Grassroots LawnTractorSports

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Wow that's a nice tractor. With the price of the entry level one though a Husqvarna X450 might be the actual answer I'm looking for.

Well, I bought the 318 last night. Sweet machine, built like a freaking tank, and I'm sure it could outlast me with proper care. 

In reply to Furious_E :

Excellent!  Hope it works well for you.  Will be curious to hear about your experiences.  When I bought my Simplicity I was told it was the same class of machine as a 318, size/ design-wise.  

Racing lawn mower - $700 (Byron)

In reply to Gasoline :

I love having plastic jugs full of highly flammable liquids mounted right below my crotch!

I am an idiot. 

So, that muffler issue I was having in my first post... The entire muffler essentially sits in a cage/housing. That housing bolts to the frame. There was a bolt missing, causing it to droop down. The exhaust pipe just slip fits into the muffler hole (no welding required), and when it has ALL THE BOLTS, it works as it should.  I dipped into my magic bolt bucket, found something that worked, and bolted it back on correctly. So yeah, that problem is solved. 

Next problem is getting it to stay running. I need a new battery, but was able to charge it enough to get it to crank and start. Once it was running, I was test driving it for about a minute or so, and it stalled. Then, it would crank and crank until the battery died again.

Would a weak battery cause it to stall? It was getting fuel and all that, and the plug was new last season. Would low voltage cause spark to fall off?

I have a JD L110 bottom of the line.  Share it with my dad, who used to mow the common area of the neighborhood where there were a lot of 2" sapling stumps. 

Repairs:

Weld some torn off tabs on the deck, add some extra bracing.

Strip the deck paint, Rust Bullet, and new yellow.

Modified the deck height assembly so it has a range better for my yard.

Replaced the blade towers twice.

New seat

Replaced both front axles, due to wheel bushings wearing the axles down.

Wheel bearing upgrade,

New tie rods

Steering pinion gear

Carb rebuild

Belts of course. Batteries. Blades, Front tires.

Last year the motor got a rod knock (about 800 hours), so I bought a 300 hour longblock motor on Ebay and replaced it. Runs great and oil looks great.  Still have the old motor, haven't decided what to do with it.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Once the engine is running, the internal dynamo ought to provide enough juice for the spark.  If you were able to crank it after it stalled, it had enough juice to make spark, anyway.  

Sometimes the coils get intermittent shorts that can cause difficulty in diagnosing a stall problem.  Have you been able to get it to fire since?  

Also, check the choke and see if it's sticking.  

Tony Sestito said:

Next problem is getting it to stay running. I need a new battery, but was able to charge it enough to get it to crank and start. Once it was running, I was test driving it for about a minute or so, and it stalled. Then, it would crank and crank until the battery died again.

Would a weak battery cause it to stall? It was getting fuel and all that, and the plug was new last season. Would low voltage cause spark to fall off?

 

Had a similar sounding situation last year. Older battery but it would charge to over 12V. Started and ran but would shut off after a few minutes. DVOM time. Fuel shutoff solenoid (carb bowl) was only at 7V running, dunno the minimum spec but was rated 12V. Coulda been weak ignition as that works off batt too. Still think it was fuel shutoff tho. Replaced battery w/ new and no problems since. 

The battery fixed it! 

I picked up a new battery last weekend, and after cranking for a bit, it fired right up. More importantly, it STAYED running. It actually runs great now! I am guessing the voltage weirdness had to do with the stalling. I mowed my lawn with it Monday night, and I dragged a thatcher and an aerator behind it last night in an attempt to resurrect a good portion of my lawn. 

More impressive is that lawnmower on the left. It's a mid-1990's Toro that my dad bought from a Toro dealer he used to work for. He was given a brand new Ariens machine right when I moved into my house, and he passed it down to me. It has a 6HP engine, a cast aluminum deck, and 3 forward gears. It used to have a guarantee that it will start with the first pull for the first 5 years of ownership. I think he got it in 1996. 22 years later, it still starts on the first pull! I don't think it's ever had an oil change or a new plug, but I'm afraid to mess with greatness.  My dad actually picked up a slightly newer "Personal Pace" Toro recently because he missed this one so much. 

If you happen upon a great lawnmower, never let it go. 

I recently discovered echo makes a blade conversion kit for my weed-eater. Pretty stoked about that.

poopshovel again said:

I recently discovered echo makes a blade conversion kit for my weed-eater. Pretty stoked about that.

I have that kit on my Echo weed eater. You’re going to have a blast with it. It’ll go through 3” diameter saplings like butter

Wayslow said:

poopshovel again said:

I recently discovered echo makes a blade conversion kit for my weed-eater. Pretty stoked about that.

I have that kit on my Echo weed eater. You’re going to have a blast with it. It’ll go through your ankle like butter

This winter my storage tent collapsed .  Anyway, I dragged this pile of crap out from the ruins and found no detectable damage.  I gave $50.00 for her 13 years ago and it looked brand new.  All it needed back then was a battery.   Needless to say, I have beaten the living E36 M3 out of it over the years and it keeps on going.  Never changed the oil or spark plugs.  I did grease the front wheels a few time to stop the annoying random squeak.  She been running without an air filter for a couple maybe three years .  See, the choke don't work so you have to manually choke it to start and occasionally it helps to put your hand over the carburetor throat when encountering a tall patch of grass.    Last spring it developed a knock and I figured it would throw a rod but never did.  The hydro trans makes a bad noise when its put in reverse .... sort of sounds  like a power steering pump full of air.  last fall the starter gave out. .  I think its time to let go.

