A couple deck mods

[Ed Kennell 35,601]

A cool rainy morning had me looking around the barn for an indoor project this morning.

 

There was this really nice 48" SD with the old style mounting hardware.  The deck has a good shell and the steel greasable spindles with the offset zerks that you can actually grease without taking the deck off the tractor.   These decks also have the heavy spindle reinforcement plate that keeps the blade tips in perfect alignment.  The bearings are all tight and quiet...probably because the were well greased by the PO.

 

So, I removed the old mount and added a  new style mount.   This was really a easy conversion.  After centering and locating the correct front to rear position so the standard length belt would work, It just required drilling 8 new holes for the 4 mounting brackets.    I did have to alter the rear brackets to fit the slope of the deck.  Then make a lever for the front to rear leveling rod.

 

Put it on the C-120 and it cuts really nice and is my quietest deck.   I may add the two anti scalp rollers to the front corners.

 

After  this was finished, there was this pile of 2 blade gear drive decks with the bad ball and socket in the left rods.    This design was one of two bad designs by WH.  The other was the rocker plate engine mount.    

 

I have never found a gear drive deck that didn't have a problem with the left rod.   It's clear the design engineer didn't realize the left rod was in tension and a ball and socket would not work.   The right rod is in compression and works fine although this is a very expensive machining process where a clearance hole and a threaded rod would have done a better job.

Here are some of the fixes by POs.  All defeat the purpose of adjustable rods.

The strap

 

Just weld it

 

The hose clamps

 

This one that I repaired by cutting off the ball, drilling and tapping the rod, and drilling a clearance hole in the pulley shaft actually was held together by a turnbuckle and hose clamps.

 

 

Now, three more to repair....next rainy day project.

[roadapples 6,981]

Good job Ed. My brother did the same with a 36 " deck he picked up at the show last year...

[Ed Kennell 35,601]

It cooled down enough to weld today, so I made the anti scalp roller brackets .

[AMC RULES 36,941]

 Used the 1 good eye...

or the old bad one Ed?  

[Ed Kennell 35,601]

                                 Used the good one, but it didn't improve my welding.

[roadapples 6,981]

Good job Ed. Great to be selfsufficient...