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Sunstar just joined the family


roma3112

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Well fellas comon sense go the better of me so I laid o rest my grand plans to buy a new kubota :( HOWEVER I did decide to go and buy a Sunstar from a guy in CT. It was a 320 mile round trip and took about 4.5 hours total; my first long road trip for a tractor [:0] I paid 1,600 for the machine and a JBJR no other attachments, however i am selling my JBJR from the sovereign to a member for $400.00 so in real money the tractor cost me 1,200.00. Hopefully i did not pay too much, as I am more familliar with the sovereign type tractors and have NO experience with sunstars. The machine had a 60 in deck that i tryied to buy but the seller wanted 700.00 and I just didnt think a 60in deck would be great with my uneven lawn. Well the machine is in good shape, mecanically it started up cold with no problems no leaks to speak of, the pto seems to work no bad smells, smoke or noises coming from it after running for 1/2 hour. The machine is dirty and was not maintained as i would maintain one but i think a 1/2 hour with a power washer (minding the wireing for sure) will remove the 1/4 in layer of crudd that is all over the thing. The 2 speed rear end seems to work, and it has diff lock although i am not sure how to test that. The oil is dirty and I want to do a complete tune up/fluid change so I can start fresh with a good baseline on the maintenance schedule. The engine hour meter is working and it reads 850 hours. Hopefully the engine has a few hundred left in her. the only thing wrong so far that I can see is that i need to make a lift rod and the rest is cosmetic, a few dents a missing mesh grill on the hood, the seat is torn and it seems that sombody painted the back half black [V]I will post some pics if the weather clears up later on. I plan on using this machine for bull work when i build my new house, i will work the JBJR building some walls and doing some landscaping jobs, pulling a trailer ect, i may even look into putting a mid mount grader blade on it??? If any sunstar owners out there know of any important things to check/change or to look for on these sunstars as far as things going wrong let me know. I know of all the obvious general maintenance things but any quirks specific to sunstars that I may not be aware of. thanks john b
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John, there is plenty of info in previous threads here as I have learned lots in the few weeks I have been reading them. Just do a search for Sunstar and read all about it. One thing for sure, keep the front end lubricated and keep the engine shrouds clear so the engine can cool itself. PS. If you look for any parts it will help to know there are several tractors that are identcal to the Sunstar .. Deutz Allis 1920H lime green Agco Allis 1920H Agco orange Massey Ferg 2920 You can download the parts and owners manual from simplicity.com or from the link here. The service manual is for sale buy Simplicity for $40.00 delivered to your door. I have an original one if you have any questions I could look it up for you. Just send me a PM and we can discuss over the phone if need be. To put the locking differential on, push down on the rubber coated bar below your right foot heel while shifting into high or low. You can find this info in the owners manual. Enjoy! Mark Gurney (DA1920)
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as far as keeping the engine shrouds clear: do i just clean from the outside or do I have to loosen/remove the shrouds from the engine? To me the engine seems pretty tight do you have to remove the engine mounting bolts or anything involved to get access to clean the shrouds??? I just got all the tune up parts and fluid i need to do a PM on this machine, but cleaning these shrouds is also at the top of my list, how do you folks clean them? the engine is a 20 HP magnum.
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Pop the shrouds off and blow it out. You will be surprised at how much stuff gets pulled in there. It is very important that it get as much cooling air as possible. Also keep the trans cooler blown out. When lubeing do not forget the drive shaft, 3 zerks, one on each u-joint and one on the slip joint, and of course several on the front, stearing, PTO, axle pivots, etc..
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Maynard Actually all that is available for download is the Parts and owners manual Thats why I asked the seeming obvious questions from the folks that have these machines thanks john REPAIR MANUAL - SunStar / 1900 / 2900 Series PDF not available. Call 262-284-8519 to order. If anybody has a manual they want to sell feel free to PM me
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John Actually You are WRONG I do know what I am talking about once in a while. The manuals are available from the Techpub V site. I downloaded them and have them in my computer As a matter of fact I was the one that found the site and posted it here as well as posting the directions on how to use the site. Every manual that Simplicity has can be downloaded from this site Directions on how to download Simplicity Technical Publications Document Search http://www.simpletractors.com/club2/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32436 Download site http://www.simplicitytechpubs.com/v_techpubsearch.php I am not posting the link to the manual you can look that up yourself.
