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John Deere greens mower Questions

513K views 2K replies 288 participants last post by  cnet24 
#1 ·

Do you have a John Deere greens mower and have a question about working on it? Do you have something to share? Ask or share here.​

The evolution of the JD fixed head walk behind greensmower.
The 22 was made from 1987-1994,
The 220 from 1995-1996,
The 220A from 1997-2002,
The 220B from 2002-2006,
The 220C from 2007-2010, and
The 220SL from 2011-Current.

Design changes were made over the years to various parts of the mowers.

The 220 E-Cut is made from 2010-Current
It is the hybrid floating head design (QA5) of the JD walk behind greensmower.

Main resources:

- FYI Greenfarmparts sold the business to Greenville Turf. Online ordering is not as convenient. A few of the post in this thread points to greenfarmparts, but that no longer works.

- This website has a few of the technician manuals. http://www.gaturftech.com/service-manual

- 220E Manual

- QA5 Cutting Unit Manual

- Bedknife angles and options.
 
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#1,028 ·
The brass bearing goes inside the sprocket. It has an internal oil groove, but I'm not sure why they did that since this uses a thick grease.


The sprocket goes into the shaft after you place the two sealed bearing on the end with a washer in between. This sprocket is always turning when the reel turns. The brass bearing seats against the inner race of the seal bearing so the sprocket cannot touch the sealed bearing.


The other sprocket then is using the shaft star pattern to turn and it slides forward or back using the on and off knob.


When the knob is in the on position, the two sprockets connect to turn the groomer shaft. When it is in the off position, the sprocket on the right turn and it slips under the brass bearing and the shaft does not turn.
 
#1,030 ·
Hi Guys, I'm just getting into the lawn scene and getting a reel ready for the spring. Put down 3100sqft of zeon zoysia 7 weeks ago and gave a it a trim with the rotary to even it out a bit before it goes dormant in a few weeks. Little later than I would have liked but here in GA its taken root pretty good in that time. I've been working on a back yard renovation and still have some patio work to do. Then in the spring will get around to leveling and soding the front.

I picked up a 2500A ($300ish) from a gov. auction a few years ago in anticipation of a new lawn and quickly realized it was going to be way to big. Not to mention storing and maintenance of 3 reels. So I picked up a 220A of CL for a good price, I think it was around $250-$300. Its been sitting for about 2 years as well but I swapped the carb and fired up 2nd pull. Ran it around the yard some with the reel disengaged to maybe help get some bumps out. Some leveling will still be needed.

However I stumbled upon an gov auction for some 220E's minus the reels from a course and figured I'd take a chance on them. Went and picked them up today. Some are more complete than others. Made in 2009. They kept the reels to swap onto their existing ones when one of them needs sharpening. Less down time on the mower which makes sense. So hopefully I can find a decent deal on some QA5s I can swap in and hopefully sell 1 or 2 complete to make up some costs. If not then parting out might be an option. So we'll see. Either way I'm excited to be here and learning as much as I can to keep this zeon in great shape.



So now that makes 5 walk behinds and a triplex reel mower :)
 
#1,034 ·
g-man said:
This is the closest I could quickly find, but the length is too short. A local machine shop might know how to find this locally.

https://oilite.com/products?view=partdetails&partid=1719&uom=Imperial&back=PS
Found this but 4mm too long. Seems cheap enough that I could attempt to shorten it.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32509038400.html
 
#1,035 ·
Did more digging on Amazon @g-man

Ordered these for now... 1mm off from you measurements... closest match i could find anywhere on the web
uxcell Bearing Sleeve 14mm Bore x 20mm OD x 25mm Length
https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Self-Lubricating-Bearing-Sintered-Bushings/dp/B07HSYHFPS/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?keywords=%2214mm+Bore%22%2B%2220mm+OD%22+bushing&qid=1573953883&sr=8-2-fkmr2
 
#1,036 ·
@g-man I thought my brass bushing was missing from the GTC sprocket. Today, after wiping it down thoroughly I saw a faint color of brass inside the sprocket. It worn severely wedged inside the sprocket. It was only about 2 mm thick. I was able to pry some of it out and then drill the rest of it out today.

