Winter's here.

So after like 2 years of dealing with the stupid buggy ignition switch, I finally got fed up with it and swapped it out. Also borrowed the battery from the 316, and now it fire's right up without the song and dance. Got our first snow so I went out and put the Plow on. Also got to test the lights out for the first time ever, and WOW are they bright!





The middle lights leave a little bit of a dark spot but not to bad!



Now that the plow's on, we probably won't get any more snow for the rest of this season...

John Deere Greene but a little bigger than normal!

So dorkpunch joins the major leagues...



This is a 1955 John Deere 60. It came with the house we bought and theoretically ran, but had been parked a year or two before and sat since. The nieces and nephews thought it was the best playground equipment in the world! The feller in the pic is who we largely have to blame for my engine addiction... He taught me everything I know over several summers spent working at his shop. He also has a thing for Deere's.





So I got it running, but... Watch the video. Right at the 33 second mark.



COVERED everything within about 20 feet in hydro fluid. Luckily all I needed was a shower, but I usually need those anyways so...

Don't have to worry about the rust getting any worse for a while either.



Took some doing, but it RUNS AND DRIVES! Had battery issues at first, then I couldn't get the clutch to disengage so I had to pop the cover off, loosen the 3 adjusting nuts almost all the way off, and let it smoke a bit. 10 lbs of crud and rust came out from under the cover. Blech. Got some air in that flat tire, figured out how the blinking shifter works, and viola!



And the first drive!





Took me 2 weeks of tinkering on it here and there for 5 minutes at a time between other projects.  Mostly because I had to sit and wait for the battery to charge, again.

It has a looonggg ways to go.  This poor thing has been used like you would expect a 60 year old tractor to be used.  The loader is terrifying, the cable pulleys are all about ready to pop off.  If that were to happen, the cable that sits right behind my head would suddenly and rapidly move forwards... Not pleasant to think about.  Hey!  One more thing to add to the list...

More Old School Greene.

Time for some more greene. We've been having a LOT of rain lately- nothing like Texas at the moment but for Idaho, LOTS. After 2 weeks of wet I finally had the chance to cut grass. My grass clipping pile is over flowing, so I decided to go old school- dug out the '65 110. Love this thing! It always fires right up and cuts pretty darn good.

Had to drive it a few hundred yards from the "shop" to my yard, and on the way I stopped to check on a neighbor who's been in the hospital and has grass over a foot tall. Doesn't sound like he's going to be able to do much for a while, so I put all 8 ponies to work knocking down his rather large lawn. Any excuse for more seat time, right!?



Finally made it to my yard and man- for 50 years old this thing does a GREAT job. There's just something about sitting on that steel seat, having to pull levers and push buttons and clang gears. Slow, but fun. SMoooootthhhh cut too.





Old mower has come a long ways- used to not be able to mow more than 15 minutes without having to stop and drain the rust from the sediment bowl or for something else breaking down. I used it for well over 2 hours and it didn't miss a beat. 

 

So after all that mowing, I figured I should give the old thing some attention. Pulled the deck off and commenced cleaning.



Lots of yuck, top and bottom.



Discovered the tensioner pulley pivot was siezed. Managed to break it loose and also managed to break the spring that pulls the belt tight... . Not a reall big deal because I've got a spare.

Pressure washed the deck off.



Decided to try something out. Probably should have spent some time knocking the rust off but I want to see how well this Rustoleum holds up to the abuse and over the rust.



Blades sharpened and back on. I know, I didn't do it right... Running out of time at this point.



Got the deck all buttoned back up and ready to mount but had to leave so I thought I was done for the night. Ended up getting back early enough to finish a few things up!



No pic, but I finally got the governor and throttle cable adjusted right so it will actually idle now instead of run at a constant 3,200 rpm's.

Also got this rat-nest figured out. No idea what they were thinking but it was wired in the weirdest way possible- the charging circuit was hooked in to the coil so it was powered even when the key was off, the starter was hooked up to something else, just everything was backwards.



ShaZAM!!! All buttoned up.



So now it will start, and more importantly STOP, with the key switch and I don't have to unplug the coil every time I'm done mowing. The throttle works, so's I can idle it down or rev it up. Blades are sharp, tensioners working so's the blades don't slow down when it runs into thicker grass.



Few things still to do though: Need to address the leaky carb and adjust the stiff clutch pedal.

