Dang I wish I would have seen this post when you first posted! Here's mine!





According to the numbers it was built in November of '89. It would have just turned 32 when you first posted and is almost exactly 1 year older than I am. I couldn't even tell you what # owner I am. I got it from my Dad but he was not the original owner of it. He only used it a few times and decided he liked his personal pace toro over the 5 speed tranny this has. So I loaded it up and took it back to college with me to cut grass at my rental house.

After a few uses the BBC quit working and I almost trashed it! I about fell over when they told me what it would cost to fix. I hated to do it because the Kawasaki engine ran like butter so I ultimately decided to hold on to it. Not even a week later I just to happened to come across an old, abused, beat up 14SC AND a JX85 for free! The guy even threw in a bag, side discharge, and mulching plug. I figured out the SC used a blade adapter and not a BBC so I tore my old BBC off and put the blade adapter on and was back in business. Unfortunately, the 2 commercial mowers were beyond saving so they are just parts mowers now days. The jx85 deck was absolute toast so its long gone. I have put a combination of commercial upgrades from the 2 mowers onto my good 14SB so it looks quite a bit different than when it had the old flimsy chrome handles. I would be tickled if I could find an actual decent set of metal wheels to use but they are impossible to find anymore.

Just this week I decided that this mower deserved to have a little restoration done to it. I currently have it stripped down and ready for a fresh coat of silver jubilee paint and to have the handlebars powder coated. I also ordered new cables, wheels, decals, and a few other odds and ends to hopefully give this mower another 30+ years of service. I will definitely post more pics here when its all finished. I'm glad to see someone else on this forum has love for these old mowers like I do.

 

I've got the 21" Kubota on order. I believe it's similar mower?

Cast aluminum deck, solid aluminum wheels with ball bearings, 3 speed gear box, and Kawi engine.

 

I saw you post that mower the other day. That Kubota looks exactly like what these mowers should have evolved into had deere kept producing them . Your new mower will be a beast. That FJ180v has tons of power

 

I saw you post that mower the other day. That Kubota looks exactly like what these mowers should have evolved into had deere kept producing them . Your new mower will be a beast. That FJ180v has tons of power

Thanks. That's what I'm hoping.

I'm a Honda guy but after excessive amounts of OCD research, it seems the Honda commercial mowers are not what they used to be.

Dealer is telling me about 3 weeks or so. I'm going to do a review of it when I get it.

 

I saw you post that mower the other day. That Kubota looks exactly like what these mowers should have evolved into had deere kept producing them . Your new mower will be a beast. That FJ180v has tons of power

Thanks for keeping the faith in these old mowers!

Deere did actually offer that mower @DFW_Zoysia mentions. That mower was released as the Deere WE80/WE85 a few years back. Unfortunately, I don't consider it a successor to the 14SB or JX75, only because it's not a Deere design. I have not gotten the opportunity to run one so I have no opinion on how it performs vs the 14 series. That mower has worn a few other other colors, and I think @Ware had mentioned it recently as well in another thread.

 

I saw you post that mower the other day. That Kubota looks exactly like what these mowers should have evolved into had deere kept producing them . Your new mower will be a beast. That FJ180v has tons of power

Thanks for keeping the faith in these old mowers!

Deere did actually offer that mower @DFW_Zoysia mentions. That mower was released as the Deere WE80/WE85 a few years back. Unfortunately, I don't consider it a successor to the 14SB or JX75, only because it's not a Deere design. I have not gotten the opportunity to run one so I have no opinion on how it performs vs the 14 series. That mower has worn a few other other colors, and I think @Ware had mentioned it recently as well in another thread.

Here is the post about those Eastman/Ingersoll commercial push mowers that have been rebranded a handful times.

 

I'll hopefully have my Kubota in a couple of weeks. I'll be sure to post a review on it for the forum and let DFW people know who I bought it from and how it went. Happy to share my contacts info so anyone interested can reach out to him assuming the purchase/delivery goes well.

 

I'll hopefully have my Kubota in a couple of weeks. I'll be sure to post a review on it for the forum and let DFW people know who I bought it from and how it went. Happy to share my contacts info so anyone interested can reach out to him assuming the purchase/delivery goes well.

