# The John Deere Greensmower Adventure Guide



## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

Bought a new John Deere 180B Greensmower for $200. I knew up front the engine had some Pope smoke and was likely a project engine. I know absolutely nothing about engines so I thought it would be a great way to break me in. Some come learn with me as I spend too much money to lower my grass another half an inch.

I picked up this beauty earlier this week. Started on the first pull and purred like a kitten.



Day 1. Excited to cut some grass. Went to start the engine..... and no dice. Gave the mower a once over and it looks as if something is leaking around the carburetor area. Not sure what to make of this without totally breaking it down.



Luckily there are countless youtube videos for Honda GX120 engines which gave me a starting point to get this thing working.

Pulled off the carburetor cap and drained all of the gasoline. It came out a nasty smelling lacquer. Added fresh gasoline. Didn't touch anything else. Went to check the oil and proceeded to spill half of it out on the garage floor. Leveled the motor which is significantly higher than one would think. Oil looked fine.



Went ahead and checked the filter and found some possible issues. #1. It looks like this:





#2. Reading the manual it looks as if this mower is missing a "precleaner." (Labeled D).

Not sure how important that is but given the shape of the filter I'll have to order a new one. I also wonder if the engine is putting out white smoke because it is starved of oxygen.



After replacing the fluids and giving it a little clean it decided to start on the first pull.

However, once I started to try and cut the yard I ran into a few issues and I took inventory.

Using the throttle it likes to lurch forward. It has two speeds. Stop and sprint. I'll have to read more into this but possible could be the govenor.

In addition, the reel stalls once I attempt to mow. Not sure if this is because I'm attempting to cut off too much at one time (from 1 & 1/8" to 0.5") or because my reel isn't sharp enough. Next step will be changing out the bed knife and backlapping the reel.

Stay tuned.


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## Pete1313 (May 3, 2017)

@Necrosis, moved this over to the equipment forum. :thumbsup:


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## Pete1313 (May 3, 2017)

The pre cleaner is the foam piece that is wrapped around that filter. You can take that foam part off and clean it. When you do, you will see the actual pleated filter element underneath it.


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## mantnyh (Aug 12, 2018)

If your blowing white smoke I'd go ahead and order a new carburator off Amazon. Only about $15 for a cheap China one. The throttle should go from low to high smoothly not slow to fast immediately. Sounds like your throttle isn't adjusted right. That could be a multitude of things. Any further details you could five to help us?


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## sportsman10 (Feb 25, 2019)

Parts are cheap enough and carburetors are pesky enough I'd say just replace anything that gives you any trouble. eBay is a great parts friend. I was even surprised at how cheap it all is. I think you got a great deal.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

Black Smoke is excessive fuel/lack of air. Commonly caused by stuck/forgotten choke, clogged air filter, or mal-adjusted, mal-functioning carburetion.

Blue Smoke is excessive oil in the combustion chamber. Blue is often mistaken for white, but the heavy, almost Yankee Candle smell is distinct. Large clouds of the stuff that do not clear up within 3-5 minutes can be also be caused by a plugged or defective crank case breather. Rule of thumb, if it smokes heavy when starting and clears up, it's probably from being tipped in a direction that it didn't like. (Nothing to worry about). If it starts up clear and starts smoking heavily, something's wrong. The exception to this being oil in the exhaust/muffler, which will clear up after a few minutes.

White smoke (actually steam/vapor) is coolant in the combustion chamber or can be raw diesel vapor. Which is unlikely on your 180B as it's air-cooled and petrol fired.


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## Reddog90 (Aug 30, 2018)

Where the heck did you find that for only $200?? I'm looking at 220bs and 220cs in good condition on ebay for ~$1200....


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)

Damn right you got a good deal LOL! I'm going to love following this thread.


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## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

Reddog90 said:


> Where the heck did you find that for only $200?? I'm looking at 220bs and 220cs in good condition on ebay for ~$1200....


I found it on this forum! @Bmossin  . Good condition JDs can go for considerably more. Given possible engine issues the price was lower (new motors go for $350 to > $1,000). However, I got very good deal. And I was very lucky...

The engine started easily after replacing the oil, gas, and cleaning the carb. However, when cutting the back yard the reel would seize, it seemed, and the engine starting billowing white smoke. @MasterMech I'm not sure if was blue smoke. I hear the same thing that I'm supposed to see blue smoke from my meat smoker but all I see is white smoke. I guess I'm smoke blind.

So today I did quite a bit of work. I took looked over the carb and think I found the leak. Looks like a hose that wasn't connected properly.