Here is what left of it that i was able to pry out at the very end.


I got my chinese brass bushing from Amazon yesterday. It is slightly too big even when put in the freezer. Looking into options to drilling more out if the sprocket and sanding/filling down outside diameter down
 
#1,043 ·
Hard to say on the age, but it looks to be pre-1997 at least... no clue on the model, but it looks to be in pretty rough shape as-is. Can't really tell how much life is left on the reel, but the brush looks pretty rough compared to a newer one, showing that it was used a lonnnng time. The belt cover being open to the elements long enough to have debri piled up worries me too...
 
#1,045 ·
I recently purchased a JD 220E (2014) Greensmower at the December Weeks auction and it arrived today at business that services mostly Toro mowers.

I paid $500 / $630 OTD w/fees, etc. for the 220E, but was quoted $700 more for home delivery in Lansing, MI which was much higher than anticipated. I called Jim at Michigan Turf Equipment (about 1 hour from my home) with the hopes that I could get it shipped from the freight company to them for a lower cost vs. the residential delivery quote I had received and I was also hoping to have them check it out and service it if needed so it would be good to go in the Spring. As it turns out they had purchased some equipment from the same auction, and had said they would allow me to ship it back with their purchased items on their large freight truck without charging me.

I have to say, anyone considering a Toro GM, should definitely check out Michigan Turf (They are listed on the Online Sources for Used Green Mowers page of this forum).
Jim has been great to deal and super honest and helpful. He said it fired right up and everything appeared to worked (reel and GTC)!

Although not familiar with that specific JD model he said that I purchased a mower which was not ideal for my intentions of mowing KBG at 1-1.25 inches. I believe others have used this with a similar setup without issue at these heights but I'm wondering if I made a mistake on this?

Questions:
1) Should I be able to cut at 1-1.5" with this despite the 11-blade and GTC?
2) Would it make sense for me to attempt to change the reel to a 7-blade, add a Fairway HC, and modify the GTC to a FTC on my own before taking it to JD dealer to do full service and relief grind?

I am not that mechanical in nature, so I'm looking at feedback from the group on whether these are more advanced tasks, or fairly straight forward.

Any tips or recommendations would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Steve
 
#1,046 ·
Longtee81 said:
I recently purchased a JD 220E (2014) Greensmower at the December Weeks auction and it arrived today at business that services mostly Toro mowers.

I paid $500 / $630 OTD w/fees, etc. for the 220E, but was quoted $700 more for home delivery in Lansing, MI which was much higher than anticipated. I called Jim at Michigan Turf Equipment (about 1 hour from my home) with the hopes that I could get it shipped from the freight company to them for a lower cost vs. the residential delivery quote I had received and I was also hoping to have them check it out and service it if needed so it would be good to go in the Spring. As it turns out they had purchased some equipment from the same auction, and had said they would allow me to ship it back with their purchased items on their large freight truck without charging me.

I have to say, anyone considering a Toro GM, should definitely check out Michigan Turf (They are listed on the Online Sources for Used Green Mowers page of this forum).
Jim has been great to deal and super honest and helpful. He said it fired right up and everything appeared to worked (reel and GTC)!

Although not familiar with that specific JD model he said that I purchased a mower which was not ideal for my intentions of mowing KBG at 1-1.25 inches. I believe others have used this with a similar setup without issue at these heights but I'm wondering if I made a mistake on this?

Questions:
1) Should I be able to cut at 1-1.5" with this despite the 11-blade and GTC?
2) Would it make sense for me to attempt to change the reel to a 7-blade, add a Fairway HC, and modify the GTC to a FTC on my own before taking it to JD dealer to do full service and relief grind?

I am not that mechanical in nature, so I'm looking at feedback from the group on whether these are more advanced tasks, or fairly straight forward.

Any tips or recommendations would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Steve
Exciting stuff. I have a 180C and a 220B...I am pretty sure the max height of cut on these is 7/8 of an inch...so you might need to join the reel low club!

This is a good thread regarding some of the teardown and rebuild stuff...and also take the time to read through the 50+ pages of this thread...it can be very informative. It will however take quite a while.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7326&start=20

Good luck and have fun.
 
#1,048 ·
@Longtee81 the 220E can go to 1.42in with the GTC. A 11 or 14 blade reel might make it more of a challenge with stragglers. I mowed to 1.25in with mine.

I would say it is easy to swap, but does requiere mechanical skills. If you swap it, a new one is around $350 plus you want to do the bearings too. A new one is already sharp, so no need to grind it.
 
#1,049 ·
@Pete1313 and @g-man today I was to reassemble the gears and the GTC with the correct bushing! The manufacturer is Oillite and they have bushings in Amazon.

I ended up using a 15mm bore x 19mm OD x 25 mm length. My engagement contacts the gears are slightly wore down so the length works ok here.

Looking back I should have just removed the GTC altogether. I have spent over $200 in parts trying to this thing working. My mower has been out of commission for the past 3 months while I have been working on this.
 
#1,050 ·
Longtee81 said:
Although not familiar with that specific JD model he said that I purchased a mower which was not ideal for my intentions of mowing KBG at 1-1.25 inches. I believe others have used this with a similar setup without issue at these heights but I'm wondering if I made a mistake on this?

Questions:
1) Should I be able to cut at 1-1.5" with this despite the 11-blade and GTC?
2) Would it make sense for me to attempt to change the reel to a 7-blade, add a Fairway HC, and modify the GTC to a FTC on my own before taking it to JD dealer to do full service and relief grind?

I am not that mechanical in nature, so I'm looking at feedback from the group on whether these are more advanced tasks, or fairly straight forward.

Any tips or recommendations would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Steve
I would strongly disagree in regards to what he said about the 220E not being the ideal mower for KBG and your HOC. I can not think of a better reel mower for your intentions. I believe it is even more ideal then the fixed head 220A/B/C/SL's that are frequently used on KBG baseball infields all over. The adjustability that you have with clip rate, adjusting the bedknife angle, and also the max HOC all make it superior. It may not have the correct setup currently, but a few adjustments will get it there. A 7-blade reel is something you should strongly consider but not mandatory right now. I would also convert the GTC to a FTC setup. If that is not on the table this off season, you could just remove the GTC setup and would only need to buy the appropriate counterweight for a non GTC setup. You can also turn the GTC off if you dont need to use it. Maybe replace the bedknife, but otherwise get it adjusted properly and you will have an awesome mower for KBG. Congrats on the mower! You will be blown away when you start using it! Any questions, dont hesitate. Lots of knowledge on these mowers here. :thumbsup:
 
#1,051 ·
Bmossin said:
Exciting stuff. I have a 180C and a 220B...I am pretty sure the max height of cut on these is 7/8 of an inch...so you might need to join the reel low club!

This is a good thread regarding some of the teardown and rebuild stuff...and also take the time to read through the 50+ pages of this thread...it can be very informative. It will however take quite a while.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7326&start=20

Good luck and have fun.
Thanks for all of the links you shared. I will be sure to carefully review and study each of them. I have read all 50+ pages in this JD forum over the last 3 weeks until my eyes glazed over in preparation for deciding if i was going to bid on one at this past auction. I was undecided and strongly considering a Swardman for a while but after reading all of their pages I decided the JD was a better fit for me. A strong consideration for me was also the community support on this site and the option for service at a local JD Golf dealer if I get in over my head :)

I will consider joining the reel low club, but the yards needs a bit of leveling, etc.. before I'm ready.
 
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