A bloke dropped this Deutscher off a couple of days ago wanting me to have a look at it. It obviously hasn't been used for a lot of years, the gearshift was all rusted solid but with a bit of struggling and an angle grinder and a bit of redesign of the mechanism it all works as it should. Now to see if the motor will run, looks like it has done a lot of work and was a replacement motor at some stage as it is a Chinese OHV motor. My question is does anybody know what model Deutscher it is As it looks about 22 inch I'm guessing it would be a model F because I believe the Model G is a 26 inch cut. Anybody have any thoughts?
Thanks Max That looks like it and somebody in the last 50 years has put the zero turn front on it. Gearbox is selecting forward and neutral fine now so it should work fine even if I have to put a new motor on it. Looks like to replace the drive belt you have to take the left wheel off so you can remove the pulley ,put the belt on the pulley and then refit the pulley because there is only a couple of mm between the edge of the pulley and the axle As long as the gearbox holds up this machine could go on for another 100 years with just some general maintenance
This Deutscher had had E10 fuel in it, so tank is rusted and carby stuffed. Luckily I have another tank here and put a new carby on it and it fired up. Bit of tweeking on the governor and it settled down. . Great stuff this E10, I don't know how the world survived without it
The saga with this one rolls on like most things I get stuck with do. So I put oil in the gearbox because there was nothing in it. Then it started to drip oil from one of the axel tube oil seals. Got the wheel off on the side which was leaking so I decided I should change the seal on the other side. No way can I get that wheel to even think like moving and I had the 10 ton puller on it. Any other suggestions?
If it's a two piece rim Norm, I would remove the outer half if it comes away ,once the tyres off I would usually give the alloy hub at the back a few hits with a brass drift and hammer to try and shock it loose ,you could turn the mower on it's side and put the half wheel in a bucket of white vinegar for a couple weeks or put the wheel on it;'s side in a big bucket with a little vinegar at the bottom of the bucket so it works on that side of the wheel and put a drip feed on the other side of the wheel.
If you get the wheel apart you could try some heat ,I've seen a lot of broken alloy wheels when they get stuck on a shafts probably best to soak the rust off ,but I can't see if it's rusted on or on a keyed morse taper.
When they are stuck tight if you can support the back of the alloy wheel then hit the axle through the centre they can come loose but you would need the driveline out of the mower.
Yes Max, I have got the wheels off before when I have had the box out and been able to drift it out, always a challenge. This one is straight shaft with a grub screw locating it the later ones are straight shaft with keyway. Somebody in it previous life had the wheel of and belted the crap out of it trying to get it back on. It doesn't appear to be hugely rusted but it obviously is rusted tight Yes splitting the rim and heating it looks about the only option left Thanks Danny, I may need to call on you
Ok well most of another day trying to get this wheel of and no sign of movement yet, tried the heat didn't help, not sure how hot I got it, propane is not that effective
Mate came down this morning and we finally got it off, a lot of heating, bashing and pulling, it was on super tight. Now I can replace the seals both sides and this machine can get back to work
Another interesting thing I found on this machine is the axel oil seals. I don't know how many they fitted but looking at the sleve the bearing and seals are fitted in they may haver used several seals. I remover the outer seal and there is another behind it. I'm just going to replace the outer seal, if it leaks in the future somebody else can replace them. Other thing is I have had to order them from China because my local bearing place does not list a seal even close to it I also have another Deutscher here that is in a bit of a state as it was being used as a garden ornament, I guess because nobody had a clue how to fix it. I might get to it one day just for kicks and giggles as I have a new Honda horizontal shaft I could use on it. I believe this one to be a 360154 model number, obviously one of the early Deutscher slashers
