Hello After wire brush, a compressor blast and clean with Acetone, the underside of the deck gets a good Dry Moly spray and the top side gets Stove Bright Satin Black touch up! This year I am trying to get the squeak out by squirting in some Marvel Mystery oil. I cannot get any grease in the spindles because there are no grease fittings? Any other ideas? I have some brand new ones but they are not binding just a little squeak from being dry? What do you guys do?
Hello Maybe install a zerk fitting? All spindles should come with them? There is a trick, the video here shows a spindle where a grease fitting can easily be added. This video shows adding a grease fitting to a spindle but it is a sealed spindle so the seal on the bearings has to be removed for the grease to get in! A tap & die makes it easier to get a good zerk in. The next video shows that if you pump the grease in hard the grease will push the seal out of the way and fill the cavity. The zerks that are self tapping work just fine so no need to tap & die. The video show the grease filling in and oozing out of the top of the right spindle. See pic below.
Oh well Just ordered some heavy duty Lumax zerks LX-3007-10 1/4"-28 Taper Thread (SAE-LT) Straight 0.54" Long Grease Fitting,
Every spindle should have a zerk. What mower is this from? I'll check mine on my ariens soon. I'll need to mow soon, so at bare minimum a sharpening of the old blades by the time a mowing needs to be done. It's possible I need to put new bearings into my spindles. I've got the bearings. I'll order new blades though, after a few mowings this year.
Hi Thanks for the comments Turning the blades by hand make an awful squeaking noise! Post a pic of your Arians if you can please? The mower is a Sears LT1000 Tractor purchaser in 2003. I see no zerks! The mower deck being 17 years old did look shabby shakes but the new high temp stove paint makes it look better? Also the rubber feet fell off and it was rusting bad there so I cut steel diamond plate in the same shape as the rubber feet and welded them in place and coated the underside with heavy duty undercoating. How does that look? See pics here. Sears LT-1000 Tractor- Replacing the old rotting rubber feet & rusting metal foot rests?
Here it is, it's an 84, built probably better than current pick up trucks. Yeah, I had to replace the engine, but that was kinda fun. My dad bought it new, when I was like 9. It's like 36 yrs old. I love it. It's got grease zerks where they need to be, it's serviceable, and made to last probably longer than I will be around. It's got front, center, and rear PTO's. It's got as 4' mowing deck, but there are 60" decks available, I've got a 4' snowblower for it too. If I wanted to I could find a sickle bar mower, a generator, a log splitter, and a tiller for gardens. There may be more attachments, but I couldn't find uses for them. About the only thing it doesn't and can't have, is 4wd.
On the deck, once per year in fall, I remove it and pressure wash the bottom. Then paint with rustoleum. A lot. The top has no rust or paint failure probably because I blow off the clippings every time I mow and store the machine inside. oem spindles have no grease zercs, lasted more than 10 years. New replacements have zercs. Meh.
In the Fall I go completely through my lawnmower. I get new parts as needed, wash it, grease, and oil and filter change. I remove the battery so I can can keep it in a warm place all winter. In the Spring I reinstall the battery and hopefully it starts and then I’m ready to go!
Nice, just a little paint on the mower deck and wheels and it would look new! Did you paint the body? What kind of engine does it have? B&S? I upgraded the old torn seat, not easy to find a replacement that would fit except the OEM seat. This one did the trick and a lot more comfy. See pics Craftsman LT1000 Lawn Tractor Seat Upgrade Anyone?
All original paint. It could use a respray on everything, except the snowblower, amazingly. It's obviously in decent enough shape. I would like to repaint the mower deck though. It's actually an ariens orange New Holland tractor. Later, Gravely sold the same chassis as a line they had. The Gravely had a different hood though. Same tractor tough, built extra heavy duty too. I forgot to mention that you can put a FEL on these. I replaced the original seat with one from a Massey Ferguson ( I think). My dad had the seat, and told me at the time what tractor it came off of, but I forgot what he said the tractor brand was, and he's not around anymore. There's not really much to ID the seat, but it is a steel pan with easy to reupholster back and bottom cushions. It's now got a Kohler opposed twin, magnum 18 in it. Horizontal crankshaft. It originally came with a Kohler kt17, which the magnum series is really an improved KT engine. I've got a thread on the repower of it here on FHC.Ariens GT17 garden tractor repower
It looks like a little tank! They can build things to last if they want to but lots of folks won’t pay for that quality.
Honestly, most people wouldn't guess that it's an 84. It looks a lot more modern than it is. The sunstrand hydraulic is super robust. So is the frame. About the only weak link is the front axle, but those are fine unless you have a FEL on it and use that for heavy stuff. I remember my dad paid like 3k for it new in 84. That was with the weight box, mower, blower, chains and rear wheel weights, which make the rear wheels look nice since the weights are plastic coated. The tractor won't fit inside the shed doors with either the mower deck or the wheel weights on it. So weights are off. I've got the wheels and tires from the craftsman GT that the engine came out of, and that look like they will bolt right up, same tire size even. Those wheels are nice and shiny white painted. Problem is, I'll want to fix the disc brakes of I pull the wheels off.. The brakes haven't worked in decades, maybe new pads will be enough, as the mechanical linkage works just fine. The hydraulic controls slow it just fine though.
My father bought a Ford diesel garden tractor back in the 80’s. That also is a tank and that Diesel engine runs great. The mower deck and the snowblower are both rotting beyond repair.
