Lawn Tractor...
 

It has been a productive month with the mower... Upon maiden voyage, I noticed the rear was slipping on the side yard incline. After research, I purchased Marastar Turf Traction tires for the rear. These tires have superb traction (aggressive tread) over the stock Carlisle tires but do not cut up the lawn. They have great reviews too. I replaced the front tires with stock Carlisles. Huge improvement over stock and slipping is nearly indictable.

Rear Tires:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Weakest link identified - I broke the RH tie rod I'm sure because of the new tires. I'm process of replacing both RH and LH tie rods, and the main steering gear due to wear on the teeth. Lots of good tutorial videos on Youtube! I also installed a new headlight harness, head lamps, headlight lenses and changed the air filter, spark plugs, oil/oil filter, oil drain hose, and misc hardware. Lastly I scraped the deck clean and installed new blades.

The mower should be good to go for many seasons of issue free cutting!

Dan

My 1989 John Deere 185 that I bought as a dealer Demo from Creasy Tractor in Lakeland Florida back in 1990. I've been running it ever since.

Just a week or so ago, one of my buddies gave me his old 1989 John Deere 160 that he wanted to get rid of. He was going to scrap it since he had no use for it any more. It runs fine once I added the new starter relay kit. The main difference between the two is that the 160 has a slightly smaller 12-1/2 hp, Kawasaki FB460V engine and a manual transmission (versus mine which has a 17 hp, FC540V Kawasaki and a hydrostatic drive).

They both have the same 38" mower deck which I will be swapping to mine since the 160's deck is in much nicer shape with no holes in it from decades of rocky soil mowing.

Once I swap the decks I may just put the 160 up for sale locally next spring. Mabe another crazy person wants a vintage Jon Deere to play with.

Here's the olf oil analysis I had done on mine a few years ago just for giggles:

As I stated early in this thread, Deere mowers never die.
I ran a 185 for 20 years, my only gripe was it steered hard. My BIL is still using it.

Bill W

Yeah, they steer hard. That 160 is an full upper body/arm workout - I guess that's why he added that official John Deere suicide knob on the 160's steering wheel.

On my 185, I had disassembled both front spindles and the steering column several years ago and greased the hell out of them. It's a night and day difference now. You can drive the 185, one-handed now. Unfortunately they don't have a grease fitting for the steering column or gear so that is the major part of the problem once dirt and rust get in.

Update: I just spent a couple hours tinkering and pulled the 38" deck off the 160. It is in really nice shape. Like a B+ condition versus the D+ my 185 deck is in.

Before and after cleaning:

Huh, my X540 has hydraulic power assist. My, new to me, Honda CR-V steers harder than the Deere.

This belongs to a friend:

Looks like something Tim, The Tool Man, would have wrecked.
He must need ear plugs and shooting muffs, with the pipes bellering right in his ears.
I don't see a bar for weights on the front. Does he run it in the unlimited class of pulling tractors ?

Where's the blade??