The past few weeks have been busy with the greens recovery. But while that is all going on, I have to remember to do any equipment maintenance that is needed, since we don't have a mechanic.
Backlapping Reels
At The Nursery we don't have a spin grinder or a bed knife grinder, just an old foley 388 relief grinder. This means we sharpen our reels in the winter, then backlap throughout the season to keep the reels in good shape. It would be nice to have a spin and bed knife grinder, but our budget does not allow that. On top of that, you need a person to grind the reels in the summer, as I would not have much time with our small crew. Backlapping works well in our situation.
- Set up the bed knife to reel contact to a light contact.
- Adjust the reels into the backlapping mode (usually under the seat)
- Turn the speed knob to the slowest setting. (usually under the seat)
- Engage reels and apply backlapping material with a paintbrush
- Backlap the reels for roughly 10 minutes
- Wash off the grit and check the quality of cut
- Set the height of cut.
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| Backlapping Fairway Mower |
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| Applying Backlap grit to the reels |
Changing Bearings in Rollers
Rollers are always turning at a rapid pace and they hold a lot of weight, whether it be on a greens mower to a sidewinder. All rollers are the same. Rollers have end caps, bearings, and seals. I like to keep bearings and seals on hand in the summer so that the down time of the machine is limited, if a bearing is to fail.
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| Remove end caps on rollers |
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| Remove the bearing and seal |
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| Remove the shaft |
Air Filters
Air filters should always be checked often. They filter the air before it enters the engine. You want to keep these clean so the engine does not starve for air. If the air filter looks pretty black and dirty, you can blow it out with some air, but sometimes that does not do the trick. I always keep air filters on hand for every machine. They work in dirty environments full of dirt, dust, and grass clippings.
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Air filter on the fairway mower after
a week of poplar fuzz |
New Engine
As mentioned in a previous post, we like to keep machines as long as possible, due to the prohibitive cost of new ones. This past week we had a Toro 3150 triplex bog down often while operating. I looked at the air filter and it was full of oil. I tried to keep the oil level at half and see if that helped, but it didn't. Sadly it was time for a new engine on this unit. A lot of courses would buy a new triplex before a new engine, but for us, this option was the way to go.
Installing the new engine was a great learning opportunity. It was all done in house with the GM and myself. We took 2 days to remove the old engine and to install the new one. We had to remove the hydraulic tank to loosen what was necessary under it.
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| Hydraulic Tank Removed |
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| Preparing to Remove the Old Engine |
More wear and tear...or is it?
We had an issue with a Toro Sidewinder spewing hydraulic fluid out of the muffler. This was confusing to me at first, but upon inspection, it showed that the hydraulic line was rubbing against the muffler. This created a hole in the muffler and then was shooting out the hydraulic fluid when it was running.
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| Hydraulic line rubbing against the muffler |
I called the local toro dealer and they came and took a look. This model is the 3500-D. The "D" stands for diesel. According to the Toro mechanic, the muffler that was on this machine was actually for the gas model of sidewinder. The gas model has a different routing of hydraulic lines. The local Toro dealer came in the next couple days with the proper parts and carried out the repair, as it was still under warranty.
