Much to my chagrin, there's more to my 853 story, but the ending is pretty happy: I ran the 853 around the yard and did a few chores with it Saturday morning. I noticed oil on the inside of the left front wheel. Sure enuf, my seal was leaking. I decided to bite the bullet and tear the front axles out this weekend, lol. The hardest thing about this project was I didn't have the proper puller for the bearing races. I had to build one, but I couldn't get enough "oomph" to make it work. I ended up cutting the races out with a diamond bladed micro-grinder--the same one I used to cut the back hydraulic filter off. I bet that literally took me 4 hours because I was making tiny cuts so as not to damage the bearing seat surfaces. If anybody has any ideas (other than the exact proper tool) if I ever have to pull bearing races again, I'm all ears. Anyway, I'm glad I pulled the seal off the one side and then decided to pull the other side--the other side had a chunk missing out of the bearing itself, and when I pulled the axle shaft out, the pieces fell at my feet! Almost needless to say, I spent the rest of the day Saturday and until 4am this morning rebuilding the front end. I went thru it completely and polished all the driveshaft surfaces, the axle tubes, and the hubs. Doesn't sound like much, but it was a BUNCH of work. The inside races and bearings inside the front chain case were in good shape. I compared them to brand-new parts, and they were so close, I decided not to switch them out. The races were very shiny and smooth with no evidence of wear at all, and the bearings had very little slop in them. I sure am glad I save that length of pipe from the last job, because my installation of the new bearings on the shafts went super-smoothly using it like a post driver. Only a machine shop would have something better. I did NOT replace the speedy-sleeves, but I'm sure I will have to sometime. I didn't have new ones to put on. I did polish up the old ones, and I put a light coat of marine grease on the sleeves and the bearings before I put them back inside the machine. I'm going to keep an eye on the seals to see if they leak. I'm ordering new seals and speedy-sleeves, tho, to have on hand for the future. Oh, the culprit for the leaking seals--poly baling twine found on round hay bales! Two of the 4 axles had it wrapped around them. So, some poly twine ruined my $8 seals which led to about $2000 in repairs. I think if I take care of the machine, it should last a long time, now, tho. Also, I had to use (3) 6-ton jacks and a 12-ton gear puller to get the right side hub off, and when it went, it FLEW across the yard about 6 feet with a BANG! Luckily, after the first hub popped off a couple weeks ago, I stood WAY out of the way this time. I put a lot of anti-seize on the shaft and the hubs and keyways, so they should slide right off next time I take them apart. I think that's it for now. I hope I don't have to put too many more repair topics on here for a while! Thanks.