Lawn tractors

[NorthernRedneck]

Quick update. The Jacobsen is running excellent and does a great job. The 4x4 comes in handy when climbing. I had the guards on the mower deck but took them off as the middle portion of the deck tends to shoot grass under the covers and clog up the outer deck belt pulleys causing the belts to slip and stop the outer blades from turning.

One issue I'm having is with the hydraulics for the deck lift mechanism. All the other hydraulics work perfectly fine but the deck won't raise and lower. Could it be a disconnected hose? Blown hydraulic cylinder? Other?

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[jimbo]

I like the idea of renting a machine when needed and having a zero radius mower. There's an old tractor there now with a triple head front mower attachment. We threw it in our offer but aren't holding our breath on that as the current owner of the property wants to keep it for their camp.

Just for reference, here's the property overhead shot.

Canadian eh!!!

The trouble with renting is the machine is never around when you need it.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

So I went to fire up the Jacobsen to move it into the garage for the winter. I cranked it over for a few seconds after warming up the glow plugs and it started smoking from the engine compartment. I quickly lifted the hood to discover the starter shorting out. The wiring caught fire. I got it out but looks like I'm ordering a new starter.

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[mla2ofus]

I'd trace the wire with all the insulation burned off 'cause I think that's where the problem is.
Mike

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Yes. That's the plan tomorrow. Weather dependent I'm going to pull the starter and trace the wiring. Today was -10 with a windchill of -17 celcius. Too damned cold to tackle it out in the open.

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[mla2ofus]

You guys are getting what we got about a week ago, a couple of inches of the white stuff and then about -10F.
Mike

 

[NorthernRedneck]

First, let's just say that I love the kerosene/diesel 80,000 btu heater I picked up for the garage. I hauled it out and had it pointing towards the Jacobsen out in the yard so I could work on it without freezing my butt off.

I got the starter removed along with a few strands of burnt wiring then headed to the local kubota dealer in town. They weren't able to cross reference the starter to anything they had but pointed me to another shop in town that deals with specialty starters and alternators. They were able to track down the exact starter online and luckily they had one in stock. They brought out a box with about an inch of dust on it. Inside, there was a brand new starter matching mine.

I came home to install it and replace the burnt wiring. There's an online fuse that had failed due to a faulty wiring connector. It goes to the starter post. All the metal around the post was melted. After putting everything together, I hooked up the battery and gave it a boost charge while I also had the heater pointed at the engine to warm it up a bit. After 20 minutes, it fired up without issue.

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[NorthernRedneck]

Back to the ole Jacobsen tractor. Yesterday while mowing, the center blade started rattling and making a bunch of funny noises. I finished mowing thinking grass was just building up under the cover on the center deck around the belts. I took the cover off to discover that the nut holding the main idler pulley in place had come loose allowing the idler pulley to flop around and basically beat itself to death.

I worked on it and got the nut and pulley off to find that instead of seating tightly onto the shaft, it now has about a half inch of play in it.

This morning I headed to the city to search for a new blade shaft and pulley along with some new bearings. While I've got it jacked up I'm going to change out the blades and check out the other belt pulleys and such.

A couple months ago I blew the main belt coming from the drive motor. I'm guessing that's why as there was play in the pulley.

Last night I did some online research and found the manual for that mower deck. The last 2 pictures show the entire shaft assembly and parts list.

Thankfully mowing season is about done with the last 2 nights being right at the freezing point. This will allow time to track down the parts needed. I have a couple dealers in the city searching for me.

 

[bczoom]

Do you have a shallow body of water (puddle, small creek...) that's accessible from your mower? If so, to clean under your deck, raise the deck, drive the mower into that shallow water then engage the blades. Slowly lower the deck into the water until you get a good high pressure spray coming out. It'll blow green water out for awhile. Once it runs clear water, the underside of your mower deck is now clean.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

No body of water anywhere nearby. I do have to get in the habit of cleaning out the deck though.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Well that was an expensive repair job on the mower. $800 later she's all back together.

What happened was the nut holding the main idler pulley came loose. When that happened, the idler pulley started with a little shimmy and after one cut of the yard came completely loose and started flopping around beating itself to death.

I tore it apart and pounded out the shaft and replaced the bearings shaft and pulley. I picked up extra bearings to replace the ones on the left and right shafts as well. Might as well do them all since I was in there.

She still needs new blades but that'll wait until the spring. I mowed the yard after reassembly to try it and I can now do the whole thing in an hour. It used to take a minimum of an hour and a half to mow.