John Deere 110 Tune-Up

The earliest Model 110's had rounded fenders and 7HP or 8HP Kohler engines. They were manufactured, beginning in June 1963 at the John Deere Works in Horicon, Wisconsin. Twenty were made in the first month, beginning with Serial #2551. The ones in the picture are much later models, the 'square-fendered' type with up to 10HP engines, having serial numbers 'over 250,000.' They have Peerless transaxles with 4 forward speeds and reverse, and a cone belt-pulley "variator" that serves both as a clutch and a CVT (continuously variable transmission). Their top speed is about 7mph. Mowing is done in 3rd gear at about 3mph. With the 39" mower deck I can mow one acre in one hour with about one gallon of gasoline.

My three tractors have serial numbers 263517, 263540, and 263632. They are all from the early part of the 1972 model year. Deere produced about 50 of these a day (plus other models), so the first two may have been made the same day, and the third one a couple of days later. Their 10HP Kohler Model K241AS engines are all 1971's. The Kohler model number gives a general description of the engine. A K241AS, for example is: K=Kohler, 24=cubic inches displacement, 1=number of cylinders, A=modified oil pan, S=electric start. The first alphanumeric character of the Kohler engine serial number gives the year of production: A=1965, B=1966, C=1967, D=1968, E or 1=1969, 2=1970, 3=1971, 4=1972, 5=1973, 6=1974. Mine are all 3's.

Number 263,517, was purchased at an auction in 1985, and driven home in an hour on seven miles of back roads. It was used for all the chores for twelve years, but I always hated the job of changing attachments in cold weather. Now it is permanently fitted with an old-type 36-inch snowthrower and retired to the back of the barn during the summer months. It is only used in the winter to keep the driveway open. The snow auger was painted with graphite slip-paint from the local farm supply store to help keep the snow from sticking.

Tractor number 263,632 was purchased from a local dealer in 1997 as a parts machine, but actually only needed an engine overhaul and some paint to be put back into service. The overhaul necessitated removal of the engine from the chassis, however, and that made it much easier to clean and paint the rest of the machine. The 110 can be tipped onto either side, with a little care, to grease the 13 zerks underneath, or to paint the frame and wheels, but before you tip yours over remind yourself that it weighs 750 pounds; as much as a grand piano! It is shown with the snow blade - ready for action this winter, and standing by as the spare for lawn mowing when needed.

Number 263,540 was bought on eBay in 2003 from a family in the next town. Paint, grease, and a few minor repairs made it look and run like new. It has a 39-inch mower deck and, in the fall, windrows the leaves and pulls a Lambert Apollo leaf sweeper using an offset drawbar. Trivia question: Who was John Lambert?

After a problem with one of the fuel pumps, all of my tractors have had their fuel systems modified to by-pass their fuel pumps. Like the Model-T Ford, their gas tanks are high enough that gravity is sufficient to deliver the fuel to the carburetors. Whether you want to do this or not, this is where the check list starts.

1. Either disconnect the battery, or at least remove the ignition key and put it in your pocket. (The correct battery group for the 10 horsepower Model 110 is 22F.)
   
   
2. Tilt the hood all the way up. Spring it enough to pull one hinge pin free at a time and remove the hood. Set the hood aside.
   
   
3. Remove the drive-pulley cover from the right side of the tractor by pulling up on it hard enough to unhook the 2 top pins. You will need to be able to reach the inner pulley to turn the crankshaft by hand.
   
   
4. Remove the front screen. Be careful of its sharp edges. If it needs paint, use some satin black spray enamel.
   
   
5. Remove the arch that joins the two vertical side panels.
   
   
6. Remove the two side panels.
   
   
7. Remove the muffler shroud. There is one bolt at the bottom - below the condenser, and it's threaded into the frame (don't bother looking for a nut underneath), one on the front of the engine, and a nut on top of the cylinder head.
   
   
8. Spray WD-40 on the muffler joint and muffler clamp nuts.
   
   
9. Now is your chance to clean the cooling fins of the engine. Bend a 1/4-inch hook on the end of a piece of clothes hanger wire and scrape between the fins to loosen up anything that's in there. The first time you start the engine it will blow right out, just loosen it for now.
   
   
10. Remove the gas tank. Loosen the two bands that hold the gas tank and slide them toward the center of the tank. Lift the tank, close the shut-off valve, and remove the fuel line from the shut-off valve. This frees the gas tank from the tractor.
    
