Something is always breaking down

Dan Gonzales

Member
Messages
511
Location
Whittier, CA, USA
The mowing deck started throwing the drive belt off on my garden tractor. I took a quick look and thought I would have to reinforce the shell around the center spindle. After taking the belt covers off it's going to be more than a single spindle. I will have to cut out a big chunk off the top of the 42" wide deck.

This is a Toro Wheel Horse setup and a replacement deck shell is $480. A whole new mowing deck is around $900. That's just too much money right now when I can mow the lawn with the rotary mower in about 3 hours.

So I'll challenge myself with some 3/16" plate steel and patience. It's about $20 in materials. The plan is: measure and record key reference points; acetylene cut the bad part of the deck off; make a template; layout, cut and drill the patch (41½" x 16½"); MIG weld the patch on by overlapping the edge on the deck.

This is the best of the three mounting holes. It only has 5 cracks radiating out.

deck02.JPG

This is the one I thought would be the only one to repair.

deck03.JPG

This was a surprise.

deck04.JPG

Here is my cutting plan.

deck05.JPG
 
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I have a good guess about what was causing the belts to come off. :eek: :p

I agree with Stu...your repair plan sounds better than new.

BTW, I looked at the FW map to see where you were in Whittier. I thought you were pointing to a park, but with a mower like that, I guess that's your front yard. :rofl:
 
Wow, I'm glad the only thing it threw was the belt!:eek: Once you get it patched up, I doubt you'll ever have to worry about it again.

Wes

PS: Do you have the clearance for the 3/16" plate? Hate to go to all that work just to find out the shafts are too short or something similar.
 
The tractor/deck combo has done well since it was built in 1994. The first 8 years or so were at USMC Camp Pendleton of all places. I'm surprised it doesn't have weapon mounts on it :D

I have taken all measurements I think I need and checked on clearances. Hopefully I don't miss anything :huh:

I will cut it out sometime today. I am going to repaint the whole thing so I will be spending time rotary wire brushing parts as the time allows.
 
Might I make a suggestion, if you have a Transfer Punch Set cut out your patch first, lay it on top of the deck and tack the corners, turn the deck over and with the punches transfer all the holes. Scribe the good spindle holes
Flip it over, scribe around the patch, grind off the welds.

Cut the old deck apart, put your patch on and drill your holes, the only one that will take some figuring is the really busted hole

on a side note I wouldn't cut the deck with the torch, lite metal tends to warp, you can get 1/8 inch cutting wheels for a grinder
 
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