stiff treadle

[waterglyn]

Just purchased a used PT425 with a Brush Hog. I was impressed with the power trac and the brush hog. The only thing I did not like was the fact that the treadle seems very stiff. It takes more pressure than I remember when I visited the power trac plant. Any ideas if this can be adjusted or what might cause this? The motor and hydraulics run great.

 

[bubenberg]

cleaning all the grease points down there .... apply new grease and silicon spray should take care of it. when the winter came around here i and the same problem. a good cleanup and lubrication of all friction points alleviated the problem.

Congratulation on your purchase and good luck!

hrl

 

[MossRoad]

Great job on the PT! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Check the treadle assembly. There should be some grease zerks on the left side behind the tunnel cover. Also, lube up all of the little ball type Joints with spray grease. Then open up the engine cover. Under the gas tank at the front of the engine is the variable volume pump which provides the drive power for the tractor. There is an arm on top of it. Connected to the arm is a round can-looking thing called the "hydro back" (I think). That is where the other end of the treadle cable ends up. There is a ball type joint on the end of it well. Use spray lube there.

There are lots of pictures at my web site of the 8 hour maintenance points. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://pt425.godollei.net>You can get there by clicking here. </A> Then go to the 8 hour maintenance page. Pictures 12 and 13 show the places that have to be lubed for the treadle assembly. Review shows that I have no picture of the hydroback on that page. However, if you go to the pictures page, there is a picture of the variable volume pump and at the very top you can see the arm that I am talking about.

See if you can get a book from Power Trac or at least a copy of the 8hr maintenance items. If they can't help you, send me a private e-mail and I'll see what I can do.

 

[waterglyn]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at MssRoad's Web site last night and saw that I missed several places when I attempted to grease it the first time. Going to get some lithium spry on grease today or tomorrow and see if I can improve it. Hope to get manual on the power trac this week so I can change all of the filters, oil, etc..

 

[waterglyn]

Thanks MossRoad. Your Web Site actually caused me to start looking at the power trac seriously again. Your site has already helped me since my purchase. How many pages are in the PT425 manual? Was actually looking to see if maybe you had it in pdf format. If the previous owner does not get mine mailed to me this week I will order one from power trac.

 

[MossRoad]

Its about 30 pages. Power Trac should be able to get you one. If I were you, I'd perform an 8hr maintenance and 50hr maintenance on the tractor and a 25 hour maintenance on the engine.

The 8hr maint consists of clean and lube.
The 50hr maint is a few more lube points and changing the hydraulic oil filter.
The 25 hour maint on the Kohler engine consists of cleaning and changing the oil and filter(might be a good time to switch to Mobil1) /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I bought the Kohler service manuals at a local small engine shop cheaper than from Kohler. The engine oil filters are fairly inexpensive.

From Power Trac, you might want to order a hydraulic filter, manuals and the bleeder hose(if you don't have it) that is required to change the hydraulic filter. Did you get the bleeder hose with the unit? This is something that you definately need to order from Power Trac if you didn't get it with the unit. You need it to bleed the hydraulics after you change the filter. If you mess up, air in the system can ruin the pump. While that sounds Omiinous, it is not too bad at all. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=powertrac&Number=159739&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1> Click here </A> for a link that describes the 50 hour maintenance where the hydraulic filter has to be changed. I did it with help over the phone. It is a piece of cake.

 

[wasabi]

Congrats on your PT!. I know you will enjoy it.

 

[waterglyn]

No Bleeder Hose. I will call tomorrow and order one and some filters. THanks for the link also. I greased the treadle and sprayed white lithium grease on the joints and it is a little better. Still seems a little stiff.

 

[deadstick]

The Napa 1551 filter part can be used instead of the stock Power-Trac hydraulic filter element....

We have a database of generic replacement parts on Yahoo Groups at <A target="_blank" HREF=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/powertrac>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/powertrac/</A>. It may be cheaper and more convenient for you to go down the local parts store than to order and wait....

 

[waterglyn]

I cleaned and greased and think that I need a new cable and possibly a hydo-back. I talked with Don Boyd today and he suggested I take the fittings loose to see if it was the cable. It was. So now I need a $100 cable. To be expected with any used machinery.