[Uncle Jaque]

This is a continuation of my "LA-105" thread, since we decided to buy a new D-100 at Lowe's.

Yeah; I know; I wanted to buy from the Dealer, but his best offer was $1599 + tax, come and get it; he couldn't be bothered to deliver such a low end tractor. Oh; and don't expect pick up and delivery for service either.

The Dealer (closest one) is about 21 miles away through the outskirts of a city, and my dump trailer has no suspension of springs whatsoever. It sits up on Army surplus tank flatbed wheels and I have to ramp equipment up to it using a pair of water bed sideboards.
440 pounds? EEeeehhhhh?????:help:

Other Dealers weren't much better; one had a price of $1499 but would charge about $75 to deliver it after ordering it out, as he does not stock these itty bitty little toy tractors. A couple of weeks... maybe.

Finally I broke down and called Lowe's, as a Legion buddy is buying his 106 from them. Hated to do it, but....

After buying my D-100, a seat cover and a service kit, and paying for delivery, the total tab (with my Veteran's discount) came to around $1538 - less than what the Dealers want for the bare bones tractor sitting on the lot.

As to the rumor that JD makes an inferior version to sell at the box stores, from what I gather it would not make economic sense to do that on the lower end models, as there is not enough margin to begin with, so the tractors are identical to what the Dealer sells. Apparently it might be a different story with the more expensive models.

Lowe's called this afternoon and my LGP-P will be home some time between 09 & 1300 hours tomorrow.
Will post pics and evaluation reports as I get them.

Can you get a bush hog for a D-100? By the looks of our lawn I might need one!

 

[Mark / Ohio]

....Can you get a bush hog for a D-100? By the looks of our lawn I might need one!

Maybe you could hook an old horse drawn sickle bar up to it.

I wish mine were growing like that. I broke down the last couple of days and put some water on the worst spots just trying to keep the roots alive on my bluegrass. Even the weeds in it are starting to brown. It's the driest June by my records since 2005. I think that was about the last time I actually spent some dollars to water it.

(City water with the usage linked to the sewer fee. )

 

[Uncle Jaque]

The RAIN in MAINE...

I'm not sure how well horse - drawn accessories would work behind this LGPP; it's more of a runt burro - maybe a pony at best.

Sorry to hear about your drought - we've had one 3-day storm after another up here in Maine, with some flooding in the low lying areas.

Have you seen what's going on in Florida... while the midwest is burning up? Yikes!

I rigged up a rain barrel on the corner of our porch & garage to water the garden and the compost barrel with if they get dry... or just for the heck of it.

.....

.....

We have a well and usually no shortage of good water, but I'm a bit of a prepper and if we lose electricity the well don't pump.

I took an old Indian pump nozzle and rigged up a washing machine hose to it so I can stand on the porch and water the garden from the rain barrel. If your city allows rain barrels it might help with your irrigation during dry spells... and the rain was still free last time I checked.

Have heard that some control freak bureaucrats are trying to outlaw them in some places.
You might have to bury your barrel and overflow pipe to hide it and water the lawn at night so "Big Brother" doesn't catch you being too independent.

 

[Uncle Jaque]

Lgpp arrives!!!

It's home!

About 1000 hrs. this morning, the Lowe's delivery truck backed into our driveway:

When they opened the door, there way up in the front corner sat my forlorn looking little tractor!

When they pushed it out onto the tailgate, the front wheels barely fit onto the ramps being narrower than their typical load.

....

And there at last stood our LGPP under the watchful eye of "Domestic Management".

.

The fuel tank being empty I had to pour a gallon into it to see if it worked. After cranking for about 10 seconds it finally clattered into life with a puff of gray smoke.

Off to the races!!!

Of course I had to check it out and see if it worked.
The rain had let up, but the overgrown lawn was still wet.
After a couple or turns around the driveway, I headed for the grass anyway.
Aww, heck; why not drop the deck down to 3", kick in the PTO and see what happens?

Despite the grass being wet, it cut pretty well so I just went for it.

...

Some of this lawn was well on it's way to becoming a hay field. There were a few sumac trees starting to sprout in a couple of places - but the LGPP EATS that hay, without complaining or slowing down, smiling all the while!

...

Mowing the lawn with a push-whacker was never this much fun!

Unfortunately my haying was cut short when the rain came back down, so it was back to the garage to tinker.

The clutch was engaging up near the top of the pedal travel and the tractor was starting to "lurch" a little while rolling along if first, suggesting that my clutch belt is slipping, probably stretching out as a new belt might be expected to do.

According to the manual, there is nothing that us morons can do for a transmission and to "see the Dealer" to have it serviced.

Come on now!; How big a deal can it be to tighten up the belt on a gear shift?

Any suggestions, :help: or should I just dive in there and puzzle it out?

Oh, by the way; no one ever told me that this thing is all METRIC.

I found that out when I went to drop the deck bogey wheels. It takes a 15mm wrench, by the way (both nut and axle bolt):

...

Also the seat cover has a way of getting tangled up in the seat adjustment mechanism:

...

