Moto-Mower Restoration

Well,

I am ready to admit that I have started the restoration of my Moto-Mower this week. Didn't want to say anything until I was certain my purchase of the missing piece was finalized. The part I was missing was a working Moto transaxle, which after a huge investment, I now have one coming on Wednesday. It is safe to say my Moto-Mower has about 4 donors: 3 different Moto-Mowers and 1 Springfield (only pair of 6-12 lug tires I have LOL).

I had a complicated front hubs setup going on because I didn't have what I needed, and on a research visit to Tractor Supply I noticed that the 4.80/4.00-8 wheelbarrow wheel tire combos with tubes and 3/4" bearings that I had been scouting for almost 2 years finally went on sale again. They are normally $20 each, but they were on sale at $10 each. They just happen to fit the Moto spindles and I decided I wanted to stock up enough for my next project so I left the store with 4 of them, might go back and get 2 more tomorrow though, thought of another project LOL. I know they aren't the greatest tires in the world but I see it 2 ways: 1) what in world could I possibly do to those tires, and 2) everyone else can either like them or love them. I don't have any other rims that fit the spindles, but I do think those wheel tire combos will look real sharp on this tractor, especially with 6-12s out back.

Sunday, I spent the day tearing what was left of the better chassis down to just the steering gear and tierod (I took off the front axle to check the pin). Yesterday I went on paint and supplies roundup, purchasing the Duplicolor 500 degree series primer and paint, it has ceramics, and good colors, went with orange. I spent time today cleaning up the entire frame and getting it in primer, looks awesome just in primer, can't wait to see the finish coat on it, that's tomorrow I hope. I haven't taken any pics of the progress today, but might later on. I have to go to ebay and buy my Moto-Mower hood decals now, the guy finally relisted them. I may post pics here later though.

We want pics!

Buzz, Glad to hear things are coming together! Is trouble in the transaxle a common problem with these machines? The reason I'm askin' is I've seen several posts on this site about transaxle problems. The Massey Executive in my avatar has the right axle splines stripped clean. Just wondering if that is thier weak spot or if it was a fluke. Everything else in the rearend looks to be in great shape. I find it a little strange that the 7 horse Kohler and 6X12 turf tires had enough umph to shuck my axle splines.

Well you know what I have to say!!! [img][/img]

Gtractor wrote:

Buzz, Glad to hear things are coming together! Is trouble in the transaxle a common problem with these machines? The reason I'm askin' is I've seen several posts on this site about transaxle problems. The Massey Executive in my avatar has the right axle splines stripped clean. Just wondering if that is thier weak spot or if it was a fluke. Everything else in the rearend looks to be in great shape. I find it a little strange that the 7 horse Kohler and 6X12 turf tires had enough umph to shuck my axle splines.

There has been mechanical issues with the Porter-Cable /Moto-Mower / Massey Executive transaxles, but I have yet to hear of it being the same problem. Evan's reverse went out (I think a snap ring failure), mine is wedged into 2 gears, and 'lawnmaster' needs shift forks, add to that you needing a new axle shaft. I don't think it's anything more than a bunch of flukes, there are many more Moto-Mowers on www.motomow.com that seem to still be just fine.

I am going to part out my transaxle and get Evan's working again first so I can trade him transaxles giving me a second one. Then I will probably sell the shift fork assembly to lawnmaster for small fee, mostly shipping and a few bucks profit. If you need an axle shaft I could probably spare one for you. All this parting out should be taking place in next month or two though.

Thanx Buzz, I'll let you know if I need the axle for sure. My brother is supposed to be making me a new one since he has access to a full machine shop at his job. I'm glad to know not every one has the same problem [weak spot] with thier transaxles. Who knows what these little tractors have pulled or how they were treated over the last 40 years.

Gtractor wrote:

Thanx Buzz, I'll let you know if I need the axle for sure. My brother is supposed to be making me a new one since he has access to a full machine shop at his job. I'm glad to know not every one has the same problem [weak spot] with thier transaxles. Who knows what these little tractors have pulled or how they were treated over the last 40 years.

That's cool about your brother machining you up parts as you need them. I can tell you why reverse went out on Evan's Moto-Mower. The PO was pulling out some bushes, that's why I believe the problem in his is a snap ring, which Moto-Mowers are full of. Did I mention I hate snap rings? Give me a cotterpin to fight with any day, at least you can get those off with no special tools.

