Indygunworks
Silver Member
I was just given this tractor when I helped a friend move and he didn't want to take it with him. Its a sears, and he believes its from the 60's. I don't think its the original motor. We are speculating a 25ish horse USA made kohler. There are a few issues I would like to try and fix with the tractor. First, the gears grind all the time. In order to get it into gear I have to idle it down, place the transmission into neutral, force the gear I want, then select high or low. This is apparently the way its always been for my friend. Not a huge deal, except I will be using this almost exclusively to blow snow and would prefer to not have all the extra steps, and wear and tear going from forward to reverse. I believe there might be a few causes for this. If its not the original motor then the pully on the side might be a bit higher preventing the belt from being able to be pushed off the pully. Also when you push the pedal in to release tension on the belt, it also engages the transmission/tractor break. I believe this to be either out of adjustment, or the "brake band" is old and worn down. Also the parking brake hooks up to this system as well and it appears that someone tossed a bunch of washers in there to make a field expedient adjustment, that doesn't do squat. Right now the adjustments for all this are pretty well froze up so I have not been able to play with it to see if I can make it better or worse. If it helps the tractor stops MUCH easier going forward than it does going in reverse. So with the belt not being fully pushed off the drive pully, and the brake not having enough arse to stop the belt I believe the transmission is just continuing to spin which is causing the issue going into gear.
Second, I don't quite understand everything that's going on with this electricly. The lights have long been disconnected. the neutral safety switch has been disabled. there is what I believe to be a voltage regulator with heat sink that has some major corrosion and probably needs to be replaced. Attached to that are a few cords, two hot and a ground, that I believe the two hots are connected to a residential extension cord, then reconnected to some wires coming from inside of the motor. one of the connections as you will see in the photos is a small black jumper, hooked up to a red that has corroded off the connection to the heat sink. The tractor still starts and runs (when jumped (checking the batter today) so I am not sure what that whole thing is actually for. that little wire accidentily touched a ground, and the white wire that goes to a fuse, then to the battery I belive shorted itself out (as you can see from the burn marks) before the short could even blow the fuse.
At some point the ignition must have failed because you only use the key to turn the power on to the fuel pump, then a switch was added to engage the starter.(probably at the same time the neutral safety switch was disabled.
I would be more than happy to try and explain any of the pictures. but I for sure would like to rewire the whole thing, and figure out the transmission issue. As it stands now it runs great and starts easy, but if I can figure out these couple of issues I would be inclined to completely rewire the whole thing, replace the broken cowling, remount the underseat gas tank, and clean the whole thing up and repaint bringing her pretty close two like new again.
I have been told that the "new" engine only has about 5 hours on it, but the whole thing has been sitting in a yard since at least march of 13, but again, she starts and runs great (don't know if she self charges yet) and the snow blower appears to be pretty strong. Not pictured is the front blade that came with it also, and a single row planter.
Second, I don't quite understand everything that's going on with this electricly. The lights have long been disconnected. the neutral safety switch has been disabled. there is what I believe to be a voltage regulator with heat sink that has some major corrosion and probably needs to be replaced. Attached to that are a few cords, two hot and a ground, that I believe the two hots are connected to a residential extension cord, then reconnected to some wires coming from inside of the motor. one of the connections as you will see in the photos is a small black jumper, hooked up to a red that has corroded off the connection to the heat sink. The tractor still starts and runs (when jumped (checking the batter today) so I am not sure what that whole thing is actually for. that little wire accidentily touched a ground, and the white wire that goes to a fuse, then to the battery I belive shorted itself out (as you can see from the burn marks) before the short could even blow the fuse.
At some point the ignition must have failed because you only use the key to turn the power on to the fuel pump, then a switch was added to engage the starter.(probably at the same time the neutral safety switch was disabled.
I would be more than happy to try and explain any of the pictures. but I for sure would like to rewire the whole thing, and figure out the transmission issue. As it stands now it runs great and starts easy, but if I can figure out these couple of issues I would be inclined to completely rewire the whole thing, replace the broken cowling, remount the underseat gas tank, and clean the whole thing up and repaint bringing her pretty close two like new again.
I have been told that the "new" engine only has about 5 hours on it, but the whole thing has been sitting in a yard since at least march of 13, but again, she starts and runs great (don't know if she self charges yet) and the snow blower appears to be pretty strong. Not pictured is the front blade that came with it also, and a single row planter.