Didn't you just buy a new Honda? You may go through equipment faster than me. :lol:

 

I'll hopefully have my Kubota in a couple of weeks. I'll be sure to post a review on it for the forum and let DFW people know who I bought it from and how it went. Happy to share my contacts info so anyone interested can reach out to him assuming the purchase/delivery goes well.

Didn't you just buy a new Honda? You may go through equipment faster than me. :lol:

Sssssshhhhhh.....my wife may hear you!

Yes. But as I tell my wife I NEED both of them.

I really wanted the Honda Commercial to get me to the .75" cut and a more stout build quality but I don't think the Honda Commercials are as good as they used to be, so I want to try the Kubota.

Also, from what I'm hearing from different sources, mowers and gear is going to be much harder to come by this summer than last summer and prices are going to skyrocket. I would imagine come May or June I'd have no problem selling the units I decide not to keep and get back pretty much what I paid for them. Especially as with my size yard they'll probably have a total of 30 minutes use on them.

One contract was telling me the orders he placed in October to receive now won't arrive until September of this year. My other contract was telling me the equipment packages they were selling in October have now seen a 50% price increase in the last 5 months. They don't expect the lawn equipment availability to stabilize until Q1 of 2023.

 

I feel somewhat bad, I have a ja65 and a jx75 sitting in the shed but use my time master 99% of the time. Love those mowers though.

 

I feel somewhat bad, I have a ja65 and a jx75 sitting in the shed but use my time master 99% of the time. Love those mowers though.

Nothing wrong with them being semi-retired. I'd love to find a cherry 14SB/SE or JX75 again. But with the cost and availability of spares for these 20+ year old units, I might think twice about running it as my "daily".

 

My 14SB only sees my front yard. My back yard is not manicured like my front so I use my 33in cub cadet walk behind back there. The 33in swath sure does save time so I don't fault anyone for using a bigger deck.

So when I tore my mower down last Friday, I found a good size crack in the back




I was pretty bummed. Every single one of these silver decks I have rehabbed has cracked in this same spot. I thought mine was good but it was just covered with dirt and I didn't notice it. I took it somewhere to see about getting it welded but the guy didn't want to touch it. What I will end up doing is just getting some aluminum welding rods and try to fill the crack myself. It probably won't be pretty but this part is covered with the plastic cover so it won't be seen. Thankfully the crack is only on top and doesn't continue down and there is no flex in it. What I think happens is the transmission pulley hits it over and over again when you release the bail if you don't keep the drive cable tight enough. I could be wrong but the crack lines up exactly with the transmission pulley.

I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a show piece and it never will be. I don't want to sink a ton of money into fixing it either even tho I love tinkering with it. It has a job to do every week and as long as I own it, that will be my expectation of it.

 

@SEKBrian By "aluminum welding rod", are you going to try an weld it via an electric arc welding process? TIG or Stick? The reason your guy probably didn't want to touch it is that aluminum castings can be a bear to weld on sometimes. Especially if they have been soaked in oil all their life, which shouldn't be the case here. I might be tempted to try TIG welding that but there are other options if it doesn't want to play nice.

There are products out there that apply like solder/brazing, and are usually marketed as "welding rod". Kinda hoping that's what you picked up. Alumiweld, Durafix, etc. Prep/cleanliness is key and yes, they work well. I have used Durafix in the past.

 

Yes just the "brazing" rods as you mentioned. Only harbor freights finest materials go on my lawn mower lol. I've actually seen good reviews on them so we will see! Any tips? Was gonna degrease and try to sand in the crack so expose new aluminum. Anything else I should be doing?

 

Yes just the "brazing" rods as you mentioned. Only harbor freights finest materials go on my lawn mower lol. I've actually seen good reviews on them so we will see! Any tips? Was gonna degrease and try to sand in the crack so expose new aluminum. Anything else I should be doing?

Wire brush on a drill to clean the surface and get mean with it. There are special wheels for grinders and aluminum, would be useful to grind out the crack some or you could use a carbide burr. I like single-cut burrs on aluminum.

The rod will not "flow" into the crack most likely so I'd grind on it to expose fresh material and back fill with the rod. Very important to heat the work and not the rod. You're working with a sizable hunk of aluminum and getting just the cracked section up to 750 deg F is going to be a challenge. The rest of the mower will act as a heat sink and rapidly pull heat away from the area you are heating. I'd def want Oxy-Fuel vs a straight propane or even MAPP torch. If you aren't able to get the rod melting because the mower cools too quick, try heating the area from the backside while holding rod against the area you want to repair. Be careful not to turn the area into a puddle!

