Old Sears Suburban SS12

   / Old Sears Suburban SS12 #1  

jwstewar

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Location
South Central Ohio
Tractor
Kubota L3301
I've got Dad's old Sears Suburban SS12. It is in pretty decent shape, even though I used and abused this machine for several years before I bought the NH. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I remember it wouldn't start or something. This was back in 2002. Dad took the tractor back to his house and started doing some trouble shooting on it. I know he had the coil and the mag tested, both were supposedly good. Now here is where it starts getting interesting. Dad then started troubleshooting a bit deeper. He started disassembly things. Apparently between him not feeling well and such maybe he couldn't remember, he didn't put things back together, but he would take more apart. Well, as part of my commitments to him before he passed, I said I would get his baby running again - already have fixed a couple of his other items including his snowblower and his "new" Snapper riding lawn mower that I bought him in 1997.

Anyway, this is where we are today. I've got the tractor at home in the barn and I think I have most of the parts.
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But in his disassembly he disconnected probably the only safety switch on the darn thing. I put new ends on the wire on the actual safety switch and plugged the wires back in to it, but I've got two other problems. I can't find where the other end of the wire is supposed to plug in. I'm assuming when the switch is depressed it is supposed to complete the starting circuit, but without knowing where this is, I have no idea if he jump it or not. Second, I can't figure out how the brake/clutch panel is supposed to engage the button.

I've looked on Sears' website for a manual, but the one for the tractor is some little cartoon like drawing, but the one for the plow and the mower deck are much more modern looking and go into much greater detail.

Anyone have any ideas on either of these? I've attached pictures so you can see what/where I'm talking about.
 

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   / Old Sears Suburban SS12 #2  
I just sold both my SS12's - 1967 and 70 - neither one had that plug. Can you get me the engine number - it will start with a 143 and be on the left side of the engine shroud and the tractor number located on the shift plate and will start with a 917. I may have a a manual or send you in a good direction...there are some good forums on yahoo for these tractors.
 
   / Old Sears Suburban SS12
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanks Scotty, I will get them as soon as I get home tonight.
 
   / Old Sears Suburban SS12 #4  
I just sold both my SS12's - 1967 and 70 - neither one had that plug. Can you get me the engine number - it will start with a 143 and be on the left side of the engine shroud and the tractor number located on the shft place and will start with a 917. I may have a a manula or send you in a good direction...there are some good forums on yahoo for these tractors.
 
   / Old Sears Suburban SS12 #5  
The first picture would be of the neutral start switch and should be wired into the starting circuit from the key switch to the solenoid or coming off the ground prong of the solenoid if it is a four wire solenoid. the second picture looks like a connector for headlights.
 
   / Old Sears Suburban SS12
  • Thread Starter
#6  
The first picture would be of the neutral start switch and should be wired into the starting circuit from the key switch to the solenoid or coming off the ground prong of the solenoid if it is a four wire solenoid. the second picture looks like a connector for headlights.

It is the other end of the same wire that is coming off the neutral safety switch.

And for Scotty, the Engine Model Number is 143.622022 and Serial Number 2074E. The Model Number of the tractor is 917.25371 and the serial number for the tractor is 3298.

Thanks for everyone's help. Can't wait to hear it run again.
 
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   / Old Sears Suburban SS12 #7  
I dont have those exact manuals for a 1972- but this site does have it for the tractor. I can send you an engine manual if you pm me your email:

Sears Manuals
 
   / Old Sears Suburban SS12
  • Thread Starter
#8  
It was raining here Saturday afternoon so I had a chance to work on this some. Looking at the electrical diagram on Sear's website and the parts diagrams, I think I have this figured out.:eek: Looks like I was right on the brake switch, however there is a little tab held on by a cotter key that is broken off. Who knows where, when, or how, but it is gone. So it won't actually depress that safety switch. Of course, not available. I've sent a msg to a guy on ebay to see if he would have one, no repsonse yet. The second wire I posted looks like it goes to the attachment lever safety switch. Kind of weird on the Sears' diagram, it is inline with the brake safety switch (that makes sense), but it has a circle around it like it was optional. I see nothing on my attachment lever that would correspond to this. Since this tractor didn't originally have a mower deck, would they not have put that safety switch on it and just jumpered the wire? I don't know, but in the short term that is what I'm going to do for both of them.

I also found, that it looks like the ignition switch is bad. I can get continuity through the start circuit, but not on the run circuit. I'm going to stop tonight and pick up a new switch for it. I then found the one wire that goes to the motor from the ignition switch, I thought it was a ground wire, but now it seems to be the hot wire from the ignition for maybe the magneto? It is labeled on the diagram as M. The other 2 wires are B - coming from the battery and S - solenoid. There is then a ground wire with a loop that goes around the threaded portion that sticks through the dash.
 
   / Old Sears Suburban SS12
  • Thread Starter
#9  
On a different note on this, we went into Mom's yesterday and cut the grass and I loaded up most of Dad's tools into the stock trailer and brought them home. Including all of the link arms for the mower deck for this old Sears, the front/rear weight and bracket, the 3-point disk, and the bracket for the snowblower, as well as all of the parts Dad took off the tractor trying to trouble shoot whatever the original problem was. I still have a few more tools to get and some misc stuff, but the biggies left are his portable table saw, the mower deck for this tractor, the 3-point plow, and the snow blade.
 
   / Old Sears Suburban SS12 #10  
On the ignition switch, no continuity may be correct. It seems like a lot of the motors don't use battery power for ignition. If the off position does provide continuity that means it is grounding out the ignition. If you had continuity in the on position then the ignition would not work.
 
 
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