MT160D

   / MT160D #1  

Capricious

Platinum Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
692
Location
Eastern Missouri
Tractor
Mitsubishi MT160D
Have been using a 1970's Sears 11 hp garden tractor with a 42 inch mower deck for "bush hogging" about 6 acres. Needed something bigger (obviously). Last night I drug home an old Mitsubishi MT160D. I know nothing about tractors. This thing seems to start up fairly easily. The crankcase oil looked dirty, antifreeze looked mostly green and did not seem to bubble when the engine was running. Each brake would lock-up the appropriate rear wheel, although the brake pedals are not aligned with each other- I would imagine the threaded adjustment rods are rusted immoble. All three speeds on the main tran. seem to work, the high-low seems to work, the 4WD lever moved, although I can't say for certain the 4WD "worked." The PTO shaft spins in all 3 speeds. The 3 point would lift and lower me, but there was nothing heavier to try on it. Did not observe anything leaking from the engine while it was running. The differential lock pedal does not seem to move. The clutch seemed to "grab" with the high/low set in high. The ignition key is broken off in the ignition switch. Overall, the thing looks dirty and probably had little maintenance. The adjustable "side links" on the 3 point are rusted immobile. If they don't loosen up with penetrating oil i will need to replace the.

Oh, and the tires are pretty much worn out.

Probably should not have bought it.

I am going to change the engine oil and hydraulic fluid. I have downloaded operator's and service manuals, and have noted comments to NOT use gear oil in the trans. as the manual states. Will also change the coolant.

Questions:

Anyone have parts numbers for oil, fuel & air filters?

Any other things to look at?

Thanks
 
   / MT160D #2  
NAPA numbers (I'm pretty sure) are: oil filter 1334; fuel 3264; air 6270. You most likely have a screen filter for the hydraulics. It is located on the bottom right side of the rear case and is held in by two bolts. After draining the fluid, remove the filter, clean it and put it back in. There is a fill level plug near where your left heel would be, sitting on the tractor. It should hold roughly 3.5 gallons. Buy a petcock for the engine block and screw it in while you have the engine oil filter off. That will help you do future complete coolant drains.
 
   / MT160D
  • Thread Starter
#3  
NAPA numbers (I'm pretty sure) are: oil filter 1334; fuel 3264; air 6270. You most likely have a screen filter for the hydraulics. It is located on the bottom right side of the rear case and is held in by two bolts. After draining the fluid, remove the filter, clean it and put it back in. There is a fill level plug near where your left heel would be, sitting on the tractor. It should hold roughly 3.5 gallons. Buy a petcock for the engine block and screw it in while you have the engine oil filter off. That will help you do future complete coolant drains.



Thank you for the (very) quick response.

The NAPA 3264 fuel filter crosses to a Baldwin PF7545, which an internet search showed someone in Great Britain was selling for an MT160D, but I was not finding much on the oil or air filters.

A couple of places sell filter "kits" that contain all (3) items, but they don't list parts numbers (because one would go buy the stuff elsewhere, of course)

I try not to bother people with requests for information that is available with a bit of searching, but was not finding much on this matter.

Again, thank you.
 
   / MT160D #4  
Welcome to the forum.

The numbers listed by Oliver seem like a good place to start. Your new tractor sounds like a good starting point. Mostly some sweat and elbow grease is all you'll need. You will know a lot by the time everything is working well. :)
 
   / MT160D #5  
Have been using a 1970's Sears 11 hp garden tractor with a 42 inch mower deck for "bush hogging" about 6 acres. Needed something bigger (obviously). Last night I drug home an old Mitsubishi MT160D. I know nothing about tractors. This thing seems to start up fairly easily. The crankcase oil looked dirty, antifreeze looked mostly green and did not seem to bubble when the engine was running. Each brake would lock-up the appropriate rear wheel, although the brake pedals are not aligned with each other- I would imagine the threaded adjustment rods are rusted immoble. All three speeds on the main tran. seem to work, the high-low seems to work, the 4WD lever moved, although I can't say for certain the 4WD "worked." The PTO shaft spins in all 3 speeds. The 3 point would lift and lower me, but there was nothing heavier to try on it. Did not observe anything leaking from the engine while it was running. The differential lock pedal does not seem to move. The clutch seemed to "grab" with the high/low set in high. The ignition key is broken off in the ignition switch. Overall, the thing looks dirty and probably had little maintenance. The adjustable "side links" on the 3 point are rusted immobile. If they don't loosen up with penetrating oil i will need to replace the.