 

Well I finally got the mower put back together and got the restoration completed!

















The welding rods worked fantastically to fix that crack. Like @MasterMech mentioned previously, they did not flow into the crack. I tried a couple different times to get it to flow but it just wouldn't work. What I ended up doing was filling the crack from the bottom side with the rods, then just using a little JB weld on the top to seal out water and dirt. It is covered by the transmission cover so you won't see it. It worked really well and I am satisfied with it.

Now for some of the details on the restore: I purchased all new cables, new deck decals, new JD Silver Jubilee spray paint, new paint for the handlebars, a couple other small items that needed replaced like fuel and oil filters, gas lines, etc. Not sure how much I have into it exactly but it's probably more than I should have spent. The decals weren't cheap and neither were the cables.

As I tore the mower down, whatever part I took off the 14SB deck, I would immediately reinstall on the old 14SC mower deck I had laying around. It was a lot of extra work but I never forgot where a piece went, or how to install a certain part, or lost any bolts. It also took the pressure off me because I still had a functioning mower in the end and didn't have to rush anything. Switching everything back over to the 14SB was a breeze since I already had practice and it went very quickly.

As I have mentioned before, it really looks nothing like when I got it. It has the upgraded handlebars from the 14SC, which were much sturdier than the chrome ones it came with. It has the screw on oil filter, the black height adjuster guard plates, zone start, and the blade adapter instead of the BBC. The original transmission cover was also grey instead of black but my grey one is all dingy and ugly.

When it comes down to it, this mower more resembles the 14SC than the SB but there are a few differences. This obviously has yellow wheels. It still have the 14SB rear flap. This engine doesn't have an engine brake like the 14SC's does, which I prefer.

This was a fun project overall. I'm by no means a professional but I thought it turned out pretty well!

 

Well I finally got the mower put back together and got the restoration completed!

















The welding rods worked fantastically to fix that crack. Like @MasterMech mentioned previously, they did not flow into the crack. I tried a couple different times to get it to flow but it just wouldn't work. What I ended up doing was filling the crack from the bottom side with the rods, then just using a little JB weld on the top to seal out water and dirt. It is covered by the transmission cover so you won't see it. It worked really well and I am satisfied with it.

Now for some of the details on the restore: I purchased all new cables, new deck decals, new JD Silver Jubilee spray paint, new paint for the handlebars, a couple other small items that needed replaced like fuel and oil filters, gas lines, etc. Not sure how much I have into it exactly but it's probably more than I should have spent. The decals weren't cheap and neither were the cables.

As I tore the mower down, whatever part I took off the 14SB deck, I would immediately reinstall on the old 14SC mower deck I had laying around. It was a lot of extra work but I never forgot where a piece went, or how to install a certain part, or lost any bolts. It also took the pressure off me because I still had a functioning mower in the end and didn't have to rush anything. Switching everything back over to the 14SB was a breeze since I already had practice and it went very quickly.

As I have mentioned before, it really looks nothing like when I got it. It has the upgraded handlebars from the 14SC, which were much sturdier than the chrome ones it came with. It has the screw on oil filter, the black height adjuster guard plates, zone start, and the blade adapter instead of the BBC. The original transmission cover was also grey instead of black but my grey one is all dingy and ugly.

When it comes down to it, this mower more resembles the 14SC than the SB but there are a few differences. This obviously has yellow wheels. It still have the 14SB rear flap. This engine doesn't have an engine brake like the 14SC's does, which I prefer.

This was a fun project overall. I'm by no means a professional but I thought it turned out pretty well!

That's a nice restoration job! I mess around with old garden tractors myself. I have no experience with these mowers but I'm curious about the "step here" sticker. In what case would you need to step on the deck?

 

This is an older thread I know, but that resto is so worth the bump. Fantastic job @SEKBrian !👏

 

I have a 12PB and a 12SB, with the 2-cycle Briggs and Stratton engine made by Komatsu. They are great mowers. Please excuse the grass growing in the red lava rock beds, yeah it is an eighties house.

