Garden tractor acquisition

[kevm14]

So if these plastic wheel bearings fail (and think about the weight of the snow blower), this may be an option:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ ... _vc=-10005

This Kenda Loadstar Karrier K358 15X600-6 Tire Mounted On 6 in. Wheel with 3-1/4 in. Hub X 3/4 in. Bore was designed to be a quality, long-lasting product to provide you with the greatest amount of performance and satisfaction at a great value. This OEM quality wheel was designed specifically as a replacement wheel for the front of many riding mowers. Kenda's Turf Rider tire is mounted on our welded steel wheel with an industrial ball bearing hub. For performance you can depend on, ride with Kenda! Complete tire and wheel assembly.
Hub Length: 3-1/4 in. offset
Bore: 3/4 in. ball bearing
Best replacement front wheel assembly for many riding mowers
365 lb. load capacity

More 2 ply tires but...what's this? Ball bearing?? That's theoretically even better than the bushings I wanted to install.

Some reviews:

Very good tractor wheels
Very good quality wheel. I cannot believe they installed ball bearings on it instead of brass bushings like the original ones. Very pleased with this tires.

Better than the original tire!
Easy to install. Mounted it on my Cub Cadet.Only problem I had was that the hub was about 1/8 " wider than the original,but I was able to grind off the excess to fit.No fault of the prouduct..I'm overall pleased with the purchase.Less than 1/2 the price of the OEM tire.

Better than OEM!
Wish I had found this a year ago. When my original John Deere lawn tractor wheel failed, I replaced it with one from a home improvement center. With its plastic sleeve bearing, it lasted just one year. This replacement is high quality with ball bearings and an exact replacement. No spacers. and lower cost than that inferior one I had used before. Should last life of tractor!

Fast delivery/pretty good fit
Purchased 2 for a Craftsman lawn tractor. Offset hub positioned them slightly outboard of originals which I see as a benefit. The hub was just very slightly longer than original so had to file off a little bit of the bearing race extension. Pulled the rag out, a careful dose of carb cleaner and a healthy filling of red grease = good to go.

I guess it would either be something like this or a stock style with the metal bushings. The plastic nonsense pisses me off...

[kevm14]

Got a 79" drive belt. The old one was 80.

Surprisingly it is only a little tighter. I wonder if it could even take a 78" but I think this will be fine. As long as it doesn't fall off a pulley when disengaged. The other reason I wanted it tighter is because the pedal came back really far, leaving less room for a snow boot underneath. Yes, thinking ahead.

[kevm14]

Off the top of my head, some parts I did buy:
- Flywheel puller. Tool for the toolbox...
- Plugs
- Air filter
- Fuel filter
- Drive belt
- Extra thrower belt
- Foam cushion for the lift lever...
- Carb kit
- Ignition coil
- Gas cap/level indicator
- Ring terminal for positive battery cable
- Fuel shut-off
- A bunch of oil before I got the fuel shut off...
- Drilled and tapped hole for throttle cable hold down, and new (larger) stainless bolt
- Fuel line from tank to shutoff, shutoff to filter and filter to carb
- Made hold down hardware out of threaded rod and new nuts for car battery (Group 75)

Seems like everything else was either just labor/tinkering, or parts from the parts machine. Pretty cool.

Wanted to make a list of stuff I did that was either just labor or parts machine stuff:
- Seat swap (I need to try some of my fancy 303 Protectant on my tractor seats actually)
- Tie rod swap
- Centered steering wheel by shortening steering rod (threaded end)
- Swapped random hardware that was a hodgepodge on the Deutz, mostly on the engine cover (missing or wrong bolts)
- Battery came from the parts machine actually - hope it is good enough for dead of winter use though
- Fan grill and mounting bracket, flywheel and flywheel nut
- Cleaned out under gas tank and greased steering rack
- Grabbed a front axle/hub cover since the Deutz was missing one
- Took apart and greased starter, and grabbed one of the missing starter bolts from the parts machine
- Fixed missing ground for headlights (used wire and a terminal that I already had so counting this as free)

[kevm14]

Did a cold start comparison between the Deutz and my Simplicity. The result is that the Simplicity fired very quickly as usual in warmer weather. The Deutz required a little more cranking but not a ridiculous amount. I cannot remember if I ran the bowl empty on the last run. So this time I made sure to shut the ignition off first, THEN shut off the fuel. This way the bowl should be full. Given that the fuel filter had fuel it is possible the bowl was full. If that's true, I am not sure why it requires more cranking than my Simplicity to fire in such mild weather on full choke. I can pretty easily imagine this thing cranking forever in below freezing weather because even my Simplicity adds exponential cranking time. Nothing beyond probably 5 seconds though, but that's like 10x more than what it does in warm weather. The whole point there is I would assume the Deutz will add the same 10x factor in cold weather and since it is already starting with a second or two of cranking now, that could be significant when very cold. Hard to say at this time.