I also found a TON of sand and concretions from use over the years. I took the carb apart and cleaned as much as I could. I went ahead and ordered a new carb since it was so cheap along with a new spark plug and bedknife.



In addition, I went to the John Deere supplier in my back yard and purchased a grease gun and some grease. I cleaned and greased all of the bearing on the mower. That included these two on the back of the handle bar housing.



It really seemed to help with the throttle and clutch lurching. The mower seems to accelerate a little more smoothly. After greasing the axels to the roller and the reel the entire machine moved without much effort at all. I thought I was going to be pushing an obese dead body around my yard every 3 days but after greasing everything it only feels like I'm pushing medium sized dog with a dolly.

The motor really seemed to like these changes. Haven't had any seizing of the reel or smoking of the motor since. Enjoy some fancy action shots to celebrate my yard being sub inch.


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)




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## high leverage (Jun 11, 2017)

Do not buy the cheap eBay carbs!!!!! Pure trash

Stick to factory or rebuild the original.

I always rebuild and if that doesn't work buy a an OEM


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## Reddog90 (Aug 30, 2018)

@Necrosis Awesome. Are you satisfied with the size of the 180 so far? I'm trying to decide if I need a 180 or 220.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Reddog90 said:


> @Necrosis Awesome. Are you satisfied with the size of the 180 so far? I'm trying to decide if I need a 180 or 220.


Do you have any obstacles in your lawn or is it pretty wide open? Looking at your lawn size, I would think the 180 would be sufficient but if it's pretty wide open without any really tight spaces, you could get away with the 220 which would likely cut your mowing time down just a little bit


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## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

Reddog90 said:


> @Necrosis Awesome. Are you satisfied with the size of the 180 so far? I'm trying to decide if I need a 180 or 220.


I'm very happy with the size. I have a lot turns to make and it's already a lot of machine. I don't mind the smaller stripes. And if the bug bites me I can always make them double wide.


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## Hexadecimal 00FF00 (Sep 20, 2018)

First, great maintenance work, @Necrosis!



Necrosis said:


> I hear the same thing that I'm supposed to see blue smoke from my meat smoker but all I see is white smoke.


In short, to not taint your mower thread, when your smoker is running properly (material is burning well and at right temp) you'll get blue-ish smoke. It's faint. And sometimes you may not see it at all. Heavy white smoke is wrong, bad. Send me a message if you'd like to further discuss. Maybe I can help a little.


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## Reddog90 (Aug 30, 2018)

Mightyquinn said:


> Reddog90 said:
> 
> 
> > @Necrosis Awesome. Are you satisfied with the size of the 180 so far? I'm trying to decide if I need a 180 or 220.
> ...


I don't have many tight spots, but I have a lot of bends/turns and obstacles. A 180 is probably a better mower for me. Thanks.


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## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

The HOC knob on the right side of the mower has been giving me issues. I think it is because the threaded piece is seized into the adjuster after spending longer than I'd like to admit screwing with the set up. It ended up coming off. If any one has had trouble with these let me know. My plan is just to purchase a new one at this time.


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## Reddog90 (Aug 30, 2018)

Any updates?


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)

Reddog90 said:


> Any updates?


Yeah...how's it going?!?


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## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

The lawnmower is doing great! I bought a new knob adjuster online and will replace that soon. I backlapped the reel and it cuts like a dream now. I have a back up bedknife in case I need to replace it. The reel squeaks some but not all the time. Might be the belts which I could replace. I've noticed that I have to hold the throttle down to keep the drive engaged. Not sure how to fix that just yet. I may wait until the offseason to make some upgrades. I'd hate to take it out of commission during the growing season. We will see. The yard is currently at 0.75 and it is happy.


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## Reddog90 (Aug 30, 2018)

How do you like the cut at .75 with that mower?

I was initially in the market for a 180 because I thought the size would suit my yard better. But I didn't want to pigeon hole myself into an 11 blade reel when I thought I'd be cutting at probably .75", so I started looking for at 220's. I know anything would be better than my current rotary though.


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## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

Reddog90 said:


> How do you like the cut at .75 with that mower?
> 
> I was initially in the market for a 180 because I thought the size would suit my yard better. But I didn't want to pigeon hole myself into an 11 blade reel when I thought I'd be cutting at probably .75", so I started looking for at 220's. I know anything would be better than my current rotary though.


Wow. Never saw this. I have an 11 blade reel and I loved the cut to be honest. No issues really.


