2016 Dixie Chopper deck adjustment.

heavy_kevie · Nov 18, 2020

Just bought a 2016 Dixie Chopper Classic with 440 hrs. Hopped on the mower, set the deck height adjustment pin to 3", started mowing. About 20 minutes later the engine to mower deck belt snapped. Looked at belt size was B87, manual calls out B88 so that was my first problem. I thought the mower was mowing kinda short so I measured the right side blade to the garage floor, it measured 2 1/8" when adjustment pin set at 3". This is my second problem. Anybody have any idea how to raise the mower deck by adjusting it?

MF243RedTop · Nov 18, 2020

There should be 4 deck hangers that can be adjusted.
Two in front on each side of the deck and the same on rear.

Richard001 · Nov 19, 2020

Did you buy this from a dealer?

If so, I would ask for a FREE new belt.

heavy_kevie · Nov 21, 2020

Found the hangers you talked about, the rear two were about 1" loose. Tightened them up and set the deck so it is 1/4" higher in back than front. Checked the side to side alignment and looks to be within 1/8". Bought the proper belt and installed it and adjusted the tension spring to 3" per owners manual. Fired it up with the floor pan off it to see the engine to deck belt and thought it was flopping around. Rechecked my work, also checked drive belt tension (looked good). Figured I'd fire it up later and try to mow and shut it down if I heard squeeling or detected slippage. Mowed for an hour and it seemed to work good. Now the other strange thing I didn't mention earlier. If I try to start the mower with the parking brake on it won't start and there is no response to the ignition key. If running and you are in neutral with the levers outboard and set the parking brake it stalls. Isn't that backwards?

MF243RedTop · Nov 21, 2020

Yes....mines not that new but used JD's and exmark/toro's that had that feature.... I'm assuming you bought it used...
Previous owner may found a way around having to set parking brake to crank .. my first thought.

When I was on a lawn crew, all the Dixie choppers we used had the seat safety shutdown bypassed so we could jump off move objects and keop on mowing away. Cut 70+ yards on a 2 week rotation 1 owner, 2 operating mowers/trimmer, 1 dedicated guy on string trimmer.. we burned and turned.