The "I'm Obsessive With Lawn Tractors" Thread

[Peter P.]

This is what my failed spindle looked like. Not much left of the bearings.

 

[Ugly1]

Today was mowing deck rebuild day.

View attachment 243391
New chinesium pulleys $7 50 x2, New MTD belt $28, New chinesium spindles $17.50 x2

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Homemade shield to cover the hole where the torn and tattered plastic chute formerly lived (free courtesy of scrap)

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And of course, New blades. ($18)

With the way this yard tears up equipment wasn't going big or high end on anything.

The new spindles do have zerk fittings, but, are press-in cheapest anyways. To be perfectly honest, the way the filled land heaves and sinks with shallow roots they're going to take hits anyways.

Which gets me to a contemplation overnight. My old JD grease gun loaded with their product is MIA but my other gun loaded with valvoline extreme red I *do* know where it is. Debating pumping the spindles full of the valvoline and seeing how it does. It'd cost nore to buy a third grease gun and new tube of my usual than just get another set of Chinese spindles if it doesn't hold up.

Thoughts?

The red Valvoline seems to do well on our JD. And are you saying you have built in blade sharpening stones in your yard?

 

[Ugly1]

This is what my failed spindle looked like. Not much left of the bearings.

That’s getting the full use out of it.

 

[ck80]

The red Valvoline seems to do well on our JD. And are you saying you have built in blade sharpening stones in your yard?

Small rocks, tons of sand, and it was built over filled wetlands in the late 1980s so it's constantly having dips form and shallow roots go from below an inch of dirt to all of a sudden 3 inches above grade a couple mows later.

We had been filling about 4 CY of material to try to keep things somewhat level per 1/3 acre section of the property on a rotating basis every 6 months.

I won't miss it.

 

[Ugly1]

Small rocks, tons of sand, and it was built over filled wetlands in the late 1980s so it's constantly having dips form and shallow roots go from below an inch of dirt to all of a sudden 3 inches above grade a couple mows later.

We had been filling about 4 CY of material to try to keep things somewhat level per 1/3 acre section of the property on a rotating basis every 6 months.

I won't miss it.

They probably buried stumps under it. Cheap starchy filler

 

[ck80]

They probably buried stumps under it. Cheap starchy filler

Yep, they did that too.

 

[pagrunt]

Found out yesterday the ol' Troy Built had a drain hole added to the one tire yesterday when I got it out to mow. Today I Slimed it cause I'm not ready to waste Monte money on new tubes or tires.

 

[Tomeal]

Found out yesterday the ol' Troy Built had a drain hole added to the one tire yesterday when I got it out to mow. Today I Slimed it cause I'm not ready to waste Monte money on new tubes or tires.

Buy a tube, never look back till that tire falls off the tube.

I put tubes in all my tractor tires as soon as they start showing signs of leaking.

 

[pagrunt]

Buy a tube, never look back till that tire falls off the tube.

I put tubes in all my tractor tires as soon as they start showing signs of leaking.

Already tubed. Just not ready to dismount for another.

 

[pagrunt]

Had it give me a end of season repair, the less than a year old deck belt gave out after only getting half of the mowing done.