Well, progress for today, I got the frame painted up orange, and believe me, this thing will be sweet, I took pics of it and will post them here after bit. I will warn you, wear sunglasses to view the frame pics.

Also, my new Motomower transaxle arrived today, and was packaged exceptionally well. I openned it and took pics along the way. It has a really cool parking brake setup which works very well, not sure how many Motomowers had that setup, but very cool. I also tested all the gears and after realizing I wasn't in the shift forks when I shifted to reverse, all was fine.

Anyway, out to flip the frame and paint the underside, I know I did it backwards as you all would, but I was tired of flipping the frame over a million times.

Alright, time for the pics to start rolling in. I will start with the balancing act of parts and pieces. The front wheels/tires/hubs in the pic will be substituted for the $10 dollar each TSC wheelbarrow wheel/tire assemblies.



Here is the frame all primed.



Then we come to the part you want sunglasses for.



Now that those progress pics are out of the way we can get to deliveries.



This was a great packing job, the box alone was double corrugated wall, the package weighed 90 pounds with the 80 pound transaxle in it.



The box had foam at the bottom.



And here is the working transaxle out of the box. Check out that ingenious parking brake system, still works great.

Thats better looking good!!!! Why are you changing the front wheels??

tracktor312 wrote:

Thats better looking good!!!! Why are you changing the front wheels??

Well, I don't have original Motomower front wheels and the ones on it in the pic are boat trailer tires and wheels on motomower rear hubs. I was going the put bushings in the hubs but for $10 each I bought some tire wheels assemblies with bearings and tubes that will fit and look good. I know it isn't 100% original, but this Motomower started it's life as three.

Well thats lookin' pretty decent. Transaxle looks good too! Hopefully it works as good as it looks. FYI, all tractors that used the seperate clutch/brake pedals like both of yours used that style of parking brake with the lever on the back. The tractors like mine that have the clutch/brake combo used a small rod next to the pedal that you can use to lock the pedal down after it is depressed. The brake pawl is interchangeable on both tractors though, as the lever is a seperate piece. I don't know where the brake band setup came from on the one transaxle I gave you...not sure if someone adapted it for that or what. And I'm not entirely sure how the tractors with the seperate brake pedal have linkages to make the brake work. So where is your other foot rest/ clutch pedal? Looks like you didn't get a big enough drop cloth down on the floor...you'll have to refinish your hard wood floors!

Gtractor wrote:

Buzz, Glad to hear things are coming together! Is trouble in the transaxle a common problem with these machines? The reason I'm askin' is I've seen several posts on this site about transaxle problems. The Massey Executive in my avatar has the right axle splines stripped clean. Just wondering if that is thier weak spot or if it was a fluke. Everything else in the rearend looks to be in great shape. I find it a little strange that the 7 horse Kohler and 6X12 turf tires had enough umph to shuck my axle splines.

I don't know if these transaxles were prone to failure or not, but it sure seems that way since several of us on the forum have had trouble with theirs. As Casey mentioned my original one had a busted reverse, which I think is due to the PO, who is my neighbor, attempting to pull shrubs out with it. One of the extra transaxles I bought has the shift forks seized solid, and for all I know, it may be stuck in two gears. But that one is Casey's problem now LOL! The replacement transaxle I put in my one Moto-Mower now works good once I put the old shift lever back in it, and replaced the one axle shaft due to the original having a hair line crack. It has a bit of bearing wear on the axle shaft, but it still works good. My other Moto-Mower has a good working tranny, it just has a broken off bolt where the axle shaft bolts to the tranny, still gotta fix that. Sometime you'll have to get us more pics of that MF Executive...they sure are a rare tractor!

Evan(PA) wrote:

Well thats lookin' pretty decent. Transaxle looks good too! Hopefully it works as good as it looks. FYI, all tractors that used the seperate clutch/brake pedals like both of yours used that style of parking brake with the lever on the back. The tractors like mine that have the clutch/brake combo used a small rod next to the pedal that you can use to lock the pedal down after it is depressed. The brake pawl is interchangeable on both tractors though, as the lever is a seperate piece. I don't know where the brake band setup came from on the one transaxle I gave you...not sure if someone adapted it for that or what. And I'm not entirely sure how the tractors with the seperate brake pedal have linkages to make the brake work. So where is your other foot rest/ clutch pedal? Looks like you didn't get a big enough drop cloth down on the floor...you'll have to refinish your hard wood floors!

