I picked up this clean 1992 Craftsman 36" Model 917.256820 with 12 HP Tecumseh motor yesterday for $200. This is my first riding mower, but probably not my last - I have heard that riding mowers tend to spoil homeowners from never wanting to go back to using a regular mower as their primary tool. I thought that this mower would be a great entry, albeit the age, for $200 I couldn't pass it up. I am finding riding mowers that are 14-15 years old are still selling for $500-$600 around here on the used market!
Today I spend the day cleaning it up, although it was very clean as it was. I wanted to clean the deck out just to make sure that there was no contamination with weed seeds from the previous owner's lawn, as I saw he had quite a bit of some creeping weed in his lawn.
I also went ahead and ordered two new Oregon Gator blades for this mower as well.
I was curious if anyone had any insight on where I could obtain an online user manual for this mower. And if anyone knew if this mower ever came with a mulch plug instead of the side discharge?
I am also not seeing a drain plug on the Spicer transaxle. From my research it seems as if this axle probably just has grease inside that cannot be serviced without complete disassembly of the case halves.
Also, I am curious about proper deck leveling, which I definitely want to accomplish. I was messing around with the brackets and they seem a bit wonky, not lining up quite right on both sides and the brackets not hanging perfectly. Not sure what's going on, or what it is supposed to look like, or how it was mounted from the factory.
Other than that, everything does work. The motor leaks a little bit of oil, looks to be from the oil pan gasket, but runs very smoothly otherwise! The owner was very up front and honest. Told me sometimes he had difficulty getting it in to gear, although I was not able to replicate that issue any time yesterday or today. The Transaxle feels great and all of the gears are smooth! 4 forward, 1 reverse.
Today I spend the day cleaning it up, although it was very clean as it was. I wanted to clean the deck out just to make sure that there was no contamination with weed seeds from the previous owner's lawn, as I saw he had quite a bit of some creeping weed in his lawn.
I also went ahead and ordered two new Oregon Gator blades for this mower as well.
I was curious if anyone had any insight on where I could obtain an online user manual for this mower. And if anyone knew if this mower ever came with a mulch plug instead of the side discharge?
I am also not seeing a drain plug on the Spicer transaxle. From my research it seems as if this axle probably just has grease inside that cannot be serviced without complete disassembly of the case halves.
Also, I am curious about proper deck leveling, which I definitely want to accomplish. I was messing around with the brackets and they seem a bit wonky, not lining up quite right on both sides and the brackets not hanging perfectly. Not sure what's going on, or what it is supposed to look like, or how it was mounted from the factory.
Other than that, everything does work. The motor leaks a little bit of oil, looks to be from the oil pan gasket, but runs very smoothly otherwise! The owner was very up front and honest. Told me sometimes he had difficulty getting it in to gear, although I was not able to replicate that issue any time yesterday or today. The Transaxle feels great and all of the gears are smooth! 4 forward, 1 reverse.
