It does not have a seat switch. The battery is charged. There is a 2-wire cable hanging loose on the right side, I do not know where it goes/came from but it looks really worn and it is tied in a little loop so I'm guessing it was unhooked on purpose? Oh if they could only talk!

 

Sounds like a blown fuse, dirty connection or a broken wire. Look at fusible link f1.

l

 

Turn the key on and jump the solenoid tab from starter cable. She if she’ll crank!

 

Thank you for the schematic TiredDeere! There are 2 15-amp fuses readily accessible. I pulled both and they are good so I reinstalled, wiggled wires, found another loose wire laying down inside the pedestal, I was hooked to nothing on either end. There's also a chassis ground from the pedestal that is not plugged into anything. I tried the key again and magically I now had lights. Hopped on the seat pushed the brake pedal down and she spins! It would not fire so I removed the air cleaner and discovered a mouse nest in there so I got that all cleaned up, shot some carb cleaner in and she fired. Yippee! Except it was now shooting antifreeze out of the muffler. That was less than encouraging to see The guy said it was parked a couple years ago because the E-brake was broken and stuck on? I let it run a bit, shut it off and restarted. It is smoking white right now so the jury is out deliberating on the future of the defendant. The PTO switch feels like it does not work, it is a flimsy white plastic piece of you know what.

 

The loose 2-wire cable that was unhooked is for the headlights which are no longer in the hood. I started it back up and it is not smoking anymore. I have Seafoam in the gas tank for the Italian tune-up. It goes forward and backwards. I did figure out that flimsy little PTO switch and it immediately killed the engine. The deck is stuck so I will need to massage it a bit, but it looks good. There are drips from the transaxle and I don't see a way to refill or check it. It looks like the pan needs to come off to get at it? Interestingly enough, I was looking at how to remove the pan and I see that the front studs have no nuts on them, how convenient! Does the deck height adjust knob just pry off the shaft to remove the deck?

 

If it helps, it’s probably an LX178. There was no LT178 that I’m aware of [emoji106]

 

That is correct, my bad on that one. I recently repowered my log splitter with an engine from an LT133 so I'm getting my prefix's mixed up.

 

KIss the plastic hood goodby

 

Can't find edit: My fix for Dem Dang plastic hoods

 

I have to ask the LX1x2 on the right, have you hung any GT attachments on the front of it with those brackets?

 

Tom, you probably know this but in case others reading this do not, don’t run the engine if you suspect there is antifreeze leaking into the cylinders. Antifreeze will wash the oil film off the cylinder walls and that will greatly accelerate piston ring and cylinder bore wear.

 

I did not know that, thanks for the advice Mike. A bad head gasket would be the most likely culprit correct?

As for the hood issue, I have already thought about a hood off another one of my JD tractors.

The 'edit' button is those three little dots in the upper right corner of your post.

 

Tom,

I will send you some documents in a conversation thread...

Chuck

 

Tom, you are right, typically if a head gasket fails, you will get antifreeze in the cylinder or oil in your antifreeze and possibly you will see bubbles in the coolant. Oil can become milky in appearance. Look at the underside of your oil fill cap and see if there is a white material on it.
I did a Google search and found a lot of symptoms and ways to check before you pull off a head. Don’t pull the head until you’ve done some diagnostic checking.
I didn’t see anything listed about antifreeze washing the oil film off the cylinder wall but I remember that from my engine days working for a large manufacturer.

 

Thanks Mike, I was thinking along the same lines as you as far as symptoms of a bad head gasket. The oil does not look cloudy nor did I see any bubbling under the radiator cap. I restarted it numerous times yesterday and did not see anymore smoke after the initial fire-up. I just went out and started it after it sat overnight and no smoke. So I am wondering what may have happened during it's years of storage that may have led to that? It is safe to say I am an optimist. After I run it a bit more I will pull the plugs and see what they look like and check compression at the same time. It needs a new rear tire that has a bad leak (I will replace both, they are $60 each at my farm store) and a new air filter. I am reluctant to throw money at it until I am sure the basic things are working OK. I have to pull the deck and get it spinning. I'll sharpen the blades after I know it functions. The deck looks good from the outside.

