QueBota
Gold Member
Took my son to a baseball tournament over the weekend, found this for sale on the way home.
Seemed like a nice enough garden tractor, 44" deck (3 blades), 18hp B&S IC, 3 forward, 1 reverse, Hi/Low range, good tires. Started right up, sounds OK, mowed some grass for a test drive, tranny sounds OK, looks used but not abused, not cleaned up or pressure washed, not bad for a circa 1994 tractor, $350.00.
I have been buying old/used $200.00 riding mowers for the "lawn" around the house. The B2910 leaves ruts in the grass, wife doesn't like that. My current old/used riding mower is just about used up. The stamped steel front axle beam is cracking at the mount and the bushing mounts for the axles are becoming bigger than the bushings. Can't complain, this one has given me lots of service and doesn't owe me anything. The 17.5 hp B&S still runs like a top, the rest of the mower is falling apart around it.
Can't bring myself to buy a new HD/Lowes riding mower and didn't want another used lawn tractor, I was looking for something with a stronger front end (cast with grease fittings).
Brought it home, checked it over, changed the oil, gassed it up and started to mow. The fellow down the road from me abandoned his house. He used it as an ATM one too many times and couldn't afford the payments so he just walked away. I have been cutting his place since he left, he has about 2 acres of lawn which he used to cut with a Exmark Zero Turn.
I mowed for a while and everything seemed good, engine ran fine, mower deck pretty smooth, steers and stops, pto engages and disengages, all forward and reverse gears work. Feeling pretty good about my purchase.
Let my son mow for a bit while I supervised. All of a sudden the tractor began to vibrate like crazy, couldn't tell what was going on. I ran over and saw that the deck drive belt had broken but the amount of vibration/shaking made no sense.
We limped back over to our place to take a look. The bolt that retains the PTO clutch on the end of the crank had backed out and was finger tight. When the deck drive belt went it took out the wiring to the clutch, the loose fit of the pto on the end of the crank was causing some serious shaking.
I feel like a dumba$$ now but I never thought to check that bolt, normally I need a 2 foot ratchet to remove them. I think it may have been loose and when the belt came off, the tension of the belt holding the pto was released and that allowed the pto to slide down the shaft free from the anti-rotation tab and the vibration/shaking may have loosened the retaining bolt even more.
Need to pick up a new deck drive belt this afternoon. Hope the pto clutch didn't get killed by all the vibration. I am left with a cut wire (between the connector and the pto) with no good way of telling which way to reconnect the wires. They are both the same color and look like someone cut them with scissors (the ex-drive belt cut it pretty cleanly).
What is the best way to determine which wires to connect? Don't want to damage the clutch, have priced them out at between $200 and $300. I am afraid the unit may have been damage in the adventure but don't want to foul it up anymore.
This is my first experience with the electric PTO setup. All my other mowers worked by tensioning the deck drive belt as you lowered the deck. From what I have read the pto functions like the clutch on the front of an auto AC compressor. When power is applied to the pto is causes the unit to couple and drive the belt to the deck.
Any thoughts or suggestions on the pto or tractor in general would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
Seemed like a nice enough garden tractor, 44" deck (3 blades), 18hp B&S IC, 3 forward, 1 reverse, Hi/Low range, good tires. Started right up, sounds OK, mowed some grass for a test drive, tranny sounds OK, looks used but not abused, not cleaned up or pressure washed, not bad for a circa 1994 tractor, $350.00.
I have been buying old/used $200.00 riding mowers for the "lawn" around the house. The B2910 leaves ruts in the grass, wife doesn't like that. My current old/used riding mower is just about used up. The stamped steel front axle beam is cracking at the mount and the bushing mounts for the axles are becoming bigger than the bushings. Can't complain, this one has given me lots of service and doesn't owe me anything. The 17.5 hp B&S still runs like a top, the rest of the mower is falling apart around it.
Can't bring myself to buy a new HD/Lowes riding mower and didn't want another used lawn tractor, I was looking for something with a stronger front end (cast with grease fittings).
Brought it home, checked it over, changed the oil, gassed it up and started to mow. The fellow down the road from me abandoned his house. He used it as an ATM one too many times and couldn't afford the payments so he just walked away. I have been cutting his place since he left, he has about 2 acres of lawn which he used to cut with a Exmark Zero Turn.
I mowed for a while and everything seemed good, engine ran fine, mower deck pretty smooth, steers and stops, pto engages and disengages, all forward and reverse gears work. Feeling pretty good about my purchase.
Let my son mow for a bit while I supervised. All of a sudden the tractor began to vibrate like crazy, couldn't tell what was going on. I ran over and saw that the deck drive belt had broken but the amount of vibration/shaking made no sense.
We limped back over to our place to take a look. The bolt that retains the PTO clutch on the end of the crank had backed out and was finger tight. When the deck drive belt went it took out the wiring to the clutch, the loose fit of the pto on the end of the crank was causing some serious shaking.
I feel like a dumba$$ now but I never thought to check that bolt, normally I need a 2 foot ratchet to remove them. I think it may have been loose and when the belt came off, the tension of the belt holding the pto was released and that allowed the pto to slide down the shaft free from the anti-rotation tab and the vibration/shaking may have loosened the retaining bolt even more.
Need to pick up a new deck drive belt this afternoon. Hope the pto clutch didn't get killed by all the vibration. I am left with a cut wire (between the connector and the pto) with no good way of telling which way to reconnect the wires. They are both the same color and look like someone cut them with scissors (the ex-drive belt cut it pretty cleanly).
What is the best way to determine which wires to connect? Don't want to damage the clutch, have priced them out at between $200 and $300. I am afraid the unit may have been damage in the adventure but don't want to foul it up anymore.
This is my first experience with the electric PTO setup. All my other mowers worked by tensioning the deck drive belt as you lowered the deck. From what I have read the pto functions like the clutch on the front of an auto AC compressor. When power is applied to the pto is causes the unit to couple and drive the belt to the deck.
Any thoughts or suggestions on the pto or tractor in general would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave