Hi, Folks.
I have a YT6800 that I'm looking to sell. It's been on the local CL for about a month but no one really knows what this mower is. So here's the deal:
I used to maintain this mower for my neighbor. It was kept in a shed most of its life but the owner didn't have a ton of mechanical ability and sometimes things "just happened" to it. When I started taking care of it there were mouse nests under the top cover preventing the cylinders from cooling properly, the throttle and governor linkage were misadjusted and sticky, the choke was inoperative, the deck wasn't attached properly, and the blades were... aaah... shall we say "stone ground?" I maintained it for a few years and when the neighbor sold his house in the fall of 2010 he left me the mower and a snowblower. Great... more equipment to take care of. I used the mower a few times last year but most of the time it sat under a temporary shelter.
This spring I did all the same things to it that I do every spring. Remove engine top cover and clean out cooling fins around both cylinders, remove and clean plugs, blow out air filter and housing, lube up choke and throttle linkage, charge the battery, and fire it up. Then I went a step farther and washed the exterior and engine compartment as well as what I could easily get to around the hydrostatic transmission. After that I mowed a few paths in the yard and parked it. Still the same old dependable mower it's always been.
There are a few spots where the paint on the deck is lifted and rust is starting to form but I didn't see any rust through so I'd say it's still solid. There's a crack in the fiberglass hood that looks like the hood was closed with something sitting on the engine. That happened before I started working on it. The black pads on the foot rest are missing and they've been replaced by white strips of no-slip tape. The safety switches are all connected and operating and the lights and PTO work. It sounds like there's a bearing in the PTO clutch making noise and one or more bearings related to the blade drive belt are also noisy. When I pointed these noises out to the previous owner many years ago he said it was always loud and he'd wait till it got worse. To me it already was worse, but he used it like that for several years and nothing's changed.
It's a good mower and will live a long life in the right hands. I'm pretty heavily invested in an older Bolens unit right now or I would probably consider keeping the Yamaha. I've got it listed for $450 or possibly trade for 3 bin bagger or rototiller here in New Hampshire. I might be willing to deliver it to one of the neighboring states if it's not too long a drive.
Don't mind the Birch catkins on the tractor. Every time I cleaned it off more fell. :(
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