17GTH-L Finally got it home

[Chris727]

I finnaly got my 17GTH-L brought home over the weekend. It came with a Simplicity 990464 plow, missing the hitch and upper lift rod and chain. When I got there he also had an 8 inch brinly plow for me to take as well, but the depth crank is froze up on it.

The front blade is not right for the tractor. Its the HD spring trip blade for a foot dragger. All the linkage was missing. Said he never used the attachments. Also came with a 36 inch tiller he said was only used twice. Now for the bad, the KT17II has a broken rod on one cylinder, the neutral on the hydro is out of adjustment, seat is shot and the paint is badly faded.

Stuff was growing on the deck[:0]

Someone cut the front of the frame to accept the FDT blade.

I'm probably going to repower it with a used 16HP briggs single, so what would that make it? A 16GTH-L or a 7116H?

[Dutch]

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Originally posted by Chris727
I'm probably going to repower it with a used 16HP briggs single, so what would that make it? A 16GTH-L or a 7116H?

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That would make it a nice operational tractor again. Good luck with it.............

[UCD]

The front plow will work perfect with that tractor. The 46" spring trip was also made for the newer tractors. The bad news is that you have he wrong hitch. The good news you can make that hitch work by cutting the lift arm of and rewelding it straight up instead of angled back the way it is now. The neutral adjustment is an easy fix. The 16 hp single might be a better engine as it will have more lugging torque.

[AC808]

WOW...Nice find... Have you given any thought to trying to rebuild the motor...assuming there isnt too much internal damage...

[Tacey]

quote:

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Originally posted by dutch

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris727
I'm probably going to repower it with a used 16HP briggs single, so what would that make it? A 16GTH-L or a 7116H?

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That would make it a nice operational tractor again. Good luck with it.............

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Is that equivilent to a Sovereign? I'd like to have a snow thrower mounted on a Sovereign with the hydro tranny. Nice tractor! Tacey

[PhanDad]

Chris, when you put the 16 HP Briggs in it, it'll be the same as my "16GTH-L". Think we could come up with one good engine out of our blown KT17's? I noticed it came with the same wheel weights as mine; wonder if they were "stanard issue" on these tractors? Tacey, the 17GTH-L is the name Simplicity gave the Sovereign in the early '90's before they changed the name back to Sovereign.

[MPH]

Not a bad looking score at all. IMO you can't go wrong with a 16hp Briggs. Are those rear wheel wts cast iron or plastic coatted concrete?

[Chris727]

Guys, I haven't had the motor apart yet. The left cyinder runs right now, doesn't knock at low rpms but if you run it higher something sounds like its hitting something. I'm not going to have time to mess with it for a while, I already have too many other tractors dissassembled for now. Bill, the weights look to be the same as the ones in the Sovereign accessory manual, I think they are fifty pounds each. I cleaned it up Sunday and will post pics of it cleaned in Show'n'tell.

[BruceH]

I had a similar problem with a KT-17. THe problem was that the nuts that held the cap on the connecting rod had loosened and fallen off allowing the cap to fall into the bottom of the engine. I cleaned up the crankshaft and installed a new rod. It has run great for 2 1/2 years now. Good luck with your new machine.