BravoXray
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
- Messages
- 2,343
- Location
- Nothern Indiana
- Tractor
- Kubota BX2230, John Deere 430 Diesel
My 430 of 1991 vintage was getting a lot of rust on the seat pan, especially where the cab is mounted, so as I am also refurbishing the snow blower, I decided to pull it off and get it sand blasted and powder coated. I'm also going to have the grille and side panels done while I'm at it. Since the hood is glass reinforced plastic, I'm going to have to paint that. I think I'll wait until the powder coated parts are done, and have paint mixed to match.
This all started when I decided to modify the mount for the 47" snow blower. The blower was not designed for the 430, so I had a local Amish welding shop modify it to mount to the front of the 430. It mostly worked okay, but the mount they made pivoted when raised up and down instead of raising more or less straight up and down like the factory mount does with a parallelogram type mount. When I would raise it up, it would put the u-joint at the gear box in a bind and every couple of years I would have to replace it. So I took it all apart and after some cutting and a lot of fabricating and welding came up with a really nice parallelogram type mount that keeps the drive shaft aligned properly and running very smoothly now.
The blower was looking pretty shabby with lots of rust starting to show, so I pulled it all apart and am having it blasted and powder coated too.
Also, on the grille, at the bottom rear there is a spring clip[ that snaps into a slot in the sode pane to help hold it in position. Those clips, part numbers M88068 and M88069 are not available any more, so I bought a piece of .020" X 1.5" wide spring steel from McMaster-Carr and fabricated a couple of replacements. Not all that hard, used a die grinder with an cut-off disk to shape them, bent them on the corner of a 2" steel tubing so as not to make too sharp of a bend radius and used a 3/16" cobalt bit to drill the holes to mount them to the grille. I think they will work just fine.
The 430 is relegated to snow removal only now, after 27 years of switching between the snow blower in the winter and the mower deck in the spring, I said enough and bought a (GASP) 2005 Kubota BX2230 for mowing and landscaping work with it's FEL. They reside next to each other in my shop and get along just fine.
This all started when I decided to modify the mount for the 47" snow blower. The blower was not designed for the 430, so I had a local Amish welding shop modify it to mount to the front of the 430. It mostly worked okay, but the mount they made pivoted when raised up and down instead of raising more or less straight up and down like the factory mount does with a parallelogram type mount. When I would raise it up, it would put the u-joint at the gear box in a bind and every couple of years I would have to replace it. So I took it all apart and after some cutting and a lot of fabricating and welding came up with a really nice parallelogram type mount that keeps the drive shaft aligned properly and running very smoothly now.
The blower was looking pretty shabby with lots of rust starting to show, so I pulled it all apart and am having it blasted and powder coated too.
Also, on the grille, at the bottom rear there is a spring clip[ that snaps into a slot in the sode pane to help hold it in position. Those clips, part numbers M88068 and M88069 are not available any more, so I bought a piece of .020" X 1.5" wide spring steel from McMaster-Carr and fabricated a couple of replacements. Not all that hard, used a die grinder with an cut-off disk to shape them, bent them on the corner of a 2" steel tubing so as not to make too sharp of a bend radius and used a 3/16" cobalt bit to drill the holes to mount them to the grille. I think they will work just fine.
The 430 is relegated to snow removal only now, after 27 years of switching between the snow blower in the winter and the mower deck in the spring, I said enough and bought a (GASP) 2005 Kubota BX2230 for mowing and landscaping work with it's FEL. They reside next to each other in my shop and get along just fine.
