616 grasshopper

Hey Poky does your 616 have a 2 gallon oil tank? if it does the way to drain the hydro's is open the drain plug on the tank that will drain the hydro's just fine. Or if it has the individual oil tanks ontop of each hydro it should have drain plugs on each. If it has the large tank it calls for Mobil DTE 100. If it has the small tank on each hydro you should use Grasshopper Hydro-Max fluid which is a synthetic oil.

As far as synthetic oil in a lawn mower motor I have a 12.5 hp vanguard Briggs & Stratton v-twin on a 612 Grasshopper that has 1200 hours plus. It has never been touched dosen't use oil and pulls the 48" deck and blower as good as the day it was new in 1992. Except for the break in oil it has never had anythng in it other than synthetic oil which I changed at 30 hour intervals.

The information you gave me is very much apreciated. No tanks all fluid is in hydros . I will check for drain plugs and switch to synthetic tomorrow. Also the 18hp briggs I put in this grasshopper today did ok on the hill, and did not slow down with mower ingaged. Took all day shimming in motor to line up driveshaft. I sure miss the 20 hp simplicity. 5 foot deck and goes fast. The right hydro will be costly, will have to kiss wifes butt all year to get another one. Thanks for your help. poky

Sounds like you did an excelent job fabricating the motor mounts, it dosen't get any better. You know the old saying "the chase is more fun than the catch"

Thanks and Good Luck!

The right side hydro on the simplicity dropped all the fluid out and got real hot so I figure it was shot. Took it apart and found it looked ok , one inch balls everywhere, not suppossed to get these mixed up but they got mixed up when they hit flloor. Anyway the rebuild kit cost 80 bucks and all you get is o rings bearings and seals. so I bought 2 seals that matched the old ones, 16 bucks and replaced them only. put it back together. Took this thing for a test drive to get it hot and test hydro, everything went well so far. I might have got lucky. Any way if it dosent last I am only out 16bucks and time. Forgot to say there was a 1 month wait on rebuild kit, grass still grows. Hope this might help somebody with hydros. poky