Oh, and the tires are pretty much worn out.

Probably should not have bought it.

I am going to change the engine oil and hydraulic fluid. I have downloaded operator's and service manuals, and have noted comments to NOT use gear oil in the trans. as the manual states. Will also change the coolant.

Questions:

Anyone have parts numbers for oil, fuel & air filters?

Any other things to look at?

Thanks

What oil does it specify to use in the transmission?
 
   / MT160D
  • Thread Starter
#6  
The manual I downloaded says 85W-140 gear oil. Others on the internet say do NOT use gear oil in the trans, which also supplies the hydraulics on this model.
 
   / MT160D #7  
The manual I downloaded says 85W-140 gear oil. Others on the internet say do NOT use gear oil in the trans, which also supplies the hydraulics on this model.

That's the reason I asked. I have a little hinomoto that is set up the same way. I have no manual, and I'm not sure what to put in there.
 
   / MT160D
  • Thread Starter
#8  
A change in plans. The Mitsubishi is for sale. Located St. Louis, Missouri $900.00

After owning this thing a whole two days and crawling around it I have decided that it is a bigger project than i want to take
on at the present. As mentioned above, it runs at least enough to get it onto and off of the trailer, but it is in no condition to
go right to work.

The 1978 Sears garden tractor "ran" when i got it. I then had I it apart in the garage for (3) months, replacing belts and spindle bearings
and wiring, and fabricating parts for its variable ratio belt drive. Had to drill out and replace broken blade mounting studs, and welded up an
adapter so that i could use sleeve hitch impliments on its little 3-point hitch.

I can see that this Mitsubishi could easily turn into a much bigger project. I don't know of any major issues other than orignally noted. but there are signs of a lot of deferred maintenance, such as very rusty drain plugs that obviously have not been removed in a long time.

If someone has an interest, it is available @ $900.00 cash, which is less than i paid, but i probably paid too much.




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   / MT160D #9  
It looks pretty good. What is wrong with it other than the switch?
 
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   / MT160D
  • Thread Starter
#10  
It looks pretty good. What is wrong with it other than the switch?

It looked pretty good in the photos I looked at. When I went to look at it, it looked a lot rougher in person. I shot the guy an offer well under his asking price, and he took it. Maybe a bad sign. Probably should have walked away, but that is water under the bridge.

The issue is that this thing has seen little maint. I mentioned the very rusty drain plugs, so I know the fluids have probably not been checked, much less changed. I started shooting penetrating oil to most of the plugs, but it'll be a job just getting them out.

Here and there a missing pin has been replaced by an outsized rusty bolt. The broken starter switch, which the previous owner claimed was broken when he bought the tractor years ago, but he never replaced it (I replaced the switch on the Sears).

No signs of grease on grease fittings. I travel 400 miles round-trip to mow my 6 acres, and after every trip I pull the deck off the Sears and grease the spindles, then grease the front wheel bearings (which i replaced), the spindles, the variable belt drive, and (3) Zerks in the steering. I have a Swisher walk-behind field & brush mower that came without a grease fitting on the spindle, and after a year & a half I took it apart and found the spindle bearings shot. I reassembled it with new bearings, but not before drilling & tapping the spindle housing for a Zerk. It gets greased after every use.

I cannot find any sign that this tractor has had that level of care, and being a complicated piece of machinery, that bothers me. I didn't think about it at the time, but the guy had (2) other pieces of lawn care machinery in the barn, both broken down. He probably did not maintain them either.

So, i can sell the thing and take a certain small loss now, or i can tear into it and maybe end up with a decent-running tractor without expending a whole lot of money or work on it, or I might end up with a real problem that is either very expensive to fix, or that results in my junking the tractor at a big loss.

Everyone who has messed with used machinery has dealt with this issue, of course, and every situation is different. I went ahead with the little Sears, but this Mitsubishi is much more complex. My gut is telling me to move along.

Would have been nice it it had told me to move along before buying it, but that's life.
 
 
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