Fixing up a John Deere Lawn Tractor - Was it Worth It?

[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] okay so what we have here is a John Deere Elsie one five five from the year 2000 it's supposed to be a fairly good mother the engine looks clean but then again the cosmetics aren't everything as I have found out too many times so what we're gonna do is just give it give it a dry for this I checked the oil we'll see if it cuts and if it does give a service we'll take the deck off and have a good look under there around the front here we do have a crack in the bumper which doesn't seem like a big problem in itself and it isn't but the bumper is also damaged in two other places just down here we have the two plastic hinges which are part of the bumper and they've both cracks I'm actually holding the bonnets on if I was to let go it would just fall to the ground so that bumper piece does have to be replaced it does look like somebody's been mowing with this fairly recently which is a good sign there has been some welding and patch working in the back of there at some point but overall it does seem to be a fairly solid deck now here is a view under the deck and they should be set 90 degree so once a bit 12 o'clock and near the bunch of it 3 o'clock but they're not in fact it seems to be varying so I'm not too sure what's up with the timing belt bit of cracking here in there it's a bit of fraying as well this is the belt here so it's seen better days it still works but it probably should be replaced see them can't fully test these Polly's about removing the belt first now it does seem quite solid under here so whom the best thing to do is to clean all this out and then we can get it all painted it's now taking top cover off we can see inside here this is the timing belt and well out of the two possible issues that could have been it is the better of the two it is just very slack so what's happening is it's just slipping over the teeth and it's changing the timing so that just needs to be retention and retimed so that is the tiny belt set correctly the belt itself is actually really good I've been looking at the cosmetic condition of the deck and I've come to the conclusion that it probably isn't worth just putting it all back together like this it's not too bad but at the same time it doesn't look good so I think I'm gonna make an effort with this and remove the original paintwork as you can see we've got some touching up paintwork going on here got some runs it's been welded at the end of the day it is just a deck but my goal is always to improve something and I think if I was just to reassemble like this all I've really done is well at just about [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] right so we are now down to the just the shell of the deck and it's pretty much as I expected it to be it's pretty good under here because this is always protected and the answer area is well very flaky paint but on the surface it might still look good in this sort of area so until you start digging if you see them things to paint here we have well corrosion that it's exactly who I need to eliminate any to totally remove the paint eliminate any areas where moisture and water can get trapped underneath the paint work which is boggling up because that is where it's going to rot you know rot through [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so it's now time to reassemble a deck I've just painted it and it's not the best deck ever but it's sort of a plenty of life in it so I want to reinstalling the spindles and also we're going to be going to the timing belt and we've also got the idler pulley as well the tensioning poise and then we can we can move up upwards until we get to the top layer of the day we'll put a cover on and then it will just be a case of putting the new belt on and then we can hopefully put it back on the machine the good thing about these decks is they're very simple okay so this is the side with the tensioning pulleys which I did number so you've got number two number one this is pulling in the two tensioning them two timing timing being Amity and also number one which I have Mars okay so I need to do those up then we can put the the pulley on here do either side and then it should just be case of setting the tension and also timing the the blades which will be underneath at all times we've got some timing marks here and you can very easily time each side up so you do to 90 degrees one at 12 o'clock one at three o'clock and it's as simple as that really and your tension it and took the idlers so there we go now onto the stage you for placing the belt I think yeah it's definitely worth replacing quite a good crack just there yeah and it change it's also getting very thin if we just compare it to the new one you can see how the v-shape it is much wider on the new belt so yeah I've got this new Kevlar belt Havers fit that's it back together I think before I put it back on the machine though I will just do one more thing and that Institute Ryan clean up the top cover a bit the top guard row says freedom 42 there is a trick to do this there's if that's a few different ways of doing this but one way of just reviving the life in it for a little while is to do a 50-50 mix of linseed oil and paint thinners I do just have one word of advice when doing this don't put the thinner mixture onto decals or paintwork do no end of damage so we've got here some linseed oil thinness is already in 50/50 doesn't have to be exact just you know roughly 50/50 and then give it a quick mix and it doesn't need too much just a bit [Applause] just keep working in now obviously you don't have to do this just makes it look a bit better it doesn't last forever and actually yeah my other tip is well definitely do this during a well ventilated area because paint thinners are very strong and yeah it can soon become quite airless it's in the side view as you can see it's all been coated now to help prevent rust in the future something we should have done every year really but it's just not practical for a lot of people kiss well as you can understand mowing the grass for some people is just a chore that has to be done and what maintain the mowers is just another chore as well but people like me I I really find pleasure in keeping machines maintained and good condition anyway we've got blades I don't tend to paint them it's just as these ones are so new just bring some out of it and then once this is all back on and together we can hopefully just clean the top of the deck up a bit and then put it on the machine so it's the 12 o'clock 3 o'clock always 90 degrees that's how it should be you now the transmission belt although works it's quite worn there's quite a lot of cracking going on here and what it feels like it's being very hot at some stage because that's very rough and very worn out yeah bad cracking here and yet one of the idlers did seem to be on these pulleys did seem to be quite loud so I'm just wondering if one of the one of these poets here has got about bearing and it's been causing the belt to get very hot but I think what I have to do is take the belt off and spec the poise and I'll put a new belt on anyway because if this one is very cracked call it a cracking so yep it's definitely showing its age I would say it's the original belt okay so there's the new belt genuine now I don't always go for genuine and sometimes it really isn't worth it but I have noticed that with the John Deere belts some of the sellers on online say that it fits and it's like a close match but it's just not right and sometimes it can cause more problems and then you have to get another belt anyway so I thought we'll go for a new genuine belt and actually the price difference was was nominal it was like three or four pounds anyway so yeah definitely worth going for genuine so that if the new belt installed and I have noticed it's actually really quite grimy up here so I'm gonna get the airline and get all this blown out get it nice and clean it's this John Deere front bumper which is also the hinge for the bonnet or the hood it is well I don't think you can raise salvaged it's got a massive crack down the center here or just off-center and or more importantly that the two plastic hinges which attached the hole by it to the chassis very completely snapped off and obvious on chassis they are still there but you could you you could definitely fix it if you wanted to but I thought that's all bashed up is also scrapes might as well go for a new one so I've got a new one cost sixty sixty pounds you can also get a non genuine I think which doesn't actually say John Deere over it this has got John Deere written over the front I fought with my toes go genuine is well do I don't think there's a huge price difference it doesn't tend to be actually sometimes they can be but I think most of the time modern genuine isn't that much cheaper it's always cheaper but not that much cheaper so on the inside of it it's two bolts washer all included so we should get them taken off the original and get that one fitted [Music] at this point I just give it a good clean and then I go over it with some teak us on the painted areas to revive the original color usually when doing a service on a warmer I would always change the engine oil and the filters but actually the previous owners only just done it that's the machine all polished up and as you can see really has brought back some of the original color and just makes a little much more presentable this mare is such quite good at mulching and if not used as the main mower it would also be quite a good back at mower as well [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so hope you enjoyed the video just fixing up this John Deere LT 155 and until next video thanks for watching you

Channel: Machinery Restorer

Views: 462,763

Keywords: restoration, tool restoration, hand tool restoration, mechanics, mechanic restoration, hand tool, mechanical, machinery restorer, hand tools

Id: dxQiC5pmBRU

Length: 26min 54sec (1614 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 14 2019