Repaired a friend's mower deck

[Sberry]

With 023 wire the machine doesnt know if its plugged in to 120 or 240

 

[shaeff]

Say wutt?

He was quoting Smokeydog, but it looks like he forgot to click the quote button.

Smokeydog's comment is the first one, Sberry's is the second.

 

[BravoXray]

Well, I got another mower deck to repair, off my niece's JD LA125. The idler pulley bracket ripped out of the deck just like the previous one did. I proceed as I did before, cut out and area around the bracket and made up a plate to weld in. I thought I had cut out to some good metal, but on two sides the metal is like Swiss cheese. I made another patch, hammered it into shape with a ball peen hammer, trimmed it and the hole so it fit pretty well, and on two sides that metal is rusted almost completely through.
I think I'm going to throw in the towel on this one, on closer inspection, I'm finding more cracks around one of the spindles, the entire top of the deck is paper thin.
I'll look around for a used deck, but I'm probably going to have to get a new deck for it. The rest of the tractor is in pretty good shape, but there is some rust starting on the seat pan, so I'm going to pull that off and get it blasted and powder coated before it goes to pot too.

 

[big bubba]

wonder if your original weld, if cleaned thoroughly & solid metal not rust, could also have been brazed w/torch? strictly arc & torches here, no wirefeed i have had good success in some repairs with brazing. old school i guess. anyway, just asking

 

[MossRoad]

I've been tempted to make a trip over to Bluffton a few times for some project mowers. Still might before fall to make a leaf vacuum.

ALMOST HEAVEN LAWN MOWER GRAVEYARD - Google Search

 

[BravoXray]

wonder if your original weld, if cleaned thoroughly & solid metal not rust, could also have been brazed w/torch? strictly arc & torches here, no wirefeed i have had good success in some repairs with brazing. old school i guess. anyway, just asking

I had thought about trying to braze it, but at this point just how long would it last until the metal around the patch rusts out and I'm back to square one again. I guess almost anything can be repaired, but my time could really be better used on other projects.
I do have a brazing torch and rod, I used it last winter to repair a hole in a steel cab heater water pipe on his '95 Dodge pickup.

 

[Williy]

My sister's husband has a JD riding lawn mower
and the deck bracket that holds the deck up broke
took it in to get it welded was told you had to have
special welding rods or something as regular welding
would not hold. I thought that I was really getting a
great riding mower with the JD big mistake the bracket
that holds the deck up broke and big cracks all around
it and a new deck with nothing on it is was about $800
If the little JD equipment is anything like the big stuff??
Needless to say no green stuff around here!

willy

 

[BravoXray]

My sister's husband has a JD riding lawn mower
and the deck bracket that holds the deck up broke
took it in to get it welded was told you had to have
special welding rods or something as regular welding
would not hold. I thought that I was really getting a
great riding mower with the JD big mistake the bracket
that holds the deck up broke and big cracks all around
it and a new deck with nothing on it is was about $800
If the little JD equipment is anything like the big stuff??
Needless to say no green stuff around here!

willy

The problem isn't unique to JD equipment, I've repaired decks from four different makers.
I can't think of any reason it would take a special rod to repair a mower deck, most likely he just didn't want to work on it and made that up to not have to do it.
I ordered a new bare deck for the machine today for m a local JD dealer, a little north of $500. Not cheap, but better than trashing the whole tractor.