Today I got the 1712 buttoned up, and back in service
I had to pull the 50C deck from under the 1450, so I swapped the center pulley, moved the front deck hanger, sharpened the Gator blades, and greased the spindles.
I also put a 44A deck back together with the center pulley, sharpened the Gator blades, and greased the spindles....and mounted it under the 1450.
Then my wife jumped on the 1450 to start mowing, and I took the 1712 on it's maiden voyage. After a few laps, I decided everything was OK with the engine, so I changed tractors with my wife, and she put the 1712 through a workout.
As soon as we got done mowing, I drained the oil out of the 1712 (for the 3rd time) and refilled with fresh 30wt.....still just a tiny bit of metal flecks in the oil, so after we mow again I'll do another oil change, and we should be good to go
It was cool seeing the new oil pressure guage do it's thing. The freshened engine was putting out 65PSI with 'cold' oil, and once it was good and warm, it was running at 25-30 PSI......right within Kohler's spec.
Using a 50C and 44A deck
VS just a 50C deck, cut the mowing time from 3.5 hours to 1.5 hours