Contents

Sidebar: Maintaining your tractor

The Small Tractor FAQ
Big Wheels

Tractor Maintenance

[Copyright 1988 by Ronald Florence]

When your car needs an oil change, you can drive down to the nearest service station, let them throw it up on the lift, and go home in half an hour. With a tractor, unless you live next door to a tractor dealer or mechanic, service is not so simple. The alternative is to do the routine maintenance yourself.

The most important service for any machine is regular oil and oil-filter changes. If you use a big enough pan to collect the used oil, and then find facilities for storage or disposal, the hardest part of the job is done. (Used motor oil is terrific to paint equipment like a sicklebar mower before winter storage; or mix a few gallons with sand in a five gallon pail and use it to wipe off shovels, forks and hoes.) You will probably need an oil filter wrench, which you can buy in any auto parts store. Be sure to use the grade of oil recommended by the manufacturer of the tractor: diesel engines, with their high compression, put incredible demands on lube oil. And order your spare oil filters well in advance; auto parts stores or even tractor supply stores may not stock what you need.

The other important routine maintenance is regular changes of the transmission and hydraulic fluid, and cleaning of the filter screen or replacement of the filter elements. Try to keep the hydraulic system as clean as possible, by wiping off the filler cap and filler tube before you unscrew the cap, using lint-free rags. It takes only a speck of dirt to wreck the seals on a hydraulic cylinder or a hydrostatic transmission.

Diesel engines are generally reliable, if you give them plenty of clean air and clean fuel. The dusty conditions of summer mowing or field work can wreak havoc with air filters, which should be cleaned or replaced at least as often as recommended in the maintenance manual. Clean fuel means buying good diesel fuel (they aren't all the same), storing it in a clean container and wiping off the fuel filler cap and tube before pouring in more fuel, keeping the fuel filter clean, and either shifting grades of diesel fuel or adding diesel fuel conditioner in cold weather. Regular Number 2 diesel fuel begins to gel and separate off waxes at temperatures below freezing, often leaving an engine that will start but not run. It will probably happen the morning that you have a half-mile of drive to plow, so prepare by fueling up with Number 1 diesel fuel, or by having a bottle of diesel fuel conditioner ready.

Gasoline engines aren't quite as fussy about fuel and air, but the ignition system has to be maintained, which means regular spark plug changes, and whatever routine servicing the alternator or magneto and points, distributor, or electronic ignition requires. If you are patient, you can adjust the carburator yourself, although many of the larger garden tractor engines are considerably more sophisticated and demanding than the familiar Briggs and Stratton powerplants on small rotary mowers.

The other routine service that any tractor needs is frequent, regular attention with a grease gun. Some of the lubrication intervals listed in the owner's manuals may seem overly fussy, but remember that the grease you squeeze into a zerk fitting is not only providing lubrication, but keeping moisture and dirt out. It only takes a drop of moisture to start rust, or a speck of dirt to score a bearing. Regular application of the grease gun is cheap insurance.

With a good half-inch drive and a set of socket wrenches (metric for a utility tractor or an imported garden tractor), you can probably disassemble, tighten, or adjust almost any part of the tractor. A torque wrench is a good idea if you don't have a feel for how tight a nut ought to be (as tight as you can get it is not a good idea; an overtightened nut stretches the bolt permanently). For larger implements and utility tractors, a three-quarter inch drive set is useful, and a length of pipe to fit over the ratchet or t-bar wrenches will loosen frozen nuts. A length of pipe will easily generate 400-500 foot pounds of torque, so it should be used with care in tightening nuts.

Given regular servicing and grease, clean fuel and oil, and attention to loose nuts, rust, rattles, leaks, and the other signs that something is awry, diesel tractors are reliable and relatively trouble-free. Even gasoline tractors can go a long time without attention by a mechanic. But sooner or later, even if you are handy with tools, you will need outside help, whether for a routine five-hundred hour service that requires adjustment of diesel injectors, an annual or bi-annual tune-up of a gasoline engine, or welding of a broken hitch.

It isn't hard to find qualified mechanics. Garden tractors can often be repaired by the ubiquitous mower and chain saw shops that specialize in small gasoline engines. A utility tractor will usually require a mechanic who is experienced with small diesel engines and hydraulic systems.

The real problem is getting the tractor to the mechanic. For more than short distances on local roads, over-the-road transport of a tractor is dangerous, and (unless the tractor is registered) illegal. You can drive a garden tractor up into a pickup bed with a ramp or a pair of two by eights, or you can rent or borrow a trailor For larger utility tractors, you will need a tilt-bed truck or an equipment trailor and a class two or stronger hitch on your pulling vehicle.