Something to watch for on older 2300 seres

[irvingj]

Just passed 700 hrs and was doing some routine maintenance (OK, I was putting the snowblower on....). Removed the air cleaner housing to check that out, and found a teensy bit of... ANTIFREEZE on it!

Not sure how or why, but it appears that the hard plastic air cleaner housing had been in contact with the upper radiator hose. With normal engine vibration, the housing has created quite a bit of wear on the upper radiator hose. Yeah, there's now a pin-hole there...

Patched that up (temporarily, of course) with electrical tape and a layer of duct tape on top of that, and took a pipe wrench & bent the vertical steel piece that the air cleaner housing's rubber strap hooks to, to gain some clearance. Seemed to work.

If your 2300 series is gettin' old, you might want to take a look at that....

 

[thclimer]

Unfortunate that you have the issue, but its a nice catch to find before it failed worse at a time when you really need the tractor. Much nicer to fix now than after a 2 foot snow storm and when its 10 degrees out and the wind is howling.

 

[irvingj]

"...2 foot snow storm and when its 10 degrees out and the wind..." You got that right!

I had no idea it was wearing like that, which is why I posted it. Third pic shows the corresponding wear on the air cleaner housing--

Not sure if it's always been that close there or if it got bumped somehow. Pipe wrench pull opened that up so it should be OK now.