Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

My friend recently gave me a very old craftsman tractor, most likely from the 60's or earlier. It has a 3-speed transmission with a 6 hp engine on it.

Well I have been trying to get the thing running for a few weeks now and finally got it to pull start but still is not turning over. I put some dry gas in it and hopefully it will turn over now, if not It looks like I'll be cleaning the carb.

Well to my question, I noticed that the transmission grinds into gear. If I did a rolling start and kicked it into gear, it would grind. There is no clutch that I can see and I wonder how this thing is going to go into gear once it is running. I noticed that if I put it into first and pulled the pull start, it would move forward. So I don't see why the tranny would be seized. Any ideas to this issue? Any help for getting it started and going would be great!

By the way, so far I have replaced the spark plug and replaced the gas while adding dry gas.

Thanks,
Big Ross

the biggest trouble with old mowers is old gas in the carb. cleaning them is not very difficult. there has to be some kind of belt/tentioner/clutch on this machine! maybe the belt is to small and not on right?? you would always start them in nutral then push clutch and put it into the gear you want. They don't shift like a car you need to stop moving to change gears.