Posted by WellWorn on October 15, 2016 at 10:23:18 from (75.193.146.63):
I'm sure I'm far from alone, but let me tell it as a cautionary tale.
I bought a Super A about 10 years ago as a favor to an elder relative who was holding it as collateral for a loan that went bad, without even hearing it run. He had loaned more than it was worth, and I willingly paid more than it was worth, but still less than the loan. It had issues from the get-go, and I took care of most of them as best I could when discovered. The tranny was always noisy, and when asking the 'old timers', everyone said it was typical for these straight cut gears, even though I've used other equally old equipment that was significantly quieter. Later I learned that worn input shaft bearings can make things noisy, so I pulled the cover and found the top shaft bearings still pretty tight. I made sure it had adequate gear oil, ran it like that for the past 6 years and the noise never seemed to get any worse, so it was probably still "OK", right?
A couple weeks ago, a young fellow who helps out on our farm on occasion was asking about gear transmissions, and it doesn't get much simpler than the SA, so I pulled the cover to show him how it worked and inadvertently dropped a cover bolt in the box. After he left, I got out the magnet and fished out the bolt; decided to check top shaft bearings again and finding them still pretty good, then took a prybar to the lower shaft and my heart sank... It freely moved up about an eighth inch. That means the pinion hasn't been properly meshed to the ring for who knows how long, even though I don't see obvious metal in the oil, nor have I found bearing bits in the case. For all I know, a previous owner got the pieces out and just added oil. Ugh!
I had hoped to take care of some of the other minor fixes this most useful little tractor needed, but I'm afraid this is a last straw, as I can probably get a working replacement for far less than I'd have in parts and even the low value of my labor to piece this together, IF I had a good place to do so. If paying work holds out, the odds are good I can get it's replacement and check it out throughly (and fix anything needed) by spring, and this one will become parts for the few "good" parts left on it.
It's also a couple hard lessons for someone (me) that tends to trust too much:
If you expect anything better than scrap at anything less than a screaming deal, ALWAYS try it before you buy it.
AND
If something doesn't sound "right" to you, regardless of what anyone says, get to the bottom of it before it becomes yours, or too much to fix.
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