Hi Dynamike, That 500 hours figure is conservative. I got the mower from some guy on Ebay [big lesson itself in that, buyer beware if you can't touch it and check it out yourself before bidding]. It was well used -- in fact it was pretty well run down -- when I got it. Motor was blowing smoke like a steam boat, steering was loose as a goose, spindles were shot, and blades were duller than my Aunt Irene's family photo album. So I spent the next few weeks going over it, refurbing and fixing at least the major problems. That's when I put the Sendec tach/hour meter on it, so that 500 hours is what I've put on it since then. I have a couple of acres I mow with it, plus there for a while I was using it to maintain a 25 acre ranch in Hayes County in TX. That ranch was pretty much a full time job in itself. Very demanding terrain, just about everything you could imagine. Plus it was way, way overgrown when I took the job, so there was a lot of severe bush hogging type work, slogging through field grass as high as the hood. And then there were wide open spaces like the baseball field they had out there, where I could drop the deck low and make it so beautiful... sigh. You know what, that property and if I may boast a little, some of my mowing is actually visible from space, on Google Maps... what a rush. Anyway that just to illustrate the kind of relationship I've had with this machine... sounds wierd I know, but that's me. That ranch terrain was so demanding... you could draw an imaginary line on the mower at about the chassis level, and pretty much every part on the mower from the chassis down was basically expendable. Blades. Spindles. Decks. Belts. Axles. Tires. You get the picture. These were the parts I wound up collecting as spares wherever I could find them. I put inner tubes and tractor tire Slime in all the tires. That *almost* eliminated flats, except for when something would reach up and gouge a chunk out of a sidewall. Eventually for time demands of my real job and family, had to let the ranch job go, and I only mow my own place now. But I should have been doing what you did and pull the wheels off periodically to grease the axles. I was a victim of my own tires, in that I hadn't had a flat in so long that when I replaced the transaxle, I couldn't get one of the wheels off the axle. It's still stuck on there! I used one of my spare wheels to get going again, but I need to find a machine shop somewhere I guess, that can maybe press that old axle shaft off my good wheel. You asked about what lube to use in the transaxle. I hadn't forgotten your question, just got rambling (old man thing you know). "The Book" says it's permanently lubed, which is of course only valid so long as you don't have to open it up for repair. When I rebuilt this transaxle that I transplanted into the tractor, I packed it fairly full of hi-temp wheel bearing grease. Then I poured in about a half cup of 90W Hypoid oil. This made a fairly cohesive mass of lubricant that both surrounds the large gears for their teeth, and yet flows into the bushing surfaces to lube them. I was able to test the tranny on the work bench by hooking up an electric drill to the input shaft and running the unit through it's functions, to check for smooth shifting and any possible binding. In the 50 or so hours of run time since this repair, I've not seen any oil seeping out from the bushings, so looks like the sealing is ok... good to go. Now if I can just restrain myself from excess speed over bumpy terrain, hopefully this tranny will go another 500 hours :). Hey sorry for the long post. I find this an enjoyable subject, fun sharing with others with similar interests.

Massey Ferguson Lawn & Garden is a brand offered by Simplicity Manufacturing, Inc. Since its beginning in 1922, Simplicity has been an industry leader committed to designing, manufacturing, and marketing premium lawn and garden equipment. In addition to Massey Ferguson Lawn & Garden, Simplicity sells products under the brand names Simplicity, AGCO Lawn & Garden, Snapper, Snapper Pro, Ferris, and Giant-Vac. Manufactured for both residential and commercial use, Simplicity products are sold worldwide by more than 9,000 dealers and distributors. Simplicity Manufacturing is part of the Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group, L.L.C I copied the above from Agco's website.

Rusty is right. JD dumped many small dealers and now you have to drive for parts. They don't follow the successful Walmart program of many little profits making a huge profit. Bad move in my mind. As a part time job, I service, on average, one machine every day of the year. 90% are Sears, or MTD. I really have to do almost no repair on the bodies, mostly routine stuff on the engines. I always loved my Wheelhorse 312A, non-Toro, but when I bought a used JD316, I have to honestly say that JD has it all over my Wheelhorse. Neither one has nickeled and dimed me, but my Eaton hydro pump did fail on the Horse after about 1000 hours. That set me back $800 for the part.

When you find the brake assembly, mounted on the right front side of the transmission, First try some applications of a product known as PB Blaster, a penetrating oil of great reknown. If that fails, then you'll have to take the brake parts off, and clean them very good. Then, with a light coating of oil on the moving parts, reassemble the brake assembly. If the little rectangular brake pad is worn out, they are available at some of the tractor/lawn mower dealers that sell parts, etc. If you can't easily buy a new pad, you can cut a small shim from sheet tin, and use it as a backing plate behind the brake shoe. A bit of advice: If yer memory isn't as good as it was when ya went to school, make a little sketch of how all of those infernal parts are s'posed to be reassembled! Careful that the little brake pins don't fall out into the grass, or roll away when dismantling it, or reassembling it.