My new toy/project.

I did a little playing with it today. The engine wasn't stuck like the previous owner thought, the primary deck belt was rusted to the engine pulley. I loosened it up, poored a little gas down the carb, it fired right up. I need to put on a muffler, the old one is missing. I need to install a new dipstick and tube, the old dipstick is missing, and the tube is broken. I need to find out why the deck blades won't spin freely. (I think it's a stuck idler pulley.) I put some gas in the tank, started it up, and did a little playing around to figure out the transmission. For those of you not familiar with the transmission on one of these, it has a two speed transmission (1 Foward and 1 Reverse.) with a high and low range. It keeps popping out of reverse before it even moves the machine. I'll have to disassemble the transmission and see what part(s) I need to fix/replace or try to fabricate. Someone welded the "mounting" arms to the shaft on the front axle. Originally there are 2 set screws on each one so you can rotate the arms which adjust the back side of the mowing deck. One side is rotated about 2" higher than the other. I'll need to grind the welds to loosen the "mounting" arms. These "mounting" arms need to come off if you want to take the front wheels off. I need to get one of the wheels off because the tire goes flat in about 10 minutes. I'll try to get pictures tomorrow to show what I'm talking about. I don't think that it will be pushing too much snow with it. I doesn't seem to have very much weight on the back. I'm almost positive that my 6 year old daughter could push down on the deck and bring the back wheels off the ground. But I'm also sure that the plow is lighter than the deck. If we ever get any snow, I will use it to push the snow unless it is about 3" deep, then I'll use my rider with the blower attachment. Even with the things wrong with it, I don't regret it one bit. It'll be my conversation piece.

Here are a few pictures I took today while working on this mower. There's a picture of the plow, a couple of pictures of the "Arms" at the wrong angle. The "Arms" and the axle are notched for a key. They are missing and I imagined that is why someone welded them. The one weld broke loose, so I pulled the pin and tapped the "Arm" in to grind the excess weld. On the other side, I ground it flat and tapped the "Arm" with a hammer clockwise to break the rest of the weld loose.

I took the transmission off yesterday, and took the transmission apart somewhat, the "dogs" (I believe that is the correct term, if not correct me.) is worn on the reverse gear. I thought of switching it with the foward gear, but they both spin in the clockwise position when you look at either gear facing you. So I put it aside and started working on my racing mower. (Nothing fancy.) I come up with a plan today for the the repair. I have plenty of space to add metal and weld it to the worn side of both dogs. First I thought, "How am I going to hold the metal in there, and have both pieces 180 degrees from each other? I cut a piece of 1/8" thick metal just long enough to reach across both sides to the inside. I welded a nut to the center of the metal so I could tighten it to the gear and wouldn't have to worry about anything moving while I'm trying to weld it. Once it was welded, then I would cut the excess off the top, then use a 5/8" drill from the back side of the gear to cut out the center for the shaft. I got it pretty much where I want it, and it was starting to get a little cold out and my little girl wanted a ride on the racing mower. So I put it away for the day. Later I got to thinking and I bet the angle is wrong beause it doesn't match where the worn part of the dogs are. I think what I'm going to do is this, measure how high the new piece needs to be, cut it down to size, then bend the ends a little so it matches the dogs on the shift coupler. Because that is what it will be riding against. Well, tomorrow is another day.

There is no number on the gear, just the word EATON. I haven't found a number on the case either. I need to clean the case better, but I don't want to clean it while it is apart. Soon as it warms up around here, I'll do some more looking at it. (Basically putting it back together and cleaning the case.)