 

Sounds good Tom. Hopefully there are no major issues with the engine. Someone with more experience with this model will likely add their experience to this post - for example, does this engine have an automatic compression release and do you need to do anything special to check compression. In the meantime, keep watching the coolant level and oil level as you run the machine.

 

I have started and run it a few times today and I do not see any nasty behavior. I drove it up and down my road maybe 500 feet and the trans sounded funny at first but that noise went away. I pulled the deck because it was locked up. It was a PITA to get off, I think it had not been removed for some time. The cover over the one spindle had bolts partially installed. The guy I bought it from said it was serviced every year by the local JD dealer. Based on what I have seen so far I am a bit leery of that being true. Both spindles were froze, but released after a big crescent wrench was applied. They feel good right now and they have grease nipples underneath so I will see if they take grease. The other 2 pulleys topside spin smoothly. Both belts were bonded to the pulleys. The guy said it sat only 2 or 3 years. Who knows. We buy these not know what we are in for.

 

Unfortunately greasing the spindles won’t help the bearings. The bearings are sealed. The grease is to fill the void between the bearings and keep water out. Changing the spindle bearings is cheap and easy though!

 

Well then, I will grease them anyway I certainly can't hurt! Once I broke them free they felt tight, as opposed to feeling sloppy, there is no wiggle. I'll sharpen the blades, put her all back together and give it a go. Next will be the steering which feels tighter than it should. I like it when it feels like you have power steering. I'll also have to pull the pan off to see what the transaxle looks like. I was surprised that the transaxle uses 10w-30 rather than HyGard.

 

Well, thinking about my leaking rear tire issue, It just dawned on me that I do not have to replace both rear tires, I just need to repair/replace the tube in the one that is leaking. Silly me did not think of that. Both tires have tubes in them, that fact failed to register in my wee brain. That will be way more cost-effective than replacing 2 rear tires.

 

Tom, you have probably been down this road before on the tight steering, but will mention it anyway. Quite often, the spindles need to be removed and the old hardened grease and debris can be cleaned out from the bores of the axle and the spindle O.D's. Remove the grease fittings and clean those holes too. Make sure grease will still go through the old fittings.
Won't be power steering, but much better than now.

tommyhawk

 

Absolutely agree on the steering and the kingpin lube -- had a LX 172 that I rescued from the Oregon coast in 2008 that was being sold because they could not steer it. I had to drive the spindles out of the kingpin bushings with a hammer and drift, and then clean up the surface of the kingpin area with emery cloth before being able to get it all back together and lubricated. Made a world of difference!! It came with a bagger, good cart and a front blade, so I took a chance that I could get to steer correctly and it all turned out OK...worth the $125 I paid as I recall... Here is the funky CL listing picture from when I snagged it.

Chuck

 

Thanks to both of you. I had the same issue on the RX70 that I picked up last year. The grease in the spindle bores had hardened to the point where I had to chip it out, I finished the cleaning of the bores using paint thinner or minerals spirits. It steered like a champ after that.

 

This is what the steering column parts look like under lx172 176 178 188 and gt 242 275. There is no grease fitting and if it still steers hard, needs to be removed from the tractor and de-rusted and lube the three bushings

 

Ed,

Yes that mechanism can also be a source of higher than normal steering force. By disconnecting the drag link, it is easy to determine if that assembly is the source of your issues or if it resides in the kingpin bushings. Here is the whole system diagram from the LX manual:

...and here is the rather lame trouble shooting chart which does not even mention high steering force issues...

Chuck

 

That’s a pita to take out as there’s springs and washers and cotter pins that are kind of tough to get out/in. I wind up doing it quite often as the springs rust-break, then column drops a bit. If springs are not broke I spray with my acetone/atf snake oil and work it. Once they get used they free right up. I drive the kingpins out with an air hammer. If thier seized I heat up the spindle with a torch. Just can’t mushroom the top of the spindle or it won’t slide through.