Very old AND very ugly. Wobbly wheels, vibrates a lot and super loud. Runs like a champ though. Put eight tanks of gas through it last time I used it.
How Old Is Your Lawn Mower(s)?? And How Many Hours Approximately?
- Thread starter wolverine86
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Brand new! M18 Mower, its a BEAST. I should have got this years ago
Wow, your mower comes with flashlights pre-installed!
My old neighbor used to mow his lawn with a flashlight. Meth is a heck of drug.
Nice mower!
No lights for me though. There's too many mosquitos out at night to mow the yard.
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Unsure of hours. But it's a 1999 JX75. Just installed an oil filter adapter I found on ebay and a new old stock predator blade (like an Oregon Gator Blade). Also got new wheels, new bag, blade brake clutch, and a new pinion gear on the left side this year.
This was a marketplace find to hold me over while my 2023 Honda HRX was in the shop for a month during the cam recall fiasco. Followed by needing to rely on the John Deere again for a second complete rebuild on that Honda engine. Got rid of the Honda last month. Good riddance.
This was a marketplace find to hold me over while my 2023 Honda HRX was in the shop for a month during the cam recall fiasco. Followed by needing to rely on the John Deere again for a second complete rebuild on that Honda engine. Got rid of the Honda last month. Good riddance.
check for bent crank or out of balance blade
Couple questions.
Is the JD deck steel or aluminum? It looks great for its age. Was that mower just never used or what ? I ask because I have a steel deck Honda and I want to keep it nice like that. It does have some rust that I need to take care of but not much.
What happened to the Honda? I have a 2023 HRX post recall too
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The John Deere is a cast aluminum deck. I've touched up some paint here and there. To really doll it up I'll use Maxima SC1 coating, it's product meant for dirt bike and ATV plastics. It had definitely been used prior to me getting it, but it must not have been a lot. There were also some bubba-fixes in place when I first got it. The entire front lip of the deck was missing most of its paint. And the people I bought it from didn't have the bag, mulch plug or side discharge chute so it was sort of being used as a rear-discharge mower, but not a very good one. The flap on the back closes tight, it needs one of those three accessories in place to work correctly.
The Honda post-recall scored its cylinder really badly. It started as a bit of blue smoke at start up, to blowing blue smoke constantly and knocking. The Honda dealer said while they were diagnosing it, that it started shooting raw oil out of the muffler. Honda quit making those mower engines when they stopped the mower production so it was a rebuild done entirely with parts, not just a simple engine swap.
It started blowing blue smoke at start up again, end of last season. Enough was enough. I don't use ethanol gas, I change the oil in these things more than is required and check the level before every use. Before the first rebuild happened, I started a reddit thread about the issues and asking if others were experiencing the same. Of course the cult of Honda said it was my fault, and I'm clearly an idiot. But while the Honda is destroying itself, I'm somehow capable of keeping an ancient John Deere alive. However more comments trickled in over time on that thread with owner's of post-recall Honda HRX's having the same issues with the GCV-200 engine. One got an itemized receipt from his dealer and the cost of the rebuild was well past the price of a new mower. I called my dealer again over the winter about it blowing blue smoke at start up once again and they advised that Honda will fight them tooth and nail to cover the repairs again -- they were already dealing with another customer's mower doing the same thing. I called another dealer a little farther away from me and they gave a similar story. Honda wants to wash their hands of these things. Dealers can say a lot of things, but I've found the Mennonite-owned shops around here aren't the sort to lie.
People are rushing out grabbing the last remaining stock of Honda mowers at big box stores, but I absolutely would not. The five year warranty on the engine is useless.
If yours is running great, I'm definitely happy for you. You got one that wasn't built on a Monday morning or Friday afternoon. My story is a sample size of one, but it definitely soured me on Honda products. My neighbor has an old beat Honda HRX and that thing still puts in work every season without issue.
Oh great. I noticed mine blowing a puff of smoke at startup. I never thought much about that though. Still runs well. 19 hours on it. I like the Hondas and I want to find another HRC216 to have for the long haul.
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Is it blue or white smoke? Mine was smoking like an old outboard motor. My John Deere sometimes smokes a little at start up, but it's largely colorless, and it's also an old engine.
I'll have to look and see. I'm not too sure
I have a 1998 Lawn-Boy 22260 commercial that I restored several years ago. I only used it do the edges of the yard and the spots I can’t reach with the tractor, but it cuts beautifully and I love that 2 cycle sound. No guess as to hours but it was pretty beat up when I got it and didn’t run. Don’t have any pictures of it off hand.
My tractor is a 2000 Cub Cadet 3235. It has just shy of 800 hours on it.
