Repairing the Abandoned and Forgotten John Deere 955 - We Bought a NEW Tractor - Part 2

As you can probably tell by this video we decided to buy the abandoned John Deere 955 tractor from the previous episode! In this video we begin to tackle the long list of items needed for me to feel comfortable to start using this tractor around the workshop and property. As with any new or used purchase of equipment its a good idea to go through the machine and replace all the fluids and filters as well as do a good once-over and look for any problems that might need some attention in the near future and that's exactly what I'm going to do in this episode.
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[@mliiiwit2]

A few notes for the JD 55 series: The loader detaches in about 2 minutes, well worth removing for maintenance or when not needed during other operations. Contrary to what you stated, the hydrostat has it's own pump separate from the hydraulic pump. Someday, the fuel pickup hose in the tank will disintegrate and the engine will starve long before the tank is empty. Replace with a hose intended to be installed in a fuel tank (have had to do this on 2 '55 series JD). You may also want to suck all of the crap out of the bottom of the tank when you do this to save on subsequent fuel filter replacements. Someday, the bracket holding the fuel strainer and that serves as the anchor for the engine end of the throttle cable will crack and fail. You will immediately see power roll back. Weld a small gusset in the corner of the bracket when you repair it. The small brass cable lock on the throttle cable at the injector pump will wear over time and will keep the engine from reaching full throttle - don't mistake this gradual power loss for an engine problem. Power steering hydraulic lines are routed right beside the front axle drive shaft and are a BEAR to replace. Keep an eye on the driveshaft and guard that they are not chafing the PS lines. Clean and lube the hydro pedals linkages regularly and learn what adjustments are needed to stop neutral "creep". Keep the radiator and screen clean, do your other maintenance regularly, and these are a nearly bullet-proof machine. When the hourmeter failed, I installed a small electric hobbs meter, RTV'd it to the top of the fuel tank after removing the fuel spill pan (which I've never missed). Wired it to the fuel shutoff solenoid for positive.

[@fredbaumberger8988]

Watching you work the woods I think you bought a gem, if you ever watched Captain Kleeman operate his 755 they are a work horse

[@hcr-motorworks]

I blame Kleeman, Dirt perfect, and Neil Koch dig drive DIY for this entire purchase actually lol

[@dankreoger611]

worked at a JD dealership in the 80s when the 50 series came out. by the time the 55 series came out sales of these things exploded. basically they were imported YANMAR diesels, when they got here they were painted red, green, and blue. for some reason the green outsold the others. was glad to see you replaced the clips with snap clips.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Gotta love the ole just import it and paint it trick! yea those snap clips would have lasted about a half a second haha

[@markziegler3551]

I am not a huge Deere fan either but I will say that the 855 and 955 are tractors that I would definitely own. I have a New Holland but would like a 55 series to have as a second toy.

[@hcr-motorworks]

I've never ben a green anything fan. the 655, 755, 855, and 955's are some of the most amazingly little 90's tractor I've seen so far. glad to have had the opportunity to scoop this one up!

[@WillG-kb6es]

I have a 955 with about 2000 hours on it since when I bought it in 1989. Thanks for the mtce tips- getting ready to do the trans oil change myself.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Thanks for watching!

[@lv_woodturner3899]

Glad to see the 955 back to working order. It cleaned up well except for the bare metal spots. I have a 1989 755. I am the second owner. My tractor spent its first 9 years being stored in an enclosed barn. I purchased the tractor in 1998. It is stored in my garage which does not see much temperature swing, perhaps mid 50's in winter and high 70's in summer. I have areas where the paint is flacking off. The tractor rarely gets wet, perhaps when clearing wet snow.in winter, but always gets to dry out back in the garage. I think the flacking paint is due to bad or lack of priming the metal. I am amazed that your tractor only had 69 hours at the time you purchased it. I have about 1270 hours on my 755. Dave.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Ill be tackling the looks department in the future at some point. But want to make sure it holds up mechanically before i dump money and time into the appearances. They are amazing little machines though Thanks for watching!

[@GregorsOutdoors]

Therapeutic to watch you bring the old reliable JD 955 back to fight another day. I bought one in 1996 with the handy dandy 70A loader and have never looked back. Once you have the loader on a 955 you will always have it on. It's just too doggone useful to not have it on there! My purpose for the 955 was to rake and bale pine needles in very tight plantation pine quarters- and this is where the compacts really shine. Anything larger would be torn to shreds in the pine straw woods! As your video clearly displayed, I also cleared new patches of accessible areas by demolishing small blackjack oaks and other saplings as large as my wrist. Anything larger was sliced down with a chainsaw, brush piled as high as we could throw things and then pushed away by the little green machine that could! Don't let the diminutive size of the 955 fool you...with ag tires and four-wheel drive and locking positive rear end traction, no brush pile stood a chance even in wet areas a bigger tractor would bog down. I've had many an individual pass by me working with my 955 who have offered to buy it, but I wisely refused. At one point, I needed the money more than I needed the tractor, but my dear old granddad advised me to keep it! It really is so easy to operate all my children and wife have used it many times while I am away. Thanks for your video, it obviously reignited the joy of using mine! Cheers!

