Passing the time during COVID-19 pics

[72-SS-L48]

Originally Posted by SMS

What do you keep under the trap door?

It's for storage/ a spare tire. We opted to up the size of our tires for a better ride and prefer to have them wall mounted incase we blow a flat and have a car loaded. So basically items that are not used often but we want to keep int he trailer.

[EZ Nova]

Nice you guys have the time to do this stuff. I'm still working and actually busier then normal. Even though sales are down somewhat to where we should be, we are now getting walk-in clients. BUT getting products and stuff is harder, so more running around for me and getting products and services done with house closing dates is harder. Actually worked 14+ hrs Monday. Longest day that I can remember.

Might have been nice having 4-8 weeks to get the cars better prep'ped for the track.....

John

[njsteve]

Lately, I've been working on this 1989 John Deere 185. I bought it used in 1990. Going strong for 31 years now. Whenever something breaks on it, I feel like Darrin McGavin in A Christmas Story: yelling and cursing but taking extreme pride that I won another battle with the ancient green monster.

I actually love this old tractor. Yesterday's problem was the battery light going on at idle...and then full time indicating it was not charging at all. I figured it was the original voltage regulator finally going bad. So I googled the problem and it was either a bad voltage regulator (around $100) or the fuse in the fuse holder is loose. You learn a lot from youtube videos! - I pulled out the 20 amp fuse, scuffed up the terminals and put it back in. Worked like a charm! Back to charging once again.

The week before, it was the main coiled spring that holds tension on the hydrostatic drive belt pulley, snapped off in the middle of the yard. After 31 years it wore through the 180 degree end and broke off clean. It took a week, but the new revised John Deere spring arrived and I installed it and back out into battle with the yard once again.

My kids all learned how to drive (and parallel park) on this tractor over the past 20 years. Though my daughter was notorious for breaking parts that the local JD dealer had never seen broken before. For the longest time I thought she was getting $$ kickbacks from them for the parts sales. One time she broke the center hub out of the old front rim. (replaced with the new shiny right front rim in the photo). The dealer had never seen that happen before and wondered what she ran into and how high of a speed she did it to cause it to be punched out like that. She shrugged her shoulders and said "I dunno". No one ever figured out what the heck she ran into.

The one thing I have always done is bought the proper John Deere part and not some aftermarket piece, so in 31 years of replacing broken parts (that broke from wearing out completely) I have never replaced the same part twice.

I have had to repeatedly remove and weld the main lifting arm that raises and lowers the deck, though. It is a bad design that puts all the hanging weight on a small 3/8" thick steel tab hanging at a bad angle of the bar. So every two years like clockwork, it would snap off and I'd have to go on ebay and buy another used lever. Last year I finally took the bar out and brought it to a local racecar chassis shop and had them properly gusset it and weld it up nicely. Haven't had a problem since (knock on wood), though I bought an extra used one just in case. See red arrows in photo for the bad design - breaking point..

And last year I sent to engine oil out for analysis and the lab. It has its original Kawasaki engine. The lab guys were amazed at the findings and told me that whatever I was doing, keep doing it!

And in the background is the 1954 Sears Craftsman tablesaw my friend gave me from his later father's woodshop. The wife and I used that a couple weeks ago to convert the obnoxious sliding panel doors in our front hall closet into hinged, opening doors. (It's the mini-She Shed that contains all her tools and stuff)

[67since67]

My late wife gave me a 185 for Father's Day in 1989, rolled it for 20 years. Other than oil, lube and batteries the only things I did to it were deck bearings and a set of belts.
Those Kawasaki motors are bulletproof and like most all Deere stuff they never die. My only complaints were it steered hard and wished it was a couple mph faster. Sold it to my BIL and he still uses it today.

[njsteve]

A fellow 185'er eh? Cool!

Yeah, my neighbor across the street always takes me by at the 15 yard distance from a standing start. (we've got adjacent, big yards). He's got a newer Deere and it's a zero-turn. No comparison. That thing is fast!

It takes me 40 minutes to do the backyard (lots of trees and obstacles) and about an hour and half to do the front. It's about 2-1/2 acres of grass to mow.

[Crush]

O boy I love talking grass, landscaping and all things tractors. Had a JD 200 series from the 80’s I think 36” deck. Felt like it took days to cut lawn so I moved up a few notches!! Good stuff

[67since67]

I enjoy running equipment almost as much as being in the shop.
I replaced the 185 with an X320 which was a smooth running refined mower.
When I built the new place in 2015 I scored major points with Jani by bringing home a this 1025R. She won't let me near it for mowing, and the Yanmar diesel uses less than half the fuel. I put more than 40 hours on it that first year doing all manor of loader and three point work.

[MosportGreen66]

Originally Posted by 67since67

I enjoy running equipment almost as much as being in the shop.
I replaced the 185 with an X320 which was a smooth running refined mower.
When I built the new place in 2015 I scored major points with Jani by bringing home a this 1025R. She won't let me near it for mowing, and the Yanmar diesel uses less than half the fuel. I put more than 40 hours on it that first year doing all manor of loader and three point work.

That tractor is lucky to be in your care Bill...

[njsteve]

Is that a photo when it was new? or do you wash and wax that tractor in your off hours? :-)

[njsteve]

You made with all jealous with that JD 1025R photo so last night I pulled the busted headlight pod out and fixed it.

It's a terrible design with the fragile plastic lens sticking out beyond the hood and just begging things to smash it. It's been long since discontinued from JD and you rarely see one used and in one piece on ebay. (That's where I got the spare one several years ago).

So I found my old spare busted original pod in the garage, cut a section of heavy clear plexiglass out of the sheet that I bought years ago to get a 6" square for CC'ing cylinder heads. I then used epoxy and clamped it together overnight. This morning I sanded the edges to match the outer perimeter and reinstalled it. Now I can happily night mow again.