317...phase 1

Well, the first thing I needed to do was find out what works, and what didn't. The mower deck that came with the old girl is beat to crap, but I want to set this up as a loader tractor anyway so it's no big loss. I was told the reason the dealer decided to sell this one "cheap" was that it was going to cost to much to get it running. "It will run if you pour gas in the carb, but won't idle." Well, when I took the carb apart, it was easy to see why this was....the float and needle were both frozen solid with rust. A can of carb cleaner later, and she fired right off. It does have some blow by, but doesn't smoke very much and run's really smooth. The hydrostat seems tight. So as of now this thing is looking like a good starting place for rebuilding/restoring.