Rising from the brink of the scrap heap...

[440Magnum]

A while back, I bought a 28-horse Ferris zero-turn mower for the farm that belonged to my parents (mentioned in another thread here). We have an off-site tenant growing crops on the land, and a caretaker that mows the grounds regularly, so the Zero-Turn saves on hours billed by the caretaker and makes it possible for me to get the place mowed in less than a whole weekend when I do it.

Prior to that, the caretaker had been continuing to use Dad's tired JD LX-173 lawn tractor from the mid/late 90s. The downtime had been going up and up, I got more and more calls needing pieces and parts. The hood had long ago been smashed off (by Dad hitting a tree, actually).

When I took the Ferris out to the farm, I loaded up the JD and planned to pretty much scrap it. But I got to looking, and between Deere, Kohler, and Ebay parts for it were available and not too high. The Kohler engine ran like new... AFTER I figured out that the screaming wail at idle was a seizing bearing in the PTO clutch. So one new PTO clutch, a new set of belts, grease the mower deck bearings, and an Ebay hood... and I have a serviceable (if tired) tractor for mowing the vacant lot by my house.



The 15-horse 426cc Kohler (note P1 filter- same P/N as my wife's PT Cruiser uses):

 

[MolaKule]

I for one am glad you kept it.

Looks very nice!

 

[Brybo86]

those ramps are a great idea to keep moisture off of the tires

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Brybo86
those ramps are a great idea to keep moisture off of the tires


If you park your mower on ramps, you might be a redneck...

But solves the ramp storage problem and elevates the tires/deck off the ground.

Of course the final solution is a new storage building, which I'll start building later this year. That'll also get the push mowers, weed whacker, and chainsaws out of my garage.

 

[jeepman3071]

Glad you kept it! Those are nice mowers and will run forever. I've been looking for one similar as a fixer upper, but even non-running ones go for around $600. In this area, that is easily an 800-1000 dollar tractor.

 

[A_Harman]

Oddly enough, I just spent about 8 hours last Saturday doing heavy maintenance on my MTD 17.5-horse mower. The steering gears were worn out, and skipping teeth, making mowing very frustrating, so I went over to Tractor Supply, and bought a new shaft, sector gear, and bushing. I ended up having to remove the mowing deck altogether to get access to the shaft screw. Since I was so deep into it, I decided to do a full tuneup on the mower, and leveled the deck, did an oil change (VR1 10w30), changed the oil, fuel, and air filters, and replaced the leaky fuel line. I actually looked forward to mowing the lawn on Monday. The more accurate steering made it almost like driving a little sports car on a road course that changes every lap. Almost.

 

[SatinSilver]

I was picturing something much worse than that when I clicked on this thread.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: satinsilver
I was picturing something much worse than that when I clicked on this thread.


You are looking at the "after" pictures... the smashed and broken hood alone made it pretty forlorn. But the PTO clutch and idler bearings were the biggest problems- still gotta track down one or more idlers or blade hubs that're making more noise than they should.

There's also a 1966 JD 110 still stored on the farm. Dad used it up until the early 90s when a piston ring cracked (I don't know how many hundred hours I logged myself on that thing as a kid...) All the pieces are there, covered in dust and with a little bit of surface rust. I did some research and found out that the 1963 JD 110 was the very first "garden tractor" ever sold and more-or-less created the concept, and that all of the 110's (especially the ones with metal rounded fenders made through '68) are mildly collectible. That's got me thinking I might turn it into a little mini-resto project. I'm getting the itch again- its been almost 10 years since I finished the major work on my '69 R/T, and my daughter is off to college now. Gotta have something to keep me out of trouble...

FWIW- this is what a 110 (not mine...) looks like: