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[OzFab]

Sunday: Went & test drove a Yardman/MTD RE 8-30 riding mower. Everything works but, it would seem at least one of the drive belts is slipping, full speed & I could walk faster... & I don't walk so fast these days...

The seller also pointed out a fuel leak at the carb & the fact that it had no battery...

Tuesday: I made the 3 hour round trip (including a detour or two) to pick up the mower; by the time I arrived back home it was getting a bit dark to do anything...

Wednesday: I needed an extra pair of hands to set up to replace the belts so, while I waited for my buddy to get here, I sourced 2 new belts (that took the best part of the morning) & a new battery (since it didn't come with one, it was a bit difficult to figure out which one I needed).

I also sussed out the fuel leak & realised the bowl had no gasket so, I made one from a piece of cardboard. However, it didn't seem to help...

Once my buddy arrived, we set about elevating the mower so we could access the belts without having to lay on the ground...

2 hours later, (after a lot of swearing, cursing & "where the did that part go?") the belts were fitted but, we couldn't get it to run properly...

When I looked at the mower the PO said one of the front wheels had been changes because the bearings in the original were shot but, he provided the original in the sale. Upon inspection, I realised that he didn't know what he was talking about because the original wheel was fitted with brass bushes & the wheel that it replaced had no bearings at all (a wheel with a 1 1/4" opening in the hub running on a 5/8" stub axle, yeah, that works...)

After ditching the replacement wheel, I set about attempting to seat the tyre on the original rim but, because it had been sitting for so long, that wasn't gonna happen so, I removed each bead off each side of the rim, leaving the rim completely inside the tyre, & put it in the back yard to get the early morning sun to soften &, hopefully, stretch the walls back out...

Thursday: I picked up the battery (I ran out of time the day before) & set about trying to make the thing run. At first, it would only run with the choke on; after a quick carb clean, it would run with the choke open but, not for long; a while later the governor started hunting... Leave it & come back to it later...

Now that the tyre had been softening in the sun for most of the day, I refitted it to the rim & headed off to my local tyre shop to have it inflated (don't ask...). That was easy enough but, upon inflating the tyre, small leaks were discovered in the edge of the side wall; nothing a tube won't fix so, I headed home to find a suitable tube amongst a pile of small wheels I "acquired" some time ago...

When I arrived home, I could hear a hissing noise, only to discover that, on my way home from the tyre shop, I had picked up a nail in the front right tyre of my car... SERIOUSLY??? (in hindsight, that was an omen)

To be continued...

 

[landuse]

OH no.......this doesn't sound good

 

[itsid]

Well then.. let the show begin

'sid

 

[OzFab]

Thursday continued: After I got over the situation with the now flat car tyre, I started to rummage through the box of wheels, looking for all the tubes I could find; I suspected that one or two may have a hole but, there should be at least one good one...

Nope; every one had a hole, except one, until I inflated it & it exploded...

So, a quick puncture repair & leave it to dry overnight...

Friday (today): After getting the tyre on the car repaired, I set about doing the same to the mower; I fitted & inflated the tube &, lo & behold, it actually worked

Next it was on to the carb. The pattern was start the engine, while the choke is out, it’s fine; as soon as I open the choke, the carb starts to surge, then, after about a minute, it dies. It would then, pretty much, start back up again…

A bit of research revealed that surging is usually caused by a bad mixture, whether it be by a poorly adjusted mixture screw or a dirty air filter or some other cause; I could rule out the air filter as I’d run the engine without it & it did the same thing so, I tried adjusting the mixture…

Now, for those who are unfamiliar with this particular carb, essentially, it has an adjustable main jet, a cone shaped screw through the centre of the fuel bowl bolt which screws up into the main jet; there is also the normal mixture screw on the top of the carb. Getting the two balanced & tuned properly wasn’t easy but, no matter what I did, the governor continued to surge.

I decided to just stand back & watch & noticed that, when the surge was at it’s low point, fuel ran out the overflow & straight down the throat of the carb; when the engine died, there was a pool of fuel left in the carb. When I cleaned the carb, I noticed that the little clip that connects the needle to the float was missing but, didn’t think much of it because, when the float rises, it would push the needle up anyway but, at this point, I was open to any suggestion.

Since I had another carb lying around, I thought I’d steal the clip from it & adjust the float while it was out (for the umpteenth time) but, it wasn’t until this particular occasion that I noticed this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuWPcPun0kw

I could’ve kicked myself…

So, as I said, I had a spare carb so, I fitted the float & clip to the existing needle (because the other needle was smaller ), put everything back together & cranked it over… nothing…

Turn the fuel tap on idiot! Oh yeah, that would help…

After giving it a few seconds to fill the bowl, I tried again & it started straight away & ran smooth for about 5 minutes

I then proceeded to mow around 400sq/m of grass without any further hiccups… apart from the occasional drive belt jam (apparently, 3/16” does matter…) I would've done more but, it got dark...

There were one or two other small things along the way but, after reading all that, do you really want to know more? There's also a few other little things I need to do like, I need to do something about the deck height adjuster, it keeps slipping out; I have one or two ideas so, time will tell what works...

 

[OzFab]

I've been slowly plodding away, doing little things to improve the mower. The first thing I had to do was get it to drive correctly... or, more to the point, STOP properly...

I had an idea the build up of rust on the variable pulley may have something to do with it so, I set about removing. Not surprisingly, it made a difference but, it's still not disengaging completely in reverse; I'll keep working on that...

The next thing to attend to was the deck height adjuster. From factory, it appears that it wasn't a great design. Each cutout step was straight & laid back only a few degrees, meaning that, every time I hit a significant bump, the handle would jump out of its designated step & the deck would bottom out...

After welding "tips" on each step, I then filed & ground each one to give a sawtooth like shape to each peak, meaning the adjuster handle would need to defy gravity to jump out of it's selected slot...

 

[landuse]

Nice work Tony

 

[OzFab]

Update

Maybe you saw this post about the dramas I had with the mower a few weeks back, since then I've done a couple of little things; I made a battery clamp & started on a catcher; this one is a LOT simpler than the last because:
1. it has a rear discharge chute as opposed to a side discharge
2. there actually was a catcher made for this model

So far, I've made the framework to hold the catcher & I'm almost done with the chute...

The biggest problem I'm having with this machine is sourcing parts & a manual; below is a pic of the ID plate, can anyone decipher it?

 

[2SlickNick]

Wow, what a story.....Hope this mower is now part of the family .

Nice job fabbing up a collection container.

 

[OzFab]

Wow, what a story.....Hope this mower is now part of the family

Man, you should know me by now, everything is a story &, IMO, if you're gonna tell a story...

... & besides, around here, you don't buy a riding mower at a rock bottom price & expect it to be perfect...

Oh, I almost forgot, I had another small problem...

When I replaced the belts, to save money, I used non genuine, generic yet high quality belts (cost me ~$30 as opposed to just over $100); the problem was that the generic belts only come in 1" increments & one of the genuine belts is 27 1/4"; 1/4" shouldn't make that much difference, right?

WRONG! Just enough to be a pita, the clutch just wouldn't disengage the drive so, I removed to variable pulley (again) & drilled a hole behind the original, effectively elongating the original hole; worked like a charm