I got my late father’s G1800 working for my daughter to use. She’s got about an acre to mow. She’s 400+ miles away from me, so I can’t work on it in person very often. I think there is around 600 or 700 hours on it.
I don’t think my dad had any trouble with it, but it sat for a while after he died. Long story short we’ve put a lot of time and money into it and now it’s not mowing. Something breaks down on it just about every week for her and she’s not very happy with it.
Engine starts and runs great, transmission is good, and the mower deck seems to be in OK shape as near as I can tell.
A couple weeks ago I was visiting and we changed the front belts, the ones right by the battery. They were beat. As I understand it, one of those is driving the transmission, and the front one, when tightened by the lever, drives a shaft that goes back to power the mower.
They are using a grass blower to catch the grass into bags behind the tractor. They stop and dump those often enough, as I understand it. I think there have been times when it’s been full and jammed up.
It worked right after that. Since then they’ve had some issues both with the front belt coming off and with the mower engaging. Right now the belt is on, it tightens up when the lever goes forward. But the blades are not spinning. They can spin freely by hand with the engine off and the lever not engaged, so it’s not jammed up. She can’t see anything wrong with belts or any stray parts. (I greased the mower bearings when I was there and I don’t think anything is seized).
Wondering if a spline could have pulled out between tractor and mower deck? Some other issue in that power train from front pulley to blades?
There is also the bigger issue of whether it’s worth throwing more money into this thing. Between us all we’ve put probably over $2000 into it — worth a lot less than that, and broken again. On the one hand if the motor and all basic parts are sound and bolts are not too rusty to turn, it could keep going for a long while. A diesel with good power is a good thing compared to many crappy gas tractors I have owned. On the other hand, here it is broken again.
I don’t think my dad had any trouble with it, but it sat for a while after he died. Long story short we’ve put a lot of time and money into it and now it’s not mowing. Something breaks down on it just about every week for her and she’s not very happy with it.
Engine starts and runs great, transmission is good, and the mower deck seems to be in OK shape as near as I can tell.
A couple weeks ago I was visiting and we changed the front belts, the ones right by the battery. They were beat. As I understand it, one of those is driving the transmission, and the front one, when tightened by the lever, drives a shaft that goes back to power the mower.
They are using a grass blower to catch the grass into bags behind the tractor. They stop and dump those often enough, as I understand it. I think there have been times when it’s been full and jammed up.
It worked right after that. Since then they’ve had some issues both with the front belt coming off and with the mower engaging. Right now the belt is on, it tightens up when the lever goes forward. But the blades are not spinning. They can spin freely by hand with the engine off and the lever not engaged, so it’s not jammed up. She can’t see anything wrong with belts or any stray parts. (I greased the mower bearings when I was there and I don’t think anything is seized).
Wondering if a spline could have pulled out between tractor and mower deck? Some other issue in that power train from front pulley to blades?
There is also the bigger issue of whether it’s worth throwing more money into this thing. Between us all we’ve put probably over $2000 into it — worth a lot less than that, and broken again. On the one hand if the motor and all basic parts are sound and bolts are not too rusty to turn, it could keep going for a long while. A diesel with good power is a good thing compared to many crappy gas tractors I have owned. On the other hand, here it is broken again.