982 front to back repairs

[john hall]

A couple months ago I brought home a 982 with a 60" deck and 3pt. Deal was if I could get it running without much trouble and it checked out OK then I would buy. Couple weeks went buy and I had it running, drove it, and mowed for a couple minutes. Went ahead and paid for it and decided to get the bugs out of it before spring. For some reason, one of the mufflers was out of line preventing the grill from being installed correctly. One thing lead to another and I noticed the engine mounting plate only had 2 of its 6 bolts in it. Then I noticed one side of the plate was up off the frame. Oh well, pull the engine and see whats up. That's when I noticed the driveshaft was shot, everything but the fan that is. With all that out I decided to update the steering gearbox with a thrust bearing. Slightly different setup than regular Cadets but I persisted and got it done. With everything else apart I decided to pull the fender pan and give the chassis a good pressure washing. Also need to work on the hydro linkages as they are out of sync with the dash lever. With the engine out I could see a LOT of lost motion in the cast piece on the back of the front axle where the steering rods hook to. There is no bushing so It looks like I'll have to bore it out and make one. The battery tray in the fenders is the victim of a ruptured battery, need to get one out of a junker. There is some slight corrosion on the rear end and axle tubes as well but nothing I think will bother anything. Going to all this work I am going to pull the 3 pt and the back plate off the rear end to have a look inside. I am really curious as to its internal condition as one of the axle tubes has been off and reinstalled with gobs of blue silicone. Ordinarily I wouldn't be concerned but someone has been working on this machine that should not own any tools. They had the engine out, tried pricking the ball joint for the driveshaft on the motor to make the ball stay in. In the process they reinstalled the engine with new bolts, guess they managed to lose the old ones. Problem is they left 4 of the 6 out of the engine mounting plate and managed to sit the plate down on a loose nut, no telling how long it ran with the engine flopping around. They also decided to work on the hydro. First off they lost all the bolts for the fenders and put them back on with whatever they could find. Apparently they needed to replace the springs on the plate on the side of the hydro. First off they didn't pull the rear end, they took a grinder and cut the outside wall off the notch. Then they put in the wrong spring. To add insult to injury they didn't put in the lightweight one or the pins in the end--looks like they shoved carriage bolts in the end of the spring. But they did tie all this on with fence wire, guess it was necessary to keep the springs from jumping out now that the notch has been turned into a slot. Oh yeah, they squeezed it tight with a pair of Chanellocks. Some people shouldn't be allowed to own tools. After all this I did find the deck had a set of never sharpend blades in good shape, although the idler bracket and pulley as well as the pulleys on the mule drive need help. It's getting 2 new belts as well. Did I forget to mention the brakes aren't releasing as they should? And the key switch is acting funny. And one of the posts snapped off the solenoid. And if I intend to mow grass with it this year I better quit looking for trouble! Anyway, looks like I'll be spending plenty of quality time the 982.