Thread: Grandfather's old axe

You all know the story, a great axe, it's had 2 new heads and 5 new handles.....

My ride on mower is in the same league.
When we moved to a 1 acre block I struggled with a push mower so started looking for a ride-on.
Picked one up and afterwards thought I'd paid way too much for it.

It's a very old Greenfield that had been repaired, fitted with a Honda motor from a pressure washer (I was told), had a school chair fitted to replace the seat and given a respray.

DSCN4534 by Colin Radley, on Flickr

Not sure how old it is but I've seen similar shape ones in the correct yellow paint sold as 'collectors items'.

Aluminium deck but a piece had been torn out of the back taking an anti-scalp wheel mounting with it. Someone made a steel 'patch' with a bracket for the wheel. Different sized wheel to the other side !

DSCN4535 by Colin Radley, on Flickr

The idler pulleys (pressed steel) seized so I made aluminium ones with some nice new bearings. The drive pulley for the blade cracked & the rim separated from the centre so someone at work made a new centre and fixed the rim to it.

DSCN4537 by Colin Radley, on Flickr

I've fitted 3 drive belts (the one on it is on the way out), 1 cutter belt, fixed a puncture, welded things that cracked & fell off, fitted 1 set of new blades and given it a couple of oil changes. Once it started running rich, I eventually tracked this down to a choked air filter, purchased another (most expensive part so far) and all is well.
It picked up a stick which jammed in the chain and ended up bending a shaft. Someone had burred the end of the shaft over that badly that the sprocket wasn't coming off in a hurry so a block of hardwood & a lump hammer straightened the shaft.
The bevel gears for the steering are coming out of engagement because of a worn bush I've been threatening to replace for a few years now.

It keeps on going.......

Every now and then the drive starts to get a bit difficult, won't come out of forward or engages forward & reverse at the same time. Rear cover off, blow out all the dust, drop some graphite powder on the square shaft that the clutch plates 'slide' on and it's fixed for another year.

Tyres are perished so it's decision time........find some new tyres or look for another ride-on.

Maybe I'll keep it for another year......we've been together for 18 years now and it would be sad to see it sold on.

DSCN4536 by Colin Radley, on Flickr


Colin

Originally Posted by Chops

Colin, the mower place on the hwy in Narre, can get a "Greenfield" parts/serviced/organised etc,, if you wanted to go that way, although with a different motor etc,, .
They can send the diff etc to Greenfield in QLD for the full rebuild etc which is what I was told about two years ago (??).
I was looking at this with a couple they had to choose from for use up at the farm and gleaned this info. They seem to be one of the few mowers you can get just about everything for, including full factory diff rebuilds, albeit at a pretty hefty price I would imagine. I would think this is part of the reason they are quite expensive.

Thanks Marcus,
Thankfully I've repaired it so far without going to a mower shop except for the air filter but then the guy wanted to argue with me that that engine wouldn't be fitted to a mower ?! Probably won't be going back there again.....

Greenfield push the fact that they are Australian made and no plastic parts are used. This one doesn't have a diff and is about as simple as you can get, cuts the grass OK although the deck is a bit lop sided. I could adjust it but if you keep one foot on the deck rather than the footrest it sort of levels out.....
A lot of the secondhand ones are ex mowing rounds so have seen some work.


Colin