GT2544 Heavy Duty Mods

[Morkai]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[JSharp]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.