What's this brown stuff spattered around inside the engine compartment? It wasn't there when they delivered the tractor, but it was shortly after I started it.

...

For now my LGPP rests in the garage waiting for the rain to let up:

 

[bwdbrn1]

arty

Domestic management appears to take her role pretty seriously, while you, on the other hand, seem to be grinning like a kid in a candy store.

Looks like a pretty nice machine you got yourself. I would imagine you'll be heading back out as soon as the rain lets up, so keep us posted on how you like it. Maybe a full review sort of thing.

So far as that brown stuff, might be something from being new, like the puff of smoke when you started it up

 

[Uncle Jaque]

Slipping Away....

Oh yeah; at least one of us has to take life a little bit seriously, and it sure the blazes ain't me! :ROFL

I guess that rusty brown stuff might be it blowing off some sizing starch or some such. What; me worry?

The slipping belt concerns me a little though. I poked around in there and can find the belt that goes around the uppermost pully on the vertical drive shaft, and it is really sloppy loose.
I cannot, however, find any place where it might be adjusted - although there is a lot of it which I can't see or get to.

Hate to have to call them back and have them come and pick it back up before I even get the lawn mowed once - it will probably be at the dealer's at least a couple of weeks before I see it again.
I don't blame the tractor; the dealer should have set it up to allow for the belt to stretch and he obviously didn't.
I wonder what else he took a short cut on?

There is a steel pin about 5/8" dia. and about 3" long that hangs down next to the steering wheel shaft under the dashboard with a transverse hole through the lower end like it is supposed to have a cotter pin through it - but it does not. It just sort of slops up and down in there. What is that for - I can't figure it out.

I'm still hoping that some one can jump in here and give me a clue as to how to tighten up that drive belt. :help:

 

[bwdbrn1]

Maybe they can tell you here.

https://groundscare.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/ask

 

[Uncle Jaque]

Useless

Thanks, but even after registering I find that they will not address "technical questions" beyond what is covered in the owners manual. I read the owners manual and it tells me I'm too stupid to fix it, call the dealer... Who will probably tell me to call Lowe's ... who already told me to call the dealer, after telling me that they would take care of any problems we had when they delivered the unit.

No; I really didn't believe them.

Great - I just paid $1560 something to mow my lawn once.

NOw i have to borrow a trailer, truck it back to a dealer who will make me PAY for not buying it from him by charging me $300 to fix a problem they created when they "built" the tractor at Lowe's. What a racket!

I've got the arse end of the tractor jacked up so I can get under it, and I don't see any way to adjust the belt tension. I guess it's a secret. Does anyone in here know the secret? If you don't work for JD any more, can you share it with an increasingly disillusioned customer?

 

[bwdbrn1]

See anything under there that looks like this set up?

http://www.ereplacementparts.com/images/johndeere/D100_WW_20.gif

And this?

http://www.ereplacementparts.com/images/johndeere/D100_WW_22.gif

Looks to me like there really isn't anyway to add tension to the drive belt. It seems to rely on that long spring, #10, in the first diagram. Check the routing of the belt and that the rod marked #4 is in the slot on the clutch/brake lever, #2 in the second diagram, where it's supposed to be.

Does the brake pedal have to be depressed and locked when this thing is parked?

 

[Uncle Jaque]

BTW, here's what happens when you mow right after it rains for 3 days:

...

I scraped it off with a plastic windshield scraper and shoveled it up. Quite a pile it made, too.

Here's what I found underneath the tractor after taking the deck off:

Looking back at the tranny:

The pulley - idler assembly:

Now I don't see anything there that looks like it can be adjusted to take up slack on the belt, do you?

The Service guy I talked to at a dealership didn't think it is adjustable at all. Seems weird to me.
He said he'd check into getting it picked up and fixed on warranty. Never heard back from him.

I'll be holding my breath after 0800 hrs. in the morning waiting for him to call back and schedule a pick up....

....Naaaah; I won't, really. :dunno:

 

[bwdbrn1]

Well, that looks to me like it's in "neutral". Surely it gets tighter than that!

 

[Brad]

Nice write up on your new machine! Thanks for taking the time and sharing with us your experiences.

I am going to guess that the brown splatters you see might just be nothing more than "mud". After the machine was built, delivered, assembled, etc, some time may pass. Dust probably settles both from transportation and from assembly. You mentioned that it was wet when you mowed so you probably were creating some significant air turbulences inside the engine compartment and that may have been enough to pull the moisture out of the air and mix it up with some of that dust. I don't think you have anything to worry about there.

As far as the belt goes, might there be an adjustment on the pedal rather than on the belt itself? Maybe the pedal needs loosened just a bit?

 

[Uncle Jaque]

Lesson Learned.

SOoooooo.... Nothing but crickets.

If that's the case, then I'm all done here. I've called Lowes and JD all the way up to Cooperate HQ, and my only option is to haul it back to Lowe's for an exchange or refund within 30 days or haul it 20 miles to the nearest dealer - the one I didn't buy it from in the first place - to get it fixed (since i didn't get the extended warranty No one is picking up or delivering - Lowe's lied) and PAY for it since manual transmissions or belts are NOT covered under the "limited warranty", even if the bloody thing only lasted 0.8 hours!

