Despite being owned by a redneck horse farmer.. it did pretty good.
Check this out... He had it with a 4' mower. He's let weeds and grass grow 3' tall and then hit it with the mower, full cut width.. hi gear when the tractor would start to stall, he'd hit the clutch, and then run at it again.. it made an awefull looking cut that way. I told him to take less of a 'bite' So i go over to his house one day and he is mowing the grass, full cut width, high gear, with the mower 2' in the air.. again making a terrible mess. I got on it and showed him how to use the lowest range that hst had, and then take a 1' cut or 2' cut in the heavy stuff... ( it was not the tractos fault.. it was the owner. ).
he had bought that tractor an mower brand new. 86' I think....Anyway... a few years ago I remember going over to his house one day ( he asked me to come over and cut his pasture cause his tractor was broke down ).. I got over there and cut it.. and then asked to see his 'broke' tractor ... as it was the 3rd time he'd asked me to come over and mow.
There it sat with 4 flat tires, and a hole knocked in the diffe section about the size of a quarter. i asked what happened and he said he was in reverse.. going fast and ran into the corner of his horse trailer.. and it knocke dthat quarter sized hole inthere. I checke dthe oil.. it was black... He said he had never changed it. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif If he hadn't been bigger' an me.. I'd have slappe dhim.. but I'm afraid he woulda whoope dme with one arm tied behind his back.. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I sent him to TSC to get some supplies while I worked ont he tractor.
I aired the tires and was amazed they were ok.. drained oil, refilled with fresh, including new oil, air and fuel filters.. flushed radiator, cleaned diffy sump with alcohol, and used a couple epoxy sticks and made a patch for the hole in the rear end. Refilled with hydro fluid, and changed the oil in the mower gearbox and put a grinder to the dull rounded blades on the ford 590 4' mower.
Had the battery on charge during this time.
Amazingly, the old dog fired right up, and aside for a bit of smoke from the breather and the stack.. she actually ran good. The patch in the rear end held up good. A year later it seeped a bit and i cleaned it with brake cleaner and slathered it up with jb weld, and it never leaked after that. He used that tractor another 3 years after that then sold it to a guy for 3500$ and bought a riding lawnmower...
so... uh.. despite the worst care i can imagine for a tractor.. I'd say it was at least at 80% to 85% of original power capacity even after the years of TLC it had been recieving... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Soundguy
