Figuring blade speed

[lynnmor 6,783]

Adjust the friction on the throttle by putting a screw thru it with a locknut.

 

Adjust the friction on the motion control by adjusting the nut atop the hydro unit, under the seat, like it says in the manual.    First clean any grease from the friction washer and never lube it.

 

Sharpen the blades at the original angle and keep them sharp.

[olddude 10]

Found a deck but it's a 78361 and the one on mine is a 78360. I think I read that the 78361 superceeded the 78360 so will it work on my 520H?

[gwest_ca-(File Mod) 10,499]

18 hours ago, olddude said:

Found a deck but it's a 78361 and the one on mine is a 78360. I think I read that the 78361 superceeded the 78360 so will it work on my 520H?

79360 up to 1998

79361 1998 - on.

Yes it will fit.

 

Garry

[olddude 10]

Well I found a deck on Craigslist and went and picked it up yesterday. Got it back home and couldn't help but to put it on and try it out. I got it switched over and and could tell before I finished the hook up that something was different. That deck went on like a snap everything lined up and things went together so easy I thought I had left something out. It took longer for me to remove the old deck than it did to hook up the new one. The old deck always was a pain to remove and put back on. I looked at both of them and couldn't really see anything different but there has to be something out of wack with that old deck. I'm going to look at it closer today to see if I can spot something wrong.

 

The new deck came off of an older tractor but it was never used much. There was an old set of belts on the deck that the guy said were the original belts that came on the tractor. He bought the tractor new with a rototiller attachment on it and that was mostly what he used that machine for. He got tired of  stumbling over the deck everytime he went into his shed so he decided to sell it. He wanted $475.00 but I went over there with $400.00 and came home with it. 

 

As soon as I hit the PTO lever and the blades started turning I knew this was a new ball game. The other deck has always made a lot of noise even after I replaced the bearings in the spindles along with a bunch of other things. This one is quiet all you hear is that wonderful harmonic balance between blades wirling and the soothing sound of that 20 HP Onan singing. OH, and it cuts like a charm. I cut a few weeds first but couldn't help but to give it a try on a section of Zoysia that is well established and all I can say is that I'm well satisfied and it's the best I've ever seen that grass look after it was newly cut.

 

I can't be too hard on that old deck it had 1500 hard hours on it and has cut probably a million miles worth of grass under it's belt and I'll have to say it was still cutting the same as it did when it was new.

[olddude 10]

17 minutes ago, gwest_ca said:

79360 up to 1998

79361 1998 - on.

Yes it will fit.

 

Garry

That's strange because the guy said it came off an older tractor and mine is a 95 I think. Also he said it came off a 300 series tractor.

Edited May 14, 2020 by olddude
added content

[r1jakecfd 51]

This may sound silly and hope I’m not insulting you but are you running the belt on the inner(larger diameter) PTO pulley groove?

just a thought as that can have a big effect on blade(or other attachment) speed.

Good luck🙏

[Skipper 1,788]

Not trying to tease here either, but even at low engine speed you should be able to cut. Something must be wrong. Are you sure the blades aren't on the wrong way, or the belt twisted so it turns backwards.?

 

I have a few passes where the wife don't want clippings in the flowers, and I cut that a idle, or just a tad above. Works fine. and my grass is the super fine straw type. I cut at app. 2" hight.

 

There must be something way wrong for it to cut that bad. I once changed blades in a hurry, and got one on wrong side up. That looked way less than good. Kind of like you describe. Have also seen severely warped decks cut bad.

 

If you post some pics of your old deck, both sides, I think the guys here will spot if something is out of wack.

[olddude 10]

10 hours ago, r1jakecfd said:

This may sound silly and hope I’m not insulting you but are you running the belt on the inner(larger diameter) PTO pulley groove?

just a thought as that can have a big effect on blade(or other attachment) speed.

Good luck🙏

Not silly at all but no It's setup and running in the right groove. I don't know if you read the post above about the new deck I found but that fixed the cutting problem. It cuts like a charm now. Thanks.....

[r1jakecfd 51]

52 minutes ago, olddude said:

Not silly at all but no It's setup and running in the right groove. I don't know if you read the post above about the new deck I found but that fixed the cutting problem. It cuts like a charm now. Thanks.....

So glad it’s fixed and running smoothly. Sorry, there were a bunch of replies so I skimmed really quickly. 
I have the 48” side discharge on my 520h. When I first bought it, it cut terribly until I adjusted the mower blade level(front to rear) adjustment. It made a huge difference when I followed that procedure and dialed it in. 
I will say, I really miss my old 42” rear discharge deck. It cut beautifully and allowed me to pull a sweeper to collect the clippings at the same time. I have no bagger for the SD which makes it a 2 step process. Oh well, I guess it means more quality time on my “Horse”👍😊

Cheers

[olddude 10]

6 hours ago, Skipper said:

Not trying to tease here either, but even at low engine speed you should be able to cut. Something must be wrong. Are you sure the blades aren't on the wrong way, or the belt twisted so it turns backwards.?

 

I have a few passes where the wife don't want clippings in the flowers, and I cut that a idle, or just a tad above. Works fine. and my grass is the super fine straw type. I cut at app. 2" hight.

 

There must be something way wrong for it to cut that bad. I once changed blades in a hurry, and got one on wrong side up. That looked way less than good. Kind of like you describe. Have also seen severely warped decks cut bad.

 

If you post some pics of your old deck, both sides, I think the guys here will spot if something is out of wack.

