Mowing Mower height limit control

[RaydaKub]

I've been trying to get my mower height control to work ever since I got my rig. I set it to the top or any other setting and the mower goes right to the ground, every time. So I pulled the mower off and crawled underneath it. It appears that the mounting bracket has either come loose or is totally broken off. I can rotate the knob and feel the cam turn underneath, but the whole shaft can wiggle around and be pulled up and down. I've got a parts manual on cd, but I can't tell from the drawing where/how this bracket mounts to the frame.

Anybody got any advice? This is a BX2230 model with the 60" mmm. Thanks!

 

[RaydaKub]

There is an angle bracket just above the tie rod above the HST fan. It appears that this bracket is supposed to be welded on. Mine is dangling free. Can anyone confirm that this bracket is supposed to be welded?

 

[TripleR]

Can you post a picture of it?

 

[RaydaKub]

I've got a cd parts manual. Here is what I found there.

The fact that this angle bracket exists in not only the mower height control drawing, but also in the basic frame drawing with the HST guard and the tie rods makes me think it is part of the basic left side frame.



I wasn't even sure this was the right part, but the little tooth that points up and to the front sure looks like what I see under my tractor.


Sorry, I can't seem to get the camera in a place quite as good as my eyeball.

 

[TripleR]

It is hard to tell, but it looks broken to me and your rod should not be able to rotate freely or go up and down.

I am disabled, or I would go out and check my BX2660.

I am assuming you have checked to make sure the nut has not come off the end, mine on our old BX2200 did that once and allowed the whole assembly to wobble around.

 

[RaydaKub]

The nut and cam appear to be in proper order. Sure would be a lot easier to work on this thing if I could just lay it over on the side. :laughing:

 

[TripleR]

The nut and cam appear to be in proper order. Sure would be a lot easier to work on this thing if I could just lay it over on the side. :laughing:

Man, ain't that the truth. I use to use a set of car ramps or combination of floor jack and jack stands.

Now if I get down on the ground/floor I can't get back up, so I have passed the torch on to my sons. My four year old grandson would fit under there pretty good if I could just get him to pay attention.:laughing:

 

[RaydaKub]

OK, I'm convinced that this bracket is broken off. So now I need to figure out what to do about it.
1) I could do nothing and let the mower run on the wheels or try to lower it to just the right point on the hydraulics.
2) I can see if there's some way to engineer something that would provide a limit for me. A cable running from the fixed 3ph mount hole running up to the pull rod that raises the mower seems to offer the most promise.
3) I can tear it down and find somebody that can weld (perhaps have to load a crippled tractor to take it somewhere).
4) I can haul it in and have the nearest dealership tear it down and weld it.

1) sucks, and leave the arms hanging down underneath if I'm using the 3ph for something else. 2) might function ok, but leaves the arms hanging again. 3) is a major hassle. 4) is expensive.

Does anybody know how much one would have to strip off the tractor to see the top of the frame? I am assuming the fender and left rear wheel would need to come off. Are the fender and pan around the seat (and floor?) all one piece? Does the ROPS come off with just the 4 bolts on each side? How about the fuel tank, could that be taken loose and just folded up and across to the right side? Is there anything else that would be in the way?

Thanks for any suggestions, guys.

 

[TripleR]

You might want to check on some threads where people have replaced the HST fan to see what is involved in removing the parts needed to get down in there.

 

[RaydaKub]

I only have had about an hour to look into this this week. I started to remove the bolts for the floor pan and 3 of the 4 carriage bolts rounded off, so I'll have to drill them out.

Hopefully I can get into this some more this weekend.

 

[David s Von Gieserbrechta]

The nut and cam appear to be in proper order. Sure would be a lot easier to work on this thing if I could just lay it over on the side. :laughing:

Laying a Bx on it's side is the easy part.(don't ask me how I know this)

 

[RaydaKub]

Wow, what a pain in the rear this is! I almost wish my fan was busted so I could justify this much work for the stupid bracket. As usual when I take stuff apart, I tend to overachieve and take more than I needed to. I couldn't get the floor pan off because of the brake pedal and right FEL bracket. So I've just got it strapped up on the steering wheel and a bolt from the left side of the engine grill work.

I don't know what this clear/white plastic piece is with the fuel lines, but boy is THAT in the way. There are 5 lines that go into this thing, one from the bottom of the tank, one from the front and one from the back of the left side of the fuel tank, one to the fuel filter and perhaps one that returns from the injector pump. Anyway, they straddle this bracket and I don't know that I can get this thing back in place after this bracket is welded back in. So I've pulled 4 of the 5 and will try to keep it down and away from the welding.


So once it is done, it should go just about right here. My neighbor across the street said he can do the welding. I just need to go disk his cornstalks for him for a few hours. Oh darn. :laughing:

 

[TripleR]

Man you are doing a lot better than I could, mine would be in the shop.

 

[RaydaKub]

Man you are doing a lot better than I could, mine would be in the shop.

Well, it ain't back together yet. :laughing: But thanks for the vote of confidence TripleR. Waiting for my neighbor to bring the welder over.

My worst fear is that I'll still have some parts laying on the floor when I'm all done. It's been like 1 1/2 weeks to get to this stage though the first part wasn't too intense. I'm hoping my memory holds out. I know I'll have to replace the 4 bolts on the back side of the floor pan because I had to drill all of them out. The carriage squares were rusted and gave way. I also have to figure out what to put in for the plastic floor rivets.

When I was teenager, my dad and I overhauled a couple tractors. We had 1 bolt bucket and could pick them out by feel and just put them in. I'm not sure I have that ability anymore. I've put most of the bolts back in the holes of the part that I took off and hope that helps.

 

[TripleR]

When I was younger, I use to do my own work, but I had to keep the nuts/bolts etc in separate boxes and label stuff. My brothers are mechanics and work like you; amazes me.

 

[RaydaKub]

I've had my poor BX torn apart for almost 2 weeks now. Hope my memory hasn't faded yet. My neighbor has broken down combining 4 times in the last 3 days. So the bracket is still laying on my garage floor.

In the meantime, I cut some bike innertube to wrap my tie rods where the boots had been. I didn't even realize I was missing these. Next up will be fuel filters.

And, because he's fallen behind I volunteered to help with his fall tillage. His stalk chopper broke down, so he wants to disk the field twice then chisel plow. I had never driven a Massey before, but the color didn't matter. I got about 2 1/2 hours of seat time last night. Haven't had that kind of time in almost 20 years. It was glorious!

 

[TripleR]

I haven't farmed in years and often miss looking back over a freshly tilled field.

 

[RaydaKub]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'll soak in what I can this year, but my neighbor said he will probably retire after next year. This Massey is 160 hp, but is only pulling his old 14 foot disk, hardly knows it's back there.

If he does retire,
I'll have to get a fix by helping my cousin some time instead. It's a good 4 1/2 hour drive away, but he has a 400 hp Ford with triples all around. That would be a brand new experience for me. It's so dry this fall though that he said his chisel plow either scrapes the top of the ground or he uses gears he's never seen before and still can't hardly pull it.

I guess I just hijacked my own thread. But dang, did that feel good last night. :thumbsup: :laughing:

 

[TripleR]

Here is what they use on our farm and the people next to us just got a couple of the 9 Series tracked units. I like the big tractors, but anything over 100 HP is pretty much out of my league; not that I would mind giving it a shot.:thumbsup:

 

[RaydaKub]

Looks great, Triple! Take a turn if they'll offer it to ya. Or at least beg to make a round or 2.

This isn't my cousin's rig, but it's gotta be close to it.