GT-1848 story

[Stepney 2,314]

Hello, all. Been mentioning this '83 GT-1848 a few times in the last few days. Got her home yesterday morning. It's in remarkably good shape. I'd swear it was repainted if I didn't know better, but every graphic is perfect on it. Was a one owner, then the man's son got it. Came with a somewhat shabby, but complete 48"sd, along with a bunch of spare parts for another 42", all the original paperwork, and 3 new tires. The front wheels look wrong to me.. they have big spacers on them. The color reminds of an old Craftsman. Hydro drive seems to work well. Engine makes an awful banging noise when running at low speed. (And when turned by hand. I'll make a post for that later). But all in all it's in good nick. 
The entire reason it was being sold was the PTO was 'bad' and slipped. Apparently, a dealer quoted $600.00 to repair it. When I got there first thing I checked was the pad .. plenty of life. Adjustment was still at half way too. Spun the deck slow and it turned with no bad noises, so I left it at poor adjustment. 
So then I got it home.. Tried adjusting the lever some but no good. Popped the bell off, scorched but good enough to run .. then I left it for the time, and had went to pull the plugs due to a misfire .. and the engine came with the wrench. ALL THE  BOLTS WERE LOOSE. The engine could be moved about 2" every direction. Tightened it down, and everything works great
Funny enough, fender bolts were loose, brackets were loose.. everything was. No idea how it happened, or why. 

Picture was when it was 'dirty'. Already went over it with compound and some S.C. Johnson's, and it looks awesome. 

[peter lena 8,064]

looks like a solid unit, in addition to a  BASELINE TOTAL SERVICE , GO AFTER THE ENGINE COOLING INTAKE AREA, often plugged up with debris, leading to rear cylinder over heating . seafoam your fuel , change filter , greasing and oil changing everything. show that horse some love , looks like it will benefit from it , pete

[AMC RULES 36,945]

Nice  score.   

[Stepney 2,314]

27 minutes ago, peter lena said:

looks like a solid unit, in addition to a  BASELINE TOTAL SERVICE , GO AFTER THE ENGINE COOLING INTAKE AREA, often plugged up with debris, leading to rear cylinder over heating . seafoam your fuel , change filter , greasing and oil changing everything. show that horse some love , looks like it will benefit from it , pete

Already went about that. Shrouds were mostly clean, some chaff in the front cylinder. Nothing alarming. The hydro was another deal entirely.. between under the frame and the rear end I pulled a literal trash bag full of debris. I have a feeling the knock is a buildup of carbon in the head,.. hoping its not the cam key-way failing, or the valve seats.. it's a pretty loud bit of noise. Engine's coming out in a few weeks when I find the time. For now it's just parked in the shed. 

[peter lena 8,064]

i would bet the debris is from a r/d mower deck,if you are going to use one , you can bolt on a full width discharge rubber strip to deflect the grass to ground. hopefully that knock is carbon , in addition to fuel flow cleaning you can get ethanol additive that might help. good luck with that , pete 

[Stepney 2,314]

This has a 48"SD actually, 42" wont even fit on it. Wheels hit the back tires. The guy just never cleaned it. That and with a slight leak at the hydro valve .. just built up over the years. 

[Blackhood Bill 720]

@Stepney @Daddy Don is the one to ask about that machine. He has one completely redone. There is a photo here on the site and it looks super. Yours looks really nice. See attached picture. The 1848 looks just the same as 1800

Edited April 15, 2019 by Whnewone
Added photo

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,540]

Definitely a repaint....and I love that gray color that was used! Probably was taken apart for paint and then reassembled ( might explain all the loose bits) 

[WVHillbilly520H 10,369]

1 hour ago, Stepney said:

This has a 48"SD actually, 42" wont even fit on it. Wheels hit the back tires. The guy just never cleaned it. That and with a slight leak at the hydro valve .. just built up over the years. 

They are built like a 520H same 8.5" wide wheels (but a 42" RD will work "at least I have seen a couple pictures here on RS" just not a SD) and the Eaton 1100 transaxle, most people (including myself) usually spill oil when topping off or refilling from a change with the seat pan on you really can't see where all that oil and chaffe/dust ends up.

[Stepney 2,314]

14 hours ago, Sparky said:

Definitely a repaint....and I love that gray color that was used! Probably was taken apart for paint and then reassembled ( might explain all the loose bits) 

Man, perhaps he found all new decals at the time then, because there's no evidence of masking or overspray anywhere. If it was, this would have been done 15 years ago, as the son said he never touched it. Considering the rough state of the deck, I'm thinking it might have had a badly bent blade rattling the thing apart. He mentioned the pto just stopped working slowly .. obviously as the bolts loosened up. Regardless, for what I paid for it, I can sort it out with no issue. 

[c-series don 7,803]

That’s my Work Horse in the above picture, thanks for referencing it! I purchased it brand new in 1984. Used it for literally thousands of hours before restoring it last year. There was two paint colors for the Work Horse, light pewter gray and pewter gray matalic. I painted mine the light pewter gray. I believe yours was repainted. Some say that there was factory black Work Horses but I’ve yet to see documentation to prove that. I’d also say you’re correct that those are not the correct front wheels. The correct ones have a deeper dish and the valve stems on the inside. Hope this helps!