John Deere 855 belly mower lift

[WinterDeere]

Deere doesn't still offer a radiator for that tractor? Surprising.

There must be thousands of 855's in bone yards scattered across this country, so finding one second-hand should be an option, if not available new.

I remember when every town had a radiator repair shop. Now they're specialty places for custom hot rods, only.

 

[WJ Goodman]

They do but I'm not forking out $1300. In my quest, I am learning Yanmar uses that engine and radiator set in a number of JD and Yanmar and other brands and models. But when you look up those other brands and models, they all steer you to a newer aluminum upgrade that doesn't appear anything like the original. The connecting ports are located differently. All of the related body/frame pieces that are welded to the radiator frame are missing. The pass-thru holes underneath are also missing but are needed to pass the wiring and fuel lines to the front. Priced under $300, it is reasonable but not willing to take that chance that it might not work or fit properly.

I located a radiator shop in West Plains (about an hour away) so will try to get it in there. The guy never answers his phone so tomorrow will run over there and hope that he is around. We need to do some shopping anyway and also that's where the closest JD dealer is so will swing in there and load up on a thermostat, filters, belts, hoses and anything else I can replace while I have it disassembled.

If that doesn't materialize into anything, I'll just add more JB Weld, do what I can, reinstall it and hope for the best. I'll be able to dig in deeper this winter but for now, I need to get it working and I could live with a slow leak for the time being. I do believe that now that air can get through there (with the cleaned out screen), it won't be running as hot and boiling away what it has like was occurring before.

 

[WinterDeere]

Ouch... $1300 isn't a terrible deal for antique NOS, but still... ouch!

I may have already mentioned this, but the rising cost of parts for models so many years out of production, is one of the big reasons I finally sold my 855. It was a great little tractor, and I had little concern about JD continuing to make parts available, but the cost of the parts seemed to go up more with each year out of production.

It makes sense, it costs a lot more to make and inventory a dwindling number of parts for machines that have been out of production for 30 years. Everyone will have a different threshold for when it makes sense to trade the high cost of a newer machine for the high cost of maintaining an old one.

I'm dealing with the same on my 2007 mower now. They still have all the parts, either in stock or shipped in 48 hours, but cost on some parts have doubled since that mower went out of production.