Hit root with mower, bent deck/bearing

[s219]

So I was mowing with my trusty LT-150 last night, and on the very last pass I nicked a root. Never been a problem before, so I figure maybe that italian sub I had for lunch put me over the limit and the tractor was riding a little lower than normal.

Anyhow, the right side blade on the 38" mower deck is now spinning out of plane by quite a bit. The entire spindle/shaft is cocked back about 10 degrees or so. It looks like either the bearing mount, or the deck where it attaches, got bent backwards from the impact. The shaft spins freely and without any wobble, so I think the bearing/spindle assembly itself is fine.

Before I drop the deck and tear into this, I was hoping to get some advice from the folks here. Anybody know if this is fixable? Can I just manhandle it back into shape? I figure that if I can somehow get a pipe or lever attached to the spindle bearing mount, I can maybe persuade things back into the proper position. But I'd like to get some knowledge before I go ape on this.

Thanks!
219

 

[Gary Fowler]

If the blade is spinning in a flat orbit and not wobbling, just canted, then I would say that you bent the deck housing where it bolts on. You are going to have to muscle it back in shape. How old is your deck, could it be weakened from rust. I recently had to do a lot of welding and metal replacement on my old JD 332 deck due to rust out.
You may want to remove that spindle and bolt on a jig to bend the deck with. Even though the spindle was strong enough to bend the deck with out bending or breaking, it may take considerably more force to get it back flat again.
I would take a piece of pipe and build a hickey bar with a flange that would bolt back to the spindle mounts and put some big washers on back side and then try to muscle it back to perpendicular. IF the flange is made perfectly square, then you will know when it is right by the verticality of the hickey bar.

 

[ptgdigger]

I wouldn't use the spindle to straighten it, make sure both blades are still OK and use a block of hardwood and a 2 1/2lb hammer directly on the stamped deck, using the blade tips as a progress indicator.

Ray

 

[s219]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I think the deck is in pretty good shape for being 10 years old, so hopefully there isn't any major rust. I'll try to dig into it tomorrow.

 

[s219]

Just to update my own thread -- I was able to hammer the spindle mounting area back flat, and put everything back together, but one blade was still rotating badly out of whack, and it turns out the spindle housing was also bent. There was no easy way to get that back into shape that I could see -- I suspected that heating it up to work the metal would have thrown the bearings out of whack. So I ordered new spindles (pair for $100 on eBay). Also got a new belt ($14), and replaced a few small parts that were rusted ($6). Finally, I sharpened the blades with my angle grinder.

Since I had everything torn apart, I power washed the deck real good, which removed a bunch of rust and loose paint. I knocked off some additional scale with a hammer. Then I primed and painted the whole underside of the deck, and a few spots on top that needed touchup. That took a few days for all the various coats. I finally had all the parts in and was able to put it back together yesterday and mow today. Everything is working great now, and it's cutting better than ever.

I do think the deck probably only has another 5-6 years due to the rust. There were a few spots that were pretty bad, mainly in the middle of the deck where clippings seemed to be building up between the blade arcs. We'll see how much time that paint job buys.