Parts to keep before junking nearly identical riding mower?

cmw

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  • / Parts to keep before junking nearly identical riding mower?
I would definitely save the deck, tires and seat, maybe the front steering components like the spindles if they interchange. The front kingpins are made of cast iron which are supposed to be stronger than stamped steel but cast iron is brittle so I'd think they would be susceptible to breaking if you hit something really hard. But so far I have not cracked any on mine.

I'm really surprised these Husqvarna riding mowers didn't hold up any better than that did. My Sears Craftsman was made by Husqvarna in 2009 and it has held up well compared to my Snapper which literally fell apart by 10 years. Those mowers got cheap as hell around 2000. Stamped steel decks and wheels, etc.

My only complaint is the welds on the deck are weak. They only put one bead on one side of the brackets. It doesn't take much to crack the welds on the deck hangers and wheel brackets. Some of that is probably my fault trying to squeeze a 46" deck through a 48" hole in my yard barn.

Someone mentioned the steering gear wearing out. I noticed mine didn't have any grease on it at all when I got it. Maybe that was one of the 100 point checks that Sears missed when they put the thing together. So I've smeared some wheel bearing grease on it a couple of times. Next time I change the oil I'm going to grease everything on the mower.

After I had a three year old 14 B&S engine on a Snapper 33" rear engine that threw a rod and busted a hole in the engine block. I said I would never buy a mower with a B&S engine on it again. I thought that was just unacceptable for a three year engine to through a rod. Kind of looked like the nuts on the rod bearing vibrated loose from not being torqued properly and no Locktite.

Well my Craftsman came with a 21 hp Intek engine but I got the mower at a discount. The whole mower may have about 300 hours on it by now and when I start the engine after it's been sitting for 2 weeks, it starts up and leaves me in a cloud of glory. I guess the valve seals/guides may be worn. But I only have to add less than a quart of oil between oil/filter changes every 50 hours so I'm not worried about it.

Also those older Kohler OHV engines 14/15 HP made 15 years old seem to be bullet proof. I don't know about those Courage engines. "Taryl fixes all" on YouTube has a bunch of videos on these engines and they must be a POS.


I have several mowers and am consolidating down to a few now that I have a nicer zero turn that mowers at 3x the speed. I have a couple junkers for hard use such as brush cutting and one I use for logging. I have a 9hp Kohler Command powered Craftsman that has no problem pulling trees out of the woods so I can use them for firewood. The Kohler Command is a GREAT ENGINE and you cannot destroy them. The Courage is JUNK as you mention. These never last when I get ahold of them. One of them would smoke like mad until it got hot enough to ignite all the oil it was burning and run like a diesel. Sometimes this made shutting that unit down difficult on hot days as it was running on the oil.

I agree that many of the current Briggs engines are junk. It seems BS really cut corners and now Snapper is sadly sold at places like Wal-Mart. I had a friend consider buying a Wal-Mart Snapper as he has a small yard but is getting older and just wanted a basic rider. He declined when he realized there were no real provisions for changing the oil. He would have had to suck it out. I have not had any Briggs engine in recent years throw rods. The plastic camshaft rounded off in one and it was burning quite a bit of oil at that time so it was junked. Then I have had a few others let go of a valve or valve seat and knock holes in the heads and pistons. You pretty much need a Vanguard if you want a decent Briggs these days.

I have scrapped this mower and several others but did keep all the parts you suggest. Tires/wheels are not cheap. The decks are not cheap. I have never work out the steering gear but a buddy said to never throw that away if it fit my existing mower.

I tried selling some of them on Craigslist and FB Marketplace but seemed to attract every entitled sociopath within a 3 county radius. Busting them apart with my impact wrench and hauling them in as scrap seemed to be a better use of my time.
 

cmw

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Joined
May 16, 2014
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  • / Parts to keep before junking nearly identical riding mower?
Yes, it seems there are different grades of engines and mowers these days. Husqvarna is no longer a commercial brand. They make lots of cheap consumer grade crap as well. They are all made by AYP as is Craftsman, Poulan, etc. Poulan is aptly named because all you do is pull-on the starter rope. Poulan is a crap except for some of the yellow colored Poulan Pro chainsaws I have used. They seem decent for basic use. The other stuff is just junk.
 
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