Old School Greene #5

The final update- all caught up now with this installment.



Cleaned the gas tank surfaces up with Acetone,



Bolted it all together,



And filled 'er up with Redkote. Seems to have worked okay, although I think I should kept it moving longer. Have a couple of thick spots I can see, but I don't think they are so thick that I'll have pockets of liquid.



I let that mess dry for about 2 weeks.

Mounted the gas tank good and tight.



Flipped it over, and got it back on skids.



My cup was just a little off. Hard to see, but the weights just barely rub on the side of the cup.



Easy fix, just jammed a big screw driver down there and pushed the side out a little bit. No more rubbing!

Got some brass plugs for all of the holes...




With the exception of the fuel tank drain. Spaced that one, but it turns out an oil drain plug from your standard 3.5 horse Briggs and Stratton fits great! Little on the long side but it worked.



SO!!!



It runs! Need to tinker with timing a bit and then see if I can crank the speed down, make it run nice and slooooowwww....

Fast forward a bit to last week. I had a chance to tinker with the timing and de-crudify the governor tension knob. Now it runs smooth and slooooww, without the clickity clack of the missed fires. Will try and get another vid of that eventually. Still need to put the cover gasket on, and now I need to find an old dead garden tractor frame to mount it to.

Old School Greene #4

...TIME WARP a couple of years here...

Finally found something that will work for the oil screen. Only took me what, 2 years?



Anyone recognize it? Its a sink strainer, think its stainless and came from Walmart. Ole' John is probably rolling over in his grave right now...

It worked great though.



Working on a few other Deere projects but when they are done in the next week or two I'm planning on getting back on this project. Would like to get the thing running instead of being a paper weight.

Took a few measurements and spot welded the cup to the pan. Looks like it should work fine, although I need to bow one side out just a hair so the governor weights don't snag on it.



And in preparation for coating the tank, I painted the outside. Don't think it's technically the right color of John Deere Greene (?) but the tank will be mostly hidden under the engine between the skids. Eventually I'd like to clean the whole engine up and make it look new, but for now we'll just go with the patina.



Borrowed a tap to clean up some threads...



Looks a lot better.



Cleaned up the gasket surface and installed the new fuel line.



Back of the timing cover cleaned up.



Getting close! 

Old School Greene #3

Still working on getting all of this transferred and sorted out, so here is the latest installment.  

Blasted the tank and it seems to be useable. Couldn't find any pinholes. Going to buy some Red Kote and line the inside unless someone recommends a different product?





My package of parts showed up too. Seems like not very much for the price I paid... But I'm not complaining. Just glad there are still people out there that make parts for em!



Got a little more cleaning done. Still can't decide if I should leave it patina'd or clean it up and put some fresh paint on it.

Still waffling on the paint... Sounds like I've got one of the nicer original paint jobs out there, leaning towards leaving it original. Don't think that'll last, but its harder to un-restore them than it is to slap a coat of paint on it later.

Got a can of Red Kote to line the tank with. Started on a new oil pan today. Base was pretty simple.




The cup took a little more figuring, but I think this'll work. As you can tell, I don't know how to solder... It doesn't leak though!



Going to sit something like this.



Need to figure out a screen, then I can spot weld it on and should be good to go!

Old School Greene #2.

Continuing on!  We're still maybe a year back in the process here.

Got some parts ordered and they are on their way. In the meantime, might as well do a little cleaning, right?

Pulled the skids off the bottom. Have a pretty good oil leak somewhere too...



Drained the oil and tipped 'er over.



Not sure if this is supposed to be a freeze plug or if its sposed to be threaded for a pipe plug?



The piece you can see in the hole is loose and looks like it could have been a plug of some kind... Can't get it out either way at the moment.  (As it turns out, it was a rock...)

This should have prepared me.



But it wasn't enough of a warning.





That is some NASTY old junk in the tank...

At least the crankcase doesn't look too bad.



Did some cleaning. Tank *might* be made useable,



but the oil pan has some small issues. Dozens of them.



Think I can build a new pan pretty easily, cut the sump tank thingy off and spot weld it on to a new one.

The tank, I can buy a reman tank for about $60. The question is- do I get a metal one that doesn't look like the original (squared ends, made like a pan instead of drawn like this one), or a plastic one that looks identical to the original? Almost seems sacrilegeous putting plastic parts on this thing.