Bent deck?

[JimSraj 485]

Last year I had a 1 owner 1990 312-8 follow me home. It came with a 42” deck. I did the usual new-to-me tractor work even thought it ran well. The quality of the mow was though, in my opinion, poor.  Seemed like the blades were not cutting in the same plane. Spindles all turn easily and are quite. Last fall I removed the deck for cleaning and winter storage and oiling of the underside. As I’m getting ready to remount it I noticed the blades are definitely not planar. There is about 1/2” difference in height difference between the ends of adjacent blades when they are nearest to one another. Looking closer at the spindle housings shows them all to be slightly tilted away from the discharge end of the deck. The deck must be bent at the spindle mounting holes from what I’m seeing. 
Has anyone else had this problem?  What did you do to fix it and how successful was it?
Thanks in advance for any help. 

[Wvtroutbum81 234]

I had one with one spindle mount bent bad. Stripped deck down and used heat with a hammer and dolly. Take you time and move the metal slowly. Check progress with straight edge from the bottom side of deck. Take your time and work metal slow  

[Ed Kennell 40,720]

I have a 42"RD that I did a lot of welding repair.    I I finally had to use thin washer shims under the spindle housing the level the blades.

[953 nut 58,305]

9 hours ago, JimSraj said:

The deck must be bent at the spindle mounting holes from what I’m seeing. 

Look them over closely, could be cracked where the deck was pressed when formed. I had a 42" SD that had cracks on two mounting areas. Bent them back, welded the cracks and all was good again

[peter lena 9,110]

@JimSraj  most important to have a very solid  hold on that deck , have used a  pipe wrench  inside of  empty  spindle  mount  base , with a  4 ft  pipe helper , easily over powered  the bend area , the leverage , lets you gently tweek  the bend area . initially  secured deck  up to a tree , for  solid leverage  advantage . just and experiment  , that worked , pete  

[oliver2-44 10,427]

if you find the deck mount area cracked Wheel Horse used to sell a weld in repair blank.  

A local shop or Lowel at Wheel Horse Parts and more can probable make you one. 

[JimSraj 485]

Thanks for that info. The deck does not appear to have any cracks. I’ll know more once the spindles are removed. Looks like those repair parts wouldn’t be too hard to make. Do you know how thick they were?  I have another deck that does have some cracks around the bolt holes. Might be an option for that one. 

[JimSraj 485]

Finally got to the deck today. Center pulley and one outer pulley came right off. But, as you probably know, there always has to be one that doesn’t cooperate. The second out pulley is really stuck. Been soaking with Kroil. Tried heating it up a little. Didn’t want to damage the bearing so quit that once grease came out of the hole where the zerk threads in. Tried a puller on it and bent the pulley. Any suggestions?

On a better note, the tool I made to  bend the deck at the spindle mounting area seems to have worked well. 4’ ‘cheater pipe’ slid over the bar allowed me to move the deck metal without  beating on it. 
I’ve ordered a new pulley from 8Ten. Hope it’s decent quality. 
Any and all recommendations for getting that pulley off the spindle shaft will be greatly appreciated.
Here’s a photo of the tool I used to bend the deck. It’s 1/4” plate and solid rod. I didn’t have any 1” rod so I slid a short piece of conduit over the 5/8” rod to fill most of the inside of the 1” cheater pipe I used as a ‘handle’. 

Edited 11 hours ago by JimSraj

[JimSraj 485]

On 4/19/2025 at 10:32 AM, oliver2-44 said:

if you find the deck mount area cracked Wheel Horse used to sell a weld in repair blank.  

A local shop or Lowel at Wheel Horse Parts and more can probable make you one. 

Do you know what gauge these were made from and were they welded over the existing deck metal?

[ineedanother 1,519]

Consider that blades have to first rotate on parallel planes before being adjusted to equal elevation below the deck. Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves. Ask me how I know.

[oliver2-44 10,427]

9 hours ago, JimSraj said:

Any and all recommendations for getting that pulley off the spindle shaft will be greatly appreciated.

Since the pulley is toast, cut it off with a grinder. 

Be extra careful not to damage the spindle.  

I don't like to do a single slit as I always damage a shaft doing that. 

Try something like this.

Cut  roughly 1/2 of the pulley off leaving the collar on the shaft.

Then flat grind the collar to where just a thin amount of metal remains

Hit the remaining side of the pulley to stretch the thin metal and break the pulley free.

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by oliver2-44

[oliver2-44 10,427]

9 hours ago, JimSraj said:

Do you know what gauge these were made from and were they welded over the existing deck metal?

Sorry I don't know the thickness. Yes they were intended to weld over the existing metal  

This vendor on EBay has reasonable priced round blanks. (this is just an example, I don't know exact size needed. He will also do custom sizes and hole layouts. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/192266491194?_skw=3%2F16+steel+plate+%2C+6"+diameter&itmmeta=01JV7D1EHJVB64A976SPTATCZ1&hash=item2cc3f9d53a:g:GbQAAOSwDNdVgjX8

Edited 1 hour ago by oliver2-44