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Questions on the free junk I just got! (8/6 Pics)


jsarro

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I have a few questions here, or I would have put this in show and tell. If it needs to be moved, someone can let me know. Thanks A nice man trying to please his wife unloaded this free junk on me. In all seriousness I am grateful for the giveaways! :D






That is a Ariens Rocket tiller. It has been re powered. The engine needs some mild tuning, but starts right up. Transmission works, but having trouble freeing up the tine engagement lever on the transmission box. The tines do not engage, but this is a new problem, and I saved it from the elements as it was recently put outside. Any ideas on freeing up the tine lever on the gear box? 48" deck, spindles all free and feel good. Blades are good. So do I strip all the parts off of it, and then dump the hood, or do I just leave it all together as a unit? Thanks
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I'm not sure but I think the tines work from a worm drive. It would be a steel worm and a brass bull gear. If it wasn't adjusted due to normal wear or run without gear lube the teeth will wear so thin they get out of time and climb the worm drive thus becoming wedged. Mel
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Thanks guys that helps a lot. I will strip the deck parts and dump the rest to save space. I will have to open up that gear box I guess on the tiller as the bugger seems jammed. I manually have tried to move it at the box independent of the lever and it wont budge. I already have a Horse Tiller, but figured if this one was an easy fix, I sell one on CL next spring.
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I thought the deck looked almost new until I viewed fullscreen and turned up the brightness. It's well ventilated - don't know if that's repairable by welding. At least salvage all the parts you can; esp. the double pulley and center spindle. Most of it will fit in a medium size box - mine did. sm03 I'd get an estimate on the tiller, maybe.
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Thanks for the feedback and advice guys. I'll take everything good off the deck and put it in a box for a rainy day. I was amazed how well those arbors and spindles are.
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Bet that it has sat outside & the bushing & lever assembly are seized. Split the case & get the shaft out, cleaned up, & keep it under roof. They are a very good tiller. Stear it and let it dig.
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quote:
Originally posted by StanD
Bet that it has sat outside & the bushing & lever assembly are seized. Split the case & get the shaft out, cleaned up, & keep it under roof. They are a very good tiller. Stear it and let it dig.
Awesome advice, thanks! dOddOd
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Can't see the whole story w the deck. I find it interesting that you say the spindles are good. The rust out under the covers (what covers?) is a great example of moisture, grass debris, and maybe grease trapped and rotting unseen beneath the covers. A main reason to rip the covers off once a year. I still wonder is it's possible to weld the holes with new steel. If so, it could be a whole new spare deck, or a very saleable item intact. Also, if the water happened under the covers, maybe the water got at the spindles themselves. It's a thought to grease (if zerks) the spindles even if you strip and store the parts. You decide since you have a full view. If stripping it, I would save a few rollers also - some decks are missing those, worn or not. Sometimes, the end rollers get knocked off. Some decks are missing roller sections. Grab the front yoke parts too - those get broken. Heck save all the parts you can. :D That BLACK THING - what is that???? Is that a chute extension? Did that tractor come with? or is that 'the secret'.? :O
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quote:
Originally posted by MysTiK
Can't see the whole story w the deck. I find it interesting that you say the spindles are good. The rust out under the covers (what covers?) is a great example of moisture, grass debris, and maybe grease trapped and rotting unseen beneath the covers. A main reason to rip the covers off once a year. I still wonder is it's possible to weld the holes with new steel. If so, it could be a whole new spare deck, or a very saleable item intact. Also, if the water happened under the covers, maybe the water got at the spindles themselves. It's a thought to grease (if zerks) the spindles even if you strip and store the parts. You decide since you have a full view. If stripping it, I would save a few rollers also - some decks are missing those, worn or not. Sometimes, the end rollers get knocked off. Some decks are missing roller sections. Grab the front yoke parts too - those get broken. Heck save all the parts you can. :D That BLACK THING - what is that???? Is that a chute extension? Did that tractor come with? or is that 'the secret'.? :O
Thanks Graham, There are no pulley covers. I was refering to the total housing shell as the cover, sorry. :O As far as welding up the deck, I will take a closer look at it and get back to you. In my inexperience I just figured it was a parts deck. It does have zirks on the arbors. The extent of my inspection involved spinning the blades and being impressed how smooth they were, and no instability detected, no sounds. They feel brand new function wise to me. :) The black thing is a spare primed shute the nice man gave me as well. ^
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You, will need that same deck shell to use your spindles in. They are shorter spindle arbors than what are used in your FDT 48" deck. Simplicity has atleast three different 48" deck shells. The arbor pockets or mounts are at different depths in each of the three shells. Those arbors can be used in the two later style decks. That is got to be one of the worst that I have seen for rotting out like that for sure and is the biggest reason I never use the covers.
