1250 Found A New Home

[jsoluna]

That's fantastic info. Thanks. One of the main issues I had with my 129 was that it loved to shear those little drive pins at the engine coupler. I like the design on the Quietline, it looks much more robust.

So you recommend using two rag joints regardless of what it should have? It seems kinda like a no brainer to me. The double joint would have less chance to distort, would spread the load more evenly, and extend the life of the components.

[twoton]

Originally Posted by jsoluna

So you recommend using two rag joints regardless of what it should have?

I guess so, the one in my picture lasted like that for 40 years and was still doin' it's job... Two can't hurt, right?

This is the best price I can find;

http://www.jackssmallengines.com/jac...rt/mtd/7223000

[Oak]

Justin, congrats on the 1250.

Is it an optical illusion or is that drive shaft too short and not extended into the ball bushing at the hydro coupler?

I'm thinking that FD620 spoiled you running so smooth in your 3205.

[jsoluna]

That FD620 is a phenomenal engine. It never misses a beat, and being liquid cooled is just icing on the cake.

That's what I thought about the driveshaft too. I'll be disassembling this weekend and have a better idea of what's going on in there.

[jsoluna]

Reality is starting to settle in. This thing has had some less thank knowledgeable or careful hands working on it.

I went to start it this morning and the starter was making a terrible grinding sound, tried to turn over the engine and then stopped. Found that the bendix gear was just sitting on top of the the shaft and had been rubbing on the flywheel because it was engaging too far. That explains why it seemed hard to turn over despite the newer battery.

I have never worked on one of these before so I looked at a parts diagram and saw the wear on the drive gear and decided I needed a quick fix. I found a piece of tube that I could use as a spacer to fit over the spring and welded it to a washer, cleaned up the threads on the shaft and re-faced the teeth on the starter gear. (I got the depth ballparked by running the drive gear by hand onto the flywheel until it just touched and then added a 1/4". I used that depth and made my spacer stop the drive gear at that depth.)

Reinstalled. It turns over much better and much more quietly. It's not a factory fix and I'll probably have to get a rebuild kit for the drive eventually bit it works great for now.

Makes me wonder what else I'm going to find.....

[ACecil]

It's amazing what PO's do to these machines.

[jsoluna]

Got a little more work done today.

The PTO switch was removed, and although I was told that the PTO was functional, I didn't know for sure. The wiring was clipped as well. Its a very simple circuit so I traced the leads, found power and ran a new lead from the fuse to the switch, then back out to the PTO. There wasn't much of a lead to work with at the PTO but I was able to get a good sealed crimp connector in there. The PTO kicked on right off the bat, so that's one victory. Now to trace down the driveline vibrations and start addressing the issues with the deck. I'd like to be able to test the engine under a load to see how it really performs.

[jsoluna]

I also started on the deck today. 44a, according to the tag.

Cleaned the rust of over a decade off the deck and greased the spindles. Spindles themselves seem to move pretty well.

The tensioner is another story. It was seized at the pivot and no amount of penetrant was able to free it up. I was able to remove the larger 11/16 nut from the arm pivot, but the spring fastener ended up breaking the coiled end of the spring.

I took it over to the bench to examine, and I noticed that the pivot is pretty much rust welded together. If if I free it up with some heat, there is going to be so much material lost to corrosion that I'd be better off finding a good used one. The pulley's bearings are shot as well. Anyone have a tension arm and spring for a 44a?

Another thing I noticed is there is no grease point for the pivot. It is basically the same tensioning design my 44" deck uses on my 3000 Series, except the 3000 Series has a grease bolt in place of the standard shoulder bolt on the 44a. Anyone ever upgrade to a shoulder bolt with greaseway/fitting?

[jsoluna]

Got the pivot bolt removed without using heat and there actually was a surprising amount of material left on the bracket and bolt so I'm going to clean up and reinstall. I welded the end of the spring back together and sent the shoulder bolt with my machinist so he can put greaseways in it.

[ACecil]

Sounds like you're making nice progress on the 1250!