8mm rod pedal rod bending

[nwl52]

I was inspecting my LS mt125 today without the mower deck attached. While doing this inspection I found the 8mm rod that goes from the pedal assembly lever on the inside of the frame to the Hydrostatic Unit lever to be bent. The inspection was prompted by the discovery of the roll pin for the pedal assembly being sheared. This problem has been well documented on other threads. When the roll pin was replaced the pedals no longer set horizontal to each other. The reverse pedal was quite a bit higher that the forward pedal. That when the inspection began to identify the reason for the difference in pedal height. I found the bent rod as described earlier. While straightening the rod I noticed the the rear rod half was loose in it's threads. The front has a jam nut against the coupler. The coupler is 8mm x 1.25 right thread on the front half and 8mm x 1.25 left thread on the rear half. Makes a turnbuckle type of adjuster. With no jam nut on the rear half the left threads on the rod and coupler are working on each other and becoming loose. I could not find an 8mm x 1.25 nut at a local source so I had to oder several on line. Just wanted to give the mt125 owners a heads up. Something else to check when inspecting your machine