 

I have a 12PB and a 12SB, with the 2-cycle Briggs and Stratton engine made by Komatsu. They are great mowers. Please excuse the grass growing in the red lava rock beds, yeah it is an eighties house.

View attachment 2606 View attachment 2608

I don't know if I've ever seen the Komatsu 2-smoke in the wild. That's awesome! Especially on a silver-decked 12 series. The 12's are very rare compared to the vastly more popular 14 series. Love the drag slicks on the rears too.

Why Deere ever stopped building mowers on these decks, I'll never know for sure. With modern engines, I think these would compete very favorably with today's offerings.

 

I’ve read that the Kawasaki-powered silver deck mowers have great suction and can drop to 1/2” HOC which sounds ideal for me to use for scalping, aerator core cleanup, leaves, etc. I mow with my Greensmaster so it would only serve occasionally as the backup/utility machine.

What do you guys think? Good plan or should I be looking for something else?

 

Keep in mind that the newest of these machines (JX75) is pushing 20 years old these days.

Great suction and quality of cut on all of these 14-series mowers for sure. I'd sure hate to beat one up though using it on aeration cores, unless it's just the thatch portion. 1/2" scalping would be tough on it too if you have sand on the lawn. I wouldn't want to run all that dirt/sand through a BBC equipped model, which the vast majority of the Kawasaki powered machines are. The Briggs powered units are just as good from a cut-quality perspective, a LOT cheaper on the secondary market too. But you're still going to be running a cast-aluminum deck machine that's 18-30 years old in rough conditions. Seems kinda like using a classic car to do pizza delivery. I don't know about dropping to 1/2", and I don't have mine anymore to check.

If you are looking to get rid of cores whole, I think I would try a power sweep attachment for any of the major trimmer brands. Or order an all-plastic snow shovel off Amazon. I personally like to pulverize them with my verticutter and them just let the mower pick up the thatchy portion naturally. With a reel, I mow too low to scalp with a rotary at all.

 

@MasterMech thanks for the detailed response. I guess I’ll just keep beating up the Honda for now.

 

@fortyeightjake @MasterMech It’s still so awesome to see this thread getting looks. I love it.

This mower definitely qualifies as a frankendeer haha. Like I mentioned before, I essentially was able to take the things I liked about both models and put them on this mower.

Someone who knows every detail about these would be able to spot the things that are “wrong” with it. This really does look more like the old 14SC I used as the parts mower. I still have the 14SC labeled rear flap, but it’s not in nearly as good of shape as the 14SB flap that’s on it. It also didn’t feel right putting the 14SC flap on there since this mower doesn’t have the metal wheels the commercial mowers came with. I still have them, but they are so chewed up, they are unusable. I would absolutely love to throw a set on this thing and make it a true commercial mower but you just can’t find them anymore. Another thing I would love put on my mower would be the deck guards that go around the bottom lip of the deck. I was under the impression that all the commercial mowers came with them but that old 14SC didn’t even have the holes tapped to put them on, so I know it never had them. You can google a picture to see what I am referring to.

There is a ton of good info about these mowers on MyTractor forum if you guys ever decide to pick one up. More specifically there’s a guy on there who goes by SilverDeck that has immense knowledge about these lawn mowers. Like seriously it’s a little crazy the stuff he knows and the info he has access to about these mowers. He will also answer your emails immediately even if he hasn’t been active for a year or more. It’s really something!

As a side note, If anyone who stumbles across this thread happens to have a set of decent JX85 OR 14SC metal wheels PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I will gladly buy them! Even if it’s 20 years from now, message me!

 

@fortyeightjake @MasterMech It’s still so awesome to see this thread getting looks. I love it.

This mower definitely qualifies as a frankendeer haha. Like I mentioned before, I essentially was able to take the things I liked about both models and put them on this mower.

Someone who knows every detail about these would be able to spot the things that are “wrong” with it. This really does look more like the old 14SC I used as the parts mower. I still have the 14SC labeled rear flap, but it’s not in nearly as good of shape as the 14SB flap that’s on it. It also didn’t feel right putting the 14SC flap on there since this mower doesn’t have the metal wheels the commercial mowers came with. I still have them, but they are so chewed up, they are unusable. I would absolutely love to throw a set on this thing and make it a true commercial mower but you just can’t find them anymore. Another thing I would love put on my mower would be the deck guards that go around the bottom lip of the deck. I was under the impression that all the commercial mowers came with them but that old 14SC didn’t even have the holes tapped to put them on, so I know it never had them. You can google a picture to see what I am referring to.

