"Cabot" wrote in message

The JD had a 6.5 BS engine. It was one of those with the caster front
wheels. The self-propelled broke. I'm sure I won't get the technical names
correct here, but I'll try to explain.

There's a pulley on the axle shaft, which sits on a pin. The pin wore out,
which looks to be from the bearing seizing in the pulley. The pin is not
screwed into place , but appears to be cast as part of the axle. You have
to replace the axle housing, in order to fix this, the pin was not
replaceable. The cost factor was too much vs replacing the mower. It was a
bad design.

Answered my question. You want the Kawasaki engine. Unless you have a lot
of long runs you don't want the self propelled either. They are too much
work around trees and other obstacles if you have a lot of them. IMO,
pushing is not all that hard in most cases.