Is my L3400 steering wheel loose?

[GYRO9401]

I used my L3400 this past weekend at a buddy's house to move some pine logs around that we're going to saw for lumber. We didn't finish the job on Saturday, so we planned on finishing the rest on Monday evening. Long story short, I wasn't going to trailer it home & then bring it back a few days later. He asked if I minded if he used it to get some firewood while it was there.

My friend is a pretty big guy (280lbs), and when I got there Monday night, I noticed two things. (1) the grab handle on the fender was loose. I tightened it up immediately. (2) I noticed that the steering wheel seemed a bit loose too. I have always heeded the warnings given to my by my father when it comes to mounting the tractor. We have several old tractors that need new bushings for the steering wheel because of people using the wheel as a grab handle.

Anyways, I looked at the bottom of the steering wheel & it looks like there is a small rubber bushing that is coming loose. Has anyone else had this type of problem?

Maybe I need to sit on another L3400 to see how much play it has before I jump to conclusions.

 

[wushaw]

280lbs is alot for a steering wheel column to support.
Back when I used to work on autos for a living I worked on a gents ramcharger and he was paralized below the waist so he was using the steering wheel to hoist him up into the vehicle which the steering coulmn soon had a serious come-apart. Grab handles were installed to prevent future steering column problems.