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Thanks Ray Maybe I part it out, someone else may need them at some point, unless I get another newer deck some day. You never know what tractors and implements you will own in the future. I assume the pulleys and blades would cross over to the older FDT decks.
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quote:
Originally posted by jsarro
Thanks Ray Maybe I part it out, someone else may need them at some point, unless I get another newer deck some day. You never know what tractors and implements you will own in the future. I assume the pulleys and blades would cross over to the older FDT decks.
Now THAT is a very interesting question. ? IF it's possible, and I am thinkng that PERHAPS a spindle that MOUNTS HIGHER could be used as a means of INCREASING MOWING HEIGHT (either due to a higher well/pocket OR a shorter arbor OR a shorter lower housing). And how to know which is which - which deck shell, which spindle. But that would put the blade spinning closer to the top surface of the deck shell. If it works, it might demand more cleaning/scraping of caked on clippings. I'm really interested in making my 48deck mow higher than 3". A height of 3.5 inch would be a great achievement. I wonder if it's possible to identify a shell/spindle combo that would be the holy grail, the hidden dream machine. My Pacer mows up to 4" but it has suspended deck/rollers = full floating - a very different system. Striped at 4", it looks the same; except at the edges of driveways/sidewalks, you can see the wall of 4" mowed turf. To me, it's beautiful; and longer grass is the key to weed resistance and a lawn that's a photosynthetic monster. Finding this combo = priceless !! - and the parts would elevate to collector's items. HOT. Is it possible? I don't know; been down this road before, and nobody seems to know. This is no easy question. Might be a topic for another thread? cos it would totally hijack this thread. (Hi, Jack) :D didn't mean that.
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Graham good perspective and I don't mind the change in direction. It all kind of ties together. When setting the handles on my deck, If I want the max cutting height, do I just screw them in until they wont go any further? You are right! One key to a healthy organic lawn is to cut often, but cut high. There by stressing and shading out weeds while helping your grass. dOddOd
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quote:
Originally posted by jsarro
Thanks Ray I assume the pulleys and blades would cross over to the older FDT decks.
The blades will if that deck is a 1690502 deck because the two holes to attach the blades are already in the blades. If it is the late model gull wing blades, then no. The FDT have a woodruff key in the pulleys and the pulleys for the later styles are splined. The splined pulleys won`t work.
