gt14

86turbodsl · May 6, 2005

$700 for a 2 cylinder crankshaft is lunacy. That's why I'll probably just have the crank repaired. Hard to justify $700 because the end is running 0.003" out.

fig · May 6, 2005

86turbodsl

Snuck out of work a little early yesterday and went by the dealer. Just what I was thinking. He would strip the crank out, but he would charge "around $400 - $475 to take it out and no guarantee of its condition". The parts tractor was purchased at an auction (probably paid less than that for it) and he did not know what was wrong with the tractor in the first place. While I was there; there was another guy there with a crank out of a MF and he was going to drive to Charlotte to have his repaired because they wanted too much for a OEM replacement.

Find you a good machine shop that can build it up and machine it back to spec. $150 sounds like a good price if that is what you are going to have done to yours. Good luck with your repairs.

By the way; I don't know what you paid for yours, but he has a couple there for sale and he wants $3,000 for the worst looking one there. I honostly do not know how he stays in business.

86turbodsl · May 6, 2005

Yes, I was going to have a professional crank shop build it up and machine it back down. I gave about $850 for my GT14. It ran good, but the PTO was inoperable. I figured "how bad could it be to fix?" It's been a tough lesson to learn. If I could do it over again, I would have bought the $2500 GT14 an hour away, with implements front and rear, that already was ready to go. Then the wife could be mowing, instead of me mowing with a 35hp gas tractor and bushog and then workin on the yanmar after dark until 10:30 at night. For months. It'll be nice when it's done, but what a lot of work to save a few bucks.
I've just gotten the deck sandblasted and primed, now I'm working on the bracketry and spindles. Once that's done, I'll push it into a corner and work on the main tractor frame. It's mostly stripped now, just got to pull the engine and transaxle, then send it for sandblasting. I wasn't originally going to go this far with it, but it's pulled this far apart, might as well do it right. Sigh...

fig · May 6, 2005

Believe me; I have been in the same position. Think you're getting a deal on something just to find out everything has to be replaced. I took a pretty good lick on a '82 camero. New motor (too much HP...so), new transmition (would handle HP...but), and new rear end. Had a decent hot rod, but eventually had to sell (lost my butt on that deal!). Sorry to ramble /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif.

Have you ever thought about having your parts powder coated. There is a local guy here that does it pretty cheap. Is more durable and will last longer.