Is anyone else being driven insane by mowers that don't cut ?

That tensioner pulley. It isn't cracked, its a two part pressed metal pulley (it runs on the back of the belt). The "crack" is the split between the two halves. The bearing was bone dry so I pried the seal off the side of the bearing and packed it with grease. Its not replaceable, at some point I'll need to drill the spotwelds out of the pulley so it comes in half to replace the bearing (then weld it back together ... infact I could even bolt it back together). Bearings all seem to be about $6 -> $10 each ... so its not a big deal.

I reckon the mower is also running a belt that is to long. it bounces around against the tensioner quite a bit. the deck is smooth as silk now though (while I was there I chucked the stupid "pulley brake" away). Lets see how we go in the future. I couldn't be happier with it given its a 19year old mower!

bloody raining again today, so it sure is going to get a work out this season.
 
Tensioner pulley:
The crack I referred to is NOT the seam between two pulley halves. In the photo it looks like a crack in the top surface, there is a small hole through the pulley in one spot (1/8 inch at a guess) and near there, it looks like a crack. It might just be a scratch in the accumulated dirt on the pulley? Hard to tell, you have it in front of you, I don't. That is how mine failed - the bearing was OK but a chunk broke off the outer flange of the pulley, turning it into a belt muncher.

Deck belt:
You can adjust the deck distance to tighten the belt. Your machine looks different to mine as you have the out front deck and mine has the deck underneath, but the deck looks the same, at the front of the whole mower you have a curved front bar between the two king pins - right in the centre you can see a slot with a bolt through it, loosen the bolt or bolts (in my mower it is one bolt down from the top and one up from underneath) then pull the deck forward to tighten the cutter belt. If you pull it forward too far, it will drive the deck constantly. Adjust it so it drives strongly when the tensioner is on the belt, and releases when you pull back on the tensioner lever. It is normal for the belt and tensioner to dance around a bit - the tensioner is a bloody rough bit of engineering, the pivot bolt wears and the lever is so long, a little wear / slop in the pivot mount and the tensioner arm drops and can bang/rub on a cross tube that links the height adjustment on both sides. Took me ages to work out what the noise was... The tensioner has a huge strong spring on it, lots of leverage but the arm pivots on a stud welded at one end to the deck and no support at its other end, the stud can bend where it meets the deck and mis-align the tensioner. Later ones were reinforced but still only attached at one end - it looks big and tough but is actually a weak design.
 
Oh, I just looked at the photo again, i see exactly what you mean. How did I not see that :eek: I'll pull it back off an check (its only 30seconds to whip that pulley off).

I'll have another look at the entire tensioner. Nothing has looked even the slightest bit worn that I've touched yet, so these issues will probably all appear in my future if I use the mower heavily.
 
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excellent.... just what I needed, another project... its the first time the thing has ever stopped (unless I've run it out of fuel). It just shutdown like the cutout had been pulled.... sigh ....

its a bit strange. I started at the injectors and there seem to be fuel there when I cracked an injector line .. hmmm... so I tried the pump, and its bleed screw had fuel. I figured ... maybe water in the fuel ?? So I pulled the fuel filter I swear I only replaced recently.

20220619_164105.jpg


Seriously ?? I admit, I didn't wipe out this jar after emptying out the screws, but surely this didn't come out of the filter ?? Oh, the filter had "2016" written on it .... So yeah, i'd changed it only recently :clown: So I refitted the new "clean" :blush: filter and cracked its output line to bleed it .... To find it wouldn't bleed .... So I pulled the suction line from the pump to find barely a dribble of diesel there..... FFS .... I've started at the furtherest point from the tank to end up back at the bloody tank.

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The boss women will love having this "garden sculpture" sitting outside the bedroom window right ??

the strange bit is I shine a torch into that fuel tank all the time, and it always looks clear and clean. I bet the bottom is full of crap because its probably never been cleaned .... and the tractor is what ... 50 ... maybe 60 years old. Does anyone have any good tips on cleaning old diesel tanks ?

seeya
Shane L.
 
Peter C said:
Mart T, where are you?
Click to expand...