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Maynard I was not trying to say you didnt know anything. I went and actually tryied to reasearch the information from the link posted on the opening page of the club it sent me here [url][/url]http://www.simplicitytechpubs.com/techpubsearch.php#start I appologise if you think i was impuning your knowledge about these machines, I did try to look up the info before i asked, you just knew of another way to get the manual. [url][/url]http://www.simplicitytechpubs.com/v_techpubsearch.php#start For some reason one simplicity site (the one with the link on our club homepage) says it is avail by order only and the one you knew of has all of them. Your origional post to my question merely said go to simplicity tech pub v site i thought that was the one i went to but I stand corrected. thanks for the link Maynard
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Oh well, I did suggest you buying that manual on one of your other post topics. I too thought it was only for sale. Of course I was bidding on one on ebay when I learned this. My stupidity I paid $66.00 for an original 1st edition 1987 Sunstar Service Manual. I guess I just wanted an original when knowing I could of bought for $40.00 but that one was for several tractors and the one on ebay was only Sunstar 18 & 20. Oh well if I would of known about a free download that $66.00 could of paid for one of my lug tires. I will still download it for use on the computer. Thanks for the info. Mark G.
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Check to make sure there is a seal between the engine and cooling air intake plenum as well as around the driveshaft where it exits the plenum to the rear. I now have two Sunstars and these seals were missing on both. The engine will suck a LOT of crap if these seals are not in place.
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tom thanks for the tip, I was able to power wash the entire machine today, took over an hour but atleast now it is free of debris. With some help from maynard I now have a copy of the repair manual and I am going to start with a complete fluid change/tune up, and then do a front to back inspection. I will be sure to check for the seals you mensioned.
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I bought a 20 hp Kohler Magnum from a Sunstar. It appeared to be clean, but once you remove flywheel shroud and Flywheel, you will see the accumulated debris.
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ron I am not sure yet how to remove the engine shrouds, but that is on my to do list. I don't think I will be removing the flywheel anytime soon, but i will see how much access I can get to clean as much as possible. I picked up some engine cleaner on the way into work today, and if I can squeeze in some time tomorow before work I will try to use that up.
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Well i finally got a chance to get some pics of the sunstar i picked up last week. I have got her tuned up and running like a top, changed all the fluids and went through the tractor front to back with all the reccomended maintenance. [img]/club2/attach/roma3112/sunstar1.JPG[/img] This first pic shows how rough most of the paint is, it looks like who had it just used whatever colors looked close. There is a piece of mesh missing from the hood that i have no luck finding anywhere :( [img]/club2/attach/roma3112/sunstar2.JPG[/img] The second pic is a side shot, you can see what the last owner did to the rear half [:0] that will have to wait till summer to get stripped down and repainted. just about the worst thing i have found mecanically that was unexpected was the steering arm had been loose where the tie rod attaches. The loose bolt wore an egg-shaped hole in the arm and made the steering loose. I got out the mig welder and tacked the spacer to the arm, and it seems ok now. The front tires are in real bad shape/split and the rears seem fine but I intend to use this with a JBJR pushing dirt and working in damp soil, so I orderd a set of AG's for it from rustybore. I was out with the machine most of today and I think I have the lift arm pretty much designed and all I have to do is to some final fitting and weld it up solid. The tractor seems pretty substantial I will be curious to see how it performs compared to the two sovereigns I have. [img]/club2/attach/roma3112/sunstar3.JPG[/img]
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john Yeah it was not really taken care of as I would, but the basic structure is still solid, I just wish I knew how to use a paint spray gun :(. John the front bracket is for a jbjr, I had the rest off to make it easier when I was trying to design and fab the lift rod for it.
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