My tractor is a 2000 Cub Cadet 3235. It has just shy of 800 hours on it.
Exmark x-series 38hp Kohler efi with E-GOV. 1500hrs love this machine! Bought new in 2015
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Honda HR214 bought new in April 1989.
Replaced rear wheels 2 years ago because the teeth were gone on the inside of the wheels where the power shaft is.
Pennzoil platinum 5w30 left over from car oil changes. About 6 or 7 rope pulls on 1st start in spring, 1, sometimes 2 the rest of the season.
Good thing it's self propelled, even with an aluminum base, it's heavy.
Hours: About 3 hours a week for about 24 weeks, over 70 hours per year, at 36 years old= more than 2500 hours so far.
Still runs and works like a champ.
Too bad they are ending gas mower production.
Will they still make engines for other mower brands, and are their current last engines as good as the old ones?
A work mate told me they were junk when I bought it. Not really.
Replaced rear wheels 2 years ago because the teeth were gone on the inside of the wheels where the power shaft is.
Pennzoil platinum 5w30 left over from car oil changes. About 6 or 7 rope pulls on 1st start in spring, 1, sometimes 2 the rest of the season.
Good thing it's self propelled, even with an aluminum base, it's heavy.
Hours: About 3 hours a week for about 24 weeks, over 70 hours per year, at 36 years old= more than 2500 hours so far.
Still runs and works like a champ.
Too bad they are ending gas mower production.
Will they still make engines for other mower brands, and are their current last engines as good as the old ones?
A work mate told me they were junk when I bought it. Not really.
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They don't make the mower engines either. When mine needed to be rebuilt, it was all done with parts. In the past they would have just done an engine swap. I think the last of the mowers produced were terrible compared to the older ones. Of course mine had a recall, a rebuild, and was on its way to another rebuild before I got rid of it.
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- Mar 3, 2022
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One of my junker 14's is back from the dead. Needs more work still. Clutch bearings of course are loud. Throttle is sticking also. The plates move freely on the engine. The cable I lubed thoroughly, and it moves freely. But combined together, everything locks up.
JMoney
I have same mower ( ours is 60 inch deck) and engine. We use it as a backup but use it on one lot every week to keep it ready to use should one of our main mowers breakdown. No failures with main mowers so less than 50 hours now.
With 38 HP nothing seems to load the engine down. Starts easy for the one time per week mow from May to October. When purchasing it I was concerned with fuel consumption being high with a 999 cc 38 HP engine but with the fuel injection system it seems to keep fuel consumption on par with our 23 HP carb fed Kawasaki.
What oil and change interval are you using? We use Mobil Delvac 15W-40 CK-4 HDEO with change every fall before storage.
Does your 38 Kohler consume any oil between changes at 1500 hours use?
Take care
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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I installed this vibration activated hour meter on the HRX-217 2 years ago. So far only 13.9 hours mowed in 2 years and now I pay for landscaping, it would take me all day to mow my property with the HRX.
I won't change the oil until it gets to 50 hours though. I think synthetic oil in a mower lasts longer than 50 hours and I doubt any acids or water even in 5 year old oil will cause harm to a Honda engine. The previous oil change was on the original oil after 4 years and Blackstone said it was fine:
"Way to have your Blackstone kit handy! There's nothing too unique about this factory fill of10W/30. The high metals and silicon are from wear-in and sealers/lubes. They'll be expected to wash outand resemble the universal averages for the Honda 200cc (based on 100 hours) after a few oil changes.The viscosity is thin for 10W/30, but it's common for smaller engines to shear their oil. Fuel dilution ispresent at 0.8%, but that's a harmless amount. It can be from taking a cold sample. The TBN is strong at5.5. Check back in about 100 hours for progress."
I won't change the oil until it gets to 50 hours though. I think synthetic oil in a mower lasts longer than 50 hours and I doubt any acids or water even in 5 year old oil will cause harm to a Honda engine. The previous oil change was on the original oil after 4 years and Blackstone said it was fine:
"Way to have your Blackstone kit handy! There's nothing too unique about this factory fill of10W/30. The high metals and silicon are from wear-in and sealers/lubes. They'll be expected to wash outand resemble the universal averages for the Honda 200cc (based on 100 hours) after a few oil changes.The viscosity is thin for 10W/30, but it's common for smaller engines to shear their oil. Fuel dilution ispresent at 0.8%, but that's a harmless amount. It can be from taking a cold sample. The TBN is strong at5.5. Check back in about 100 hours for progress."
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I have a 25 year old cub cadet zforce zero turn that I still use occasionally. The original deck has rusted away and I had to modify a deck from a newer regular mower to make it mow again. Once again it's ready for another electric clutch so you can't mow tall grass with it but at least it runs good.
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