3
Setting Up
Your Lawn
Tractor
WARNING
Use extreme care when handling gasoline. Gasoline is extremely flammable and the vapors are explosive. Never fuel machine indoors or while the en- gine is hot or running. Extinguish cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and other sources of ignition.
Make sure the riding mower’s engine is off, remove the ignition key, and set the parking brake before removing the shipping brace.
The deck chute shipping brace, used for shipping purposes only, must be removed and discarded before operating your riding mower.
Opening the Tractor Hood
To attach the negative battery cable and check the engine oil level the hood must be open. Locate the hood lift notch (Refer to Figure 4 on page 10) at the front/cen- ter of the dash panel. Grasping the hood at the notch, lift and pivot the hood forward to open.
Attaching the Battery Cables
The tractor is shipped with an activated sealed battery. The positive battery cable is factory connected. The negative cable must be connected. The positive battery terminal is marked Pos. (+). The negative battery terminal is marked Neg.
IMPORTANT: Make sure the ignition switch is in the “OFF” position before attaching the battery cables.
•From the center notch at the front of the dash panel, lift the tractor hood and pivot forward to open.
•Remove the hex shoulder bolt and wing nut from the negative (black)cable.
Wing Nut
Negative
Battery
Cable
Shoulder Bolt
Figure 1
•Pull the protective cap, if present, off the negative battery terminal. Attach the negative cable (heavy black wire) to the negative battery terminal
•The positive cable (red cable) is secured to the positive battery terminal (+) with a carriage bolt and hex sems nut at the factory. Make certain that the rubber boot covers the positive battery terminal.
NOTE: If the battery is put into service after the date shown on top of battery, charge the battery as instructed on page 24 of this manual prior to operating the tractor.
Gas and Oil Fill-up
WARNING: Use extreme care when handling gasoline. Gasoline is extremely flammable and the vapors are explosive. Never fuel machine indoors or while the engine is hot or running. Extinguish cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and other sources of ignition.
NOTE: Purchase gasoline in small quantities. Do not use gasoline left over from the previous season, to minimize gum deposits in the fuel system.
•This engine is certified to operate on unleaded gasoline. For best results, fill the fuel tank with only clean, fresh, unleaded gasoline with a pump sticker octane rating of 87 or higher. In countries using the Research method, it should be 90 octane minimum.
•Unleaded gasoline is recommended because it leaves less combustion chamber deposits and reduces harmful exhaust emissions. Leaded gasoline is not recommended and must not be used where exhaust emissions are regulated.
•Gasohol (up to 10% ethyl alcohol, 90% unleaded gasoline by volume) is an approved fuel. Other gasoline/alcohol blends are not approved.
•Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) and unleaded gasoline blends (up to a maximum of 15% MTBE by volume) are approved fuels. Other gasoline/ether blends are not approved.
The gasoline tank is under the rear fender, with the fuel fill cap located in the center of the rear fender. The fuel cap is tethered to the tractor to prevent its loss. Do not attempt to remove the cap from the tractor.
IMPORTANT: Your tractor is shipped with motor oil in the engine. However, you MUST check the oil level before operating. Refer to ‘checking the oil level in the Maintain- ing your Tractor - Section 6 of this manual. Be careful not to overfill.
Mulching Plug and Shipping Brace Removal
WARNING: Make sure the riding mower’s engine is off, remove the ignition key, and set the parking brake before removing the shipping brace.
WARNING: The shipping brace, used for packaging purposes only, must be removed and discarded before operating your riding mower.