If Deere made the 318 would you buy?

slammer · Jul 19, 2004

( Cliff,
A picture of my 318.
Ken /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

That's a fine looking GT.

Slam

Cliff_Johns · Jul 19, 2004

Thanks for the picture. Looks to be in fine shape.
Cliff

yellowsocks93 · Jul 19, 2004

Both of you have much better 318's than mine will be until I get to fixing it up. Mine turns out to be a 1987! The earliest I can get it is Weds when my boss comes back and he will give me a quote.

yellowsocks93 · Jul 19, 2004

Joe,

I am in Minnesota and work at Country Side Implements in Cannon Falls. The 318 has a really badly dented up fender deck looks like they side swiped a tree many times, the hood is only hanging on by 2 of the 4 supports, it has 1200 hours, needs a fuel pump to run, has a leak on the rear end. All side shields and I believe we are including the 50'' mower deck too all for $1,000. There is manure on the tires. It has the older B43G Onan and not the newer Performer.

Are you near me and looking to restore a 318 like myself?

Hey I also might get this 110 we have too!

bontai_Joe · Jul 20, 2004

Nick,
I'm in eastern PA, so it is too far, and from the condition you describe, he is asking for a lot of money. I'd love to find a decent 318 or 322 or 330 or 332 to restore, but it would have to be available REAL cheap, as I just bought a 210 2 weeks ago, and the loving wife says "NO more, until you get all the stuff laying around fixed and running." She doesn't understand why 3 tractors really isn't enough.

zuiko · Jul 20, 2004

Did you end up getting the good 318? If so how much did they end up wanting for it? I paid $2400 for mine from a private party but it was in good shape with 800 hours and the 50" deck.

I would like a 332 but haven't run into one yet. Some day.

yellowsocks93 · Jul 21, 2004

I hear tomorrow on price once the general manager comes back then he will tell me. Hopefully it is 1000-1500. Any more and I will not buy it. I am going to see if my boss will also throuw in an older 49 snowblower for it too as well as the 46'' deck.

timb · Jul 21, 2004

Nick, around here decent, clean-looking 318's demand the mid-$3000 range. I paid 'just' $2400 for mine which was very low for an 800-hour machine. Unfortunately over the next 60 hours I did develop some engine issues (they really did not seem to be there in the beginning.)

Keep in mind you can drop a whole new Onan P220 (20 hp per the 420) in for about $1500. Gets you a new long block, electronic ignition, fuel pump/carb, starter, altenator, the works. If the tranny is solid there's not much more that could go wrong. You could have a heck of a machine with maybe 20 years 'left' in it for $3000 or less.

yellowsocks93 · Jul 21, 2004

Thanks. I thought about the new motor and I could probably get it cheap. Hey, since you have a 318 I have a question: The only trans leak I see after driving it for several miles down the gravel road around the place seems to be around the trans sight tube. It does need a new one where you look but then farther into the machine there is another tube that looks like it was part of this same sight tube at one time and that is where the oil is coming from. Is there really supposed to be 2 tubes in the rear of the machine? The other one I speak of is in towards the housing for the rear PTO.

I have to get a price on the machine tomorrow as I was too busy today. Over the winter I will start to refurbish it like with new right hand steering bushings as it seems to be a little wobbly.

Timb,
Did your machine have any gunk on the motor when you bought it? Mine looks like it needs new gaskets and was there any gunk build up on the transmission in the rear? Every 316 or 318 I see is leaking from the back end just a little bit. That is to be expected from a machine as old as me though.

timb · Jul 22, 2004

( from a machine as old as me though )

Whippersnapper! I've got a few years on my 318!

You pose a 'red flag' or maybe it's a 'green flag' (?) in your comment...

( The other one I speak of is in towards the housing for the rear PTO )

If the 318 you're looking at actually has the rear PTO - if it's in good shape that's good for another $500. Check eBay - they're not cheap. Now the 318 tranny design does have a short stubby 'drive shaft' sticking out the rear of the pump, opposite the engine-to-tranny driveshaft. That's NOT the rear PTO. The rear PTO assembly connects to and is run by that stub shaft. Fooled me the first time I looked at a 318.

Anyway - the tranny sight tube is a closed loop. If I remember the layout off the top of my head - the first section of rubber tube exits the tranny/diff on the bottom right side, comes back and passes up through the sight tube bracket - the clear glass section is there - then the next rubber section continues back up and forward and connects to the pump. If the glass tube is centered in the bracket - then the tranny fluid level should come to just about the middle of the glass tube if the tractor is level.

There is a much larger tube (over 1") that connects the diff to the pump (I believe that's the return /suction line) that is tucked up ahead of the diff, above the mesh screen.

The only place my tranny likes to leak is from the drain plug. Once I replaced the sight tube rubber (yeah - it was dried out and broke while mowing one day - fortunately it was spotted quickly) that's been tight and leak-free.

318's are famous for leaking engine oil from the area of the engine oil filter and/or pressure sender. (Just above the filter). Often the sender leaks - mine had a small leak there that gradually got worse - it turned out to be the gasket for the oil filter mount casting-to-engine block. Wasn't hard to fix but I did pull the engine just to have better access.

These were great little tractors, but at 21 to at best 12 or 13 years old they are starting to show their age. If you can get one at the right price, clean it up and get it back to solid if not 'near-new' condition, you've got a heck of a GT.