I've done some more messing with the 149. I finally put it to work yesterday. I did some wood hauling.
It is running nice and strong now. I exchanged the battery that I bought for a higher CCA one. I don't remember the numbers, but they are NAPA brand batteries. the first was a (I think) 260 CCA one and it just couldn't crank enough to start in the low temps. The replacement is (I think) 360 CCA. Hopefully that will do the trick.
This tractor feels much heavier and more powerful than the 125. I'm really starting to like this 149! There is a little part of me that wants to do a real restoration on this machine, but there is a bigger part of me that knows better than get into something like that. We'll see how much time I have on my hands this summer and how crazy I am feeling.