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I bought my first Horse, how do I feed and care for her?....
scubaduderon posted a topic in Wheel Horse Tractors
I've been reading countless posts here and elsewhere on the care of the 417-A. I'm concentrating at this point on oils and hydrostatic oil and filter and I'm just all turned around. Mostly the turned around part is because a mechanic I work with insists that if I change the hydrostatic fluid it will never work the same. He means in a bad way. I have some experience with this phenomenon as well and wonder what you guys think? I once had a Honda CRX that used 30W oil in the manual transmission. I had it changed out at Jiffy Lube at around 60,000 miles, and within 1000 miles the trans went. Bad throwout bearings and some other internal damage. I did some research and talked to some trans guys and they all said the new oil "shocked" the system. They claimed that the old oil had varnished up a bit in places and when the new oil hit it, it dissolved and changed clearances and such, just enough to cause trans failure. My new to me Wheel Horse 417-A seems pristine and the hour meter reads 595 hours. It has no visible oil leaks anywhere, runs like a top and doesn't smoke or show any signs of failure I can see. The fellow I got it from had just bought it and decided he wanted to stick to collecting Sears Surburban Tractors. He claimed the fellow that sold the WH to him was meticulous with upkeep and only used the tractor during the winter to push snow with a blade. Other than that I know nothing about how often the fluids were changed or what was used. Interestingly enough, this tractor has a missing right headlight bezel and I found a post I think on here that talks about a missing right headlight bezel. I wonder if this is the same 417-A? Anyway, I plan to use her for mowing in the warm months and pushing snow during the winter. I live in north central Illinois, where the temp gets down so sub zero temps during the winter and 90's during the summer. I was wondering what you guys do? What would you change the engine oil to? Straight 30W? Rotella Diesel Synthetic 10W30? Any other thoughts? Would you change the trans oil and if so with what? Should a phased approach be used, where I slowly change over the fluid over a season? Should I use Rotella HD? What do you do? Also the lights don't work. It seems that the wires are broken off on the bulb side, so I'll be hunting for bulbs. It sure would be great to find that bezel too. I can get a new pair for $40. Is that what you would do? Are there any resources for parts that I should know about? Thanks again, and sorry if these questions are asked over and over. It's been a long time since I've had to care for a garden tractor, and have never owned a hydrostatic drive ever. Ron
