Musings on a just-bought 3205

[geneP]

I had been wanting one and saw this one on Craigslist. 540 hours on the clock. Liquid cooled Kawasaki. Went to look, the owner said he bought it in '06 used. He said the deck gearbox was leaking, he rebuilt it and it still leaked. He said he had just replaced the seal again and "maybe" it wouldn't leak anymore. I suspected it would leak, so I planned on it, and it does. I took it home and cut some tall grass in the pasture. It mows fast and clean. I'm impressed. Disassembled the deck gearbox and found the top bearing on the output shaft was really loose. The inner race was sloughing off and had metal particles in the oil. He had just replaced the gears and bearings and this one had the same markings as the others so maybe it was bad?

While I had the deck off I could see dirt accumulations all over the transmission so I decided to pull the fenders to expose it for cleaning. The transmission was caked in debris so thick you literally couldn't tell that it had cooling fins. I got the shop vac in there and afterward the rest blew off with compressed air. I'm surprised it isn't burned up but it seems to work well. Oil is clear, but I'll change it too.

The PO mentioned that he mowed with the deck on the ground because he would have to raise the deck back up several times during a 3 hr. cutting period. After reading the mower manual, I see that they are designed to run on the ground. This must be pretty normal because I see on the owners manual that later in the series MTD added a "deck downstop" to the tractor that essentially is an adjustable manual lock on the lift shaft. It seems pretty straight-forward so I might fabricate one while it is exposed.

If all goes like I see it now, I should have <$1200 in it plus a few days of spare time.

 

[JTKub]

Good for you Gene! You got yourself the Caddy of the Cub garden tractor line.

As you've seen, these trans-axles fortunately are hardy enough to withstand being caked with debris. I think it has a lot to do with the ~6qt oil sump it has (combination differential housing / oil sump).

I know the decks and associated hardware are designed to ride the ground for this series machine, but my personal take is it's still too rough on the equipment unless your property is mostly putting green smooth. The deck shaft and gearbox are exposed to a bunch of shock on rough ground.

The liquid cooled Kawi's are smooth buggers (all Kawasakis for that matter). I know the vertical shaft version of this engine used on JDs had some issues with leaking water pumps that required quite a bit of work to r/r, but it's probably a different situation with the horizontal shaft on the Cubs.

Joel