Back into Gt's with a GT6000

daytime dave

Tractorologist
Member
Some of you may remember that I had to purge the collection my father and I had when my parents passed. I simply had no storage. I work in a city and live in suburbia. I kept one of dad's Mahindra's, his newest, because no one wanted to buy it. Fast forward to my step son bought a home in the country and has 14.5 acres and if I had a crystal ball..................Oh well. I kept the Mahindra and some implements and hardware that I just did. The other day, I saw a GT6000 listed somewhere that had a snowblower, wheelweights and chains that looked to be in good condition. I contacted the seller. He re-sells. I made the relatively quick trip to see it. It had some issues even after he had "gone all through it". I gave him a deposit and returned the next day with truck and trailer. It felt good to own a GT again. I had two Craftsman GT's before and found them easy to work on and good overall. When I got this one home, I started to really get into this one.
The carb was a Walbro that was surging like crazy. I took it off and it was rusted inside. I smoothed it out best I could and ordered one from isavetractors. I changed the oil, put on the biggest Kohler inline fuel filter I could find, got new spark plugs, took all the panels off the engine and blew years of crap off the fins and such. I ordered a new air filter to replace the one that the man said he replaced.
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So, I got the new carb, put it in, tweaked it and the magnum 18 runs as it should now. I greased it, put the drive belt on all the pulleys and sharpened the blades. I also managed to find a baseball sized rock on it's maiden trip around the lawn. So now I have to resharpen the blades. All in all, it's not in bad shape for it's age. I plan to get the snow blower tackled next. I see it's an MTD 42". I don't know if it was ever on this one or not. The wheel weights are cast Bolens weights. Not too bad I thought. I plan to get a sleeve hitch because I also want to use this one in the garden. Dad always used the GT's in the garden. I want to as well. I would like one of those manual front tractor scoops too.

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Very nice! I had a 1994 Gt 6000 that I really liked. Mine was a hydro. I used it in the garden and it did really well.
A young man in our church was looking for a good mowing machine so I made him an extremely good deal on it. He is really enjoying it. His dad made the comment a week or so ago that his son is praying for a snowy winter so he can buy the front blade that I still have. I told his dad, "Don't tell him, but when the time comes, I plan on giving it to him."
 
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Very nice! I had a 1994 Gt 6000 that I really liked. Mine was a hydro. I used it in the garden and it did really well.
A young man in our church was looking for a good mowing machine so I made him an extremely good deal on it. He is really enjoying it. His dad made the comment a week or so ago that his son is praying for a snowy winter so he can buy the front blade that I still have. I told his dad, "Don't tell him, but when the time comes, I plan on giving it to him.
If it's a hydro GT6k, tell him to keep an eye on the input pulley. If they loosen, they will destroy themsekves... NLA and nothing after market.
 
Some of you may remember that I had to purge the collection my father and I had when my parents passed. I simply had no storage. I work in a city and live in suburbia. I kept one of dad's Mahindra's, his newest, because no one wanted to buy it. Fast forward to my step son bought a home in the country and has 14.5 acres and if I had a crystal ball..................Oh well. I kept the Mahindra and some implements and hardware that I just did. The other day, I saw a GT6000 listed somewhere that had a snowblower, wheelweights and chains that looked to be in good condition. I contacted the seller. He re-sells. I made the relatively quick trip to see it. It had some issues even after he had "gone all through it". I gave him a deposit and returned the next day with truck and trailer. It felt good to own a GT again. I had two Craftsman GT's before and found them easy to work on and good overall. When I got this one home, I started to really get into this one.
The carb was a Walbro that was surging like crazy. I took it off and it was rusted inside. I smoothed it out best I could and ordered one from isavetractors. I changed the oil, put on the biggest Kohler inline fuel filter I could find, got new spark plugs, took all the panels off the engine and blew years of crap off the fins and such. I ordered a new air filter to replace the one that the man said he replaced.
50197447252_d2c4b0d225_c_d.jpg



So, I got the new carb, put it in, tweaked it and the magnum 18 runs as it should now. I greased it, put the drive belt on all the pulleys and sharpened the blades. I also managed to find a baseball sized rock on it's maiden trip around the lawn. So now I have to resharpen the blades. All in all, it's not in bad shape for it's age. I plan to get the snow blower tackled next. I see it's an MTD 42". I don't know if it was ever on this one or not. The wheel weights are cast Bolens weights. Not too bad I thought. I plan to get a sleeve hitch because I also want to use this one in the garden. Dad always used the GT's in the garden. I want to as well. I would like one of those manual front tractor scoops too.

