In light of the recent Tim the Tool Man Taylor-esque hotrod push mower thread, I thought my recently acquired mower might deserve a thread of its own. Not because I've done some super awesome mods to it, or there is anything inherently cool about it, but rather because it's incredible suckyness at all functions of being a lawnmower deserves to be documented.
So there it is, a nineteen eighty whatever MTD LT 12.5.38. They couldn't even give it a real number for a name. One would presume that the 12 refers to the 12 hp Briggs and Stratton engine, and the 38 represents the 38" deck, but the 5 remains a mystery. "What about the transmission" you say? Nope, it's a 6 speed. Who knows...
The LT 12.5.38 was acquired via Craigslist around 2-3 weeks ago. Some of you may be aware that I recently purchased my first house, and, as such, I was in need of a riding mower for my roughly .75 acre yard. With all of the other expenses coming along with the house, I set off in search of the cheapest functional mower I could find. At $175, the MTD was it.
As I arrived at the PO's house, immediately upon stepping out of my borrowed truck the very shirtless and sweaty redneck seller requested that I help him herd his several chickens back into their coop. I E36 M3 you not, I wasn't there 10 seconds and we're chasing chickens around this dude's yard like redneck Rocky.
Meanwhile, the tractor is idling away in the driveway amongst a slew of other slightly newer and less E36 M3ty tractors. Red flag #1, vehicle is running prior to arrival. Said his son must have left the key on and drained the battery so he had to jump it, but the battery is new (and it looked new enough.) I can see the belts flapping away underneath and the deck is missing one of its casters. My brief test drive also revealed horrifically sloppy steering. So clearly it was not in the best overall condition, Red Flag #2, it was probably a piece of E36 M3, but it ran OK and cut grass, which was good enough. So when it came to talk price, the seller starts going into how he is fixing and selling mowers to fund a mission trip to Haiti and blah,blah, blah, which thus raised Red Flag #3: Anyone who seems slightly shady (which he did) and calls Jesus as a character witness is probably lying to you. In spite of the obvious red flags, I bought it anyways, knowing full well I was getting a crappy mower.
So far it has not disappointed. First cutting, as soon as I got home, went OK, the tractor even powered it's way through some rather shaggy and overgrown grass. On the second cutting, I had quite a bit of difficulty starting the old girl, had to jump it (ha) and then crank forever.
The third cutting is where things really went south. First, after again having to jump it and crank forever, I lost propulsion when the drive belt came off its pullys. But fortunately I was able to hold it up on its side with one hand while working the belt back into place with the other. However, i didn't make it much further without running out of gas (which was expected, I was just trying to get as much done as I could after work one night.) The trouble came the next day, after I filled and tried to restart it. Again, the jump and crank routine ensued, and then concluded unsuccessfully with the smoke escaping the starter motor as it ground to a halt.
After an unsuccessful attempt to disassemble and repair the starter, I gave in and ordered a new one for $30 (now up to $205.) Installed it tonight and now it's running as good as ever, which is to say a tad on the rich side and generally not very well. I don't know if that is a result of the carb needing to be cleaned, or the choke being stuck (not sure if it's stuck off or on, the running rich but being hard to start seem to give conflicting signals.) I also discovered the reason for the incredibly sloppy steering at this point. There is a tie rod running from a gear off of the steering shaft to the LF knuckle. The tie rod end at the knuckle has completely separated, while the opposite was only placed in its hole, with no nut to secure it. I'll be making a trip to tractor supply in the next couple days.
When it has run and cut grass, it hasn't cut it very evenly and has also shown a spending for scalping the hell out of certain spots. I'm sure the missing caster is to blame here, and am planning to deal with that as well. On a positive note, it is decently fuel efficient, using a gallon for roughly 1.75 cuttings.
So there you have it. I can't really complain about this tractor, I was looking for a cheap POS and that's what I got, but rather it's been worth a few laughs. I don't know if I'll just keep it until this spring or try to eek out another year, but either way this tractor is not a long term solution. I don't know what this thread is supposed to be either, perhaps it will turn into a poor quality "build" thread or maybe it just belongs in the minor rant thread, but either way feel free to share your own stories of hated pieces of E36 M3ty power equipment.
. There seems to be more than enough of it going on locally.
