Mavericke
New member
Howdy folks!
Nice forum you have here. A plethora of useful tractor information! Folks call me Mav. I live outside Galesburg, Illinois on a long-and-skinny 4 acre lot in the middle of BFE. Originally hailing from Fort Worth, Tx.... I miss the city - but I love my little slice of paradise out here in the boonies. If I didn't have to deal with 9 months of cold weather - I'd be alright living here forever but as it is now, I've been trying to convince the lil wifey to move to move back down south with me. She's from this area though... so it's a losing uphill battle to say the least. So in the meantime, there's nothing else to do here besides play with toys and shoot guns when I can afford the ammo. I worked in radio for about 5 years for a local rock station as an evening jock but maybe some of you will remember the recession we hit? Yup, and I made an honest mistake and gave them a reason to let me go. So, sat unemployed for the first time in my life since I was old enough to push a mower and finally landed a new gig at AutoZone as a commercial sales manager. Not my dream job - but it pays the bills and my bosses are pretty cool. I also sing a local rock band. It's a new group so we don't have a name yet but we've all been jamming for the last 10 years around the area. Got a really good feeling about this bunch of guys. I'm 29 and the goal is to be a rockstar before my 31st birthday. I set that goal 10 years ago and it's been a long hard journey but still inching along and refusing to give up. Oh! I'm also a HUGE AMC fanatic. Specifically, AMC Eagles. I own several of them and enjoy tinkering. They have all sorts of issues but they were way ahead of their time with one of the most reliable engines ever built. Yes, I said EVER. The specialty options and electronics were laughable but the uni-body design, 4x4 setup and engine was just engineering genius... especially for basically using what had laying around for the original design. I like rare oddball stuff or stuff with problems that need to be solved. I am die-hard "American-made" for the most part. My vehicles. My tools. My food. My beer. But, that's just pride - I don't dislike all imports. My first bike was/is an 84 Yamaha Virago 750 that's been converted to a 920. They're quirky little bikes but once you get past the starter issues - it's a great starter-bike and it's driven by a driveshaft rather than a chain so I love it! And, I obviously don't mind imports if my first tractor is a Yanmar, right? So that's my basic history... now, on to the tractor.
I've got a 1963 or 1973 Yanmar 155D.... I'm not totally sure of the year. It's not in the book and I can't find a stamp on the engine but I was 99.9% certain the previous owner told me it was either a 63 or 73. The thing is that I borrowed it from him a couple years ago and I wasn't worried about what it was - just that it got the job done moving engines around my barn, dragging cars, moving snow, tilling dirt and leveling the yard. It stayed here for awhile and he moved out of state. I finally mentioned buying it and he wasn't really interested in selling since he was basically the single owner (kind of - it was his dad's brand new and it stayed on the farm until I got it). Finally, he said he would sell it.
So now I'm interested in it. I still have the original book and a service manual.
It has some issues that I'm resolving. Most of the lines are original. I've replaced most of the ones that look bad and the obvious ones that were leaking. I was going to put hydraulic AW-32 in the system after I drained it but after reading up on it - I think it needs the ad-303 specifically because the tranny and hydraulics all work together. If anyone could confirm that - I'd greatly appreciate it.
The issue started because the bucket/tiller hydros would only for a short period after firing the machine up. The previous owner thought the lines were deteriorating and leaving microgrit in filter that was clogging it up. But I had no idea about the machine. Upon closer inspection... the fluid was really low. I found some leaks and that's where we are now. I think it's a combination of both though. I have NOT removed the filter yet though to check... I haven't made it that far.
So far, all I've done is change the oil and oil filter. I have just a basic FRAM extra guard filter. I'm running Rotella 10w30 diesel oil (iirc). I pressure washed the entire thing and found green paint where I thought it was supposed to be black, lol! I ran some seafoam through the crankcase and fuel system. Fresh fuel. Cleaned out the air-intake and replaced the filter.
Today, my plan is to find the fuel filter and see if I can clean it out and/or replace it. Find and clean out the hydro/trans filter. Fill it up, fire it up and test it out.
I'm having a helluva time finding the 303 fluid... I'm finding lots of universal fluids but the book specifically says to run John Deere 303. The previous owner said that was all that was ever ran it for the life of the machine. It runs great and has over 800 original hours on it.
So.... wow... super long first post. Any thoughts, ideas? Headed to town now to return this AW-32 and start looking around more for the 303... will check in via phone app and see if there are any responses. Thanks ahead!
