Well, if he maintained the Murray as good as you say, it should be o.k. for you! I have a Murray here that came as a gift, from a man who knew NOTHING about maintenance, or repairs! I reassembled the tractor, and it is in my summer mowing fleet, as we speak--er--write!
Nothing wrong with a well kept "freebie"!

Thanks Rusty14.

He is one of my best friends and we used to share an apartment before he got married and moved out to the "sticks" about 40 miles from here.

Of course, back on January 26th of this year on his birthday, I gave him a stainless steel, 3" barrel, 5-shot, Taurus .38 special.

I needed an excuse to buy the a stainless steel, 3" barrel, 5-shot, Taurus .357 magnum. Considering the criminal crazies and the overzealous entrapment oriented politically motivated peace officers out there, I felt it was better and safer to give the revolver to someone who has a clean background and will appreciate the gift.

Went to the Briggs & Stratton site today to try and find some Murray parts.

According to B&S, the date of manufacture code of 1244 on the soon to be my Murray, indicates that my friends unit was manufactured on the 244th day of 1991.

I consider that good news since the subsequent Murray fiascoes and quality control problems occurred primarily after that date.

If any of you know the approximate years the most numerous complaints about Murray occurred, please chime in.

Thanks!

Fairyprincess

I have parts books for many early murray products drop me an email for more info,
regards
rod s
rodswinamer@ns.sympatico.ca

Is that the one with the gear shift on the left fender that says shift on the fly? Also has the deck height adjuster on the right side of the hood? If so, I had one of those back when it was new. It had a 15 hp Techumse engine on it. Used it to start a lawn mowing operation as a teenager. I ran the piss out of that machine. That was a great machine for the money at the time. Now it's not commercial quality or GT heavy, but it took a lot of abuse. I finally got rid of it because the upper bearing in the transmission was shot. The shaft wobbled and everytime you pushed the clutch the belt would come off. I salvaged the motor and used it on a zero turn machine that blew rod. Ran it a couple of more years until the ingintion coil failed and then tossed it aside. I'd bet it would still be running with a new coil, but we had more spare engines. Never a problem with the engine. In fact, the only thing I remember having to fix was the deck adjuster. Something cracked and needed to be welded. Not sure what it was though. If it has been taken care of, it will be a good one.

I have owned a Murray 42" 15 HP lawn tractor for 12 years. It has treated me very well. I have had good luck finding and getting parts parts from a web site www.jackssmallengines.com. They have a link to where you can find your machine and get a blow up of the various parts. My '94 doesn't show up, but apparently there is no difference between the '94, '95 or '96 models, so I pick one of the '96 models that was closest to what I have. Where I live there is a dealer that also sells used lawn tractors and parts. You can try to see if there is one where you live. The place here is like a car junkyard for lawn tractors. Hope this helps.

Theres Murray parts around, y just have to look. I own like 6 Murrays, i usally go to the local tractor parts store up the street or tractor supply- northern tools carries some tractor parts too. I used to be able to go to a huge tractor junkyard a few miles from where i used to live - could get parts for every lawntractor ever made there.My other source of parts : classified ads for non running cheep tractors or craigslist. 90% of those non runners run now, the few thet arent , well one was seized, one broke a rod, and the last is missing the entire intake setup. I knew about the seized and broken motors tho when i bot it. A prime example of a great deal i got once, a 85 Master Cut ( MTD clone) - 12HP briggs, 38" deck, with full complete bagger setup. How much? $25. I had it running the next day, but the deck needed total disassembly/refurbishing. How much did i spend fixing it? $25 - for carb cleaner, spark plug, fuel filter and new fuel line with a shutoff valve, couple cans of krylon fusion paint for engine and deck ( i got the spindles freed up, just greased berings). (I wont mention the $75 doctor bill/emergency room bill when i sliced my finger putting it back together in the final cost tho.)
So that makes a perfectly good running tractor for $50 ( with a $300 bagger setup)- not bad id say.
Kidd

Thanks guys, but I got a parts printout from the local Farm & Fleet store here in Milwaukee, WI.

I went out to my friends house this past Friday to see the Murray and it looks as good as the pictures he showed me.

The engine starts easily and runs strong and smooth.

He put a new drive belt on it because it seemed to be slipping in 3rd & 4th position.

After installing the belt, it runs great in all speeds but has some kind of problem in 4th. While running in 4th it jerks intermittently as long as it is in 4th.

When it is shifted into 5th or back into 3rd, it runs smoothly with no jerking and there is no problem shifting up or down.

The engine does not change speed, slow down, or hesitate so I am guessing it is something in the transmission. It is a Peerless 6 speed shift-on-the-go which is no longer made.

Does the Clymar series or any other tractor repair manual give a lot of details on transmissions?

Does anyone on here have any idea what would cause the intermittent jerking while in 4th but all the other (1,2,3,5,and 6.) positions run smoothly?

Sounds almost like a tooth in one of the gears is skipping, but I would think that would also show up in the other speed positions.

The one piece pressed main pan that holds the engine and other major parts is unique and obviously quite strong as it will support a 42" snow thrower. I wouldn't be afraid to attach anything to the main frame as long as the transmission could handle it.

Getting on it with the mower deck in place is still going to be a major problem for me with my bad knees, but I am thinking of building an incline over the mower deck that I can walk on to mount the machine and then push the incline away when I move out. I could then pull the incline back over the mower deck when I finish mowing and pull the tractor back into the garage.

Fairyprincess

Still need some help on the Murray transmission question.

Fairyprincess

Sounds like the prev. owner ran it in 4th an awful lot, that gear is probably pretty worn. Tearing apart and repairing a geardrive tranny shouldn't be too tough for anybody who i mechanically inclined, assuming you can find a replacement.