deck problem on 54" fine cut, on my new bx2360

shrekbelly · May 21, 2009

guys,
i only hope i didn't get the "Orange Pearl," the long lost sister ship to the "Black Pearl," of captain jack sparrow fame.
my dealer picked up my bx today, before cutting one blade of grass. when i engage the mid pto . . . the deck runs smoothly for a moment and the makes a clanging noise . . . once or twice, i then shut it down. dealer tech checked out the rotation of the blades (they don't hit, but it sounds that way to me).
reengaged the deck, got same unnerving noise. when the new bx2360 was delivered, we put additional gear box oil in, and i re-greased the outer spindles. has anyone heard of this problem occuring previously to others or themselves?
would anybody care to hazard a guess? novice, experienced or professional?
i would greatly appreciate any and all leads-even the obvious ones. i have credited this board in the past, and will continue to do so. shrekbelly

p.s. the noise appears to be coming from gearbox and center spindle area.

dodge man · May 21, 2009

Did you have a muclh kit installed? I put one on mine and it rubbed pretty bad. There was some baffles I had to install and the blade hit it pretty bad. I messed with it quite a bit and finally ground down the baffle where it was hitting. It was kind of hard to find where it was hitting.

marvindmartien · May 21, 2009

Check if your pto shaft is clipted in all the way, some times they look like they are but the release ring is not back in the lock position.

savageactor7 · May 21, 2009

Sounds like the idler pulley is shot to me shrekbelly. Probably something you could have done yourself...it's a good idea to grease every fitting on the deck once a week or every 10 hrs.

radioman · May 21, 2009

Wonder if there is something inside the cup cover ? it's behind the blades. I would take blades off then check the cup.

shrekbelly · May 21, 2009

guys,
i forgot to mention that the deck was(is brand new/ from my bx1850 and for a whole lot of reasons, i never mounted the deck on the 1850. i purchased the mower axle stands, and stood the mower deck upright for 10 months, finally traded the bx1850 back to the dealer.
before we mounted the deck on the 2360, the dealer added oil to the gearbox (i was surprized that none leaked out during it's upright storage time) though my thought was to double check kubota factory that passed the deck and the dealer who prepped it. dealer hadn't brought a grease gun and my brother had my grease gun, so i had to wait to additionally grease the outer spindles when i got my gun back (a comedy/circus, i know! . . did not get to the center spindle.
hopefully, it will be a simple remedy, i have a good bit of work to put the bx
through.
regards, shrekbelly of the "orange pearl."

p.s. her d902 diesel is one sweet beast of a motor

willr524 · May 22, 2009

I had the same experience when I installed the mulching kit on my fine cut 54" deck. It turned out to be the blades hitting each other. Sounds like the same problem as DodgeMan and it was making the same clanking sound that you are hearing. The original blades were fine. The mulching blades seemed to cause the problem. I ground the ends down by maybe 1/16" being careful to keep them balanced. Since then, all has been well for a couple of years.

JOHNTHOMAS · May 22, 2009

marvindmartien said:
Check if your pto shaft is clipted in all the way, some times they look like they are but the release ring is not back in the lock position.

I did this one time on a formerly owned BX2200. Got the shaft on and failed to get the clip ring locked. While mowing, the drive shaft came loose and hit the oil filter and gouged a big hole in it. Have always made sure since then that I heard and felt it lock into place.