Well, the one im restoring has single clutch/brake pedal, which I took off for the restoration cause it was sticking. Then as for drop cloth, I don't need one, the paint dries before it hits the floor, so it will just sweep up, wonderful paint. Could say way more s you know, but lazy tonight.

Dad always gets mad at me wit over spray so i try hidin it wit primer or silver

Not a huge progress report today, but enough. Takled the front axle, had a zerk missing and a not smooth moving spindle as a result. So apart it came, and it required a drive in style zerk. So here are the pics of the zerk installation and cleaning up of the front axle.

First a picture of the zerk and the weird looking threaded deal I found to drive it in with.



Here is a good shot of the end I stuck over the zerk when driving it in.



Now on with the driving part. I installed it before paint because I didn't want to scratch the paint later. It was so easy I wish I had waited to install it so I could avoid all the tape.



You can see the original color (green) of the chassis on the axle, it had some left on the frame but I forgot to take a pic of that before primer. Looks to be an early chassis like KW's Motomower though, but I am restoring it with later sheet metal, so orange it will be.





Here is the finally installed zerk before the primer and final color go on.



I will post the pics of the front axle primed and painted here in a few minutes, tired of compressing the pics I took. Can't say I didn't give you something to look at currently.

Cool....but I'm ready for more pics now!!!!

On to the primer, which I decided to hang the axle from my light fixture with wire I had, sure made it an easy one shot painting deal. You may have to look close to see the wire but here's a pic.



The primer.



And on with the orange, which will contrast nicely with white. KW has always said orange and white was the best color scheme.



For those curious about what kind and color of paint I am using it is the 500 degree series of ceramic heat paint by Duplicolor, which at a little over 5 bucks a can should be great stuff, and has proven to be such. The color I am using is DE1620 Chevrolet Orange, most consider is a close match to Power Red. I decided since i had a lot of orange tractors to standardize the color.

I like the Chevy Orange lol we have a rack that we hang stuff from

Nice...You know I was thinkin'....that would have looked good in yellow too. You could've made a Massey Exec clone. I do like the orange though...especially Chevy orange. What do you think would happen if you decided to paint your Toyota in Chevy orange???? I will say one thing though....at least Chevy's gas pedals aren't sticking!!!

Have you done anything with the gas tank I gave you with the one parts tractor yet? Just curious on how bad it was inside.

Evan(PA) wrote:

Have you done anything with the gas tank I gave you with the one parts tractor yet? Just curious on how bad it was inside.

I dumped the liquid outta the tank, and thats about it, I have to clean out the goopy stuff, which I rather not think about right now. That will be miserable...

Evan(PA) wrote:

Nice...You know I was thinkin'....that would have looked good in yellow too. You could've made a Massey Exec clone. I do like the orange though...especially Chevy orange. What do you think would happen if you decided to paint your Toyota in Chevy orange???? I will say one thing though....at least Chevy's gas pedals aren't sticking!!!

I didn't consider the massey clone... man, now I'm discouraged... ah well, I finally will have my Motomower!!!

As for sticky pedals, It doesn't affect me, so why do I care? It's all the new Lexus engines isn't it? Lexus has a good V8, just wish it wasn't a stupid timing belt, but a chain...

wvbuzzmaster wrote:

Evan(PA) wrote:

Have you done anything with the gas tank I gave you with the one parts tractor yet? Just curious on how bad it was inside.

I dumped the liquid outta the tank, and thats about it, I have to clean out the goopy stuff, which I rather not think about right now. That will be miserable...

I dunno how bad that one is, but with my tank which had 13 yr old gas in it (probably 1/4 tank) I dumped the gas out and burned it. Then took some beebee's and lacquer thinner and shook the thing to death. I ended up repeating the process with some acetone too, and it did a decent job of getting the crap out. Had to pull the shutoff out and clean the screen as it was plugged solid though.

on the paint you are using my question is at 5.00 a can is that a spray bomb? But for what I have saw so for it looks good