Not trying to tease here either and don't take this personal but think about this.........I've been cutting grass with this tractor for well over 20 years and in all that time it has cut grass the same. What would you think the chances would be for me to put the blades on backwards or get the belts twisted that many times over the course of that time period? No the blades are not backwards And I'm not sure what you really mean by twisted belts but no the blades are turning the right way. As I said in an earlier post I change the blades every year and I do keep them sharp I also put on a new set or belts needed or not every year. I have always done it that way but I do keep a couple used belts laying around in case something gets hung up somewhere and breaks one along the way. so I can get by until I get a new one. 

 

I never really worried about it much until I finally started plugging my yard with Zoysia plugs and it finally got established. For 25 years all I could get to grow was weeds even after hiring a professional landscape company for 4 years to maintain the yard. I finally fired those guys and all their excuses because I still had a yard full of weeds. The way the mower cut then it really didn't matter because weeds are weeds and no matter if I cut the yard 3 times a week it always looked the same.......the morning after there were seed heads sticking up all over the place.

 

I finally semi retired and then I had the time to try once again to get some grass to go. The first year I put down weed killer on the grass that went out from the house about the 1st 40 feet. I killed the summer grass and weeds and went on into the winter with the fall grasses and killed that too. The next spring I went out with the troy built tiller and chopped up the whole yard and waited until the new seeds started to sprout and I killed them too. Some more came up and I killed them too and then I ordered 3 or 4 thousand zoysia grass plugs, I couldn't afford to do the whole thing in sod. I started at the house and these plugs got me out about 20 feet all the way around the house. That year I kept up the weed killing on the part I hadn't planted. By next spring the newly planted plugs had almost filled in the area completely and had started sending runners out from the edge a foot or so and I ordered 3 thousand more and this brought me out to about the 40 foot mark. I expanded the kill zone another 15 feet or so and have been doing that since moving out more as the Zoysia expanded outward. 

 

One thing about this type grass is once it gets to going it wants to go and sometimes it will go where you really don't want it to. Then it becomes a weed to most people but not me. I would gently dig it up and I started little patches in different parts of the yard where the weeds once ruled and with only 4 or 5 small pieces here and there after a couple years I have 5 or 6 foot spots in the other parts of my yard that are nice and green and is still expanding. At first I was cutting it with a small 32" cut self propelled mower with a bagger and that was okay when I just had a small amount to cut but soon I would have to stop every lap to empty the bag and that was such a pain. 

 

I really can't  afford to go out and buy a 7 or 8 thousand dollar mower at this time and it was then that I started trying to figure out how to get this one to cut some where near well enough until I can get something else. Now that I have put that new/old Craigs list deck on it the thing cuts much better. I'll go along with you on the,  there has got to be something wrong with that deck though what that is, is hard to say. I had it back at the dealers place several times and they said everything was okay. 

 

 

 

 

[olddude 10]

26 minutes ago, r1jakecfd said:

So glad it’s fixed and running smoothly. Sorry, there were a bunch of replies so I skimmed really quickly. 
I have the 48” side discharge on my 520h. When I first bought it, it cut terribly until I adjusted the mower blade level(front to rear) adjustment. It made a huge difference when I followed that procedure and dialed it in. 
I will say, I really miss my old 42” rear discharge deck. It cut beautifully and allowed me to pull a sweeper to collect the clippings at the same time. I have no bagger for the SD which makes it a 2 step process. Oh well, I guess it means more quality time on my “Horse”👍😊

Cheers

Nothing better than making laps on the 520H and a ice cold Bud Lite riding along as a co pilot.

[Goofey 89]

Pics would help a lot if you want that old deck running again. As has been said. There sure is something all wrong with it the way it acts up. Now from what I know about decks, there are only a few things to go wrong. Only a very few is to blame on the deck it self. I apologize, but I doubt I'm the only one to think operator error of some sort. Despite all those years of mowing people still sometimes makes a mess of things. And I doubt this has anything to do with what kind of grass you have either.  Again. Pics would help a lot.

 

IMO that is.

[lynnmor 6,783]

I had a friend with the green & yellow addiction, he worked on all his toys most of his life.  One day I stopped by and saw his usual well manicured lawn looking awful, and he couldn't figure out the problem.  Yep, one was upside down.  

[olddude 10]

23 hours ago, Goofey said:

Pics would help a lot if you want that old deck running again. As has been said. There sure is something all wrong with it the way it acts up. Now from what I know about decks, there are only a few things to go wrong. Only a very few is to blame on the deck it self. I apologize, but I doubt I'm the only one to think operator error of some sort. Despite all those years of mowing people still sometimes makes a mess of things. And I doubt this has anything to do with what kind of grass you have either.  Again. Pics would help a lot.

 

IMO that is.

I'm not really worried about that old deck anymore. I'll just use it in the winter months keeping the woods and rough stuff in shape. Oh yeah.....I know anybody can sometimes have an awh crap moment and make a mistake or two. I have had them a time or two... I guess what I'm saying is putting on a blade upside down a time or two.....yeah maybe, but for that long and that many blade changes.....I don't think so. I don't think that even I could overlook some like that for that long of time. And you would think that if that was the case that the dealer would have caught something like that by at least the third trip that I took it back in to get it looked at.

[olddude 10]

22 hours ago, lynnmor said:

I had a friend with the green & yellow addiction, he worked on all his toys most of his life.  One day I stopped by and saw his usual well manicured lawn looking awful, and he couldn't figure out the problem.  Yep, one was upside down.  

I'll have to admit that one time right after those Ninja blades first came out I bought a set to try out. I took them out of the box and laid them out on the floor in the upright position but when I was laying on the floor looking up I put everyone of them on upside down, some kind of brain fart I guess but it didn't take too long to figure out that something was terribly wrong. I'm glad noone was around when that happened.