What has happened to my 2520 in 100 hours

[ArtNH]

Just a couple of problems in the first hundred hours.

The front mount for the 62D deck kept hopping out of the hooks on the front of the deck. I finally loosened the jam nuts and took up about two threads tighter on the tensioning nuts. Well, two full turns of the adjusting nuts, anyway. Then I retightened the jam nuts. Hasn't happened since.

The clevis pin for the left side deck lift arm fell out while cutting grass. Wife and I did a twenty minute "walkdown" until we found the pin. It was obvious that the cotter pin had snapped off on both sides of the clevis pin. Well, I didn't have any cotter pins, but I did have a couple of spring ring clevis pins that I had bought at Tractor Supply ... because I'm an impulse buyer, and I said "Some day these could come in handy." The pin fit the clevis, and that restored the deck lifting. I believe that the normal wear will cause the cotter pins to just wear off, so I'm going to replace the factory clevis pin on the right side with another spring ring clevis pin. (Tried to insert link to online image but couldn't make it work.)

Bought replacement mower deck blades from the local JD dealer... They are not the same as the original blades. Among other small changes, they have "tearing teeth" on the top side of the blades. Well... that brought the blades closer to the plastic mulching body that is on the underside of the deck, and the right-hand blade was rubbing the plastic (very loud noise). The REAL problem was that the original mulch kit installation hardware includes a flimsy steel piece 3/4" wide by about 2-1/2" long that mounts underneath the deck and holds the plastic mulch shell up... and that was allowing the mulch shell to drop down by about 3/16" of an inch. I bent that steel piece a bit in the vise and re-installed it. Now the noise and rubbing is gone, but I'm betting that it will happen again because it's pretty flimsy. Meanwhile, I removed that blade and used my bench grinder to remove about 3/16" of material from the two outside "teeth" on top of the blade. I'm not really sure what benefit those teeth provide, anyway.

Note that my 3 pt hitch arms rub the inside of the rear tires when I'm running the tractor down the road (like so many other owners). (I deliver firewood to a couple of neighbors because I don't burn wood.) I tried mucking with the arm adjustments but just can't find a happy medium---so I'm living with it and gritting my teeth.

 

[logankelly]

sounds like someone did not set up your mower correctly. as for the blades I have a 2520 and just bought new blades from jd and they are the same as they were 2 years ago when tractor was new. use a bungee strap for your 3 point

 

[KennyG]

I agree your tractor and mower must not have been set up correctly. It's hard to imagine the front mount coming loose with the latching pin in place, but it must have been running on the center anti-scalp rollers. You should level and adjust the mower. The front mount adjustment is to level the deck front to back and the clevis levels it side to side. John Deere sells a mower height gauge for less than $10 that makes it very easy.

Sounds like the dealer sold you Gator Blades instead of JD blades. The Gators are great and largely eliminate the need for the mulch kit. However, it may be that they are not compatible with the mulch kit. I don't have the mulch kit so I don't know.

I've heard of 3 point arms rubbing but I can't imagine it happening with my 2320. Level the arms with the threaded adjustment on the lift arm. Then adjust the sway bars until there is only a small amount of sway. As noted you should also have a bungee on the lift arms to keep them from banging around. Mine was delivered with a bungee.

 

[RG1]

True Gator blades, or gator type blades, are not designed to be used with a mulch kit. Oregon has stated that many times over on various forums. If the blades you bought are green (though some do come in black) and have a hump in them just inboard of the teeth, they are made by Sunbelt (a JD company) and are nor true Gator blades. They suck IME.

The original Gator blades made by Oregon aren't any better since they don't have enough lift. However, the newer G6 and G5 Gator blades are a different animal and have a lot more lift (they are classed as a high lift blade). They work pretty well in most conditions, but not with a mulch kit. The OEM wavy mulch blades that come with JD mulch kits are the correct blade to use with the mulch kit installed, and actually cut quite well with the kit removed. I normally keep the OEM wavy mulchers under the deck for my 4115, even without the mulch kit installed, and it always cuts very cleanly and does a good job.


As others have said- use a bungee chord on your draft arms when no implement is installed. Mine have come with a black rubber bungee already on the arms.

The blade in the pic is a true Oregon Gator blade of the G6 variety-

 

[prosperity]

As others have already said, your deck is not setup correctly and needs to be leveled/adjusted.

I had the same problem with those same cotter pins. They are too small/soft for the application. I had a worse problem with mine. The cotter pin had broken and the lift arm was dragging on the ground without me knowing it - until I backed up - bent the arm good. After figuring out those cotter pins were the problem, I went to the dealer and showed it all to him and demanded a new lift arm. Then installed heavier cotter pins and all has been good for years now.

3-point lift arms - you can adjust the arms inward so they won't rub the tires. For good measure I also keep a bungie cord on the arms to hold them together.

All in all it sounds like your machine was not setup properly by the dealer in the first place.