[deereman84]

I bought a 400 last fall and I knew the engine smoked a little and it had no deck. It did run very well though and I didn't give much for it so I was fine with the smoking. Last weekend I bought a non-running for parts 400 with a deck at an auction. My plan was to put the deck under my 400 and part out the rest of the tractor since it looks terrible. I decided to look it over as to why it was non-running the other night and found that the wire harness is terrible. The starter solenoid was missing and there are a bunch of unhooked ends. I put in a few jumper wires in the safety circuit to test with and put in a starter solenoid I had laying around. I also found most of the loose ends were for the accessory circuit which didn't matter for running. The non-running for parts 400 turned out to be a running 400 that runs better than my current 400 and it doesn't smoke. That is where the positive for this tractor ends though. The fender pan is completely rotten and the tractor is missing a lot of other parts. I decided to pull the engine and put it in my other 400 since it is an overall better tractor. The current problem I am having is getting the mufflers loose. I have the bolts out and the clamps are loose but I can't get the dang flanges to let go. Anyone have a good way? The engine on the table in the picture is the old one. I am going to use some parts off of it that are better than on the other motor.

 

[jwsia]

They can be stuck on there good. I have made the mistake before to not get all the bolts under the muffler removed. Other than that soaking with PB and some time with the dead blow they will come off. Try not to damage it, mother Deere wants around 150 for a new one.

I would also replace the PTO bearings while you have the motor out, a tractor without a mower deck, they might not have been used for a while

 

[7dad34]

Good advice Jared. Also, get yourself an oil pressure gauge pronto. If not, the end result isn't pretty. I put mine where the hour meter is on the dash and stuffed the hour meter by the battery tray. Beef up the rear of the starter by adding a strap to the motor to keep that from snapping off. Those bearings for the PTO are under $20 and easy to replace now. You won't be sorry you did that

 

[332bill]

Jeremy, sounds like your trip to Clinton paid off. Anything else of note cross the auction block?

Bill

 

[deereman84]

Bill-

Not really. There were not many tractors there from the Pre '92 era. There are a lot of parts guys that show up there now. I watched completely junk rusted out decks bring $110 a piece.