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quote:
Originally posted by jsarro
Graham good perspective and I don't mind the change in direction. It all kind of ties together. When setting the handles on my deck, If I want the max cutting height, do I just screw them in until they wont go any further? You are right! One key to a healthy organic lawn is to cut often, but cut high. There by stressing and shading out weeds while helping your grass. dOddOd
Yes. The handles are the height adjustors - just max out/clockwise. Some spray lube might help make it easier; mine were pretty stiff; I had to use a pipe around the adjustor handle to get to the highest setting. It's almost like nobody ever tried it before. I get tired, and I probably get tedious, ranting over the many advantages of "mow it tall". People still want to cut at 2", spray for weed, water to excess, and then wonder why it dries out, brown's off, goes dormant, dies, and gets reinfested with weeds. They don't want to know about avoiding pesticides, saving on water, lower evaporation rate through imposed soil shading, lower surface temperatures, less need for fertilizers, micronutrient feeding, forcing root development, inducing rhizomatous reproduction, underwatering to discourage poa annua, managing (either way) poa annua, etc. etc. Serve it up on a silver platter and they mow at 2" and say the a 4" lawn looks like crawp, etc. Most of the mismanagement causes destruction of fine turf species and encourages poa annua which is lame grass, with high water requirements, low traffic resistance, dies in a drought, but seeds like crazy at one eighth inch or higher, and thereby invades and infests the entire lawn, which, if it's constantly drowned in water, looks good except the color is apple green instead of grass green. bla bla bla. No interest. And we drive the finest mowers available for that - wow. It's so easy to mow it tall and water once a week, maybe twice if it's hot - but the transition period, or the reseeding/reno/new lawn is where people bail out and go for the same old same old with high effort, chemicals, high water, and so on. And the thatch controversy is right behind in the parade of frustration. Lawns are personal. I have lost customers over this in the past. But the few who tried it, and had an open mind, and a little patience, loved it. Most of the desired info is freely presented by gov and education extension websites. Purdue, Penn state, U of Guelph in ON - there's lots more. It's called Turf Management, and it's what golf courses do. end of "not a rant". :D The 'monster deck' idea needs a separate thread, and a lot of interested people who would be willing to indulge in the gathering of info about what deck does what/or doesn't, etc. I would expect such a thread to just fizzle off the board. I would like to be proven wrong. But it's real hard just to get basic info on decks, as illustrated by the many deck threads about spindle fixes. To coordinate all that - priceless. I have schemed about throwing a chunk of 1/2" plywood sm00 under the spindle mount [ TempoRaRilY ] just to see what it will do. And there's always other projects about resto/restore/maintain which are high priority. I dunno. If anyone knows or has tried STUFF, I would love to hear it. I find myself getting a little gun shy lately - but I haven't shut up yet. :D It would involve knowing a lot about a lot of decks, and the info specs just aren't available. Prove me wrong. Decks are simple and difficult all at the same time. Well, for me they are. I have a love/hate relationship with them. I hate to love them. 8) I have learned some things about decks; but there's always more it seems. I can't get my head around the old style spindles - the ones w the grease flinger, which is about all I actually know about them. Those spindles are very different - just like a lot of the fdt stuff. I find myself with a mouthful of foot more often than not. yummy. live and learn. 8) sorry to mess up your thread, Jack. sm01
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Graham It is all good! I'll make this brief as to not annoy anyone else peaking in here on how we are off topic. You are very enlightened and you know your stuff on Organic lawn care. dOddOddOd This sums it up: http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp We can start a thread on it. I have Zoysia, no weeds, no drugs, no products, no watering, and tuff lawn, low maintenance. I have seen yards brought back from barren wastelands through Organic means to outshine all the chemically treated yards on the streets of fancy subdivisions. I have one friend that did it with chicken manure, compost, lime, corn gluten, milky spores, mowing high, and watering infrequently but heavy which will build a deep root system.
