Simplicity 728 Broadmoore

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

OK, now that I have the two Horses running good and working (mowing and tilling), and the IH Cub Cadet has freshly rebuilt K-341 with a new/used push blade, and the recently aquired JD 140 is running well ( just a toy for now), I drug our first family riding mower out of the barn to try and bring it back to life. It is a late 60's Simplicity 728 Broadmoore with a starter/generator Briggs verticle shaft 8hp engine. It has a 36inch mowing deck with 3 little 12" blades. My dad bought it used in about 1969, and it was two years old then according to Dad ( and my memory ). Anyway, this was the rider I learned how to cut grass with while holding a steering wheel. After removing the mowing deck, hood, and grill, I installed new fuel hose and filter, new air filter, changed the oil, and cleaned the gas tank of course. Anyway, after installing a new battery, turned the engine over, and had no spark. so a few days later took it to my engine rebuilder for him to get it running. It probably just needs points, plug, condenser, and coil. Then I will do the rest. My plan is to get it in working condition for my grandson to be mowing with it next summer instead of playing video games. I was mowing with it at the age of 12, and he will be doing the same thing. I am looking forward to taking some pics of that!

Van

[Kelly 1,029]

I've got one of those little tractors, I have wheel weights and chains, rear doughnut weight, mid grader blade, front blade, snow blower, mower deck, yard trailer, and it's all for sale.

[SousaKerry 501]

Buddie of mine had one up till about 2 years ago and it was his regular mower. Always thought they were a little odd with the floating rear end but it mowed nice

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

Buddie of mine had one up till about 2 years ago and it was his regular mower. Always thought they were a little odd with the floating rear end but it mowed nice

Oh yes, you are right about that. It lays the grass down nicely with all those rear mounted rollers on a full floating deck. Plus with the whole tractor pivoting in the middle, it is a joy to mow with. I told my grandson about getting it running and ready for him to mow with this afternoon when I got home from work. He had a big ole smile on his face and gave me a hug with both arms:)

That is some of life's good stuff.

[perry 82]

they are nice little tractors. you could have just put a mega-fire ignition on it and bypassed the points.

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

Dang Perry, I did not know they made that for an old Briggs. I learned something new today! Thank you :)

[horsesaver98 18]

:wwp:

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

Pics to come when it gets back home from the engine shop :)

[perry 82]

Dang Perry, I did not know they made that for an old Briggs. I learned something new today! Thank you

yep, i use them all the time on my old briggs that give me fits. got one on a chainsaw too. i even have some older verson magna-tron ignitions that clip to the side of the coil. sure beats pulling the flywheel to get to the points on the little briggs.

[The Toolman 22]

OK, now that I have the two Horses running good and working (mowing and tilling), and the IH Cub Cadet has freshly rebuilt K-341 with a new/used push blade, and the recently aquired JD 140 is running well ( just a toy for now), I drug our first family riding mower out of the barn to try and bring it back to life. It is a late 60's Simplicity 728 Broadmoore with a starter/generator Briggs verticle shaft 8hp engine. It has a 36inch mowing deck with 3 little 12" blades. My dad bought it used in about 1969, and it was two years old then according to Dad ( and my memory ). Anyway, this was the rider I learned how to cut grass with while holding a steering wheel. After removing the mowing deck, hood, and grill, I installed new fuel hose and filter, new air filter, changed the oil, and cleaned the gas tank of course. Anyway, after installing a new battery, turned the engine over, and had no spark. so a few days later took it to my engine rebuilder for him to get it running. It probably just needs points, plug, condenser, and coil. Then I will do the rest. My plan is to get it in working condition for my grandson to be mowing with it next summer instead of playing video games. I was mowing with it at the age of 12, and he will be doing the same thing. I am looking forward to taking some pics of that!

Van

Here ya go, maybe you can pick out the right year an pic from this site. I had a 64 landlord ( the bigggest one) back when and it was made for monkey wards an called a squire. Same swivel style of frame on the bigger ones also. It helped the scalping problems a lot by having the frame swivel like that.

My brother bought it new in 64 an gave it to me in 70. I found a tiller an sickle bar for it a week or so later. Took the mower deck off, tried the sickle bar, was neat, finally put the tiller on an left it there until I sold it a few years later.

Made more $ back then tilling gardens than you could shake a stick at. The way the linkage on simps. are, you can pull back on the lift bar an put down pressure on the rear attachment if needed. With that I could till a bed of rock hard dirt an have powder on the second go round. I always dropped that rear little cover on the tiller the second time round to keep the dirt in there grinding it up real fine. Which I have since found out that you can get the dirt to fine also.

http://www.simpletractors.com/Main/simplicity.htm

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

they are nice little tractors. you could have just put a mega-fire ignition on it and bypassed the points.

Got a nice surprise today after work. I called my friend Kevin who is working on the Simplicity, and he was happy to tell me the little 8hp Briggs is living once again. He got it running late this afternoon, and it now has breakerless ignition. Kevin says it seems to run really good but wants a little more tuning time on it Monday. Also too he is going to go ahead and replace the generator belt, and change the transmission oil. Then when it comes home, I can clean it up really good, replace all the other belts and mower blades, maybe some new pullys, probably go ahead and buy some new tires and front wheel bearings, get seat recovered, stuff like that:)

I will post some pics of it when it is back in the barn.