[@hcr-motorworks]

They are great little machines for what they are!

[@andreim1120]

That is a lot of work in one video!

[@hcr-motorworks]

Just trying to feed the algorithm!!

[@SF-fm7ov]

Glad to see you changed the hitch pins to Category 2 and used lynch pins. Looks like you need to get the lights working next. It pays to do things right.

[@user-os2el5zw1l]

Love that size tractor.awesome find

[@morganblu]

That is a nice JD, I’ve been looking for one in decent shape!

[@hcr-motorworks]

This one looks terrible but its actually been a great addition to the fleet.

[@carloskawasaki656]

Thank you for share 👍👍👍👍

[@hcr-motorworks]

Thanks for the view!

[@williammatzek4660]

I put a lot of trouble free hours on 4020 and 5020 john deere tractors. Dad farmed all of his life. He only owned 1 tractor that was not john deere, he put me on it. John deere run and run and run. !!!!!

[@hcr-motorworks]

They are good at running up the repair bills too 😉

[@williammatzek4660]

@@hcr-motorworkswe have not had many repair bills on john deere.

[@user-os2el5zw1l]

They all cost money to repair at a shop.regardless of color

[@user-yd1vl9lj5j]

I can tell your not a fan of John Deere, but take heart in the fact that you have an orange Yanmar in JD green. Can't believe that was left out to weather with less than 100 on the clock.

[@mp3625]

Nice find

[@hcr-motorworks]

Right time right place! Hard to come by these days for sure

[@joeysowell116]

That what I am looking for. An old fixer upper.

[@hcr-motorworks]

It's been and an amazing little tractor for its size

[@doughboy1966]

Pump bearing grease into that gear box. It won’t leak as much that way.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Good tip! Ill be replacing the seals soon enough

[@galehess6676]

corn head grease is made by jd for gear boxes that leak, straight from deere and deere literature @@hcr-motorworks

[@edsecorr7812]

Great job keep up the good work love your videos thank you

[@hcr-motorworks]

Thanks for watching

[@roballan4944]

If the inner air filter is anything but new looking, replace it. Do not blow it out. You can blow out the outer. Watch your restriction gauge often. The air intake is close to the exhaust enough that it will pull in soot. Clean out your radiator screens. On the front they pull straight up.

[@hcr-motorworks]

there’s two different models that use an inner and outer filter, this one only has the outer filter. always check part diagrams for the model your working on

[@MidwestToolReview]

Great work on the 955! I’ve got a JD 750 coming and it appears the 700 series and 900 series are within the same model family, so hope I’ll be able to leverage what I learned here to service my tractor!! Keep up the good work.

[@hcr-motorworks]

they are amazing little tractors for sure

[@mliiiwit2]

This is a '55 series, not a 900 series. Not familiar with the 700 series, but I doubt much similarity.

[@edsecorr7812]

Keep up the good work thank you love your videos

[@hcr-motorworks]

Thanks for watching!

[@tonypaul2987]

No no prestone. A diesel tractor uses diesel coolant. I use fleetrite coolant in 7.3. And found out it runs much cooler.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Shows ya how much I know! I didn't even know there was a difference in coolant HA. Thanks for creating more work for me to go back and fix!

[@rickcoleman8903]

Diesel coolant is only for wet cylinder liner dry liners it isn't necessary.

[@graybeardgarage9638]

I’m glad to someone else kicks the 3 point arms like I do.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Lol its a way of life with these old things

[@ianbob3050]

I noticed in your first video that the right front wheel and tire was vibrating when it was idling at the 21:30 minute mark...you said it was leaking.Something inside the hub assembly must be broken.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Yea the weird tire vibration in that video is a camera frame rate issue lol. But yea the hub/pivot seals are shot and leak fluid

[@ianbob3050]

@@hcr-motorworks Gotcha...was a little funny looking..lol

[@jamesrubendall1228]

Not to de the safety guy but when you put on a PTO no matter the size make sure the tractor is off you wouldn't thing you could get cought up on a PTO but what it happens there isn't much left of you

[@hcr-motorworks]

Your not the first to mention that. FWIW this one does have the safety seat interlock, but yea should that switch/circuit fail it could be nasty!