There is a ton of good info about these mowers on MyTractor forum if you guys ever decide to pick one up. More specifically there’s a guy on there who goes by SilverDeck that has immense knowledge about these lawn mowers. Like seriously it’s a little crazy the stuff he knows and the info he has access to about these mowers. He will also answer your emails immediately even if he hasn’t been active for a year or more. It’s really something!

As a side note, If anyone who stumbles across this thread happens to have a set of decent JX85 OR 14SC metal wheels PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I will gladly buy them! Even if it’s 20 years from now, message me!

Not a damn thing "wrong" with that mower, lol. The semi-conversion to a 14SC is exactly what I would have done given the same opportunities.

The best would be if someone had a machine shop and the ability to reproduce those wheels. Anybody who owned a mower in this series would be a likely customer.

I fell in love (sounds so ridiculous) with these mowers when I was a tech at a JD dealership. Customers that brought one in for service probably thought we were a bit nuts, but they were almost treated like someone bringing their classic Ferrari in for service. We knew a bunch of methods and interchangeable parts to keep these things running for decades. The emphasis for these was avoiding a new mower, because we knew there was nothing that really would perform the same for a price anybody was willing to pay in the early 2000's.

 

@MasterMech I immediately knew there was something different about this mower as soon as I fired it up the first time. Just felt different. Hard to explain.

I keep thinking I might run across a company that could retread them for me or something. I feel like that would be so specialized that I never would find it but who knows.

Another interesting thing about those commercial wheels is that they have metal drive gears inside instead of plastic gears the yellow ones have . I thought maybe I could swap those into the plastic yellow wheels and increase the longevity of the gears and be one step closer to a full commercial unit, but it turns out 1. The bolt pattern to screw them on is slightly different and 2. The transaxle for the SC is shorter to accommodate the bigger metal spur gear. The commercial gears look like they have built in spacers in them. Again hard to explain without seeing a side by side picture. With the built in spacer and shorter transaxle the commercial mower and homeowner mower still have the same wheel width so nothing looks any different between them.

Those wheels are the only things that are not a direct swap on the mowers. From a money making standpoint this was smart because people couldn’t just go out and buy the cheaper homeowner mowers and swap in the nice wheels and be on their way. If you wanted the fancy wheels, you had to buy the commercial mower. Pretty interesting over all.

 

I wonder if there's a difference in the transaxles for the SC and SX besides the length of the axles.

Hmmm.

Would ya look at that, two part numbers for the 5 spd transaxle output shaft (axle). M96530 for the 14SC/SX, and M802579 for the 12SB, 14SB, and 14SE. There are two part numbers for the different transmission assembly but just a quick scan seems to indicate only the axle shaft is different.

John Deere Parts Catalog

 

I was wondering if anyone knows where to be able to find a replacement transmission for the 14sc that has the steel wheels on it. Most of the ones I find are for 14sb which I believe have shorter shafts in them. Is the only difference the shaft length for the AM 125473 tuff torq 5 speed

 

@jonnypopper2 it seems backwards but the 14SC has a shorter axle than the 14SB. Your best bet would be trying to find one off eBay. The JX85 also had the same transmission I believe so you may be able to find one of those. I do have a 14SC transmission but I’m hanging on to it in case I ever come across a set of steel wheels.

 

Yeah, I have been looking on there for them. Alot of them say they compatible for 14sb, 14sc, jx75 and jx85. I knew there was a difference between 14sc and 14sb because of the steel wheels. I have a couple of 14sb's and thinking about buying more of them to have. The 14sc I have only has good spinning on one wheel and when pulling backwards the wheel locks up and doesn't spin freely. Everything works good until put the wheels on it and try it in the grass

 

@jonnypopper2 are you sure you have the pinion gears on the axle correctly? That’s usually the culprit when only one wheel works like it should. I have also ran into problems when the half moon key in the axle was not properly lubricated and couldn’t lock into place in the pinion gears as well.

When the mower is off and you push the mower forward without pulling on the self propelled bail, do both wheels make a clicking sound?