Craftsman Garden Tractor Steering

[ChuckT]

The Craftsman Garden Tractor we have must be close to 20 years old. I forget the model but it has a Kohler (Command?) twin with Hydrostat and a 46 inch deck. For various reasons we'd like to baby this beast along till next year.

The biggest problem with it is the steering linkage, something is definitely slipping, the steering will catch on a left turn and the steering wheel has to be wrenched around to get it to steer.

It feel like there's a gear in the steering that loose - perhaps a set-screw has worked loose?

Anybody mess with the steering on these? Don't want to put mucho dinero in this, just get it usable for one more season.

TIA
cvt

 

[Johndeere3720]

I had a similar problem with my Deere lawn tractor but i lost control of steering completely. It turned out that it was a wore out steering gear. Replaced the gear and it works good as new now. I dont know about your craftsman but mine is right above the front edge of the mower deck. There are 2 gears, 1 connected to the steering rod, the other to the bars that connect the wheels steering to the gear itself. I gotta tell you though, they arent to fun to replace.

 

[Mike Costello]

Another thing to check on your mower is the front axle where the front wheels attach and turn. On my Craftsman, the left side front wheel suddenly turned hard left in a turn and began to drag. An inspection revealed a crack in the spot welds of the axle which caused the wheel inclination to become exaggerated. The fix was to replace the front axle (it's been redesigned) which is not hard to do. Check the bushings also while you're there. The axle cost me about $37.00 bucks. I got it through an independent repair shop because Sears wanted almost twice the price plus shipping. Hope this helps, Mike.