50197446542_8d971ed450_c_d.jpg
50197182556_7b0ecc9448_c_d.jpg
Great looking machine.
There were two different sleeve hitch assembly available for that.
One was integral and worked off the mower lift lever, and one that was self contained and mounted on the rear plate.
The latter is reminiscent of the old Sears three-point in design, except it uses a sleeve hitch.
 
Very nice! I had a 1994 Gt 6000 that I really liked. Mine was a hydro. I used it in the garden and it did really well.

I told his dad, "Don't tell him, but when the time comes, I plan on giving it to him.

I'm glad to know that yours worked well in the garden. Dad always used his stuff for the smaller work in the garden, his gardens were pretty big.

I should add that we are looking to move near my step son, so a large garden, small orchard, berry bushes are hopefully soon to be in the picture.

I also think that you planning to give that young man the blade when it is time is a very fine gesture. My hat is off to you sir!
 
Great looking machine.
There were two different sleeve hitch assembly available for that.
One was integral and worked off the mower lift lever, and one that was self contained and mounted on the rear plate.
The latter is reminiscent of the old Sears three-point in design, except it uses a sleeve hitch
Oh yes, I know that there were two different types of sleeve hitches. I think you could say three if you count the electric solenoid style. I've looked around and all I can find are brand new external hitches. They apparently are somewhat more adjustable than the one we had on one at the farm. If I don't find a used one, I'll probably get one of those when I get a new place. I did save a sleeve hitch modification dad bought from somewhere that he used on the Mahindra to plow with. It works pretty good. I need to spend a little more time with it next spring. This spring was a bit of a rush due to limited time.
Yes, I'm glad to see the responses here, different from the other site, seems more old friends here. Next is to get after that snow blower.
 
I'm glad to know that yours worked well in the garden. Dad always used his stuff for the smaller work in the garden, his gardens were pretty big.

I should add that we are looking to move near my step son, so a large garden, small orchard, berry bushes are hopefully soon to be in the picture.

I also think that you planning to give that young man the blade when it is time is a very fine gesture. My hat is off to you sir!
It is a very capable GT, IMHO.
Long story short, the young man I sold it to is a fine 20-year-old..... just a nice "kid", respects his parents, loves God, acts like he really likes his younger brother, living like he should, pleasant to be around, very respectful, not afraid to work hard. How many of those do you run across these days??? He sent me a text one day, along with a picture from a CL ad of a GT6000 he was considering buying from a "friend". Typical ad that said, "It ran when it was parked....", it looked hideous, and weeds were growing up around it. I asked him how long it had been sitting. He said maybe two years. I asked him if it was EVER covered during that time, he said no.
I told him to forget about that sure headache, and we started talking about the one I had, that I KNEW was in great shape, and was stored inside. It's his now, sold for way less than half of what I could have sold it for.... now...... just waiting for it to snow!!!
 

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It is a very capable GT, IMHO.
Long story short, the young man I sold it to is a fine 20-year-old..... just a nice "kid", respects his parents, loves God, acts like he really likes his younger brother, living like he should, pleasant to be around, very respectful, not afraid to work hard. How many of those do you run across these days??? He sent me a text one day, along with a picture from a CL ad of a GT6000 he was considering buying from a "friend". Typical ad that said, "It ran when it was parked....", it looked hideous, and weeds were growing up around it. I asked him how long it had been sitting. He said maybe two years. I asked him if it was EVER covered during that time, he said no.
I told him to forget about that sure headache, and we started talking about the one I had, that I KNEW was in great shape, and was stored inside. It's his now, sold for way less than half of what I could have sold it for.... now...... just waiting for it to snow!!!


Great looking unit. That was another great thing to do for that young man. You are right, those young men are a rarity and need to be taken care of when encountered. Just like we were, lol.
 
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