As Bill would suggest, there is always starting fluid as a fall back. That's pretty much a last resort if I think everything else is tuned up and working properly. And the reason could simply be because the engine is old and has lost compression from new. Not going to fix that short of a full rebuild, so it is what it is. It is highly likely both of these are on their original engines at ~31 years for my Simplicity and ~32 years for the Deutz.

https://youtu.be/esoRrpQykaE

Also it goes without saying that the fuel shutoff obviously prevented the possibility of fuel overflowing the bowl and filling the engine crankcase with gas. I didn't even check the oil but I can easily tell that it did not flood like that. The million dollar question is, did my polishing of the valve seat fix it or not? I could experiment any time but I am tired of having to change out the oil/gas mix so I will play with that closer to when I actually want to swap over to 5W-40. I ended up with 15W-40 in there just in case I do use it a little over the summer/fall to pull my trailer perhaps (just to run it a little and stuff).

Playlist for all Deutz videos as I work my way from the initial purchase to something reliable for snow removal. I think I'm pretty much there anyway. Probably time to fit up the hitch frame and blower...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... l5SU3fdj04

[kevm14]

Installed the hitch frame and snow blower. It took a while since I didn't know what I was doing. I used the manual that came with it.

After I got it connected up I had to adjust all kinds of stuff. The PTO preload was way off. I got that dialed in. Then the chain tension was way loose. After adjusting that I went to readjust the PTO preload and snapped off the set screw. It is a 1/4-20 set screw. Ace had some hex socket set screws but I wanted the OEM one with the square 3/8" head, which required me to pay $10.47 shipped from Partstree. Kind of annoying. I was able to drill and extract it with no issue at least.

Putting the hitch on was interesting. It was very well balanced so when I hung it on the pin midway down the frame of the tractor, it balanced well so I could install the 4 retaining pins. Getting the thrower onto the hitch was a little more tricky but I figured it out. Definitely easier to remove and reinstall the mower deck though. Maybe I was supposed to connect the thrower to the hitch first, and then attach the whole thing. Eh.

I aired the front tires up to 20 psi per the manual and that seemed about right for the extra load. The rears were way overinflated from when I bought it so I brought them down to like 11 psi.

I oiled and greased everything that I was supposed to. The chute turns nicely after oiling it and sort of adjusting the cable a little. Unfortunately after adjusting the chain tension, the PTO seemed to not want to really let go especially when the thrower was lifted. That's when I broke the set screw. But even with a loose collar, the same thing happens so I don't really know what that will entail. It may be a little tricky to get the belt tension dialed in just right - tight enough not to slip when engaged and loose enough to stay disengaged when it is supposed to. I may vaguely remember reading about something like this and I guess that's what you get with belt drive stuff. I should be able to get it dialed in though. This should also help belt life which apparently is also an issue (previous owner reported it seemed to require a new one every 2 years or so).

Video: https://youtu.be/to_dkRLVnss

But overall there were no other issues. It spun and did all the things...I straightened out the bent sides some, too.

Installing the hitch frame.

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Lining up the thrower.

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Installed.

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It is spinning at full speed here. I should do the rubber flap mod.

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Drilled and extracted the set screw after snapping it off. Wasn't too bad.

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In case I didn't post this before. It is a 1691237.

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[kevm14]

I read through the manual again last night. I have a better visualization of all of the ways the belt tension is affected and there are no fewer than four ways.

1) PTO engagement rod collar adjustment. This sets the relationship between the PTO lever position and the engagement pulley on the rear of the hitch.
2) The other pulley on the rear of the hitch is adjustable by loosening a nut/bolt and sliding it forward or back in a slot.
3) The thrower driveshaft (transmits power from the pulley to the chain that drives the auger) is moved forward and back to set the chain tension. But this also moves the pulley in the thrower, which changes belt tension.
4) There is a brake pad on the engagement pulley at the rear of the hitch that can stop the pulley from going further in the loose direction, so the pad's setting could keep the belt from going fully slack in the disengaged position.

And technically, there is a 5) which is when the thrower is lifted, it puts a little more tension on the belt so this needs to be taken into account during the adjustments.

The manual basically walks through all of this. There are two key measurements in the rear hitch area. After that, it seems like adjustments may be tweaked as necessary.

