Howard Price 422

[Bees861]

I recently purchased a Howard Price Trail Blazer 422. I believe it was built in 1987 by the Howard Price Company near St. Louis,Mo. The engine is a Kubota 4 cylinder. I have the manuals that I could get online.
My questions:
1.) Engine ID. How do I go about finding out which specfic Kubota engine this is?
2.) Amp Meter doesn't function. Any advise on wiring this up?
3.) Throttle cable has been rigged. In the owners manual it calls for a shut off solenoid (which I have in a box of parts-removed by the previous owner) but I have no idea how to re-connect it. Currently I have to choke it to stop the engine.
4.) Diesel engine oil. Does it always look so black? I'm new to diesels so I'm not if the used oil should be so black. I change the oil with Rotella T and just after one mowing it was jet black. Does this indicate a problem or normal?

I'm new to this forum (as you can tell by all the questions). I hope to have pictures of this mower online soon.

Thanks for your input.

[Herb Cargill]

Re Howard Price 422
Kubota engines have the model and serial number stamped into the enginge block where the injection pump is bolted, the upper right hand front corner of the engine.
I don't know how a person chokes a diesel to shut it off. Older Kubota engines had a manual fuel shut off lever instead of and electric solenoid activated by the key switch.
Diesel engine oil turns black in normal operation. It is very high detergent and is blackened by the carbon residue left from combustion. The critical part of diesel engine oil is that it be a "C" classification oil. Shell Rotella has an API circle on the container and within that circle will be the letters "CC"" or "CD" Those oils are for compression fired engines and have the high detergent specifications required. The "S" designations are for spark fired engines. "C" will work in both but not "S" To prove the high detergent quality of these oils, wash your greasy hands in a little clean diesel engine oil sometime.
I hope this helps. Herb

[Ken in NJ]

:Welcome1: Bees861

[Bees861]

Thanks for shining some light onto the topic Herb. I will search again for the numbers. The owners manual Howard Price part # is 04-231 its a 22HP 4cyl kubota.

Thanks for the oil info. I used the correct oil.

The choke that I used to shut off the engine is attached to the same piece that the thottle is attached to. I pull the cable, it blows smoke, coughs, hacks and shuts down. I'm not that familiar with diesels, but I'm sure it's not healthly for it and I would like to repair it. I could be wrong in using the term "choke". The manual shows a shut off solenoid leading to a linkage rod that leads to the throttle cable bracket. I don't know if this solenoid just shuts down a gate to the fuel or how it works. Regardless, the solenoid is not on and I would like to get it back to original specs.

This mower was a complete mess when I first bought it. The engine was covered in gunk, no grease in any of the fittings, electrical was a shambles, but it ran like a top. I repaired all of the body flaws, cracks in the decks, repainted the entire thing, etc. I replaced all the grease zirts and put the grease where it was supposed to be instead of just dobs on the fittings. I replaced all fluids, filters etc. I repaired the radiator and replaced the old hard seat.
This thing will mow knee high grass without a thought. It just flat out runs great. I do wish it would start easier and shut down easier. I would like to re-wire the entire thing but Howard Price thinks highly of the harnesses and they want a whopping $300-400 each and it requires two! I can't afford that.

I think is one of the first rear steering zero-turn commercial mowers.

Thanks again for the input.

[Bees861]

Ken, thanks for the welcome. I have looked around at other forums but didn't think the others could provide me with any useful info on my rare Howard Price Mower. This board looks like it has the most knowledgeable people around so I thought I would join up and ask my questions. :trink39:

[bontai Joe]

:Welcome1: Glad to have you here. As to the price of the wiring harnesses, people complain about Deere prices, but that's just unreasonable for a wiring harness. I wish I had some answers for you, but I just wanted to say "Hi".