Restoring John Deere 212 & John Deere 214

MikMan48 · May 10, 2015

Man what a neat thread! Not many people tackle 2 restos at the same time. You are doing great keep it up!

On the decals, i say choose whatever makes you happy they are your machines 95% of people would have no clue

I can't help but think tho, 3 of the same looking tractor, trying to hide the total number from the Mrs maybe

:sidelaugh

Keep it up

SillyTractorFace · May 10, 2015

MikMan48 said:
I can't help but think tho, 3 of the same looking tractor, trying to hide the total number from the Mrs maybe :sidelaugh

Lol yea I can assure you she wasnt very happy when I told her "hey, im going to go pick up two garden tractors for 600$" She would have much rather seen me put that money towards something else... I did manage to win her over by buying them under the pretenses that I will go through them fix everything wrong with them and sell them.... sadly to say I dont want to sell them! lol you can never have enough toys in your toy box. just however now I do need a bigger box!

mopar65pa · May 10, 2015

SillyTractorFace said:
Lol yea I can assure you she wasnt very I did manage to win her over by buying them under the pretenses that I will go through them fix everything wrong with them and sell them.... sadly to say I dont want to sell them! lol you can never have enough toys in your toy box. just however now I do need a bigger box!

yep one you put that much love into something it's tough to let it go.

SillyTractorFace · May 10, 2015

its sad ... at my house i have 5 garden tractors .. at my fathers I have 2 lawn tractors .. and my grandmothers i have one sitting there lol all run ... well .. never did fire up grannies but its been winterized for a long time .. probably needs a battery .. all the old stuff is at my house .. I do need to repair my oh140 though .. darn solid state ignition module went .. probably fix that one after the 212 and 214 project. currently blacking out the frame of the 214 while the left side console panel dries on the 212 muh ahahahahaha :fing32:

mopar65pa · May 10, 2015

SillyTractorFace said:
its sad ... at my house i have 5 garden tractors .. at my fathers I have 2 lawn tractors .. and my grandmothers i have one sitting there lol all run ... well .. never did fire up grannies but its been winterized for a long time .. probably needs a battery .. all the old stuff is at my house .. I do need to repair my oh140 though .. darn solid state ignition module went .. probably fix that one after the 212 and 214 project. currently blacking out the frame of the 214 while the left side console panel dries on the 212 muh ahahahahaha :fing32:

DANG! and I thought I collected stuff. BUT I guess my 8 trucks and 3 cars on my property plus the 3 tractors is a lot. At least my wife thinks so anyway.

SillyTractorFace · May 11, 2015

Its a shame sunday came to a close but the 212 is 80% finished. She has one of the side panels on .. the rear fender .. foot grips .. pedals .. seat ... oh and i cut some grass with it .. the best part is .. the stator now loads the battery ... turns out the previous owner did some wire chopping with lots of connectors and crap ... so its mechanically .. and electrically correct .. ready for service .. what i still have left to do is fix a spot on the right side panel .. install the tail lights .. wire the tail lights .. fix the headlight harness i dont know why but that bulb harness always has issues where you have to wiggle the wires .. my 216 has that problem all the time. I still have to take the wheels off and paint those .. need to take the tires off and strip the paint that tards that dont do it right always over spray the tires and just loooks soooo crappy... take the time if you cant take the rubber off tape off the wheel or remove the tire common people in the end it looks soooo much better ... my 216 looks amazing .. the yellow over spray from previous owners painting wheels is killing my 212 T.T lol anyway thats my rant ... heres pictures hope you guys have a nice start to another week and more progress to follow specially for the 214!

littletractorguy · May 11, 2015

Looking good! :thThumbsU

(You're gonna be done so quick, you won't know what to do with yourself after! You should come on by, I got some things that'd keep you busy! :sidelaugh)

SillyTractorFace · May 11, 2015

littletractorguy said:
Looking good! :thThumbsU

(You're gonna be done so quick, you won't know what to do with yourself after! You should come on by, I got some things that'd keep you busy! :sidelaugh)