Meant to mention yesterday that I set the lift assist spring on the second (tighter) link of the chain that is bolted to the front frame section of the tractor. I find the lift assist to feel pretty good. There is also a little bit of an adjustment process possible with the lift lever depending on how high you want it to lift, or how you want it to deal with floating on the ground or being able to force it on the ground so it doesn't ride up on packed snow.

I should replace the shoes...at least one is heavily worn.

[kevm14]

Found a broken belt guide. Found one on eBay for $18.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/123242613108

20190616_085203.jpg

Also ordered one shoe/skid. Cheapest one I could find was $26.50 on eBay. I did not look too hard for aftermarket replacements but did look, and found nothing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/223487551840

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[kevm14]

I threw my Battery Tender on the battery in the Deutz. I am curious to see what voltage the alternator is capable of maintaining at full engine speed on a charged battery. I am hoping it can do at least 13.5V.

[kevm14]

Fun transmission facts. This goes for both my Simplicity 5212.5H and the Deutz-Allis 613H.

Hydrostatic transmission assembly is an Eaton 7 (i.e. 700-xxx). It is basically an integral hydraulic pump, hydraulic motor and reservoir, containing an input shaft, output shaft and control lever, with bypass valve for unlocking to move tractor (or whatever) by hand.

http://www.eaton.com/ecm/groups/public/ ... l_1616.pdf

This is a legit industrial unit with these listed applications:

Applications
Lawn Maintenance Equipment
• Tractors — Small Frame 6 Kw [8 hp]
• Tractors — Medium Frame
7,5 Kw [10 hp]
• Tractors — Medium Frame
10,5 Kw [14 hp]
• Tractors—Heavy Frame
15 Kw [20 hp]
• LawnSeeders
• Commercial Mowers

Golf Course Maintenance Equipment
• Mobile Sprayers
• Greens Mowers
• Sand Trap Rakes

Machine, Tool
• Small Lathes
• Tapping Clusters
• Pipe Threaders
• Spindle Heads

Printing
• Small Feeders
• Batchers
• Stackers
• Small Press Drives

Agricultural Equipment
• Grain Dryers
• Irrigation Equipment
• Mills
• Grinders

Construction Equipment
• Concrete Saws
• Utility Trucks
• Asphalt Sealers
• Sewer Rodders
• Conveyors
• Hoists
• Sweepers

Miscellaneous
• Airplane Tows
• Special winches for airline equipment
• Hoists
• Drives for various amusement rides

Other facts about this:
- It takes 20W20 hydraulic/transmission oil. Some folks say 30 wt engine oil is actually quite good.
- Takes a max of 4 hp input. So all the talk about the hydro being major drag on the engine...I think that's busted.
- I think the only reason it goes slower in reverse is because there is a mechanical limit that Simplicity engineers in the control lever. The transmission unit itself is same speed forward or reverse.
- It can take up to a 3600rpm input. If I recall, the input is pulley reduced from engine RPM. So I could use a 1:1 pulley on the engine and still be in spec. And mow super fast. Kidding. Mostly.

It is then bolted to a Peerless transaxle (which may not technically be a transaxle now) which contains significant gear reduction as well as the differential and axle assembly. Apparently this Peerless diff/axle is also pretty legit and sturdy. Manual says Peerless 1326 whatever that means. But yeah, the transmission (hydro pump/assembly) is Eaton and diff/axle is Peerless. Not even the same brand though the info package says:

The Model 6, 7, and 11 transmissions can be mounted directly to commercially available Peerless axles,* on brackets with a chain drive from the output shaft, or customer furnished gear box.

So not like it wasn't intended to be bolted up to a Peerless.

[kevm14]

Someone was talking about upgrading to a beefier Eaton 1100 pump, which can power external hydraulics. Key quote:

I would use the filter. The 1100 pump shares oil with the transaxle, where the 700 pump does not. Much more opportunity for contamination with the 1100 pump.

I have no filter on mine but it is standalone apparently that is why.

Also check out this Toro bulletin:

9bf134781d90b77d6574f6dcc326057e-toro83-presmisc--0013-screen-shot.jpg

That confirms the SAE30 weight oil for the hydro, even though it called for "20W20" which I would suspect is not easy to find. They probably figured if 20W20 was hard to find, people would put in...who knows what. I bet mine are on their factory fill though. Leave them alone? Probably...

But yeah still finding that this hydro was used on all kinds of older quality equipment like Toro, Wheelhorse, etc. Honestly just trying to make sure it keeps functioning for me and I don't overlook some critical maintenance thing that would greatly extend the service life (yeah, beyond 31 years).