[Harold J. Maat]

Gentlemen!! Once again I solicit your vast knowledge and wisdom. My local dealer has a nice looking John Deere 265 with a power flow bagger and a snow blower at a fair price. I have researched the "plastic/nylon" cam gear used in Kawasaki engines extensively and cannot say for certain whether or not this model John Deere has this issue or not. It certainly has a single cylinder air cooled Kawasaki engine built prior to 1999. The selling dealer is kind of vague on this issue. Another local Deere dealer told me only the water cooled models used this poor quality cam gear. Even if the 265 is so equipped, it shouldn't be that big a deal to repair when it becomes necessary. If you know the CORRECT answer, not what you heard, or your buddy said, etc... I would love to hear from you. Thanks in advance.

 

[T-Mo]

Harold,
I'm no expert on this subject, but I have been lurking, reading, and participating on this site and other John Deere sites, and I have never read of a problem on the 265s. They were made from 1988 to 1994 and there are a lot of them still on the job.

 

[mark65]

265 uses the single cylinder 17hp air cooled engine which never had cam issues. Almost never come apart. Balancer assy has exploded on a few, but they will rattle at you for a while before they do.

 

[428_pi]

Harold, we have sold and serviced 100's of used John Deere tractors and riders with Kawasaki engines over the last 15 years. We have never got or had even one with a cam gear failure. Way too many guys are hung up on plastic cam gear worries. The 265 is a fine machine and should serve you well. My 2 cents.

 

[Harold J. Maat]

I thank you all for your comments. The 265 I was considering has been sold. I'll be looking for another.

 

[jd210la150]

I just recently purchased a sleeve/integral hitch for my manual lift/helper spring 210 and I am trying to adjust the rear lift rod depth so the sleeve hitch drops down all the way, but I am having trouble with it. I can push the lift lever all the way forward and the rear lift rod will get stuck about halfway back, so I loosened the bolt I rigged up to hold it and pushed the rear lift rod as far back as it would go, and the rear lift pivot jammed up because apparently the long adjustment bolt is too short, even with it adjusted all the way out. JDParts says the 5" bolt is correct but apparently it is too short because it does not allow for the pivot to travel much before hitting the bolt head. Therefore the pivoting part on the rear lift only travels back about 1/2 way and does not lower the sleeve hitch all the way when the lift lever is pushed down all the way. The depth stop assembly has been removed from the tractor so I know it is not that. It's the 5" adjusting bolt hitting against the back hitch plate and not letting it pivot back any further. It seems like the bolt needs to be longer, any ideas?
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[ed_lincoln]

I'm not sure what's wrong with your rear lift but the 5" bolt is not the problem. Try lowering the mower deck lift stop.

 

[jd210la150]

I removed the lift stop assembly so it should be able to raise and lower the whole way down right? I was also having an issue with the rear lift rod not sliding back all the way, so I loosened it and pushed the rear lift rod all the way back and it still jammed up.

 

[jd210la150]

I tinkered around with it a little bit more. Turns out the very end of the 5" bolt snapped off and was not allowing the pivot to come out all the way. I just removed the adjusting bolt and knob, and now I have the depth stop assembly removed as well, so there's no limit to how far the sleeve hitch can travel and it goes down all the way now.