A few years ago I got this hooptie out of the garbage .  I never really liked it but its better that pushing a mower.  Anyway, yesterday she started right up and runs great.  I jumped on it and started cutting the lawn .... After about 10 min it stopped moving.   

All the belts are FUBAR and the pulley thingy is seized.  I think I'm going to put this mower on craigslist and make it someone else's problem. 

Looks like I'll be pushing a mower until I sort this mess out.

What's the opinion here on new big box store lawn tractors... price point built in your favorite color of JD, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna ?  I be lookin' at $1500-1800 range for a 42". 

My YHT150 Husqy is over 18 years w/ 564 hrs and still truckin.  That day will come tho.

Not crazy about the B&S Intek and the Kohler 5400 is too new to make any judgement. 

In reply to fasted58 :

You're better off buying a used 318 or similar for the same money, IMHO.  I wouldn't buy a box-store mower with someone else's money.  

Run the Husky till it dies.  

In reply to fasted58 :

My dad bought a huge Cub Cadet thing from one of the home improvement stores a couple of years back, which is how I ended up with my Troy-Bilt. I'm pretty sure it has a 20+ hp v-twin, as it sounds a lot like his Harley. So far, he's had some electrical problem with it that would make it cut out while mowing. I think he said it was the seat switch that shuts it off when you get off the seat. Since fixing that, it's been fine. 

And speaking of Troy-Bilt...

We've had some pretty crap luck with Troy-Bilt stuff from Lowes over the years, and the fact that this works at all is probably a miracle at this point. The LTX-1842 I have has been problematic over the years, but it's still chugging on. Mine has an issue with the arm that engages the mowing deck. There's some sort of switch on it that will cut ignition if it's not held in the right spot. Also, it wants to stall in reverse because of the same thing; it thinks the mower deck is going so it cuts ignition. It also backfires after shutting it down, and there's no amount of tuning that we've been able to do to make that stop. It's been doing that since it was nearly new. 

I'm pretty sure 95% of the home improvement store machines are rebranded MTD products, just like all the other stuff there, so YMMV. 

I was pleasantly surprised by my 31 yr/old Craftsman 20" mower.    It usually needs a little help with the first start after setting all winter.  This year it started on the first pull, like always.

The carb has never been off,let alone cleaned.   I sets all winter with a tank of gas and some StaBil.

The only part I had to replace was the Blade Flange.  It aligns the blade with the key way.   Won't run without.

I don't have a large lawn so that helps with the hours.

Oh, the price in 1987 was $147.99 with $11.06 tax.

iceracer said:

Oh, the price in 1987 was $147.99 with $11.06 tax.

Adjusted for inflation, that would be a ~$400 mower nowadays.  And people wonder why the new $150 big box mowers are POS.

Tony Sestito said:

In reply to fasted58 :

It also backfires after shutting it down, and there's no amount of tuning that we've been able to do to make that stop. It's been doing that since it was nearly new. 

 

Fuel shutoff solenoid sticky, leaking through or not totally closing? NC, open running, purpose is preventing run on and backfiring. LTX-1842 wiring diagram calls it Afterfire Solenoid. You can test it off the engine w/ compressed air and 12V source.

0.02

After getting fed up with the JD x534, trading it in against a 1998 JD 445. 

Hoping for better luck with this-- fresh trade, really clean, fuel injected, 60 inch mower deck, larger size wheels/tires.  Not a big box store machine in the least.

File photo (with smaller mower deck) ---

In reply to Karacticus :

That's a sweet machine right there. My dad had a 425, which is the carbureted version of that tractor, for a number of years until he traded it and a bigger New Holland on a new Kubota B2650 do-everything tractor a few years ago. I spent a lot of hours on that Deere though during summers home from college and it was flawless cutting 3+ acres of grass weekly plus several more of horse pasture a few times each summer.  Properly maintained, that should last you forever.

Meanwhile, I'm loving my 318, dubbed Onan the Barbarian, so far. It needs a bit of adjustment on the stops for the front axel to remove slop from the steering and requires just a hint of choke to keep from surging (I need to run a can of Seafoam through the next tank of fuel I think). But what a satisfying thing to use, everything is heavy duty and way overbuilt like a real tractor. I miss the diff lock and foot hydro that the 425 had, but love having power steering and hydraulic deck lift again. Turning radius is also impressively tight for a fairly large machine. I'm hanging on to this one for a while.

So I had to speak of fuel shut off solenoids... and put the kabosh on mine.

Started losing powar....  then she let the smoke out. Looked like a lit fuse.

Not a simple hack repair like just cutting back the plunger, the plunger sits beneath a screw-in jet. OEM part ordered, it's going back in w/ an inline fuse.

Put a new discharge chute on the new (to me) tractor and tried it out tonight. Feels like a beast!