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

OK, bad news boys. .........................

First (not the bad news), Kevin had to remove the breakerless ignition due to the design made it impossible to adjust the timing. He went back with points and condenser. I was OK with that, must be the old school purist in me. I went to the shop today to pick up the little 728 and it was purring like a kitten. The engine would start right up and pull me around just like it should. I was very happy.

Now the bad news;

Got it home and was getting in a little seat time in high gear at about 1/3rd throttle when all of a sudden the little 8hp Briggs just up and died. I had added a little bit of 2 stroke oil to the gas to give the valves and cylinder a little extra lubrication for the first couple of hours until the motor got used to running again. But the way it stopped running I knew either the plug was not firing or it had lost compression. I pulled the plug and there was plenty of spark. Then I put my finger over the spark plug hole and spun the starter. Sure enough there was nothing in the way of compression.

Well, now I have to pull the engine and have it rebuilt. Thats OK, I am not complaining. That little engine has alot of hours on it, and for today I'm happy I got to drive it one more time.

Do you guys have any suggestions for me regarding this? I know I could install a newer engine but this one has a "Starter/Generator" and I would like to keep it that way. The starter was working and so was the charging system.

Van

[perry 82]

I would say the exhaust valve is stuck, BUT you already had it running. 90% of the older simplicity briggs engines i get that have been sitting the valve is stuck. little lube and a hammer tap fix's that. not sure on the rebuild, never had to rebuild a briggs, they never die. maybe find another little simplicity and rob the engine from it. i see plenty of those style tractors on craigslist.

[perry 82]

only the vertical shaft engine simplicity broadmoor style tractors swiveled in the center. the landlord would not. I have a wards squire 9 built by simplicity. same as the landlord but gold and black in color. they did also make a smaller vertical shaft engine gold wards.

here is the small wards that swiveled in the center like a broadmoor

[The Toolman 22]

only the vertical shaft engine simplicity broadmoor style tractors swiveled in the center. the landlord would not. I have a wards squire 9 built by simplicity. same as the landlord but gold and black in color. they did also make a smaller vertical shaft engine gold wards.

here is the small wards that swiveled in the center like a broadmoor

Well, all I can tell ya is that my 9hp old wards horiz shaft simp was a 64-65 and I would have swore it did. But that has been 42 years ago that I had it.

Heres a pic I found of exactly what it looked like. I could be wrong, but I swore it swiveled in the middle right under the front of the seat or the rear of the dash. I had a tiller, mower, sickle bar and a yard trailer for it. I always had to go to AC to get parts for the sickle bar.

I found this a few days ago,(its not a Simp, its a Gilson I think) that he wants $400 for it an I believe he will take 300 for it. Its not what I had, but a nice one to finish filling my trailer to take to the tractor shows.

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

Perry, once again I think you may have hit the nail on the head. Kevin has the 728 now and says he thinks the exhaust valve is stuck open. I asked him to go ahead and make the necessary repairs. Thak you for your suggestion. I will let ya'll know more as soon as I know more. For now though, it is good hands.

Toolman, is the bottom picture the one you are thinking of buying??? If so, that sure is a nice one. I would have to take that one home with me!

[The Toolman 22]

Yep, thats the one I'll probably buy tomorrow. Not the one I wanted, but this will do for the time been until I find the 9 hp monkey wards squire like I had. This is a Gilson made tractor from 1976.

When I was young an my brother bought the new 9hp simp from Wards, I tried to get my Dad to buy the cheaper/ smaller vert shaft one, like the one above on the trailer, but I got stuck with a new monkey wards simp rear engine "Wonder Boy" UGLY but it did do a heckuva good mowing job.

Ron

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

Ron, please post some pics of the Gilson when its in your posession. I reallyreally like that little tractor.

Thank you,

Van

[The Toolman 22]

Didn't buy it for $300, offered $250 an wouldn't take, so I said bye bye.. Carbs leaks terrible, batt bad, rear end whines alot, mower deck missing, decals look like heck in real life, looks like head gskt is leaking a little, but the engine did sound excellent for its age when they finally did get it running.

The only thing I found restored on it was the gold paint, and not a very good job at that.

If anybody else is interested I'll sure give ya the CL ad or his phone #. I am tired of buying other peoples c**p.

Ronnie

[perry 82]

i picked up two wards squire 9 tractors last year. sold one and kept one .

here is mine

sold this one last year. the guy just got finished with the restore. did a nice job on it .

factory dual lifts

carry-all

[jay in nc 210]

boy they sure are a big family, A-C- b-10 , squire, simplicity, wards, Any more? heres my b10 that i used to plow snow on when i was a teenager. had to go to tidiute pa to get it.

boy they sure are a big family, A-C- b-10 , squire, simplicity, wards, Any more? heres my b10 that i used to plow snow on when i was a teenager. had to go to tidiute pa to get it.

[perry 82]

nice B-10 . they did homelite and JC-penny tractors too

[Wheel-N-It 2,969]

^{Another setback guys. The exhause valve seat poped out of the block and held the exhaust valve open. Kevin is looking for a certain product that is used to hold a loose sleeve in a cast iron or aluminum engine block, to bond the valve seat to the briggs engine block. Then for a little extra insurance he says he will pin the block to the seat. Hopefully there will be no further work required to get the Briggs running again. Keeping my fingers crossed...........................................................................}