I have that problem once I undertake a project I cannot do anything else until its finished. I'm not sure if its a mental disorder or what I've had the 212 one week from monday to monday and its already progressed that far... im waiting on a carb rebuild kit for the k321 for the 214 ... once i have that ill strip down the engine paint her shielding drop it back in .. but I've been trying to diagnose my electrical issue on the 214 ... I have no power going to anything when I put 12v to the positive terminal and ground to the console. I am literally at wits end on that one. Once I figure that one out. its ready to assemble as the frames painted .. the hood grill side panels and hood support is all painted .. would just have console and rear fender faring to paint. probably do all eight wheels and tires at the same time lol that way i only have to pay the guys who will break down my wheels and tires once lol ... and i forgot about that pesky rear axle seal .. need to get a picture of that .. cause this thing is leaking it everywhere D:

SillyTractorFace · May 11, 2015

the left axle on the 214 ... talk about a leak ... im not sure if my axle itself has worn so far down its seeping or just the seal .. I do have 3 other rear ends I can tear apart ... probably take the axle shaft housing off which has the seal and swap them see if that fixes it. So axle issue ... no electrical power at all .. and being unable to turn the engine over because there was such a huge mouse nest inside the blower shroud it stopped the starter and flywheel.(removed engine to correct that problem)

So now my problems are that I know of : Axle, Electrical, Carburetor.

SillyTractorFace · May 12, 2015

My original plan was to come home and work on the 214 ... sadly shes still on the back slab as my carburetor rebuild kit still hasnt gotten here yet ... postal system really dropped the ball on that one. So i came home and proceeded to get the lighting operational on the 212. Which i should have known that the little manual pull style light switch was fried... need to buy a toggle tomorrow ... but did manage to work the kinks out of that problematic headlight harness and get the headlight wiring to work. Installed the rear lights .. still have to run wire from the console to the rear to be able to power them. tomorrows job i suppose ... i did take off one of the wheels and paint it ... 3 to go. maybe tomorrow it will be 100% complete.... we'll see lol ... fixed the right side panel .. and installed that too ...

SillyTractorFace · May 13, 2015

Ended up painting the right rear wheel today and also today was officially the 212's first day of actual use. Had her loaded on the trailer with the 216 to go cut two yards ... 212 did the blunt of the work until i noticed an itsy bitsy problem... doesn't cut level. so the 216 finished up the front and the other property. As i didn't have my leveling gauge with me nor the tool to adjust the right hand hanger. I did get the toggle installed for the headlights and the tail lights are LED and are like running lights they're on when the ignition is on. they have like a .5 amp current draw not even enough for the amp gauge to even detect lol I did however have a nasty occurrence while i was using the 212.. I was on a slope and hit a slight bump and the tractor died ... turned pto off .. ignition off .. ignition to run position got absolutely nothing on the amperage gauge ... opened the hood .. the bump knocked my ground terminal off the battery LOL pushed it back on and vroom back to work lol

javjacob · May 13, 2015

Those are beautiful machines you have there. If the wife throws too much of a fit just sell 1 but not both. Tell her 1 is a back up. Of course keep all 3 if you can. I really like the old style decal on the 212 and the 216 is just plain cool.

mopar65pa · May 14, 2015

:thThumbsU

SillyTractorFace · May 17, 2015

I've been kinda dragging on the two restorations due to tuesday evening in the middle of the night I had a weird seizure type thing that happend due to a low glucose count or what ever the heck that is. in and out of doctors offices all the rest of the week .. feel like I got hit by train. anyway enough about that ... I did however try to get some seat time in on the 212 ... managed to level the deck .. still dont have the two front wheels painted. For every step forward it seems to be taking 3 steps back ... I used it for a little while .. then the wire the goes from the ignition switch to the hot side of the coil came apart. fixed that ... then she stopped pumping fuel .. luckily i had another pump .. put it on and it seemed to fix that... at the time .. then using it again later this evening it starts starving for fuel again will only run with choke applied .. even then its still struggling for fuel.. so ordered yet another fuel pump .. the original one that came off the 212 the little rubber one way flaps were rusted to **** .. i could tell that pump was shot.. however the pump I replaced it with has great internals but after a while seems to just stop pumping is that possible? or could it be something more sinister.. open to ideas and comments. on another note in the process of trying to get the fuel back into the bowl I cooked my already weak solenoid ... and my starter wont "pop" the starter gear up .. to the flywheel .. i'll put some wd40 on that tonight see if it frees up .. so todays parts ... solenoid .. fuel pump .. have the missing pieces for the 214 engine weather permitting i'll button up her block and get it ready to put into place. waiting on a solenoid of that too LOL

1K260 · May 17, 2015

Glad to hear you're ok. Secondly....nice quick turnaround on the deere's.....nice job.

