John Deere 285 help

I rebuilt an FD611v which is the follow-on engine to the FD590v and shares many parts in common. I purchased the bulk of my parts from Pete's individually, not as a kit, however. From my research, all the internals, the block, almost everything is the same. The differences with the JD spec'd Kawasaki's are carbs and cranks. Oh, and the price.

BTW - I think Pete's is great, shipping can be a little slow but the price is right.

Yeah, even Kawasaki does the same thing and they make both the engine and the kits. I had to rebuild an FR651V, and after a lot of digging around, I found that Kawasaki makes a gasket set for FR651V, but they don't say anywhere that it actually is for any specific FR651V, so it doesn't show up in parts lists for that engine, and when, say, your dealer pulls up that gasket set, they'll tell you "oh, you shouldn't buy this, as I can't tell you if it's for your specific version of FR651V or not. You should instead buy every gasket and seal individually for your specific version." And what they forget to mention is that buy the bits individually costs more than double...

I found the gasket set had all the gaskets/seals for my engine, with a number of leftover gaskets/seals likely used for other versions.

They like making you doubt if it'll really work, even though it will, so that you'll pony up a bunch of extra money. If you're saving money, they're losing money...

My 285 was stolen in 2017.
I listed the spare parts I have in the "for sale" section.

I gave my tech manual to a member, pay forward, so to speak.


If you have a plastic cam gear NOW is the time to change it

Perk3384 said:

Yeah I HATE thieves! And I’ll check out the spare parts stuff as I need a thing or two. Thanks for the replies guys! Gonna go out and remove a crank pulley and tear down the motor.

Click to expand...

Please PM me if you want anything :tango_face_smile:. You may have to search for threads I started to find the post :tango_face_sad:

Alright took off the motor and my uncle rebuild tractors off all kinds for retirement fun after working in a tractor shop his whole life and recommended I take the block to his marchine shop...he gets “special” treatment so I’m A-ok with that. I ordered a rebuild kit for the deck yesterday....may as well since it’s so old and am gonna have it sandblasted and filled. Next question I’ve searched some here and other sites...to powder coat or paint?? We had a good powder coat place here in BG and I’m not afraid to paint again but not sure how it’ll hold up as a deck. Any thoughts...and yes I know it depends on the prep just curious how others have held up.

Another question for the 285..the transmission looks to be leaking where the transmission splits. Is there a gasket there or is it just a gasket maker? I can’t tell from the Deere website. And if I split this are there any parts I should replace...kinda nervous as never been into a transmission.