New Trucut winter-ish project

Doing some tear down work last night. Removed the engine, clutch assembly, chains, height adjustment bar, grass deflector and the reel.







The bearing holder in the last picture can be a pest. It has to be removed to get the reel out of the frame. Has a grease zerk that needs to be removed first before you can attempt to remove the bearing holder itself. Had to heat things with a torch to get it off but was able to remove it without to much difficulty.

All that is left to remove is the rear axle, bed knife and handle bar assembly. Roll pin in the axle is being stubborn but hope to have that apart this weekend.

Completed the disassembly this weekend. That rear axle ended up being a problem. Was not able to remove one of the roll pins and had to end up drilling it out. Once that done was I began trying to remove the rear axle.



Took a good amount of heating before I was able to get that axle to budge. It did end up freeing up enough to get the non drive side hub off. There was a good amount of surface corrosion that had it stuck in place. This is where my lack of patience got me. Once the non drive side was removed I continued trying to force the axle out through the drive side. Hindsight now tells me I should have started on the other side and drove it back through the other direction. I didn't do that however and I ended up getting the axle stuck again, at this point I ended up dragging out the sawzall and cut through it. But it's all apart now and outside of an axle I think all I'll need to replace are the bearings and maybe the bedknife.



Also this weekend I began work on the engine. Its a Honda GX160, aftermarket parts are abundant and cheap for this engine.



I don't know much about small engines so its hard for me to say the overall condition of this one. I do think the crankcase and piston are in good condition though. Plating on the crankcase sleeve looks to be in good shape, didn't get a picture of it.





The head had what looked like a fair amount of carbon build up on it, but cleaned up decently.



The exhaust valve also had a good amount of build up.



Contemplating whether to try to clean these items up or just replace them. A new head assembly can be had for $35 off ebay. At the moment I'm still thinking I'll just try to get them cleaned up. Ordered a gasket kit and a ring kit, will also probably replace the crank bearings since I have it apart.

All in all a productive weekend. Major lesson learned is be patient and think things through. Had I done so I'd have saved myself having to buy a $50 axle.

I took the reel into my local power equipment shop just to have them look at it before I end up putting everything back together. Didn't want to go through all the trouble if there was anything that would prevent them from sharpening the reel. What I was told is that it is just worn out and they might be able to sharpen it one more time but they couldn't promise me anything. So its looking like its going to have to be replaced at a cost of about $400. I still would have likely tried to purchase the mower knowing it needed replacing, but would have offered less than I gave. Oh well, lesson learned. Still will have way less invested compared to a new unit.

I ended up doing a little engine work last night. Carb has been disassembled and cleaned, ready to put back together once my oring kit shows up. Also cleaned off the build up off the valves and lapped them.



Besides expensive lawn mowers I also have an obsession for expensive RC cars. I have to tell my wife its better than being hooked on cocaine.