[@Hodado]

Nice job with your maul on the brushog

[@hcr-motorworks]

sometimes you need a bigger hammer haha

[@INITECHARMS]

You should make video about mfwd repair, i see more people noticed the play in front wheels. I am also curious what it causes since i have similar issue on my JD 955

[@hcr-motorworks]

Definitely in the works!

[@steveperchinsky5833]

well its nice to see you upgrade LOL if it aint green and yellow buddy it aint it.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Lol...i mean thats one way of looking at it. Im more of a 50 shades of orange kinda guy, but this little tractor does the trick for whats intended.

[@r_shackleford]

I would shut the tractor off when hooking up the pto or reaching under a rotary cutter but maybe thats just me.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Where's your sense of adventure?!

[@justman777texas2]

It looks look you figured out the hour meter was correct. Unlike your Kioti, the Deere's of that vintage (or newer, at least up to 2008) used an hour meter that only worked fully when you reached PTO engine RPM. Below that, they still advanced, but only incrementally. At lower RPM, you could use the tractor for literally hours and still not put an hour on the hour meter. Can't do that on the Kioti.

[@hcr-motorworks]

Yea its wild they bought this thing brand new and parked it at a hunting camp for nearly 2 decades and only used it for bushhogging.

[@mliiiwit2]

AND the original hourmeters were notorious for early failure. If anyone looks at buying one, run it awhile to see if the hourmeter actually accrues time. The one in my 98 955 failed at ~ 670 hours though tach still is accurate. One of these could have thousands of hours and only show a few hundred. 1989 855 at work hourmeter failed at ~ 3600 hours many, many hundreds of hours ago and it still runs like new.

[@gregoryastonalexander6480]

I couldn't find how much he purchased it for.

[@hcr-motorworks]

couple thousand If I recall.

[@markhammersmith8361]

Did you do a video on the front axle oil or similar and the hydraulic steering cylinder too?

[@hcr-motorworks]

Not yet...i still have to do that job unfortunately

[@ghilliemanreviews]

The distilled water trick, would that work in all vehicles better than normal water? I am looking for a tractor and I found this exact one in good shape.

[@hcr-motorworks]

You always want to use distilled water if your buying full strength antifreeze. Most tap waters have minerals and will cause deposits to build up over time in the cooling system. You should get it! They are amazing little tractors.

[@r.l.1891]

Green tractor, green gloves, assimilation complete....

[@hcr-motorworks]

Become one with the green

[@bigboy9957]

Dont put off the hub leaking i bought a 91 855 amd the previous owner was putting off the hub leak untill the 4wd stopped working at which point he sold it to me. The hub had slowely laeaked all the fluid out and the bearings all wore bad and the pivot points on the axle to the point that the gears in the axle didnt really touch eachother because of the amount of movement in the bearings 1800 dolar fix dont put it off

[@hcr-motorworks]

I was afraid someone would confirm i needed to make it priority 😌

[@craigdreisbach5956]

Great video. Did the Hobbs hour meter work? I find that the lift pins on the bush hog always loosen even when using a cheater bar to tighten them. I've resorted to double nutting them. Kind regards, Craig

[@hcr-motorworks]

The hour meter did work! And its original...looks terrible cause it lived its while life outside at a huntin camp in the weather.

[@hhout9242]

So no more Datsun videos? You had a good thing going.

[@hcr-motorworks]

More Datsun stuff is in the pipeline...Just been busy with other projects and odd and ends.

[@user-os2el5zw1l]

Why a kioti?

[@richardharris7714]

Green is the best

[@hcr-motorworks]

Orange is good too ;)

[@stevensedzaniluvhimbi4110]

@@hcr-motorworks good day sir my name is steven,is there an email or landline that i can use to get hold of you, your response will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance

[@ProphetZDilla]

Can a JD 855 use a 7’ Box Blade?

[@hcr-motorworks]

Nah, I would measure your tire width and stick to a box blade that is just slightly wider than the tires.

[@mliiiwit2]

Lots of experience with a 6" box blade behind 855 MFD with turf tires. It will move a hell of a lot of material.@@hcr-motorworks

[@raymartin9527]

Do you want to sale or possibly trade?

[@hcr-motorworks]

Maybe in the future. Im gonna hang onto it for now though! Once im done rebuilding it maybe ill throw a price tag on it.

[@philliphall5198]

All it takes is labor and money to make money 😊

[@hcr-motorworks]

And in the end, im not sure any money is actually made haha

[@mattphillips4260]

not sure where you are from if this tractor wheels in back are less than 50 inches and you choose to sell it please toss me a note on face book

[@hcr-motorworks]

I'll keep ya in mind!

[@DavidBraasch]

That intro video is way too long.

[@daleolson3506]

Introduction way too long