Scruit Posted May 6, 2012 Report Share Posted May 6, 2012 My neighbor just gave me his old lawn tractor. Cub Cadet 2000 (15 years old, 692 hours on the engine) He inherited it from the previous owner of his house.Couple years ago he put it away for the winter and it wouldn't start the next spring. He and his buddy tried to get it running and the best they could figure out was there was no spark.He bought himself a large commercial-grade ZTR mower and left this one in his barn. Yesterday he offered it to me for free if I wanted to try and fix it.Well, we rolled to over to my workshop this afternoon and it took me about 5 minutes to figure out that a mouse had built a nest inside the engine cowl and had eaten clean through the spark plug cable. The cable is molded into the ignition module so I had to order a new ignition module. No other wiring damage and everything else is fine so for $50 I'll have the tractor fixed and ready to use.Gonna run it for a few weeks while I rebuild the carb in my own lawn tractor, then I'll probably sell it. Even if I only get a couple hundred bucks for it it's all free money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrown57 Posted May 6, 2012 Report Share Posted May 6, 2012 Awesome! Don't forget to put a hidden camera on it just in case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohiomike Posted May 6, 2012 Report Share Posted May 6, 2012 Awesome! Don't forget to put a hidden camera on it just in case That there's funnyyy.....LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReconRat Posted May 6, 2012 Report Share Posted May 6, 2012 (Image of broken spark cable firing in a nice dry mouse nest...) WOOOF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted May 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2012 (Image of broken spark cable firing in a nice dry mouse nest...) WOOOFSeriously. Luckily the exposed center conductor was far enough from a metal ground that there was no sparking. After pulling the tinder-dry nest material out the pile was as big as a football. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted May 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 HAH! The guy told me that the PTO switch (for turning the blades on) didn't work - in fact the old homeowner had rewired it to the headlights so the blades are always on.I buzzed out the circuit, tested the switch, relay and finally figured out that one of the safety cutouts was stopping the switch from working. So rather than figuring out why the safety cutout was tripped the previous owner rewired around it.Turns out that the safety cutout that was tripped is a momentary switch held in place by a metal arm that was bent (paint cracked at the bend) . Bent it back into the right place, wired the PTO clutch up correctly and tested it again - works fine with the PTO switch now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaDoc Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 your neighbor is gonna be so pissed when he sees you use it the very next day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrown57 Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 It's amazing what you find when you actually put some time in effort in something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted May 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 (edited) Seriously. $50 and 2 hours later and I'm gonna be cutting my grass with it.Also, he showed me his new commercial-grade ZTR mower that cost something like 8k. Then I showed him my Swisher trail mower that cost me $700 and my MTD lawn tractor that cost the same. The swisher has a 48" swath and the MTD is 42". The swisher is towed on an offset tow bar to give me a single wide swath of 86" (2" overlap) He commented that he's seen how wide the cut swath it and then I told him I can cut 2 acres in 45 mins - half the time it takes him on his $8k mower.So he threw away a good mower for the sake of a $50 part, and bought an 8k commercial mower for 2 acres that cuts slower than my $1400 setup. I was thinking of keeping the cub cadet and just using it as a tractor (towing the trailer/driveway groomer/plow/lawn sweeper. Heck, my son is 8 now, old enough to drive a lawn tractor with a sweeper attached. I wouldn't have him mow, but running a sweeper is perfectly safe. He can follow me around as I cut the grass and he can sweep for me. Edited May 7, 2012 by Scruit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2talltim Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 This is kinda how i got my rider. It was only 2 years old (21hp 46" cut)and the guy broke the front axle on it running it down a steep hill and hit a hole. He said a new one from mtd was $400 so he welded it up so it would work, he knew it would not hold long. While i was looking at it i found a axle on ebay on my phone for $40 so i offer him $200 for it(he wanted $350) and he acepted. With that repair and few others over the years ive put maybe $100 into it and still going strong after 9 years. A new one just like it at TSC was $1900 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrown57 Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 My friend just got a bobcat ZTR mower for I think 3k and it came with a box of parts to where he can rebuild the entire motor and deck, bought it from a friend that bought it from the city (not sure which one) in an auction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted May 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Got the ignition module and plugged it in. Fired right up... Sweet!All put back together. I could easily get 300 on craigslist for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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