    
11. Using about 4 feet of vinyl tubing, siphon the gasoline from the tank into a clear container. Swish the tank as you are doing this and try to draw the gasoline from the lowest part of the tank so as to suck out any rust, debris, or water with it. Decant most of the gas for reuse.
    
    
12. Remove the shut-off valve from the tank by unscrewing it carefully and inspect the strainer screen. If you need a new shut-off valve and screen, you can get it from John Deere for about $7. Replace the valve using some teflon tape on the threads.
    
    
13. Obtain a three-and-a-half foot length of new 1/4 inch ID fuel line, and attach one end of it to the shut-off valve with a clamp.
    
    
14. Replace the fuel tank. Slide the bands back into place. Center the tank. Clamp the bands again.
    
    
15. You'll have more room to work if you remove the air cleaner now.
    
    
16. A quick fix for a gummy carburetor is to remove the main mixture needle (the one that comes out straight up) and carefully blow "Gumout" through all ten holes to dissolve the varnish inside (it's a hollow tube and the "Gumout" should come out of every hole). Squirt some "Gumout" down into the carburetor also, about three seconds worth. When you replace the needle, tighten it down very gently, and then back it out exactly 2 full turns. In the winter an extra 1/4 turn on the main mixture needle seems to help.
    
    
17. Dress the fuel line across the side of the engine just above the leaf screen, down past the spark coil, and up to the carburetor inlet. Seen from the front of the tractor, this makes a big "J" shape in the fuel line. Cut the fuel line and attach it to the carburetor inlet with a clamp. The fuel line will be fastened with plastic cable-ties after you are finished with the electrical system.
    
    
18. Use some of the remaining fuel line to connect the outlet of the fuel pump to the inlet of the fuel pump. This will be an upside down "U" shape and clamps are not required. The purpose of this length of fuel line is to keep debris out of the fuel pump. The fuel pump will not be harmed but it will no longer be in use.

    ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

19. Loosen the muffler clamp. Use some WD-40 to loosen the rust if necessary. Gently but firmly make sure you can swivel the muffler a few degrees in both directions. You do not need to remove the muffler.
    
    
20. Remove the cover from the ignition breaker points (2-screws) and slip the rubber grommet and wire free of the lower left corner of the cover. Wire brush or sand the cover and paint it.
    
    
21. Inspect the breaker points to see if they are burned or irregular. Replace if necessary. My last set of points was OK, but the rubber grommet was badly deteriorated, the cover gasket was missing, and the wire had lost all of its insulation because of the heat from the muffler. I installed the gasket (a little grease on the back of it will hold it up there temporarily, but you might use one of the cover screws in the top hole anyway), and I bought a new grommet from John Deere for $2. I replaced the wire with a piece that I salvaged from a junked coffee percolator. This stiff solid wire has woven fiberglass insulation, just the ticket for high temperature applications! It only needs to be long enough to reach the condenser terminal. I soldered a hook terminal on the left end, but left the right end bare. (Mail me a dollar if you need one of these percolator wires.)
    
    
22. Don't put the cover back on the points yet, but do make sure the gasket is still on the side of the engine, and the grommet is on the new wire. Dress the wire over to the condenser, and make a loop in the end of it. I slipped a length of clear plastic tubing over the wire to prevent chafing, but I don't expect it to last very many years without melting off.
    
    
23. Replace the condenser. The new one from John Deere cost me about $7 and has the required screw terminal, not a pigtail as most automotive applications use.
    
    
24. There isn't much heat when you get past the muffler shroud so I fashioned a wire from the capacitor to the negative terminal of the ignition coil using ordinary stranded copper automotive hookup wire, but I slipped clear plastic tubing over it to prevent chafing. Leave a bit of slack in this wire to allow repositioning of the coil if necessary, and feed it across right next to the engine, behind the fuel line and choke and throttle cables.
    
    
25. Remove the spark plug to make the crank easier to turn. Discard it if it is burned or fouled - otherwise gap it .025 inches.
    
    
26. The bottom of the coil may be covering the hole in the engine housing that lets you to see the flywheel. There are marks stamped into the flywheel that allow you to time the ignition if you have a timing light. You may need to reposition the coil to see the flywheel. I did this by re-hanging the coil - putting the left mounting-clamp bolt in the right hole, and sliding to coil upwards in the clamp a bit. A little white paint on the "S" flywheel mark will really help.
    
    
27. Turn the crank until the breaker-point push rod pushes out. Adjust the point gap to .025 inches. Snug-up the screw on the points. The cover is still off and the gasket is still hanging up there.
    
