Restoring an old Murray/MTD

[38racing]

looks like my 1985 800 series. That rod from front grill to dash is supposed to be straight. Mower might have been involved in a head-on.

[D-Dogg]

Originally Posted by Johntodd

OK, what about reusing the engine? 18HP could be useful.

I tried to give away one which needed a carb job. No takers.

[Johntodd]

Originally Posted by D-Dogg

I tried to give away one which needed a carb job. No takers.

In all fairness, you should have sold it cheap. "Free" sometimes doesn't work out.

[D-Dogg]

Originally Posted by Johntodd

In all fairness, you should have sold it cheap. "Free" sometimes doesn't work out.

Yeah, Gary said the same thing. Should have listed it for $100 and let them talk me down to $50. Go figure. Probably would have worked.

[willy1430]

Originally Posted by rhenning

Murray and MTD are two different companies neither of which have ever made many great mowers in their days. Murray is out of business I believe and MTD owns almost everything else. My advice having done this for years is it will not be cheap to do what you a planning. As a learning experience it will be great. If you have a tech college in your area that would be the first place I would try to see if they have course that will teach you what you need. Putting a dozer blade on the front will take the transmission out in a short time. These mowers were built to be disposable and last about 5 to 10 years maximum. Start reading everything you can here and expect this to be a money pit but a good learning experience. Pictures of what you have would help you get answers. Roger

Murray is owned by Briggs Mtd does not realy own that many other brands. Depends on what kind of trans axle it has on how long it will last.

[38racing]

Originally Posted by willy1430

Murray is owned by Briggs Mtd does not realy own that many other brands. Depends on what kind of trans axle it has on how long it will last.

mtd , not many?
mtd, yardman, yard machines, troybilt, bolens, cub cadet , white outdoor, columbia

it's it's an 800 series like mine the transaxle is 4 speed and designed to handle ground engaging implements

[Johntodd]

Originally Posted by 38racing

it's it's an 800 series like mine the transaxle is 4 speed and designed to handle ground engaging implements

How can I tell? The serial #'s seem to have weathered away...don't know where to look for other numbers.

[D-Dogg]

Originally Posted by 38racing

mtd , not many?
mtd, yardman, yard machines, troybilt, bolens, cub cadet , white outdoor, columbia

it's it's an 800 series like mine the transaxle is 4 speed and designed to handle ground engaging implements

Which 800 series do you have with a 4 speed transaxle? The one the OP shows has a one speed with a belt drive variator.

[38racing]

Originally Posted by D-Dogg

Which 800 series do you have with a 4 speed transaxle? The one the OP shows has a one speed with a belt drive variator.

You've got good eyes to see that from the pics. Lots of it looked like my 800
Maybe his is 700. Mine is 44 inch deck and I see now his is 46. My book show 46 available for 700 series from 1988 onward.
Mine is 145-832
IPL is here
http://search.cartserver.com/search/...-832&go=Search!

OP might want to look at this IPL for 136-744
http://search.cartserver.com/search/...36-7&go=Search!

but it's not the one speed variator either.

[D-Dogg]

Originally Posted by 38racing

You've got good eyes to see that from the pics. Lots of it looked like my 800
Maybe his is 700. Mine is 44 inch deck and I see now his is 46. My book show 46 available for 700 series from 1988 onward.
Mine is 145-832
IPL is here
http://search.cartserver.com/search/...-832&go=Search!

OP might want to look at this IPL for 136-744
http://search.cartserver.com/search/...36-7&go=Search!

but it's not the one speed variator either.

WOw, I thought all the late 80s, through 90s 800s had variators. Learn something every day. I figured maybe you were talking about the old 860 which did have a pretty heavy transmission.

[joshockey]

i have a few of these mtd gts and i personally love em i would first check to see if theres fluid in the trans and go from there take the shrouding off the motor clean the fins and make sure the motor turns over by hand. if it doesnt slowly rock it back and fourth till it frees or take the motor off an fully go thru it, im going to follow this thread. good luck also if you need hoods tires etc check around i have all of the things to restore that best but im a good distance from ya.everybody has there own method of freeing motors i use alot of different things depending on the situation. when i get motor s i always pull the sumps to look at the internals i double check everything and i have more than a dozen 18hp twins excellant made motor and i bet that one is still good.

[austinado16]

Cool Find!

I love these big all steel MTD's. Here's a link to my thread about the one I dragged home for $50 back in Jan. http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=219343

I certainly wouldn't avoid bringing yours home, but there's one BIG red flag that could be a deal breaker; The air cleaner cover is missing and there's debris down in the carb throat. It's possible that water and other stuff has gotten down into the engine. If that's true, the engine may have a cylinder, or both cylinders, that are rusted solid....locking the engine up.

So your first steps will be:
-Use a shop vac and suck all that crud out of the carb throat.
-Take the entire hood/nose/sides off so you can easily work on the entire engine.
-Get a can of Kroil or PB Blaster, and spray a ton of it down the carb throat.
-Remove both spark plugs and spray more Kroil or PB down into the cylinders.
-Let the penetrant soak in for a while......hours, days....etc.
-See if the engine will rotate by hand. Might be easiest if you take the screen off and put a socket on the big flywheel bolt. Rotate the engine (or attempt to rotate it) slowly in both directions. Sort of a rocking motion. Go back and forth until you can get a full revolution out of the engine.
-If you can get a smooth revolution out of the engine, you're making huge progress.

-You can next try to spin the engine on the starter. To do this, I'll take a good battery or a jumper box, and jump from the good battery negative terminal, right to something bare metal on the engine. Next, I connect my jumper battery or jump box's positive terminal to the big cable on the engine's starter. I usually just go directly to the nut on the starter where the starter cable is bolted. This immediately gives a spark and the starter engages, so be ready for that. The engine should begin cranking over rapidly, and all that Kroil/PB Blaster should be spraying out of the spark plug holes all over you.

-If you successfully make it this far, you may wind up with a running engine after a bit more work.

-Do a compression test next, and with wide open throttle, you should get over 100psi in each cylinder. If you have good compression, it's probably going to be a runner.

-Change the oil, and then start making progress toward starting it for real.

There's still quite a bit more work to be done in order to actually start the engine, but you're getting close if it's gone well to this point.