last mow

Well I may have mowed the lawn for the last time with the old mower.

My grandfather is moving up to moncton and I am happy to accept his lawn tractor and give it a new home.

The other tractor, now in a working state, will likely go up on kijiji for sale. with full disclosure of problems.

The newer tractor, only a few years old, is a really nice, good working (knock on wood) tractor with the funky cool hydrostatic drive!

can't wait.

Although, the old beast has grown a happy spot in my heart. Its been a pain but its managed to do its best and mow the lawn all summer (well I have had it all summer, mowed it for half the summer.)

We are picking up the newer tractor Saturday. likely just drop it off at my dads for now, and bring it up soon after.

Might have to think about painting a tribute flames on the new tractor. haha.

ok, thing seems to be running

heres the thing, the tractor finally seems to be working.. sort of.

It run, but is still a pain in the butt, but it runs, it cuts, and it mows. which is what its suppose to do.

I got the new cable for the deck lift, and new pulleys.. the pulleys didn't work, they didn't fit right and I couldn't get the actual pulleys anymore because they were a discontinued item.

tried replacement pulleys, but that didn't work, they were slightly bigger, and the cable didn't fit after.
so off when the new pulleys, and on went the old.

now the deck lifts both sides, but only in the lowest setting, because any higher and it will bind up the cable and fling it off.

but thats ok.

Motor still runs poorly, but runs.
need work on the carb. the choke is all messed up, you can play with it about an inch without it moving the cable. yes that messed up.

if I don't get my grandfathers tractor in the next couple of months, I will tear it apart and get a new choke thingie for it. then maybe it will work constantly.

right now if I hit a hill or turn or do anything odd, I have to have my hand on the choke ready. cuz it will start to stall, pull the choke till it starts to die again (meaning I am past whatever it didn't like and decided to stall on) and then let the choke out again and continue on till the next thing it doesn't like, or angle, or turn. or whatever. its stubborn.

The motor only works on very slow. meaning I can't crank the revs up any to keep it running strong for any length of time. It overheats. so I have the run setting just above, stall. so it just clanks along at low revs. good thing its 18 hp so that it can handle the long grass it usually has to contend with.. I am talking almost hay here people.

Which brings me to the last thing. It works. starts, runs, drives, mows. cuts grass. thats what I wanted. and now, fall is here, and the jeep clubs fall crawl is ending right here at my house, for a party and camping for out of towners or drunkards. the lawn, will be reasonable in height, thanks to this mower.

Good little cursed mower.

Like almost everything in my life, it was easy to get, hard to get going, and a pain in the ass to keep. haha.

well finally got out and finished

its more of a "d0n't have alot of time thing" but the lawn is finally completely mowed.
and needs to be start over again, but its not 3 feet tall (no exaggeration) anywheres anymore! But its long for a lawn again and needs to be mowed again.

Mower is working, for the most part, I really hope gramp offers up his mower. I am half tempted to sorta ask for it. I need it, this mower is in constant need of supervision to keep working, just driving it on level ground usually intales constant adjustment of the choke... gets annoying, I understand why steeve got tired of using it. If gramp doesn't offer up his mower, I will be taking it somewhere for a good tune up, and to have the choke fixed. so that it runs smooth and long for a while. right now I am pretty sure it overheats and you must keep the revs down as much as you can. still waiting on the pulleys, he has the cable but the pulleys are still no show, will be seeing him next week to see if they came in yet.

But it mowed the lawn. thats what it was suppose to do, and it did it, and with 3 foot grass, I am happy that it could. hopefully now it can just work easy and mow just a clipping off with a heavy tuff here and there.

Maybe.

Lawn is almost mowed

Well last weekend I finally got the mower working well enough to use, and use it I did!!

The lawn is now 85 percent mowed for the first time this summer.

now all the mower needs is a cable and plastic pulleys to lift the front of the mower deck.
Right now I have it tied up to make it work. it was binding the main belt as well. it doesn't like being at that angle.

The pulleys and cable are on back order unfortuneately.

Oh and turning down the revs seems to have helped a lot at keeping the mower running.
I mowed through most of the 2 to 3 foot grass until in the last chunk the mower didn't want to run anymore. I haven't tried it yet since. and I likely won't for a little while.. super super busy!!

In fact I am almost a week late printing this. haha.

till later

Oh and the pulley!

The pulley forgot to mention.
It was falling off, the bolts came loose and only two of the 5 remained, and they were almost off, it was binding because it was falling off. haha. 5 new bolts, a wrench and that was fixed.

On with the Tractor Show

Ok, deck needs a cable to lift the front of it.
and a couple of plastic pulleys for that cable.

No biggy.


How to get around this till the back ordered pieces come in? Hummmm. maybe wire it up.
Got some wire, found a good place on both sides to hook it, raised it, added wire to hold it, (kinda like super strong twist tie. haha) and blam, it works, lets take it for a spin.

Got out in the yard, started the blades! Success! Lets cut some crass...

Ten Minutes later

Humm. the engine isn't running well again, have to pull out choke to keep it running. Oh well.

2 minutes after that.

Hummm. engine is running crappy and has stalled a couple times. Seems really warm.
Mower works, when it works.
Is it overheating??
Maybe. I did adjust it, maybe its reving too high? Has oil? Fun! the oil is steaming. that can't be good.
We are so close to a working mower. Time to get the push mower out and do some more by hand. Trying to wack some of it down, its about 2 feet now, higher in spots, its closer to hay at the moment. haha.

Well I will have to try to adjust it so that it runs better and a lower RPM.
But if you have been following along, I don't know F-All about engines. especially small simple ones appearantly.

On with the Show.

on to the mower deck

ok got the tractor working, fairly well, it runs, moves and all that.

Next was to put on the mower deck, had it working for a while, but then it threw the belt off.

noticed that one of the guards on the pulley was bent down.
so I bent it back up and it was rubbing so after some creative bending it is in place with no rubbing and the pulley is rolling free.

so I took it for a drive, the belt is still incredibly loose, but works, but for some reason the deck seems to be binding or grinding, like the pulley is stuck or something, and because of this is stalls out the mower when I try to run the blades.

So besides getting a smaller belt.. I believe... I think I have to figure out why the deck seems to be stiff or something. its very odd.

seems to be the only thing now. then I will have a fairly good working mower.. fairly.. its got its quirks but it works..

Oh and the alternator is shot. won't charge the batter and no lights.
don't care if the rest works. haha.