Don

While you have the seat pan off you may want to put a vent in the top of the trans. Helps when you go to fill it. I put one in my 1882 see attached pics. I removed the bolt circled in red and drilled it and tapped it for 1/8" pipe while I had the rear cover off. Put a brass hose adapter in then some hose and a gas filter to keep crud out.

That's one of the best ideas I have seen. Really need to do the one on Big Red.

Anytime! Looking forward to your vid. :ThumbsUp:

While you got it that far why dont you put a cast iron rear in it? Only 6 more bolts and some springs, carter keys and 2 gal of oil.

Sam, I should have done that when I had the rear end apart. Now its back together with new fluid and filter so I think Ill wait til the next fluid change. Im gonna save your post in my mods file.
Vince, I thought about that when I was repairing the broken bolts but decided to just use the aluminum rear end due to having to change the internals. I actually had another thread on the rear end repair. So far I haven't had any more trouble out of either rear end in the 2284 or 2072. I make it part of my maintenance routine to check the bolts to make sure they stay tight. I may find a couple of cast rear ends and tackle that project later on.

Every one that comes threw the shop I check. I also check the eng bolts on all the old ones. Not had a problem with the new stuff. Youd be surprised how many people around here have the alum rears and dont know to check them.

I wonder why they went to alum in the 82's? I just got an email from Mike Jackson hes painting a cyclops super. I dont know if he posted pics of it.

Vince my cyclops needs painting bad maybe I can get to it next

Simple, it's all about the $$$$ with MTD :biggrin2:

As far as I know, MTD switched to the AL rear due to the fact that they were already making a bunch of AL rears for other manufactures (being Modern Tool and Die) and there were some EPA issues with them doing CI work . . . and it was the beginning of the cost reductions. All about the $$$

Bean counters
 

I grew up in Pensacola Fl. and spent most of my youth on the water with outboard motors. There was either Johnson or Evinrude (same company), and not much else except Mercury which was not that big then. The thing that really bugged me about them was that for a few dollars per engine they could have used stainless screws and bolts/nuts. But no, they used plated hardware until the Japanese came along and forced them to. A two year old engine in salt water would have red streaks running down the shaft but it didn't seem to bother the companies involved. Every company has to make cost decisions and maybe MTD saw the trend from farm implement to lawn mower and decided that not only would aluminum be cheaper but most owners would never know the difference. But I'll bet the number one reason was money.