"ford" edition 1974 push mower.

[racsan]

no frills, no extras, hell-no throttle cable even. this was my grandma's way back in the day, been in the barn for over 17 years with a bent blade. my self-propelled snapper had been very low on compression and had carberator issues, i took off the carb from this one, put it on the snapper along with a new head gasket and its been back in service. i decided the old push mower wasnt in bad enough shape to warrant being discarded, cleaned the deck up, found a "j.c. penny" sticker on the back. fixed a few cracks on the deck where the engine mounts, reinforced underneath with some channel iron, gave the motor a magnatron coil to replace the points ignition and a new lower crank seal. then it was time for paint. being a farm kid, i just had to go with a tractor theme, not deere this time, been done, i went to the idea of the post-jubille ford. blue with white trim, why not, a ford push mower. i still need wheels and a different blade, the blade i put on took a adaptor which lowered the blade almost 3 inches, with the deck all the way up theres only 1" between the blade & the ground, and the blade is completely below the bottom of the deck, debris goes in all directions to say its unsafe is a understatement. ran it on pavement and it runs nice, will idle down and doesnt smoke, has a external breather which i routed to the discharge side of the deck. all in all ive put about as much in it as you could buy a new cheapie from wal-mart (125) but this is better, no plastic carb, no deck flexing, no damn "hold the bar or it stops". the snapper is down now, got a carb diaprahm but it just doesnt want to stay running. guess i'll deal with it next. took alot of sanding and looking with the right light to find the numbers on the motor shroud, but i found them, turns out the engine was built in '74. hard to say what color the deck was originally, i found black paint, green paint, red paint. dont really want to remove the label, kind of adds to the "vintage" of it. may take this and the 110 ive redone to a few ag shows. might put the F-O-R-D letters across the front of the deck, and a blue oval emblem for the recoil cover (or the thunderbolt with gear)

 

[Heavyfire14]

I like it. Very nice. Good job

 

[doorgunner]

Do the EMBLEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

worked for me!!!

 

[Black'03LevelII]

I would love to find an old mower like that! she's a beauty, good job!


p.s. I agree with DG do the emblems!

 

[ranger_mclaren]

Nice man that came out real good.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Nice job!

I'm more into playing with tractors though. I've got a couple newer Craftsmans now, but I'm looking for something older to fix up (like I need another project, lol). Haven't decided exactly what kind of older lawn tractor I'm looking for yet (Ford, Case/Ingersol, Cub Cadet, Sears Suburban), but the idea is out there.....

 

[straycat]

Haaaaa haaaaa!!! To each his own!!!!!! I prefer a modern mower. Push mowers are so out of date. I can paint my riding Toro that color and put emblems on it!!!! Mine is bigger and badder than yours......lol

 

[shane96ranger]

Very nice! That reminded me of my Grandpa's when I was a kid. It looked like this:

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

That is a nice job on the push mower, they are a very handy little thing to have for where a rider can't go. And while some yards are not big enough to justify a rider, other people like my uncle are so particular about their yard that they mow slowly with a smaller push mower to get a more even cut. With his 1970's Lawnboy his yard is so perfect it looks fake.

Haaaaa haaaaa!!! To each his own!!!!!! I prefer a modern mower. Push mowers are so out of date. I can paint my riding Toro that color and put emblems on it!!!! Mine is bigger and badder than yours......lol

A Toro?

That is still litte kid stuff... there is always a bigger fish

My big mower, going to be used to cut 4 acres of hay. I need to make a pulley for the PTO, otherwise it is ready to go. I have a 6' mower deck (more commonly refered to as a belly mower) I can put on it too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/85_Ranger/Allis-Chalmers C/082309011.jpg?t=1271391596

 

[jhammel85]

Theres a dude up the street from me selling a Ford riding lawn mower.......I've always loved those..

 

[racsan]

well, for my 1,000th post: one month after starting this project...and finished! couldnt find vynil stick-on letters that had any size to them, went with stenciling and spray paint, cleared over it once done, the "D" isnt quite perfect, but im going with it. the underneath pic shows my channel-iron deck bracing and how close to the edge the blade is. dont know who would have made this deck orininally, has a j.c. penny sticker, google search turned up nothing. probly just a basic, bare bones mass produced deck made by the lowest bidder. and this mower probly was only 40-50 bucks back in the day, compared to the 125 bare-bones weed-eater at wal-mart. i added it all up the other day, i have about 140 in this. has new lower crank seal, coil,8"ball-bearing wheels, blade, channel iron under the deck for reinforcement (when you tilt the mower back on the rear wheels to turn your not putting the strain of all the weight on the deck where the handle brackets attach) and of course paint. i did use truck bed liner spray under the deck for durability, then sprayed it green.

i flipped the front wheel brackets around to shorten the wheelbase, will be able to get closer. not much clearance between the front tires & deck, but enough. notice the external breather, exhausts with the deck discharge. has a mulching blade so the rubber strip across the discharge chute will help keep me from shooting pinecones through the trailer skirting. the ford emblem wouldnt fit in the center of the recoil, so i just superglued it to the front of the block, its held on for one mowing so far. really wish i could have found the old "thunderbolt-gear" emblem, but im sure there scarce and probly way to big.

 

[Flat Toy]

We use this at the shop for moving things around:

 

[racsan]

wow, thats really cool!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We use this at the shop for moving things around:

It is incredible all the things Ford used to build. Kinda crazy to see a little 3cyl in that thing. They were really proud of 3cyl diesels in their tractors too.

I wish they would make a counter commercial to Dodges Cummins old west shootout with stuff they used to make rather than all the stuff that companies plug in the same engine they buy.

Dumptrucks, semis, tractors, lawnmowers, combines, construction equipment... they used to make it all by themselves.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We use this at the shop for moving things around:

It is incredible all the things Ford used to build. Kinda crazy to see a little 3cyl in that thing. They were really proud of 3cyl diesels in their tractors too.

I wish they would make a counter commercial to Dodges Cummins old west shootout with stuff they used to make rather than all the stuff that companies plug in the same engine they buy.

Dumptrucks, semis, tractors, lawnmowers, combines, construction equipment... they used to make it all.