Garden tractor acquisition

[kevm14]

Maybe I just need a dethatching rake to rip up some of the mossy areas and scratch the soil.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/162881972517

Benefits: only $90 and I don't need a sleeve hitch. I should probably just buy this and combined with the aerator that I co-own at my brother in law's, maybe that's my normal annual plan to pair with over-seeding.

Both rakes I am looking at, in 48" size instead of the 40" above:
https://www.amazon.com/Brinly-DT-48BH-B ... op?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.com/Agri-Fab-45-0295 ... op?ie=UTF8

I think the Brinly is a better built unit but the Argo-Fab has a transport height lever like their aerator. The Brinly is just adjusted once and I guess you can move it around without scraping the driveway but somehow it works to dethatch. It does have a little better reviews on Amazon. They are within $3 of each other.

I think I can postpone this purchase until the fall if I decide to over-seed which I probably should. I just planted seed so not exactly a good time to rip everything up.

I was thinking more about the sleeve hitch. It would have to go on the Deutz because it would preclude bagger operation in my Simplicity. Plus the Deutz has the Terra-grips which should help with traction when pulling a load. And I'd rather cut rear sheet metal on the Duetz to clear lifting the sleeve hitch instead of my Simplicity which is in nicer cosmetic shape. Whether I do all that with the 42" snow thrower hanging off the front end, I don't know. But the Deutz also has the big car battery to go with adding a high draw accessory like the electric lift. That also gets back to my idea to upgrade to a 10A regulated charging system which I was talking about before.

Buying a 7100 or whatever with hydraulics and stuff would be easier but I think I can make my good quality lawn tractors work for me, even if I need to do some custom stuff.

[kevm14]

Cobbled a starter together, mounted the engine on some 4x4s and test fire. This was fun.
https://youtu.be/hOnlGkTMIds

Had a hell of a time with the audio getting out of sync after I added one of the Youtube music tracks via the online editor. Well, that was the problem so I realized I could just download the track and add it in Movie Maker. That worked perfectly. That was driving me nuts watching the engine turn before the crank sound...

Now I have two versions on Youtube. Should probably just delete the other one...

[kevm14]

Meant to post before that it had an oil leak, for a few weeks or more prior to this test run. I found oil on the floor and in the pulley. I'm like....guy told me no leaks, and now it's leaking.

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But all was not lost.

I noticed there was an oil drain plug on the sump opposite the other drain pipe. It was a square drive so I figured out a 1/2" extension fits perfectly on it the opposite way. Then I took a 1/2" wrench and discovered that the drain plug was not tight. Tightened it up and I've not seen any more leaking, even after I ran it. Fixed!

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[kevm14]

I put the reflective tape on the flywheel grill of my Simplicity so I could read RPM with my optical RPM tool.

I actually adjusted all the adjustable settings: idle rpm, full throttle rpm, and low speed mixture. The high speed mixture I think is a little plugged so I may remove the fuel shutoff solenoid and see if I can spray some stuff in the jet to clean it out. It's serviceable for now.

Adjusted idle RPM to like 1,350 or so. You just bend a metal tab. But this changes the full throttle RPM so I found out I needed to adjust idle first (no, I didn't revisit the directions for the Twin II, which has a different governor setup than the original Twin on my Deutz). Then I adjusted full throttle to around 3,400 or maybe a little higher. It wasn't that far off on either end. Idle was a bit high, 14xx and full throttle was a bit low, maybe 33xx.

[kevm14]

For #1 above, there is a common hot-ticket upgrade which is an electric actuator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiL-YtHGHl4

Now we're talking.

Another sleeve hitch video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Oc3poNGPg

I like the idea of accessorizing my Deutz to maximize its value basically for as much outside work as possible. 18hp engine, electric sleeve hitch, probably charging system upgrade to regulated 10A, and some useful sleeve hitch accessories. Could even do a back blade to go with my front mount snow blower. And I'm still interested in other things like tilling rakes that require some downward pressure.

[kevm14]

Did some more maintenance on the Simplicity. It went well. I like working on it.

Highlights:
- Changed oil. Drained out that thin, fuel economy 15W-40 diesel oil and put in the good stuff - Delo 400 SAE30. I will be eagerly monitoring oil consumption and expect it to taper down to almost nothing.
- Lubed front end, wheels, oiled a bunch of random stuff.
- Removed upper engine cover to make sure there was no mouse nest on top of the heads. Still nothing. I blew out some dirt but it was pretty clean in there. Probably good to inspect once per season anyway.
- Removed air filter, blew out the paper element in reverse with my air hose. It wasn't actually that dirty. The dirty part was the foam pre-filter that goes over it so I just blew that off with my air as well. Put it back on...
- Removed fuel shutoff solenoid to access the main jet. Carefully blew shop air directly into the jet a few times to see if I could dislodge whatever small buildup there may have been. It seems to have worked. I think that fixed the small issue I was having. I readjusted the low speed mixture because the high speed jet is now flowing as it should. It runs well, idles well, and is more responsive to throttle changes again like it should be.

Great success.

[kevm14]

Fun fact: later Briggs opposed twins added the option for full pressure lubrication and this was denoted on the engine with a "Plus," as in "Briggs & Stratton Twin II I/C Plus."

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I am still not sure they made any in vertical shaft. EDIT: That pic is a vertical shaft 46 cid model so....yes. That would be the unicorn option. I guess they are rare. Also not sure how necessary it is given how old mine are.

[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).

https://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsSer ... /index.htm

Still thinking about doing the hydro fluid in my Simplicity. Maybe I can just use my precious Delo 400 SAE30 in the engine, hydro and axle. Hilarious. Milkshakes next?

[kevm14]

And here's another one. Basically a pressure lube version of the engine I bought on CL.

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[kevm14]

Got the urge to play again. This time I realized I should have just jammed the fuel hose into a small container. It has a fuel pump so I just needed the gravity feed to prime it. So I proved that concept with an old Coke bottle I had laying around.

But before I could do that I had to R&R the starter. The bendix fell apart while I was trying to crank it over. I found all the pieces and put it back together on my vice. That worked. I think the jump starting is hard on it because of the sometimes intermittent connection which causes jerking loads as it sparks. Anyway with that fixed here's the setup.

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This yellow wire grounds the coil so now I can shut it down, too.

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Since I was able to run it for longer I decided to do my favorite thing: set the low speed mixture, idle and full throttle rpm (all of the adjustable things).

Got those dialed in. The low speed mixture was a tad rich. The idle was a bit low (1,1xx and brought up to 1,300) and the throttle stop for min throttle was too high. And full throttle was perfect so I didn't touch it, like 3,4xx.

I also rigged up a small bungie to act as a throttle control. That was sweet. Anyway it seems quite healthy. I may actually put it in the Deutz over the summer.

Also I am toying with the idea of doing the regulated charging system upgrade while it's out. But then I could just as easily do it on the tractor. Only concern would be to handle flywheel pulling stuff now while it's out in case I run into an issue but if I get it in soon enough I'll have many months so probably not an issue.

I may also see if I can get the parts to rebuild the longer starter that it originally had. That may be a better unit. I might just need the brush assembly but probably should get a new gear if it's cheap.