CL Lawn Tractors

You may have seen the video of me blowing up the motor in my lawn tractor. ( Mower Start) Lesson learned, and I started searching for a new motor. While searching, I came across a complete mower with bagger for $150. Hmmmm, that's less than a motor. So I checked it out and the steering was messed up. I bought it, bent the tie rod straight, and it mows nicely.

Then the rear tires kept going flat so I decided to replace them. Just swap on a pair from Lowes I said, 5 min tops I said. Well, the old tires really decided to hang onto the axles. I soaked them in PB blaster and figured a good whack with a sledge should dislodge them.

Well, the rim bent and bent, but did not budge from the axle. I may have nicked the transaxle and put a little hole in it.

And, I MAY have gotten a case of Hulk rage and smashed the rim until the transaxle split in half.

But it proved my point, which was that the wheel was NEVER coming off of the axle. So off to E-Bay for a new transaxle, and another $150 down the toilet. I also saw a good motor for the red tractor, so I grabbed it too.

So now I have one mower with a good motor, but no rear-end:

And one mower with a good drivetrain, but no motor:

But I have all of the parts, so I will do a quick build thread of either my success and sale of one tractor, or of my miserable failure and return to greenscaping and possibly getting a goat.

I love that you strung the mower up like a deer.

Also, you must have the most inaccurate hammer swing ever. the broken case at the diff I get,(that must have taken a lot of force btw) but how are there chunks of the axle, nuts and studs missing/destroyed from trying to get the tire off?

And that mower has a impossibly clean underside.

Next time:

I keep meaning to buy a lawn tractor off of CL at some point, but I need a shed to put it in first.

Ducking Craigslist lawnmowers. I bought one 3 weeks ago in pristine condition because it had only mowed lawns for a year before the owners moved and put it away for 3 years. In three weeks it has had a starter, battery, flywheel because the starter engaged JUST enough to bust teeth off the flywheel, belt, and now it's got another new starter because the compression release is stuck and the starter drive stretched and twisted trying to turn the motor over. So now to dismantle the head to fix the compression release and maybe I can finally mow the lawn this weekend.

hooookay, no more hammers for Pinchvalve.

If I ever meet you, you're to stay away from all hammers and hammerlike objects while in my vicinity.

How big was your berkeleying hammer?

Dear God man.

By the way I got my used mower from a JD store for $900 delivered. It has had oil and filters once every year (except this one) for five years without a single issue at all, other than a leaky tire. I fixed that without breaking the transaxle in half, though.

I used a tire plug kit from Home Depot. I think it was under $8

I considered slime and so on, but one tire had a long laceration in it and the other had some weird bubbles. Besides, the tiers at Lowe's are a simple, bolt-on affair!

The hammer that I used was an 8-pound sledge. At first, I was just tapping it with a deadblow and being careful. Then I used the sledge to up the ante a bit, and on one swing I nicked the housing. It is brittle aluminum and shattered like glass. So I figured I would keep swinging and see if the tire would come off. The force of bashing the tire actually split the case in half, but I was swinging with full force. Not recommended for successful repair, but therapeutic. Suffice it to say, I have a tool drawer like Clarkson's, but no wimpy brass hammers for me. 3# sledge, 5# sledge, 8# sledge, 10# sledge...

I got the rear transaxle on, and mounted up new tires on the back. Allow me to say, I HATE SPRINGS.

No holes, no bashing this time, Hulk tired, Hulk sleep.

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This was the original issue, the bar connecting the tires was bent. I dropped the $5 on a new one and now it tracks straight and turns well. Would have been a $5 fix on a $125 tractor had I not turned into the Green Guy...

Got the lights working (who mows at night with 5w bulbs?!?!?) and gave the engine a good tuneup and oil change. Put some new front tires on and removed the wheel weights. I think that they were part of the problem with the steering and I really don't know what wheel weights are for.

$125! And that included the bagger! Motor is clean and runs perfect, I put all-new belts on it since it was already apart, popped in a new battery, and I will test how she mows tonight. Overall, I am pretty happy with it.

Took it for a test mow last night, and it needs some adjustments. I can turn WAY left, but right...not so much. I have forward and reverse, but no Neutral. Hilarious trying to mow only going forward and turning left.

I mow at night with the dim bulbs.

bgkast wrote: I mow at night with the dim bulbs.

Same here. They are dim.

I had a friends neighbor give me a garage kept John Deere L120 with a "bad motor", turned out to be a bad starter. great free lawn mower. Then he called 2 weeks later and said he found the bagging system. Even better free lawn mower

Pop in the biggest dealextreme/ebay LED bulbs you can find in that socket, no more lighting problems.

i just sold a toro that only needed a carb rebuild for 150. i wish i still had a big enough yard to need a rider!