It's summer, time to mow the lawn.....
Last week, I had a couple problems with the mower.
The main thing is the steering is all screwy. If I make a sharp turn, I can feel gear teeth slipping, and the tractor doesn't turn so well...
Also, I know the blades must be dead dull, as I haven't sharpened them in at least a season.
The third thing is that the mower deck isn't level, but there's not a ton I can do about that. There are two cables that lift the deck. I can make sure those are the same length, but the four rods that the deck pivots up and down on are rusty and the ball joints on the end aren't easily replaced.
So, today, I took the mower deck off and removed the steering column.
Here's the deck with the blades removed and some of the icky old grass scraped away.
The big thing that I noticed was that not only were the blades dull, one of them was BENT. Last time mowing the lawn, it did feel like one of the blades was off balance enough to cause some bad vibration.
I made a run to the hardware store, but they didn't have any generic 18 or 19" blades handy, so instead, I pounded the blade flat with my short-handled sledge, and ground enough off the opposite side to balance, and then sharpened it up.
Cheaper than buying a new blade!
Also, on the mowe deck, there are 4 pins, like cotter pins, but they are welded to the frame of the deck. Well, used to be welded.... Three of them had cracked their welds. I think that was adding to the non-level deck. I dragged out the welder and fixed that!
I also pulled out the two steel cables that lift the deck, and adjusted the length of one, so that they are close to the same length than they were before.
The steering is an issue though. There are 4 bronze bushings on the tractor that connect to two "ears" that bolt to the frame. 3 of those were replaced shortly after I got the tractor. This is the fourth one now that finally rusted out, so the very bottom of the steering is no longer held in place. I even already HAVE the last replacement bushing, but I can't use it! Here's why - on the very bottom of the steering, the last owner WELDED the steering arm onto the shaft. I guess he got sick off tightening the set-screw. But for me, it means there's no way to get the steering shaft off to replace the bushing! Gal dern it!
The real problem is that the entire steering shaft drops down about an inch from where it used to, so the top gear doesn't mesh with the steering wheel gear anymore. All I did was put a cotter pin in the top of the problem shaft with a thick washer to hold it up. The bottom of the shaft still slops around, the the two steering gears now mesh well. There's a fair amount of slop in the steering when changing directions, but otherwise it works OK.
Here's a photo of the rusted out part.
So, after all those hours of work, I DID get to mow at least part of the lawn.
Here's the weird part - the mower is much QUIETER than before!
I wasn't expecting that. I thought most of the noise was the pulleys and transmission, but I guess a lot of it was actually the mower deck lift, motors, and blades! Go figure!
Oh well, the mower runs better now, and I hope I can keep it going a long time!
