A couple days before my younger brother showed up to build me a new gate for the side yard a couple weeks ago, he came over and dropped off an old Craftsman riding mower that he had been using once in a while for many years.
It quit moving on him and he got fed up with messing with it. This after he spent $500 having some guy do a bunch of work to it earlier at some point.
This wasn’t just any old mower.
My Dad had owned it for at least a few years and I had wanted it after he passed away but the wife threw a fit saying I didn’t need it and when my brother piped up saying he did, away it went.
Talking to my brother, he said that dad has been dead for 12 years now. I can’t remember things like that to save my life. Me and dates don’t work well together. Armed with that information, I guessed that the mower must be at least 15 years old but it is actually in pretty decent shape, especially compared to the POS I have been constantly thrashing on to keep operational for the last few years.
My brother even still had the original manual and records for the thing and while I was busting my ass all day last saturday on the thing, I opened it up to discover I was way wrong about how old it actually is.
The damn thing was built in 1997 which makes it 28 years old!
I know the Old man always kept it in a tin shed while he had it and my brother kept it inderneath a covered area next to a tool shed which goes a long ways explaining why it still looks halfway decent after all these years.
When he brought it over the battery was dead, the carb was leaking fuel and when I tried jump starting it the spark plug got gas fouled. It also had a very flat rear tire.
We pulled the deck out from under it and pushed it into the side yard which is when he volunteered to replace the rotten gate.
I started in on it and started ordering parts as soon as I could.
First thing was a new carb with a new fuel shut off solenoid. The old one was leaking gas and the solenoid only worked when I wiggled the wiring connector.
Then I ordered new spindles for the deck and some tubes for the back tires.
The carb showed up a couple days later and came with the solenoid, a connector and some wiring, a new fuel filter, spark plug, some cheap fuel lines that were too small and a manual in-line shut off valve.
Yup, she was a virgin.
A dirty, nasty, crusty old virgin.
After short thrash session last Saturday I finally got the engine to run and it runs like a sewing machine.
After all these years.
When I put a couple gallons of gas in the tank and while I was messing with the drive belt I noticed that there was gas leaking onto the inside of the tire that keeps going flat. Something else I am going to have to fix and that is going to be a bitch.
I have to tear the entire back off the thing because the tank is under the rear fender assembly and the seat.
Oh Yay.
After I got it running I jumped in the seat, pushed on the clutch pedal and put it into gear.
When I let the clutch out, the engine immediately bogged down and smoke started pouring out from underneath the thing.
That would explain why it quit moving on my brother, the drive belt had jumped the pully and got wedged under it on the Hydrostatic rear end.
That turned out to be a story all of it;s own.
When I went to the parts store and talked to my Go To guy, he said it took an 81 inch belt.
When he brought it out, I had the old one with me and I asked him to make sure they were the same.
Long story short, they weren’t actually. I spent two hours laying on my side in the gravel fighting that bastard to get it on and when I finally did, I discovered that I had almost no travel left on the clutch pedal.
I could get it to go into gear and get it to stop by shifting the transmission in and out of gear but I had no neutral using the clutch.
Later on during the week I did some homework and the numbers in the manual weren’t matching the 81 inch belt.
After messing with it and actually running it around a bit I finally got about an inch of travel on the clutch pedal but I had to go back up to the parts store for some oil and a filter for the thing and showed him the number for the belt I found in the manual. It’s 82 and 3.4’s of an inch long. I bought one but I’m going to change that out later.
Yesterday spent several hours changing out the spindles.
I could see that someone had replaced at least one before but when I finally got them out, the actual shaft and the bearings just fell out of one of the housings so I was glad I was replacing them before dragging the deck back under it and attaching it.
I did that today.
After messing with figuring out some of the linkage that my brother had disconnected while I wasn’t watching when we stuck it in the side yard originally, I finally got the damn thing put back together today.
I fired it up, ran it in front of the garage and put air in the tires.
Then I took it out and actually mowed the damn lawn with it.
Fifteen minutes after I got done, Fed Ex showed up with the 2 new rear tires I ordered for it last week.
So now I have to jack the thing up, take the wheels off and throw everything in the back of the truck. One day next week I will leve early for work and stop by the ancient tire shop that I drive by on my way to work and have the young guy put the new tires on.
Right now I am tired and sore from thrashing on it but I am a happy camper.
The Old man would be happy to see his old mower put back together and working and I am happy that after I get the new tires on I won’t have to be constantly thrashing on a POS riding mower anymore.
After working on this two days of a three day weekend plus both days last weekend, I am taking tomorrow off. I called my kids and we are all going over to Washougal and going fishing on the Columbia off the dock there tomorrow.
Just like we used to do when they were little.
Except this time my 6 foot 2, 12 year old grandson is going to join us.
And I’ll be sober.
Those old Kohler engines are stout.