    
28. Install a new Champion H10C (Stock #844) spark plug if you discarded the old one, otherwise reinstall the old one. (The 8hp Kohler uses a different plug.)
    
    
29. Put some gasoline in the tank (Kohler says to use 90 octane unleaded). Open the gasoline shut-off valve.
    
    
30. Reconnect the battery cables. Replace the drive-pulley cover.
    
    
31. Start the engine and, using a very long screwdriver, adjust the point clearance to either get the smoothest, fastest idle, or to locate the "S" mark on the flywheel with the timing light. Tighten the screw on the points. Stop the engine.
    
    
32. Put the coil clamp back where it was. If you are installing a new coil, now is the time. The negative terminal of the coil gets the wire from the condenser.
    
    
33. Replace the air cleaner. Use a Fram CA77 if you need a new one.
    
    
34. At this point I drove around the yard to warm up the engine, and made the three carburetor adjustments: Main Mixture (with screwdriver pointing straight down) seemed best at about 2 turns, Idle Mixture (with screwdriver angling down toward the right front tire) at about 1-1/2 turns (the book says 2 1/2 and 2 turns for those), and Idle Speed - - what a sweet-running engine! Deere says to use about 1800 RPM for idling, in case you have any way to measure it. (I set my old engine analyzer on "4-cylinder" and adjusted the idle to indicate 450 RPM - that's the way to set 1800 RPM for a 1-cylinder engine.) Don't idle an air-cooled engine slowly, it needs the fan for cooling.
    
    
35. Fasten the fuel line to the coil with a plastic cable tie (right up close to the fan housing), and at any other convenient spot below the carburetor with another plastic tie.
    
    
36. After the muffler cools, replace the points cover making sure the grommet is correctly centered in the cover slot. Dress the wires as far away from the muffler heat as you can get them.
    
    
37. Re-center the muffler, and tighten the muffler clamp.
    
    
38. Reattach the muffler shroud using the 2 machine screws and one nut.
    
    
39. Replace the sides and the arch that goes between them. Tighten the arch bolts, but not the bolts at the base of the sides - leave them a little loose.
    
    
40. Clip the fiberglass hood back on and close it. The spring latch and the instrument panel correctly center it at the rear and in doing this they position the front frame also.
    
    
41. Now tighten the four bolts at the bases of the sides.
    
    
42. Re-install the front screen.
    
    
43. If you are ready for an oil change (every 25 hours of operation) use a 3/4" hex wrench to remove the drain plug. Then replace the plug and add 1-1/2 quarts of SAE-30W motor oil. (8hp Kohler uses a smaller wrench and less oil.)
    
    
44. If you need to change the transaxle oil (every two years) wipe the dirt and grease off the drain plug and use a 7/16 open-end wrench to remove it. Carefully clean the magnet in the plug that picks up the bits of steel that wear off the gears. Make sure you replace this plug in the drain hole - it is the only one with a magnet. Then remove the shift indicator and set it to one side so you can reach the filler hole in the front of the transaxle. The shift knob, neutral safety switch and wires can stay connected, you just need enough room to get your hand through the hole. Clean the filler plug with a rag, and remove the plug. Using a pump oilcan and a long plastic tube, add 3 1/2 pints of SAE 80 or 90 transmission oil. I measured it in a half-gallon plastic milk continer and it came about a third of the way up the handle. Replace the plug and the shift indicator. (I hang the pump oiler, plastic tube, and milk container up on the wall in a 2-gallon ziplock bag.)
    
    Send me an email if you have anything to add to this list.
    
    If you would like a 2-sided, laminated chart for routine servicing of a 10HP John Deere 110, I have them for sale. One side of the chart has the numbers and sizes of replacement parts and time intervals for their replacement, and the flip side has a picture of the bottom of the tractor with the locations of the 13 zerks marked. The hardest zerk to find requires the tractor to be standing upright with the steering turned all the way to the left. With your head just behind the left front tire - look just under the oil drain plug toward the front of the right front tire. There is a zerk in the steering mechanism right there in the middle.
    Send $3 if you want a laminated chart, to: Gordon Speer, 3304 Woodlawn Rd, Sterling, IL 61081-4144

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    Operator's Manuals for Sale
    Replacing the Secondary Belt Idler Spring
    Weekend Freedom Machines
    John Deere Equipment Finder
    Kent Ortman's Page
    Terry's Tractors
    The Gordon Speer Home Page Updated July 4, 2007
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