After this experience I think LGPP is going back to Lowe's Monday. I got the wrong machine at the wrong store, got diddled out of $65 for delivery and won't be repeating that mistake any time soon.

If I can't mow my lawn with a push mower I'll hire it out or go to Sears and buy a Craftsman. Then at least I wont be surprised if it konks out in a year or two.
At least I ought to get more than one hour out of it!

I'll be deleting all JD photos from photobucket soon so if anyone wants to copy any have at it .... PDQ.

 

[Uncle Jaque]

Nice write up on your new machine! Thanks for taking the time and sharing with us your experiences.

As far as the belt goes, might there be an adjustment on the pedal rather than on the belt itself? Maybe the pedal needs loosened just a bit?

Thanx - I didnt notice that we'd gone to pg 2 before my last post, so it wasnt all crickets after all.

The dealer as expected never called back - now both Lowes and JD have lied to me and that does not make me a loyal customer.

i called the svc manager this morning and she wasn't much help. I get the impression that there is a bit of a 9!$$ing contest going on between Lowes and that dealership right now which doesn't help anything.

Since the OBVIOUSLY DEFECTIVE belt isn't covered I was going to take it to a local lawn mower fit-it guy but that would void my warranty and with my luck the engine will blow up all over my lawn within a week, assuming that he could fix the clutch.
Being non ajustable is a very poor design feature - I am NOT impressed.

oTHER wise i liked this little tractor and was kind of bonding with it.
It just got here... Now I'm sending it away forever.

J. DEERE, you let me down.

They probably wouldn't give me my money back if I took it out and shot it to put it out of it's misery, would they?

Bummed.

 

[oefveteran]

Jaque,

I've pulled some strings and I've got a friend with a trailer who Monday or Tuesday will bring your piece of **** back to Lowes so you can exchange it. I covinced you to buy this tractor and I am NOT going to let them **** you. Tell them to get another D100 prepped and tell them you're going to inspect it before you pick it up. You're a friend, a Legionaire, and a fellow veteran- you deserve better than this.

-Ryan

 

[bwdbrn1]

O.K., I'm curious as to what position the clutch/brake pedal was in for those pictures you took under the tractor showing the belt. Is it in the "in gear" position, or "the brake is applied" position? There is no way that tractor would have moved at all with that much slack in the belt. Looking at the return spring, it looks like there is a lot of tension on it as well.

 

[Uncle Jaque]

Thanks, But..

Thanks Ryan, but our Son in Law is on the way with his pickup to take it back to Lowe's for a refund - as much of one as I can get out of them anyway.

I'm all done dealing with Lowe's, and I'm all done dealing with JD.

I'll see what Paul Fox has in the yard for reconditioned klunkers.
At least I ought to get more than an hour out of one of them, and he's right in town to fix stuff.

 

[xcopterdoc]

Just for future reference. There isnt an adjustment on the traction drive belt. The belt tension has no bearing on what gear you are in. The belt tension is regulated by the pedal. Push pedal IN, belt releases. Let pedal OUT, belt engages. Simple.
Likely the lurching you experienced was caused by a wet belt. And/or wet grass thrown up into the traction drive belt.
As far as warranty.. Warranty doesnt cover pick up and delivery or service calls. Thats up to the servicing dealer. Belts are generally not covered, UNLESS another part fails and damages the belt.
The pics were likely taken with the parking brake set. Either that or the belt jumped off at the transmission. That would also cause a lurch or more than likely a no drive and the smell of burning belt.

 

[Uncle Jaque]

It was wet, but does that explain why the clutch wasn't engaging until the pedal was almost all the way up?

Also had it in a dry garage for 4 days and it was still doing it.
Something was whacked with this tractor, and no one seemed interested in doing much of anything about it for me so I opted for the "return if defective" choice and bailed out on it while I could.

Now I'm looking into a rebuilt klunker that will probably mow my lawn more than once before going belly up on me. A local guy has a 1995 Simplicity Regent hydro with a blown engine in it that's in decent shape otherwise that he will put a KOHLER 16 hp single into out of a SCOTT tractor that has a blown transaxle (and isn't worth putting a new one in) into. That and fixing it up as needed with parts cannibalized out of his extensive collection (junk yard) will cost an estimated $750.

Either that or he has an 18 HP Murray with a 46" deck that he'll sell me (after replacing the rear end) for $550.

After seeing what kind of junk I can get for the price of a new tractor, let's see what kind of junk I can get for the price of a junk tractor?

Apparently unless I have about $7000 to invest, junk is what I'm going to get so I might as well get used to it.

 

[oldyellr]

I've read this thread and the previous LA-105 thread. Why would you even need a 42" tractor-style mower to mow the grass on a 1/5 acre lot, or do you also drive a SUV? I have a 1/2 acre lot and get it done with an old JD 34" Model 68 in under an hour. Sadly, JD doesn't make these small RERs anymore, but there's still other brands wit 30" or 28" decks out there for around $1000 or less if you want to buy new.

As to why the drive belt would slip on the D100, was the belt routed correctly?