GT2544 Heavy Duty Mods

Morkai · Aug 12, 2007

I started this discussion in another thread, GT2550 Minor Mods / Toolbox, about my steering rebuild and custom attachments. Recap:

I've had a 2005 model GT2544 Cub for a couple years now, love it, my only gripe is the steering. I had to rebuild the steering housing, the steering shaft bushing was worn along with the pinion gear. After I got the parts ordered and cleaned up the housing I found a nice crack that I believe was due to the whole frame mount plate flexing. It was not attached at all on the bottom with only two spot welds holding it in on the top right in the dash support. I attached some pics of the steering housing crack before I had it welded.

I also welded the housing support plate to the sides of the dash support between the frame rails. I can say with certainty that it will NOT be moving now. See attached pics...

(please don't make fun of my welds, it's no fun welding upside down on a creaper

)

JTKub · Aug 12, 2007

Those welds don't look bad to me! Way better than the amateur bird poop beads I'd leave. Can I ask how many hours you had on your 2544 when the problems cropped up? I've had a very sloppy steering shaft bushing since new on my 2005 2544.

Joel

Morkai · Aug 12, 2007

I think it's about 38 or so now. Mine had a lot of play in it since it was new too. I never liked that. I have been noticing it getting stiffer more and more the past year. It would free up if you got out and drove it around some. I was lubing the axles often thinking it was that. I admit I think I only lubed the steering box once since new, maybe twice, I know at the 10hr. Also I didn't even know there was a 2nd fitting on the right side for the front bearings, but they were pretty tight. I wondering if it received enough lube on the initial service. Also, the washers on the steering shaft were wrong. The soft washer that goes under the pinion gear according to the parts diag. was on top under the flat washer. I have not had it out of the shop to test drive yet, but it feels tighter than when new now.

It's not a hard rebuild if yours is worn, the bearings are a couple bucks and so is the gear. I think the whole housing is about $40 or so and should be already setup. You do have to remove the dash, that's not too bad, just pull all the wiring connectors, and 4 bolts hold it on. You'd have to remove the wheel and cruise/brake levers of course, also take the throttle and choke cables loose at the engine. One thing I didn't do though, try to mark the steering arm so you can re-clock it easier when you reinstall, will save some time.

I probably hurried my steering failure along because of my heavy FEL. Actually, I was testing it when I heard the death blows of my steering the other day. I was messing around pushing some trash piles back from the edge of my uncles yard and got stuck on the deck. No traction with turfys and no rear weights. I was trying to wiggle out, and working the steering (bad idea) and "POP, POP" the sounds of gears slipping.

GRB · Aug 12, 2007

Morkai, looks good to me. As long as it is solid, that is all that really matters. Nice work.

JSharp · Aug 12, 2007

Those welds look fine to me. Lots better than the factory skip welds where they mostly skip the welding.

What doesn't look good is that lower steering flange/housing. It looks like a zinc casting ie. pot metal. Is that right? I can't see a zinc casting holding up very well there.

The later models use a simplified system and the lower housing is cast iron. Of course mine came with a missing zirk and didn't even have the hole drilled for it. Fixed by a recall. Glad I have a good dealer that picks my tractor up and brings it back for free...

Yetii · Aug 13, 2007

I just found the same problem with the steering pinion gear on my 2005 GT2544 as well. The gear is completely shot. I have about 88 hours on it and the steering was getting really sloppy, so I finally took a good look at the steering gears and found that there were huge gouges taken out out of the gear teeth. Of course I ran out of warranty a month ago...at least the gear is cheap, only about $6.00. I haven't picked it up yet, but I will this week. Do you just remove the bottom cotter pin and pull the steering wheel and shaft up and strip the tooth off?

JTKub · Aug 13, 2007

Yetti, do you do anything other than mow with yours? Grrrrrrrrrrrreat. Mine has the cast aluminum (or what ever it is) housing for the steering gear as well. I've greased it once or twice. I better get out there today and grease it again! No problems as of yet, but I'm just over 80hrs with the extremely dry summer we've had. We stress over transaxle, engine oil, filters... and forget about the important stuff!

Joel

Morkai · Aug 13, 2007

JSharp, it's cast aluminum. Mine also has the press-in zerks as you can see, but they seem tight and have not pulled out so I left them. I did not know the new design was iron, that's probably an improvement.

