Old Husqvarna riding mower. Can it be revived?😥😥

[jkk04]

The reason to purchase this riding mower was a long summer fun project.
I spent around $200 for this project
It came up very well and was so much fun...
Runs and cuts the grass very well too.
Good for a spear mower in case the main riding mower fails.

 

[bmaverick]

I had the Craftsman version of this model. The transmission wasn't the best. And to service it is a PITA. Husqvarna could of done better.

 

[jkk04]

This morning, I cut some tall weeds as a test proposal, and it went so well surprisingly...

It seems strong enough to cut tall weeds even though it is only 18hp, but the engine is a twin cylinder engine.
Jkk

 

[AndyMA]

Looks good to me!

Andy

 

[bmaverick]

This morning, I cut some tall weeds as a test proposal, and it went so well surprisingly...

It seems strong enough to cut tall weeds even though it is only 18hp, but the engine is a twin cylinder engine.
Jkk
View attachment 757695

Is it the twin Kohler M18 ? That was on my Craftsman as well. It was the only good thing about the mower. The deck is a nightmare sadly. In the end, I scrapped the deck, rebuilt the trans and tuned the engine for a slow ATV on the farm. It pulled trailers and carts for the remainder of its life.

 

[jkk04]

Is it the twin Kohler M18 ? That was on my Craftsman as well. It was the only good thing about the mower. The deck is a nightmare sadly. In the end, I scrapped the deck, rebuilt the trans and tuned the engine for a slow ATV on the farm. It pulled trailers and carts for the remainder of its life.

No.
As I meant on the video, the engine is a Kawasaki FH531V.
That was the reason I purchased the mower.
It is strong enough to cut 48" wide grass.
Jkk

 

[bmaverick]

No.
As I meant on the video, the engine is a Kawasaki FH531V.
That was the reason I purchased the mower.
It is strong enough to cut 48" wide grass.
Jkk
View attachment 757783

Really nice engine too. The Kohler M18 is the Magnum engine. The last of the good Kohler engines before the junk Courage series dominated.

With razor sharp blades the Kawasaki engine would be amazing.

 

[jkk04]

Really nice engine too. The Kohler M18 is the Magnum engine. The last of the good Kohler engines before the junk Courage series dominated.

With razor sharp blades the Kawasaki engine would be amazing

Agreed the Kohler courage series engine is terrible.
I owned a couple of those engines. The top engine cover bolts were too loose (it was a manufacturing error and recall that series engine)so I tightened up the bolts slightly then the engine block cracked. Welded that area but still leaking the oil seldom.
The welding on cast aluminum was hard to do.

Also, I added a bracket on the rear side mower for installing the hitch ball.
It was too tight between the wall and hole.
Welding is so fun and saves a tremendous amount of money and times in my life.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

This morning, I cut some tall weeds as a test proposal, and it went so well surprisingly...

It seems strong enough to cut tall weeds even though it is only 18hp, but the engine is a twin cylinder engine.
Jkk
View attachment 757695

WOW! that is some dry grass. I don't think I would be brave enough to risk a fire.

Looks like it did a good job though!

 

[jkk04]

WOW! that is some dry grass. I don't think I would be brave enough to risk a fire.

Looks like it did a good job though!

Sorry that I didn't mention it was 1/2" unusual heavy rain in the middle of summer in northern California the night before I cut the weed.
There was so much moisture preventing the spark while mowing..
Yes, without rain, it was a serious danger to fire in northern California I even didn't think about cutting the weed with a riding mower
jkk