Got to spend more time with the 1811 yesterday. For starters I pulled the brake shaft bracket (1 side at a time), slid the bronze bushing down the shaft an inch or so (not easy) and polished the pivot area with sandpaper. Put one side back together and then did the other. I'll give credit for using bronze, nothing should rust and seize. However they hardly have any clearance so the shaft itself rusts and the whole works get gunky, so now nothing pivots. Regardless of the design, its only about a 15-20 minute repair--easier with tunnel cover off so you can see bolts. I did note there is so much slop in the brackets that you may have to get them snug and then tap them square with a hammer, otherwise they can be bolted in crooked enough bind the shaft--been there.
On to the electrical. To make things easier, I knew the PO had carb trouble so I pulled the fuel tank to drain it--good thing because it had some trash and a bad fuel outlet grommet. So the reverse switch had the arm missing, but then both wires were unplugged. The small red wire to the solenoid that passes through the clutch switch had been cut and discarded at the solenoid. A new wire had been run from the solenoid almost to the key switch where the other end of the cut red wire had now been skinned so the new wire could be spliced in.
A quick test proved the clutch switch was bad. So I removed the new wire, taped back up the skinned area of the good wire and added a 6" extension to where it was cut so it could be hooked up proper. Made a jumper to bypass the clutch switch and taped it up until I can get one. Hooked the reverse switch back up--a little testing required as the switch can be normally open or closed depending on which of the 3 terminals you hook the 2 wires onto. Amazing everything works and all the guy needed to have done was tie the 2 wires at the safety switch together to get it to crank instead of all the work he did.
No wonder these idiots had a 1/4" bolt in place of a fuse.
Next attention was turned to the engine. Pulled the top muffler shield and the head shields (as best as we could) Things were fairly clean but I was able to blow out a lot of gunk with a long air gun. You can really get to the starter side and the front but the oil filter side, not so much without pulling the lines--I ain't doing that unless I see a lot of trash. Flywheel seal not leaking but the one on the PTO is--got to get one ordered. Put the tins back on and installed an inline fuel valve--we have gone to keeping the fuel shut off, valve under the tanks isn't designed for accessing every time you put the mower away.
Changed oil and filer--it took a 1/2" pull handle to break the drain plug loose
. Not surprising it was a fair amount of effort to get the filter off with channelocks. Dumped in some IH Low Ash and a Napa filter. Still had to put the fenders and seat back on. After that it was show time. Tried a slight bit of adjusting on carb, no luck so I'm going to pull and clean it and put a kit in.
I did drive it around a lot,, hydro is amazing, probably the best one we have. Those loaded ag tires make it drive completely different than any lawn mower I have ever parked my rear on. Twice I did a wheelie taking off from a standstill on flat ground. Certainly going to have to use some sense driving this one. Considering where I want to mow with this one, all that traction is going to be perfect.
No pics for the day, just progress. I did bring the 50C deck into the shop. Its going to take more parts than I planned for but should be nice when done.