That new zealand guy? Nah, this one isn't stuck in the middle of a forest :ROFLMAO: I chucked a dozen huge woodscrews into the diesel tank and strapped it to the cement mixer for a couple of hours. There was a "layer" of tar like stuff in the bottom of the tank. Then I pressure washed it. The hardest part was getting out the sticks in it. There was several. So I wasn't hte only person that dunked the tank with a stick to find it to short and drop the damn thing :clown:

I then pressure washed the inside. I'm not sure how to get the last 1/4 cup of water out though. It looks like the tank has a raised tube ( say 5mm above the bottom of the tank) that feeds the fuel pump, then around this is a gap that allows fuel down into another "sub tank" welded to the bottom of the tank. I'm thinking this is a designed lowest point for any moisture to drop too. The tanks drain valve will be attached to this to allow draining of any moisture.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Hi.

Not as big as Shanes, but I purchased a second hand mower, it is a bit old, but in good condition. It is a 22” cut, so I figured with 4” additional inches every lap, I would need fewer laps. I straightened the blades, (will order new ones) and generally checked it out and lubricated some dry bearings. As it is winter with not much grass to cut I have not been able to give it a good work out. But I am impressed that it packs the clippings into the catcher very well. It is one of the few mowers at this cutting width that also has a catcher, most are side discharge. It is also self-propelled, and at a good speed that is not to slow, and has large diameter wheels. The engine seems to have good compression. The cons are that it is reasonably heavy to manoeuvre, but good for long runs. When looking up the internet for some blades it appears to be a model that many gardening contractors have used.

My plan is to give it to my son as he hates mowing his lawn and has about twice the area I have to do. I am pretty happy with it to date, and might keep it myself.

Cheers.
1655760958085.png
 
There was a mower on Marketplace a couple of months ago that was the same design as Shane's green beast with the cutting deck out the front. I was nearly going to throw it on this thread for a laugh, but didn't worry about it as the thread had been static for a while.

It was a different make to Shane's but about the same physical size. The kicker was some Wally had fitted a 1.6L 16V Toyota Corolla engine into it, but it still functioned as a mower!

"Just mowing the lawn dear".
5 minutes later, "job done".🤣
 
Whippet said:
Hi.

Not as big as Shanes, but I purchased a second hand mower, it is a bit old, but in good condition. It is a 22” cut, so I figured with 4” additional inches every lap, I would need fewer laps. I straightened the blades, (will order new ones) and generally checked it out and lubricated some dry bearings. As it is winter with not much grass to cut I have not been able to give it a good work out. But I am impressed that it packs the clippings into the catcher very well. It is one of the few mowers at this cutting width that also has a catcher, most are side discharge. It is also self-propelled, and at a good speed that is not to slow, and has large diameter wheels. The engine seems to have good compression. The cons are that it is reasonably heavy to manoeuvre, but good for long runs. When looking up the internet for some blades it appears to be a model that many gardening contractors have used.

My plan is to give it to my son as he hates mowing his lawn and has about twice the area I have to do. I am pretty happy with it to date, and might keep it myself.

Cheers.
View attachment 206400
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Thats a big motor on that for a push mower. See if you can chase up a victa super 600 if you have lots of grass to cut :) they are heavy to push, but worth the effort!

I saw a review on the ryobi zero turn battery mowers sold at bunnings on youtube a few weeks back. He waited a couple of years to do the review. He's gone from loving it to hating it. The mower itself is fine, but it appears they used lead acid batteries, and it's already down to 50% mow time after a season :eek:
 
DoubleChevron said:
Thats a big motor on that for a push mower. See if you can chase up a victa super 600 if you have lots of grass to cut :) they are heavy to push, but worth the effort!

I saw a review on the ryobi zero turn battery mowers sold at bunnings on youtube a few weeks back. He waited a couple of years to do the review. He's gone from loving it to hating it. The mower itself is fine, but it appears they used lead acid batteries, and it's already down to 50% mow time after a season :eek:
Click to expand...
There's a guy on youtube (Aging Wheels channel) who has one of these Ryobi mowers and he complained about the same problem (bought it new and used it for a little while). Apparently there is a newer generation of that mower with different batteries that should be better.
 
DoubleChevron said:
I saw a review on the ryobi zero turn battery mowers sold at bunnings on youtube a few weeks back. He waited a couple of years to do the review. He's gone from loving it to hating it. The mower itself is fine, but it appears they used lead acid batteries, and it's already down to 50% mow time after a season :eek:
Click to expand...
I was on one of the review web sites and one respondent said he had to replace the batteries in his Ryobi at the 2 year mark and that he had only done 50 hrs of mowing.

