The tractor looked brand new and only had 270 hours on it when I bought it. I didn't think I could go wrong buying a tractor with such low hours and looking to be in tip top shape. The man I bought it from said that 90% of the hours were put on it by his grandson just riding around in the yard. I thought that sounded even better! I was thinking the tractor hadn't even been worked hard during the little hours it was used. Boy was I wrong! Being this is the first tractor I have ever owned, I didn't know to check the clutch adjustments. The clutch wasn't slipping under load so no red flags there. Everything worked great for about the first 10 hours I put on it. I can only figure the man's grandson rode the clutch the whole time and wore it out. He adjusted the clutch as much as he could and must have decided to sell it when he found out a new clutch is $850.
I'm not sure that this is what happened, but it definitely played a part in my opinion since the clutch had been adjusted several times before I bought it. The only thing that makes me the least bit concerned that this is not the case is the fact that the clutch went out all of a sudden. My dad used it over the weekend and everything was working great. It sat under the carport for a week and when he got on it the following weekend, the friction point for the transmission was all the way at the bottom instead of the top like it had been. The pto friction point was so far down, it wouldn't even allow the pto to engage. We adjusted the clutch and got it all working but there was no play at the top of the pedal like there its supposed to be. We took it to a mechanic and he adjusted it back so it had play at the top, but the pto could not be used. He told us to use it like this until it completely wore out. I used it for about an hour moving dirt with the fel and the clutch had to be adjusted again to get it to go into gear. I did this about two more times before getting so aggravated I loaded it up and took it back to the mechanic for a new clutch. Now we find out that the clutches are on backorder.
Anybody else got any ideas as to what else might have caused it to wear out all of a sudden like this.