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## Txmx583 (Jun 8, 2017)

I have a 180b as well and have a decent sized yard (4K sqft). It's been awesome!!! I'd like to add a Toro GM1000 to my arsenal though just to see how they compare.


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## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

Welp. I've had the JD180b for a few years now. I left it in the shed for a season after a scalp. I dog eared a blade and attempted to rebend the blade back into reposition. Afterward, the reel had a ton of lateral play that I didn't recognize at the time and it made a god-awful noise when I engaged the reel. Regardless, the reel needed to be replaced as it was up there in age and I knew it would be a rather large project. There are a few resources that are invaluable that I wanted to document for anyone else venturing into reel replacement. I hope it helps you out. My goal was to make a youtube video, however, I'm not a mechanic and I'm not sure how helpful it would be. So instead here are some links that helped me through the process.

As far as reel replacement. Look no further than Pete1313's guide on reel replacement and reconditioning.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1500



Briefly, you are going to remove the side plate to get to the chain drives underneath. Remove the reel chain and sprocket.



Then the reel and the bedknife are removed as a unit.





The bedknife plate is then removed from the bearing housing.



Then you spend a fortnight trying to get this nut off of the old reel and pondering the meaning of life.



I finally obtained a very large torque wrench, proper sized socket, and a hammer to remove this SOB.



Clean everything while you wait on additional parts to show up from Amazon and RRproducts (https://www.rrproducts.com)



I don't have a press so I took my bearings, races, and seals to get pressed at a local small engine repair shop. They were nice enough to do this for me while my Honda rotary had some maintenance done.



Then you just re-read Pete's post backwards and TADA! Done. But seriously, I'm not sure I had any issues getting the reel back together. The chain was the hardest part to get right. He lists the factory deflection for the chains which is basically a measure of the chain's tightness. "The deflection spec on the roller drive chain is 7/16" and 1/4" on the reel chain" (Pete et al).



To adjust you loosen the plastic roller bits abutting the chain and move them inward or outward in relation to the chain.



After installing I still noticed some lateral play with the reel. I do not have a groomer and thus had some additional space on the axel allowing for some lateral movement. I did not have an additional spacer so what I essentially did was take the two springs I had and twisted them together to make one large spring. I then placed the compression nut to set the reel. It did a pretty nice job of keeping everything set in a pinch.



I then adjusted the bedknife to the reel and backlapped it until cuts paper.

After everything was put together I started her up on the first pull and then the motor proceeded to surge, sputter, and die before I could make it to grass.....

So I lugged her back in the garage and completely pulled apart the carbi-traitor. I cleaned the carb, unclogged the main jet, changed the fuel and VIOLA - no dice.

So, per preponderance of opinions on the site I purchased a new carbi-traitor to install on the JD180b. I had been having some fuel leakage problems and some issues with the throttle. It never really idled very well and only seemed to work in the top of the power band. So I went ahead and ordered some new springs and a new governor lever. I Youtubed countless Honda GX 120 videos. I found it helpful to watch full motor breakdowns to see how everything works and fits together. There are some minor differences but here are some links that I found particularly helpful.
















I stripped the fuel can off and played with the throttle plate and governor lever for quite a bit. Be careful when messing with the governor. You can really mess up the motor if you let the engine run at too high RPMs. The new carb seemed to be the main solution to the issue. The butterfly seemed to get stuck quite easily on the old carb. In addition, the governor rod was bent.





So she was cleaned up, a new throttle plate and lever were placed on, set, and adjusted to spec. And now she is humming along!


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

Very informative stuff and so glad to hear she's purring now


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## GreenLand (May 23, 2019)

Nice work! Where did you find that grass catcher? I will need one for my 180c soon enough. Thanks



Necrosis said:


> Welp. I've had the JD180b for a few years now. I left it in the shed for a season after a scalp. I dog eared a blade and attempted to rebend the blade back into reposition. Afterward, the reel had a ton of lateral play that I didn't recognize at the time and it made a god-awful noise when I engaged the reel. Regardless, the reel needed to be replaced as it was up there in age and I knew it would be a rather large project. There are a few resources that are invaluable that I wanted to document for anyone else venturing into reel replacement. I hope it helps you out. My goal was to make a youtube video, however, I'm not a mechanic and I'm not sure how helpful it would be. So instead here are some links that helped me through the process.
> 
> As far as reel replacement. Look no further than Pete1313's guide on reel replacement and reconditioning.
> 
> ...


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)

Very nicely done…glad to see she is still purring around.


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