The "I'm Obsessive With Lawn Tractors" Thread
- Thread starter pagrunt
- Start date
No....no.....she's dead! New motor can fix it.
Dont really need it that bad. I have 3 others.
Maybe a race mower someday if im bored. But i have a long list of other things that need my money and time first!
Just got through washing my Simplicity Prestige 23hp. Currently got it hung up on the line to dry.
After it oiled down the deck clutch (and pretty much else) to the point that the deck barely spins in high grass, it was time to go through the 1050 hour Kohler Command and fix some stuff. Luckily, I pulled it apart when I did because one head was completely plugged up with oil and debris and was likely getting real hot. There were no signs of head gasket failure yet, but I don't think I would have made it through the season before it would have failed or burned to the ground.
My oil leaks turned out to be both valve cover gaskets shrinking and breaking in multiple places and the dipstick tube O-ring hardening up. All has been attended to and it is back together now, ready to go back in the tractor.
While I'm at it, I went ahead and cleaned and bed coated the underside of the deck to keep the rust demons away for a few more years and attempted to grease the spindles (since they put the zerks on the underside of the deck!). It will likely need new zerks before I will get any grease in them but I will deal with that later.
The pivot point for the machine's front axles need attention as well as all the bushings are original and wore out, plus the axles wear pads are pretty worn out and will likely need welded up to make the steering somewhat tight again, but I will have to make a parts tree order before I can even get started on that.
After it oiled down the deck clutch (and pretty much else) to the point that the deck barely spins in high grass, it was time to go through the 1050 hour Kohler Command and fix some stuff. Luckily, I pulled it apart when I did because one head was completely plugged up with oil and debris and was likely getting real hot. There were no signs of head gasket failure yet, but I don't think I would have made it through the season before it would have failed or burned to the ground.
My oil leaks turned out to be both valve cover gaskets shrinking and breaking in multiple places and the dipstick tube O-ring hardening up. All has been attended to and it is back together now, ready to go back in the tractor.
While I'm at it, I went ahead and cleaned and bed coated the underside of the deck to keep the rust demons away for a few more years and attempted to grease the spindles (since they put the zerks on the underside of the deck!). It will likely need new zerks before I will get any grease in them but I will deal with that later.
The pivot point for the machine's front axles need attention as well as all the bushings are original and wore out, plus the axles wear pads are pretty worn out and will likely need welded up to make the steering somewhat tight again, but I will have to make a parts tree order before I can even get started on that.
Well crap. I think I found the source of my vague steering.
Front hole has a slight amount of egg shape to it, but the back hole is blown out and cracked around to the point where I will have to cut this out and weld in a new piece.
It looks like the wear plates have taken a good bit of wear as well, and I will be doing some cast iron welding to rebuild them up to level.
All doable, but what a pain...
Front hole has a slight amount of egg shape to it, but the back hole is blown out and cracked around to the point where I will have to cut this out and weld in a new piece.
It looks like the wear plates have taken a good bit of wear as well, and I will be doing some cast iron welding to rebuild them up to level.
All doable, but what a pain...
Well, I got metal and hardware to repair the broken parts of the frame.
I started by welding up all the wear pads and slicking them back down to a flat surface. I wouldn't call them great, but they are a whole lot better than a 3/8ths inch air gap.
I was originally going to weld washers in to take the egg shape out of the less damaged hole, but didn't like the loose fit and the potential to wear out again. I ended up using 5/8ths inch shaft collars and welding them up to the backside of the plates on both sides. This gave me a half inch thick wear surface on each side instead of however thick 10 ga steel is.
I then drilled a hole in the replacement plate for the back hole and welded the shaft collar the plate. I then ran the bolt through the repaired front hole to align the back plate and welded it up flush. I upgraded to a Grade 8 bolt that was an inch longer than stock to account for the additional length of the shaft collars, and got everything welded, ground, and painted.
From here, I got the engine and clutch reinstalled, oil refilled and did a test run. Engine started easy and was much less rattly. I got it whole again and did a quick test mow. Unfortunately something is still slipping under enough deck load, but I am not sure if it is the oil contaminated belt or the oil soaked clutch. I left the clutch sitting in a bucket of gasoline for about 24 hours, but it had a pool of oil pour out of it after I took it off the engine so it may need replaced. But hey, it looks nice now.
I started by welding up all the wear pads and slicking them back down to a flat surface. I wouldn't call them great, but they are a whole lot better than a 3/8ths inch air gap.
I was originally going to weld washers in to take the egg shape out of the less damaged hole, but didn't like the loose fit and the potential to wear out again. I ended up using 5/8ths inch shaft collars and welding them up to the backside of the plates on both sides. This gave me a half inch thick wear surface on each side instead of however thick 10 ga steel is.
I then drilled a hole in the replacement plate for the back hole and welded the shaft collar the plate. I then ran the bolt through the repaired front hole to align the back plate and welded it up flush. I upgraded to a Grade 8 bolt that was an inch longer than stock to account for the additional length of the shaft collars, and got everything welded, ground, and painted.
From here, I got the engine and clutch reinstalled, oil refilled and did a test run. Engine started easy and was much less rattly. I got it whole again and did a quick test mow. Unfortunately something is still slipping under enough deck load, but I am not sure if it is the oil contaminated belt or the oil soaked clutch. I left the clutch sitting in a bucket of gasoline for about 24 hours, but it had a pool of oil pour out of it after I took it off the engine so it may need replaced. But hey, it looks nice now.
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I'm thinking "Simplicity" is more of a 180 misnomer for your ownership of said mowing apparatus. 🙂
They were a higher end garden tractor for the time, it really hasn't been a bad machine but I bought it at auction with 980 hours and the previous owner didn't know how to reassemble anything they touched so there were several moronic issues that needed fixed.
Now that the steering issues and engine leakage have been resolved successfully, almost everything is right and tight on it.
Unfortunately, I did find another source of the oil on the deck and it looks like the lift cylinder for the deck or one of the lines going to it is leaking. I am hoping it is a line since it failed pretty suddenly and because a replacement cylinder is $520.
On the upside, all the possible failure parts are still available as NLA lift cylinder parts are one of the reasons I parted ways with my Cub Cadet 2084.
Oh well, it's just money.