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Thx, Jack - but you are the enlightened one if you are doing that. I know the materials you mentioned; but I use low quantity, traditional ferts, slow-release 21-7-7, occasional dolomitic lime, and occasional soil wetting agents, and really don't fuss about a lot of details. The organic movement is kinda ok; but too many of the people supposedly offering it are merely peddling second-hand trendy ideas and hype - snake oil - to well-intentioned customers. Some of it I don't think is really necessary; and it's priced grossly high, esp. when offered as a service - mainly that's the concept of selling socalled "weed control". It's a bad joke. Mowing is a "weed control", esp. at the high mowing height - and the inconsistency is they aren't going there - so I say snake oil, watered down snake oil at that. I hate witnessing misinformation as people babble about how wonderful it is and the lawn just isn't there. Plants don't care where nitro comes from. Phosphorous tends to linger. And potassium is not a problem. Micro feed - dolomitic lime - available to humans as "dolomite" pills. Merely calcium and magnesium combo - and they work together (there's a word for that) (not symbiotic, similar tho) Synchronicity? Ca uptake is enhanced my Mg which is essential. Zoysia - I'm OTL - I only know it as a "warm season grass" (whole other world). Canada is all "cool season" grasses. Mainly, in seed mixes, K.blue, P.rye, and C.fescue. People think they have K.bluegrass; but it's so high maintenance, that only a very few actually do have it - and it's gorgeous THICK. A great sports turf - very rhizomatous; able to recover from football spikes and golf divots. At 4" tall, it'll wrap around your ankles while you barefoot on pillows. Much of the 'too short mow' problem stems from the idea that a lawn should look like a golf green - those are mowed at 1/8", and less, preferably bentgrass, sand based, usually invaded by P.annua ("po anna") due to high daily watering. P. annua is an amazing study in management - can be encouraged or discouraged - a golf superintendent's nightmare, cos it can just up and die. OO (reason to "spritz" greens - water addiction). Golf greens are mowed at least once per day!!!! Imagine the ferts that drive that! out. thx for the "ride". 8D I hope you got all your questions answered - isn't it just amazing talking about "rusty olde junk"? I love it.
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I took the deck apart last night. Primarily used the impact gun without much issue. I had to saw a few bolts off that were in the worst of shape. I spoke with the PO he said this was a 1992 deck. Should I just keep these parts just in case in the future I have a deck that matches up with these parts? I just wonder if they will ever go to good use, or maybe a member will need them at some point? I will be taking the shell or main housing to the dump today.






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Save the rebuildable parts. Check the condition of the roller bar and rollers. I would say if everything looks good, someday either you, or a buyer might need your extras. "Hey, I got one of those!!":D:D
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Looks like fun, Jack. Is there a label/MFR #? Knowing that would lead to manual, parts i.d. and possible interchangeability. It's possible the parts are common to a lot of other decks. If no MFR, the xref list might have a few clues. Sounds like this won't fit your 3112; but a lot of Sovy types are highly eligible. Maybe 70's, 80's, 90's. They made a zillion of them with minor differences. Getting the info is the hard part. One lucky deal might be like "tractor for sale, runs good, no deck". Or "deck needs work". With a set of spindles, you are in. Or you can sell spindles - a lot of people would rather buy them than rebuild them. Guess how I know that. 8D I think I learned something about older decks - where Ray said something about the 2 holes in the blades being available. I think mid-70's(?) they went to single bolt mount on a splined shaft - and I think you have that there. and I think they were largely unchanged up to '92 or more. (I could be wrong). I posted some pix on Larry's deck thread, you saw them, and you might have that kind now. If you can send me a similar pix of the blade adaptor, that would be fun. sm01 It seems I am always trying to resolve my own little mystery areas re decks in general. but I think these are in the "they are all the same" category - just how I think of them. I don't know what they might sell for. But a guy desperate for a spindle or 3 might be eager to throw money at you. Spindles are not fun for many people. Too bad you weren't swimming in dark parts when I bought my 716 boy tractor - what an ordeal for a nooby that was.
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THAT'S a shame...that deck shoulda lasted another 30 yrs...Thats from PO not cleaning the crap off the top 8C Glad you kept the spindles so some good will come from its loss... Good luck sm01
quote:
Originally posted by jsarro
I took the deck apart last night. Primarily used the impact gun without much issue. I had to saw a few bolts off that were in the worst of shape. I spoke with the PO he said this was a 1992 deck. Should I just keep these parts just in case in the future I have a deck that matches up with these parts? I just wonder if they will ever go to good use, or maybe a member will need them at some point? I will be taking the shell or main housing to the dump today.
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