Tune up a Stiga Park Pro 16

ironbrew

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OK. I'm new to the world of mowers (I've always had push mowers). My background is mechanical, and I knew the machine I was buying was 20+years old. It is a 1995. I did the inspection, and the machine is tight. Obviously needs the blade tips flipped. I found one bad idler bearing, and the idler itself is a bit worn. I plan to replace both. Given that it is 21 years old, I gave it a go, and I found a shortcoming. The mowing is not even and seems to push the grass over. I'm going to flip the blade tips, but if there is anything else I should be looking at, please let me know. Yes, the blade spindles seem square and steady, no obvious bearing rock.

Also, if anyone can suggest a place to get a service manual, I'd appreciate it. The ones I've found on line seem to be a tad new for my machine.

Overall seems to be a nicely built machine, easy to access for service. A bit light, but that is OK for my purposes. Other than pushing the grass over, I like the machine. I'll be tuning up the other small deficiencies as I go along. Heck, it doesn't even need a paint job...
 

bertsmobile1

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:welcome:

If that is the up front articulated mower there is no online information available before the 2000 manual.
The articulated mower has a very shallow deck and like the Husqvarna rider pro which was coppied from the stiga, they are very sensative to grass height and amount of cut.
Mowed regularly with light cuts they do a fantastic job.
Remember they were designed to mow European lawns that only grow for 5 months of the year and are really fine grasss.
So if you are in an area that grows thick lush tought grass the mower will struggle.
 

ironbrew

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It is. It might not be quite the machine I need, although it will do for the foreseeable.
 

ironbrew

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Bringing this up again. Anybody know of generic belts for this machine? They seem to be stiga brand with no cross references.

Thanks
 

bertsmobile1

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Stiga being European originally were fitted with metric belts 4L from memory .
If you have your part numbers plug them into the Gatesbelt finder http://www.gates.com/all-search-tools/automotive-interchange-search-results
If there is a gates equivalent you will get a window like this http://www.gates.com/all-search-tools/automotive-interchange-search-results
Note the belt number is underlined so click on that and you get a widow like this http://www.gatespowerpro.com/Comergent/en/US/adirect/gates?cmd=catSearchFrame&domProductQueryName=6798BR&returnURL=http://www.gatespowerpro.com/Comergent/en/US/adirect/gates&returnTarget=_top&gotoAdvSearch=false
Again the gates belt number is underlined so click on it again and you get a window with the dimensions & specifications of the belt

Easy peasy,,, if there is a gates equivalent.
Occasionally there is not

Mower belts do not stretch much, a 100' long belt will stretch around 1/4" to 1/2"
So you can simply pull the belts off and measure the outside length.
If it is a whole inch number +/_ 1/4" use that size.
Otherwise go to the stens on line catalogue and look for "Belts by length".
There is about 10 pages of belts in all the idiot sizes like 121& 23/32" that mower companies seem to love using.
Just beware that anything which is not a standard size = big money as they are a special low volume run.

A belt with no clutch you can use a standard black fan belt , belts with clutches need to be kevlar fiber & covered.

If you order a metric size belt, the length is the inside length which is the outside length -2" for a 1/2 " wide belt.
 

BlazNT

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OK. I'm new to the world of mowers (I've always had push mowers). My background is mechanical, and I knew the machine I was buying was 20+years old. It is a 1995. I did the inspection, and the machine is tight. Obviously needs the blade tips flipped. I found one bad idler bearing, and the idler itself is a bit worn. I plan to replace both. Given that it is 21 years old, I gave it a go, and I found a shortcoming. The mowing is not even and seems to push the grass over. I'm going to flip the blade tips, but if there is anything else I should be looking at, please let me know. Yes, the blade spindles seem square and steady, no obvious bearing rock.

Also, if anyone can suggest a place to get a service manual, I'd appreciate it. The ones I've found on line seem to be a tad new for my machine.

Overall seems to be a nicely built machine, easy to access for service. A bit light, but that is OK for my purposes. Other than pushing the grass over, I like the machine. I'll be tuning up the other small deficiencies as I go along. Heck, it doesn't even need a paint job...

Obviously needs the blade tips flipped.
I hope you mean sharpened. Because flipping a blade will get you very poor results.
 

ironbrew

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Obviously needs the blade tips flipped.
I hope you mean sharpened. Because flipping a blade will get you very poor results.

These are replaceable tips rather than the whole blade.
 

BlazNT

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I should have known it was ok with Bert not addressing it.
 

bertsmobile1

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The USA is almost unique in fitting bar blades.
Nearly every other country fit a blade disc or plate with very small blades to do the cutting.
Down here we call them swing backs, Europe call them tips.
It gives a 100% better cut and better air flow under the deck
Baggers work better, you can mow right over branches on the ground and when you find something like a tree root and the swing backs just swing back & you keep on mowing.
I have just finished mowing the christmass tree plantation with my 8/24 cox because last year we did not chip the prunings and the landlords 2142 Cub continually picks up the trimmings which jambed the blades .
I would hazard a guess that the USA government declaired this system unsafe & thus illegal in order to prevent mowers being imported into the USA which of course believes in free trade.
 

BlazNT

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We have something similar here. It is called a bush hog. It is not a finish mower.
 
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