor rear tires may be a lot narrower like a 12.4 width. Here is another link from Case/IH showing the difference: Case IH | Schematic, Manuals, Specifications and Diagrams for wheels and wheel weights, rear wheels | MyCNH US Store What you have is on the left, what we're describing is on the right.

To be set up correctly, the end of the first plow bottoms share should be even with the inside of your right rear tire. When making the second round, and rear tire running in the previously made round that will make the plow cut the bottom of the furrow off clean into the previous pass furrow. If not cutting off cleanly it usually kicks the plow sideways towards unplowed ground, and will turn over, or try to turn over the extra width of sod/soil between the inside of the rear tire and end of share. That appears to be a 14" bottom plow, and with your tire spacing you may be trying to turn over 16" to 18" or more of sod. When that happens you get the results of what you have. I do see some adjustment left on the crossbar the 3 pt. lift arms attach to, but not sure it is enough to get the end of the share to align with the inside of the tire. You can eyeball that distance setting on the ground, and measure how much you can slide that bar, but looks like about maybe 2" at best.

The least expensive option would be to find a decent pull type plow (assuming the tractor has a mounted drawbar that I can't see) there may be enough adjustment on the plow hitch to set it over far enough to match. If not, a 3 pt. drawbar in the 3 pt. lift arms has various holes to adjust sideways.

If you decide to go this route, find a plow that the shares a good on or at least a brand you can still get new shares and moldboards for. You can still get now wear parts for most older IH, John Deere, and Oliver plows. The mechanical lifts most generally work great. They can get caked up with dirt & grease in the lift mechanism, but cleaning them up and new grease, they'll work great. I see you have a rear hydraulic remote, so a hydraulic lift plow would be great, but more expensive, and many don't have the cylinder with them so there's more $$$.

As for the red hot exhaust, yes, it could be running lean, or timing could be off too. If timing is retarded it will make the exhaust hot. Too far advanced can burn the pistons. If you have a timing light, or access to one probably best to set the timing that way. But in reality, if you're working it hard, probably not uncommon, and more than likely why the manifold is cracked as you described. Always best to let them idle for a while to cool down after working them hard. I'm assuming by the time you got to where you park it, it may have cooled down enough not to glow. I'd set the timing first you can tweak on the carb. when working it and see if it makes a difference.

One other thing, it's pretty dry to be plowing now. You want a smidge of moisture, but not wet. I suspect subsoiling before plowing didn't help when it's this dry. It can actually pull the topsoil loose from the subsoil. Had that happen 6-8 years ago when I tried running my subsoiler in some wet spots in the hayfield, it literally pulled slabs of topsoil loose. I just let it go until we got some rain and worked much better.

 

[dieselscout80]

This might be something to consider doing for your gas IH.

International Harvester & Farmall Gasoline Fueled Tractor Gas Cap Recall

ihgascap.com

Free gas caps? Still?

There is a guy at YT forum that claims one can still procure a free gas cap. I thought that got cancelled when VW bought Navistar. We had a discussion here when it happened but I don't think there was a definitive answer.

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