Great you got it going! No, I do not want the old one… you gonna junk it? I hope this one lasts you until you tighten that last bolt in the sky. You know you are gonna pay for wrenching on that old Craftsmen for the next week or so. Glad you had the manual for referencing the belt length. Will the tires and rims fit your “new” mower from the older(younger) mower?
A labor of love, Phil – glad to see you took the time and effort to get the ol’ girl up and running smoothly. You’ll never be disappointed.
Put the clunker out on the curb with a FREE sign and it will disappear like magic. Ask me how I know.
As for the fishing trip (toady as I type this, right?) may you have a good experience with the kids and grandkids. No time like now to enjoy, because the clock is surely ticking along and your g-kids need goo memories.
Enjoy!
By goo, are you referring to that red mud you have there? Or the stuff all over the floor at that trannie rest spot on Rt 6 just below Provo? You know, the one that looks like a old time train station.
PIMF
Great stuff. Accomplishment is awesome. That very last line started my morning with a HUGE smile. I’ll be sober today too! 14,661 twenty fours and counting.
God Bless!
Great story Phil, I’m sure your pop is beaming.
Similar story with the watch that mine gave me 50+ years ago. It’s right and good to remember and honor them.
Bone – 49 years, Sept 27, (God willing) one day at a time continuously. Believe in Miracles? Yup, I just look in the mirror.
Good on ya Phil, saving old mowers is an art form and not for the weak of will.
I have a 42″ just like that one, made by same company only different badge (Ariens). They are pretty much indestructible. I am no engine #2, first one grenaded after 10 years of use (rod crankshaft bearing bolt sheared, nothing I could have known to fix, ran perfectly one day, punched the case next). New crate engine was waaay cheaper than a new mower.
Have fun, hope the fish are biting good and hard.
I have that same green lt1000 craftsman. Still works great.matt from texas. I would come pick up the old green one if I was closer!!
Great job on that, Phil.
The “new” mower is definitely better than the old one. That Kohler Command is a great engine. The same exact one that is on my JD GT225 mower. Way better than the Intek Breaks & Scrap’em that is in the LT1000. Heaver chassis in the grey machine as well.
All you need to do now is disable all the safety switches so you can mow in both directions. Pain in the ass when the deck shuts off, or engine shuts down, when you try to back up with the blades engaged.
Enjoy your time fishing.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
I’ve had pretty good luck with the Kohler engines. I have a V-twin 20hp in my Cub Cadet, my GOOD mower, and a one-lunger in an old Troy-Bilt I use for thrashing weeds in the corral. The latter one uses a little oil, not enough to smoke, but runs fine otherwise. Having two lawn tractors seems like excess, but doing weed abatement with the GOOD mower will turn it into a BEATER mower in short order. I bought the Troy-Bilt for $400.00 a few years back. It had been sitting for years. It had been covered by a tarp, but that had long since disintegrated. I didn’t even try to start it before going through it. I’m glad I didn’t, because upon pulling off the top cowling, I found it had been converted into a mouse house with fibers from the aforementioned tarp! They’d pissed on the starter so many times that the armature was frozen in place! A new battery, a new carb, and a good dose of WD-40 on the armatrure, and she fired right up!
Yeah; keep a spare set of belts and spare spindles in stock. They both tend to go suddenly and at the worst possible time.
If any of your readers owns a tractor with the Briggs & Stratton V-twin, Beware of a flaw I found only too late. The heads on these have small air cooling passages that cool the part of the heads where the valve guides are. Dirt and grunge will build up and block the passages. The valve guides will then overheat and grab the valves tight. This will cause the pushrods to either break or bend. At this point you’ll lose power on that cylinder. If you’r lucky, you’ll pull he valve cover off and find the pushrod lying in there. If you’re not lucky, the pushrod or pieces of the pushrod will fall into the crankcase with predictable results. …I was not lucky… Save yourself from this by pulling off the shrouds that direct cooling air over the heads and clean all the crap out of there at least once a season. You may not even see the air passages until you through enough of the debris to see them!
….”and I’ll be sober”. I like that point.
My dad had a Monkey Wards(I think) that had a bearing go out on the mower deck. He took it to a local mower shop for repair. They kept it for 2 years saying they couldn’t get a bearing. They even refused to give it back. After he died I had to threaten them with legal action to get it back. It had been sitting out for 2 years. I found a bearing at the auto parts store and used it for a couple years before selling it. Had to jump start it with the car.
The mower shop is still in biz.
Good on ye, for rehabilitating something that a lot of other people would have sent to the trash heap. I had a similar one, but maybe 10 to 15 years older. Back when the Craftsman name actually meant something. Kohler V engine I don’t recall 18 HP or 20 HP? Something like that. Bought it second hand, the deck had 3 blades (2 main and a middle chopper). It did fine, even through moderate brush. It was nicknamed “the third car” because it took up so much space in the garage.