BX2200 Under dash picture, what is this?

[lww05]

I finally decided to attempt to fix a very small hydro oil leak coming from somewhere under the steering unit. The tractor is out of warranty but I still decided to take it to the dealer. $108 shot in the @$$. Did get a free wash job, oh that made it all better. He at least knew to clean around the problem area. Anyway, after a couple of hours of usage, the former clean screen and shroud assembly showed the same oily sign so I took the steering wheel off to see that the steering unit itself has a leak around the top seal. I took the dash off and removed the PS unit. Being a little worried about parts jumping out of the unit, I decided to take it in to a pump repairman who says he can fix it most likely unless there is too much rust on the shaft. The unit is working fine other than the small annoying leak. Comments or pointers welcome.

While I had the dash off, I saw a diagram on the underside molded in to the plastic of the dash. Just curious if anybody knows what this was for. I assume some of it is related to the mfg year of the tractor but there are two punches in 1999, one on the eight and one on the 10.

 

[Junkman]

Those are mold date marks. Each month that the mold is used, they drill a small hole in it to indicate the usage. That is why there are a bunch of holes and one month is skipped. This is used to keep track of how old a mold is and how many parts are made from that one mold. All it amounts to is internal record keeping. If you were to order a replacement dash, it would have a later mold mark date. This also helps to keep track for "recall" purposes on some parts. I have never heard of a dash plastic being recalled, but who knows, it could happen. That is how they would identify the ones that need to be replace and those that don't.