As far as the fuel, I would check the fuel filter, maybe try cleaning out the float bowl, carb passages etc.

Herd of Deeres · May 17, 2015

if you haven't replaced the petcock setup in the fuel tank it may be time. There is a screen on the inside that can get fouled over time and plug up fuel flow.

SillyTractorFace · May 18, 2015

Herd of Deeres said:
if you haven't replaced the petcock setup in the fuel tank it may be time. There is a screen on the inside that can get fouled over time and plug up fuel flow.

Yea, had to replace that on the 216, I just assumed as it was getting fuel initially it was fine. Appears I may have been wrong I had some old carburetor 90 degree elbows and a screen from a gravely zero turn saddle tank I made my own little screen with a 90 degree carb elbow and did a delete on that fuel shut off valve. then proceeded to cut some grass one of three things was either going to happen. 1 .. I was going to finish. 2... I was going to run it out of fuel. or 3... it would fail again. I managed to finish before these nasty storms got too close. Pulled out the 216 as I finished up a couple yards with it yesterday when the 212 failed .. she was all kinds of nasty.. ended up finishing one in the rain.. so cleaned the 212 .. and 216.. I never recall my 216 being as moody as this 212 lol hope the 214 has a great personality like my 216. So if that kink is worked out of the 212 the list to complete is as follows
1. Solenoid (as I cooked the old one trying to constantly restart)
2. Paint left and right front wheel (been procrastinating)
The 214's Engine is all buttoned up and ready to install back in its frame .. Hopefully weather permitting I can do that in the beginning of the week most of the sheet metal is ready on that one .. the hood side panels grill support and frame are all ready .. I have to paint the console and fender pan on the tractor because I can never seem to install either without scratching those two pieces to kitty kibble.

SillyTractorFace · May 19, 2015

This evening was definitely a 214 based evening. Got the K321 sitting pretty in the frame .. did some inner trim out of the console .. a little wiring work .. new ignition switch is installed (still havnt turned the engine over with the 214's electrical system) I have spun the engine with the starter while it was out of the tractor. but somewhere in that electrical something is dead. turn the key and nothing .. even did a bypass on neutral safety switch thinking that was the culprit . the 212 got her two front paws painted yellow.

200 · May 19, 2015

Looking good!! You make it look so easy because of how quickly you're going. I've got a 200 and a 212 that I've been wanting to do for years. I guess I need to stop procrastinating. Did you check into the PTO safety switch? I love my old tractors, but there is always something that needs attention, maybe that's why I like them so much. Anyways, keep up the good work.

SillyTractorFace · May 19, 2015

200 said:
Looking good!! You make it look so easy because of how quickly you're going. I've got a 200 and a 212 that I've been wanting to do for years. I guess I need to stop procrastinating. Did you check into the PTO safety switch? I love my old tractors, but there is always something that needs attention, maybe that's why I like them so much. Anyways, keep up the good work.

I have never actually seen a 200 or 208 in person. Which all I need for the rest of my collection is a 210 .. 208 and 200 lol I bypassed all the safety switches at the ignition switch to trouble shoot.... I cannot get power anywhere in the harness.. even by passed that old style fuse they have .. im not sure if I have a broken hot line from the solenoid in the harness that goes to the ammeter then the ignition .. or what. out of desperation I have a solenoid coming for that one as well .. so the 212 will get a new soli . .and the 214 will also. call it preventive maintenance. May just buy a few spools of wire and rewire the entire tractor .. the time im spending trying to locate the issue probably could have finished the rewire at this point.

Restoring John Deere 212 & John Deere 214

MikMan48

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mopar65pa

SillyTractorFace

mopar65pa

SillyTractorFace

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littletractorguy

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javjacob

mopar65pa

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1K260

Herd of Deeres

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200

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