Nice forum you have here. A plethora of useful tractor information! Folks call me Mav. I live outside Galesburg, Illinois on a long-and-skinny 4 acre lot in the middle of BFE. Originally hailing from Fort Worth, Tx.... I miss the city - but I love my little slice of paradise out here in the boonies. If I didn't have to deal with 9 months of cold weather - I'd be alright living here forever but as it is now, I've been trying to convince the lil wifey to move to move back down south with me. She's from this area though... so it's a losing uphill battle to say the least. So in the meantime, there's nothing else to do here besides play with toys and shoot guns when I can afford the ammo. I worked in radio for about 5 years for a local rock station as an evening jock but maybe some of you will remember the recession we hit? Yup, and I made an honest mistake and gave them a reason to let me go. So, sat unemployed for the first time in my life since I was old enough to push a mower and finally landed a new gig at AutoZone as a commercial sales manager. Not my dream job - but it pays the bills and my bosses are pretty cool. I also sing a local rock band. It's a new group so we don't have a name yet but we've all been jamming for the last 10 years around the area. Got a really good feeling about this bunch of guys. I'm 29 and the goal is to be a rockstar before my 31st birthday. I set that goal 10 years ago and it's been a long hard journey but still inching along and refusing to give up. Oh! I'm also a HUGE AMC fanatic. Specifically, AMC Eagles. I own several of them and enjoy tinkering. They have all sorts of issues but they were way ahead of their time with one of the most reliable engines ever built. Yes, I said EVER. The specialty options and electronics were laughable but the uni-body design, 4x4 setup and engine was just engineering genius... especially for basically using what had laying around for the original design. I like rare oddball stuff or stuff with problems that need to be solved. I am die-hard "American-made" for the most part. My vehicles. My tools. My food. My beer. But, that's just pride - I don't dislike all imports. My first bike was/is an 84 Yamaha Virago 750 that's been converted to a 920. They're quirky little bikes but once you get past the starter issues - it's a great starter-bike and it's driven by a driveshaft rather than a chain so I love it! And, I obviously don't mind imports if my first tractor is a Yanmar, right? So that's my basic history... now, on to the tractor.
I've got a 1963 or 1973 Yanmar 155D.... I'm not totally sure of the year. It's not in the book and I can't find a stamp on the engine but I was 99.9% certain the previous owner told me it was either a 63 or 73. The thing is that I borrowed it from him a couple years ago and I wasn't worried about what it was - just that it got the job done moving engines around my barn, dragging cars, moving snow, tilling dirt and leveling the yard. It stayed here for awhile and he moved out of state. I finally mentioned buying it and he wasn't really interested in selling since he was basically the single owner (kind of - it was his dad's brand new and it stayed on the farm until I got it). Finally, he said he would sell it.
So now I'm interested in it. I still have the original book and a service manual.
It has some issues that I'm resolving. Most of the lines are original. I've replaced most of the ones that look bad and the obvious ones that were leaking. I was going to put hydraulic AW-32 in the system after I drained it but after reading up on it - I think it needs the ad-303 specifically because the tranny and hydraulics all work together. If anyone could confirm that - I'd greatly appreciate it.
The issue started because the bucket/tiller hydros would only for a short period after firing the machine up. The previous owner thought the lines were deteriorating and leaving microgrit in filter that was clogging it up. But I had no idea about the machine. Upon closer inspection... the fluid was really low. I found some leaks and that's where we are now. I think it's a combination of both though. I have NOT removed the filter yet though to check... I haven't made it that far.
So far, all I've done is change the oil and oil filter. I have just a basic FRAM extra guard filter. I'm running Rotella 10w30 diesel oil (iirc). I pressure washed the entire thing and found green paint where I thought it was supposed to be black, lol! I ran some seafoam through the crankcase and fuel system. Fresh fuel. Cleaned out the air-intake and replaced the filter.
Today, my plan is to find the fuel filter and see if I can clean it out and/or replace it. Find and clean out the hydro/trans filter. Fill it up, fire it up and test it out.
I'm having a helluva time finding the 303 fluid... I'm finding lots of universal fluids but the book specifically says to run John Deere 303. The previous owner said that was all that was ever ran it for the life of the machine. It runs great and has over 800 original hours on it.
So.... wow... super long first post. Any thoughts, ideas? Headed to town now to return this AW-32 and start looking around more for the 303... will check in via phone app and see if there are any responses. Thanks ahead!
