X300 42" Mower Blades

[Donly]

Bought a new X300 with a 42" side discharge mower this April and am thinking about buying spare mower blades for it.

The blades that came with it are P/N M154061 The manual calls for P/N AM137327 and the John Deere web site calls for P/N AM141032 as replacements for the AM137327.

I can understand the JD P/N change but am confused that mine came with an entirely different P/N. As far as I can tell these P/N's are all for standard blades - not Mulching or Bagging.

What gives with these different P/N's ?

 

[ctlguy]

Your first p/n is for individual blades the second #'s are for blade sets. They are all the same blade. Std lift discharge blades.

 

[Donly]

That clears it up. Thank you.

Somehow I had the impression that the blades were sold only in sets but that must be incorrect Now I understand!

 

[KevPH1]

Congrat's with your new JD x300 addition!

I ordered the 42"M dedicated mulch deck with my x300. (no discharge opening)
Walked from the sales area into the parts dept. to buy mower blades. Counter parts guy informs me the 42M deck blade set has a left blade and right blade. The blades are stamped with the word left or right on the bottom side of the blade. I was thinking, just one more thing I can goof-up by installing the mower blades reversed. LOL!

FYI: I modified my X300 to mow in reverse without lifting and holding the RIO lever. requires only 2.5" insulated wire and 1 wire tie. The modification is easy to remove if I were to need JD warranty or service work performed. The modification is added at the electrical wiring plug for the RIO switch.

MY wife hates the RIO switch pull and hold,to cut in reverse, feature! She would backup and forget to pull the RIO to mow in reverse. The cell phone rang, the wife said. "Fix this (@#%&) mower." The old JD STX38 didn't have the RIO reverse mowing feature. Anyway, the wife's now happy with "her new mower". Life is good!

 

[Donly]

KevPH1,
Thanks for the information.
I'm not happy with the PTO shutting off in reverse either. I read somewhere that it could be overridden by clamping a clothespin or something similar under the RIO lever so that it stays up while you are mowing. That sounds OK but you have to remove it to shut off the mower. I have not tried this. I have gotten used to pulling up on the lever before going in reverse but sometimes I forget.
Another thing that bothers me about the mower constantly switching off in reverse is that it must be hard on the PTO clutch. New clutches are probably expensive.
Can you tell me how you solved your problem with the wire and wire tie? And does it cause any other problems?
I removed the mower deck for the first time and did it according to the owner's manual. After it was off I then found the square 3/8 hole in the idler pully tension arm which is used to release the belt tension wish this would have been more obvious to me before. Also, in replacing the deck, it helps to prop up the back of the deck with two 2 x 4's this makes lining up the holes in the mower deck brackets and rear draft arm a lot easier. The next time I remove the deck it should be much easier.
The more I use the X300, the more I like it. For my less than 1 acre lot with hilly areas, the 17 hp Kawasaki engine is more than adequate. It never seems to slow down. The separate forward and reverse pedals originally gave me a fit but I'm getting used to them also.
I'm glad you solved the PTO problem for your wife. Mine is happy to let me do the mowing.

 

[bitternut]

On my X304 you do not have to hold the lever up when backing up. You only have to hold it up momentarily as you step on the reverse pedal. Once you have moved a little in reverse you can release the lever and the pto will not shut off.

 

[Donly]

Same with the X300.

 

[jdtractors4u]

When reinstalling the deck, line everything up then pull the pedal all the way up (pull hard) and lock it with the lock control on the dash. This will let the arms drop all the way down and you won't have to lift or prop the deck to put the pins in. You will have to pull the pedal back again to unlock it.

 

[rayikeo2]

I have a 10 year old 44" mulching deck. It runs with 3 reg blades & 3 mulching blades. It keeps my yard looking like a golf green. It does a great job after I modified it. It kept getting jambed with sticks so I fixed it. oh, the 3 blader are all the same.

 

[Donly]

Jdtractors4u,

Thanks for the tip. For some reason, when I did exactly that, it was difficult to line up the pin holes. Blocking it up seemed to make it easier. I probably did something else wrong to cause that problem. Next time will be lots easier.

rayikeo2,

This is my first JD and I'm not familiar with your mower. It's good to hear yours is still doing a great job after 10 years. Mine is doing very well also, considering that the lawn is rough in many areas, I really like it's small turning radius.