Yetii, my pinion gear looked the same way. I assumed it was because of the slop. Make sure they have it in stock, they had to order the gear for mine. If its the bushing (they call it a bearing) then you'll probably have to do what I described earlier. If you just want to replace the gear, yes, remove pin and it will pull up. I don't know if you can get your hand in there with the dash in place though. I went ahead and replaced the washers as well seeing as they were cheap, and the bottom one (mine had one, calls for two) saw some abuse.

JTKub, knock on wood...maybe yours was lubed well to begin with, keep doing it. The fact that it flexed so much where it's mounted can't be well, but maybe mine had a step or two skipped on assembly and yours is solid.

Morkai · Aug 13, 2007

JSharp, in response to the other thread, I looked at the 3-pt for the 3000 series, I bet that would fit ours, but doesn't look to hard to build esp without all the lever control junk. I was going to build the electric sleeve hitch after seeing them online, but I think the 3-pt would be more versatile. I guess the cub model is cat-0, I don't know if I can get the cat-0 parts here. I might just go cat-1.

You can see the rear part of the frame support I was telling you about in the other thread in the frame pics. If you notice the SS bolts directly under the welds, those hold the rear of the frame support rail on. You can see the back of it in on pic. I took advantage of the available open holes there and up near the front axel to secure it in addition to the main attachment holes in the side up front.

GRB also inspired me to add a light switch, something that's always bugged me. I'll attach a pic, light switch is on the left, FEL controls on the right.

Morkai · Aug 13, 2007

I took some pictures of one of my frame supports after repainting. You can see where the two bumper bolt holes line up and the front hole sticks out past the frame and bolts directly to my 3/8x2" frame bars that slide into the frame and are the main mounting point for the loader. The bottom two tabs bolt to the holes I mentioned earlier, one of which can be seen in the underside frame pics. They keep it snug just under the C-channel.

Also attaching a picture of the front bumper/brushgaurd/attach point before I fabbed the frame support rails, should give you a good idea. It's pretty much still the same except for the 3rd bolt hole location just in front of the frame. I'm going to have to do some alteration to the lower outside rails because of clearance issues with the arm mounted actuators. After it's 100% I'm going to paint it cub yellow to match.

Yetii · Aug 14, 2007

JTKub...All I do is cut the grass (~2 acres) and sometimes pull a trailer around. The steering was so sloppy that you could turn the wheel half a turn and the wheels wouldn't move. Nothing else appears worn...but I will take a closer look when I start pulling stuff apart. It has been so dry that I haven't had to cut the grass for a couple of weeks...I guess this is as good a time as any to have a breakdown.
Morkai...I ordered it last week and it was arrived a couple of days later.

Anyone know if this is a known common problem?

Well it's not too bad, this and a faulty hydrostatic pump covered under warranty is all the problems I have had so far, which allot better than the neighbour with a cheap L 100 Series John Deere.

JSharp · Aug 14, 2007

Morkai, I can see good reason for the bracing if you'll be using any kind of loader. The frame is adequate I think for any of the factory accessories but add anything much heavier and I'd start to worry.

The steering setup on the older models reminds me of what I had on my old MTD/White L-12. The Cub has heavier parts but the mechanism is much similar. My L-12 always had sloppy steering once it got a few years on it and I didn't feel like spending the $ going through replacing all the parts that had worn.

Threads like this sometimes make me wonder what we're doing.

I'd like to get a Johnny Bucket and adapt or build a Cat 0 3-Point for my 2554. I have needs right now that could be satisfied with the tractor if it had those things.

But I wonder if my money wouldn't be better spent on an older "real" CUT or larger tractor and a smaller deck Zero Turn to use for mowing...

Morkai · Aug 14, 2007

I finally got to cut my grass, or should I say forest, and test the new steering. It still has some play in it, I think some play is just inherent in the design, but it's definitely tighter than it was. I did notice I seem to have some slop in my left front wheel though.

JSharp, I know what you mean. These things were never really designed for all that, but we love to push them. The frame on these is pretty strong really. I would rather they fully boxed the c-channel in though. That would make it super strong.

I blame JB for my FEL, I never thought of doing it until I saw that.

I originally just wanted a sleeve hitch for a box blade. I can get by fine without a FEL, this was more of a challenge/project for me and my new MIG I got a couple years ago. Next step will be the 3-pt. Speaking of that, check this out: Cat 0 3 point hitch kit They sell them on ebay starting at $135. Seems like it wouldn't be hard to build it, just build the mounting brackets and lift bar. Electric should be easier to build than a manual setup.