Bunnings quoted him $2500 for the replacement batteries. He ended up going to a battery store, but still paid $1300 for the replacement set of lead acids.

Someone else asked about going to lithium but the response was that lithium are not not suitable for the high load, rapid discharge cycle of the mower.🤷‍♂️

Having said that if the LAs cost $1300 you wouldn't get any change out of $3K by going to lithium.
 
Greenpeace said:
I was on one of the review web sites and one respondent said he had to replace the batteries in his Ryobi at the 2 year mark and that he had only done 50 hrs of mowing.

Bunnings quoted him $2500 for the replacement batteries. He ended up going to a battery store, but still paid $1300 for the replacement set of lead acids.

Someone else asked about going to lithium but the response was that lithium are not not suitable for the high load, rapid discharge cycle of the mower.🤷‍♂️

Having said that if the LAs cost $1300 you wouldn't get any change out of $3K by going to lithium.
Click to expand...

These are supposed to be environmentally friendly mowers .... That needs $2000 in batteries every year or so ??? Yeah right.... :rolleyes: It looks like the battery technology is to expensive to make it worthwhile at the moment. I'm sure they will get there. The mower itself seems to be quite ok given the reviews.

my shitty 50+ year old tractor will probably still be dragging around an ancient worn out mower long after these things are chucked to the tip .... still burning bugger all diesel to do its job like it has for the last 1/2 dozen decades.
 
Greenpeace said:
I was on one of the review web sites and one respondent said he had to replace the batteries in his Ryobi at the 2 year mark and that he had only done 50 hrs of mowing.

Bunnings quoted him $2500 for the replacement batteries. He ended up going to a battery store, but still paid $1300 for the replacement set of lead acids.

Someone else asked about going to lithium but the response was that lithium are not not suitable for the high load, rapid discharge cycle of the mower.🤷‍♂️

Having said that if the LAs cost $1300 you wouldn't get any change out of $3K by going to lithium.
Click to expand...
That is bullspin. Lipo batteries are much more capable in high current draw applications than Lead Acid. Don't know how much they can cost, that's another matter but if you look around you will see most EV cars have Lipo batteries these days. They also deal a lot better with deep discharge cycles as long as you do not go beyond the safe recovery limit (which should be controlled by default by the electronics associated) and fast charging. Don't hit/puncture them though.
 
schlitzaugen said:
That is bullspin. Lipo batteries are much more capable in high current draw applications than Lead Acid. Don't know how much they can cost, that's another matter but if you look around you will see most EV cars have Lipo batteries these days. They also deal a lot better with deep discharge cycles as long as you do not go beyond the safe recovery limit (which should be controlled by default by the electronics associated) and fast charging. Don't hit/puncture them though.
Click to expand...
I have no idea on different batteries being subject to different cycle loads and times, hence I went 🤷‍♂️ at the end of that statement.
The poster that said it did however credit Ryobi with it, as he said he read it on their website.🤷‍♂️
 
DoubleChevron said:
These are supposed to be environmentally friendly mowers .... That needs $2000 in batteries every year or so ??? Yeah right.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
They are lead acid batteries though, which actually do get recycled. They pay good money for them these days.

Australia's depots collected 3300 tonnes of lithium/ion batteries for recycling in 2019 yet actually only recycled 66 tonnes of them.

I wonder where the rest of them went.🤔

They CSIRO's predicting over 100,000 tonnes of lithium/ion battery waste (per annum) in Australia by 2036.
 
Who wants frustrating ?? I just refitted the tank to the tractor after pulling apart the taps and fitting new Orings. It fired right up after giving everything a quick bleed .... and ran for about 3 minutes and stopped .... hmmm... there appeared to be diesel on teh injectors :confused:

So I tried the top of the filter housing and kept find air there.... I went in circles for ages and finally decided the filter must be plugged up and fitted a new one ..... Bleed that and there was no sign of starting. When I cranked it with the injection pump bleed screw open it keep bleeding air bubbles out .... Hmmm.... I found if I used the lift pump lever ..... it would continuously push air from the injection pump bleed screw. Now that shoud rule out air leaks anything downstream of the lift pump as they will leak fuel, no bleed air if I'm pump the fuel pump.

You know .... I'm think now the lift pump is somehow introducing air maybe ?? I'll go out tomorrow and try bleeding it further. But it sure is driving me insane. Why is it so difficult to bleed the air from this mongrel thing :mallet::moon:
 
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