Morkai · Aug 19, 2007

Well, finished modifying my front gaurd, let me know what you think. I personally liked the way it looked before, but I had to make some clearance for the actuators. Time to paint...

Got it blasted and primed today, hopefully it'll be yellow by tomorrow afternoon.

You'll see later why I had to make clearance when I post some more pics of the whole project. You can also see how the 3rd mounting bolt fits in one of these pics. That main 2" bar is 3/8" thick, I'll break the CC in half before bending that stuff. I tend to err on the overkill side.

checkster · May 6, 2010

got anymore pics of your loader setup? id really like to see it.

thanks,
tom

cowboy2005 · Jun 12, 2010

Morkai said:
It's not a hard rebuild if yours is worn, the bearings are a couple bucks and so is the gear. I think the whole housing is about $40 or so and should be already setup. You do have to remove the dash, that's not too bad, just pull all the wiring connectors, and 4 bolts hold it on. You'd have to remove the wheel and cruise/brake levers of course, also take the throttle and choke cables loose at the engine. One thing I didn't do though, try to mark the steering arm so you can re-clock it easier when you reinstall, will save some time.

I had the same problem after 5 years of service. I have to cut along a ditch and the use the steering wheel to keep the tractor straight. This looks like the cause for me. I tried following these instructions after getting a replacement part on-line. I had a lot of trouble getting the dashboard off and never succeeded until i realized all i needed to do was remove the side panels of the tractor and remove the battery. You can reach down inside fairly easily to get at the gear and washers. Obviously i also had to remove the cotter pin underneath the tractor for the steering shaft. I do appreciate folks offering ways to fix this tractor and wanted to offer a little suggestion of my own.

JTKub · Jun 12, 2010

cowboy2005 said:
... I had a lot of trouble getting the dashboard off and never succeeded until i realized all i needed to do was remove the side panels of the tractor and remove the battery. You can reach down inside fairly easily to get at the gear and washers..

Exactly. You don't have to remove any of that. All the gear came out from underneath on mine and the upper shaft pulls straight out the top. It's an easy job. I had sheared the lower steering shaft and split open the steering gear housing on my 2005 model year 2544. I replaced it with used eBay parts since it would have been a ~3 week wait for parts. If your steering wheel winds up not centered, remove the nut that holds the steering wheel to the splined upper shaft, rotate it to where you need it and reinstall.

Joel

Morkai · Dec 19, 2010

JTKub said:
Exactly. You don't have to remove any of that. All the gear came out from underneath on mine and the upper shaft pulls straight out the top. It's an easy job. I had sheared the lower steering shaft and split open the steering gear housing on my 2005 model year 2544. I replaced it with used eBay parts since it would have been a ~3 week wait for parts. If your steering wheel winds up not centered, remove the nut that holds the steering wheel to the splined upper shaft, rotate it to where you need it and reinstall.

Joel

<Sorry for the long delay in reply>

Yeah, my gearbox split as well and I had it tig welded and it's still going so far. Getting sloppy, but prob just the bearings wearing. I did learn after braking the steering not to try and turn the wheels while stationary with the FEL on.

I would suggest welding the sheet metal plate that it bolts to like I did if you do much hard steering. It will allow a lot of flex.

I finally got my FEL completely finished (except for painting) and will try to put up some pics if anyone is still interested. I already have parts and steel to start building the 3pt hitch next. :thumbsup:

scoutcub · Dec 22, 2010

Morkai said:
<Sorry for the long delay in reply>

I finally got my FEL completely finished (except for painting) and will try to put up some pics if anyone is still interested. I already have parts and steel to start building the 3pt hitch next. :thumbsup:

Sure, love to see it! Really nice job on the front HD grill gaurd, impressive....

you gonna start producing/selling them??

JTKub · Dec 22, 2010

Morkai said:
<Sorry for the long delay in reply>

Yeah, my gearbox split as well and I had it tig welded and it's still going so far. Getting sloppy, but prob just the bearings wearing. I did learn after braking the steering not to try and turn the wheels while stationary with the FEL on. I would suggest welding the sheet metal plate that it bolts to like I did if you do much hard steering. It will allow a lot of flex.

I finally got my FEL completely finished (except for painting) and will try to put up some pics if anyone is still interested. I already have parts and steel to start building the 3pt hitch next. :thumbsup: