X500 hood broke!

[thewheelman]

Hey y'all! I just picked up a 2012 X500 w/54 inch deck and "a crack" in the hood. Turns out the crack is actually the plenum broken loose from the hood itself. May have cracked at the mounting point too. One of the screw fittings on the hood is gone completely (where the plenum screws to) and the tab the screw goes through is broken out on the other side. I hate to pay the $$$ for a new hood! I'm in Western KY--about an hour out of Nashville, TN, an hour from Bowling Green, KY and about an hour from Evansville, IN. Are there any mower junk yard around??? Someone has suggested plastic welding, but I know NOTHING about that. If I can't do it with duct tape and gorilla glue, I'm out!

BTW, when I do a search I come up with a part # that says it fits the 300-500 series of mowers. I've also got an X320 and the hoods are nothing alike! My grill, headlamps, trim, etc is good, but don't look like they'll fit on a 300 series grill!

Any ideas? Any mower junk yards around?

Thanks in advance!

Hal

 

[beenthere]

:welcome: to TBN

What is the part no. that you need? There are some s/n breaks too, so may need to pay attention to them.

A good pic or two of the failure will help with some better answers too.

 

[crazyal]

If you aren't in a hurry I've seen new hoods every so often on ebay. I think some dealers examine their parts inventory and stuff that hasn't sold in some time they liquidate. But it'll be hit or miss.

 

[mercdv]

The X500 is a nice little GT. Do you have some pictures of the break? We can probably make some better suggestions based on the photos.

 

[beenthere]

Hal "thewheelman" hasn't been back to visit his post since posting it.

Am curious too.

 

[thewheelman]

Thanks for your comments! I've been busy mowing! You can't see the hood break in the pics I've taken so far......and I found some GD green duct tape to cover it up. Inside the hood, the tab on the right side, which holds the plenum to the hood is broken off. On the left side, the nipple (for lack of a better word) that the screw goes in from the plenum to the hood, as well as the tab is broken clean off. I was visiting my body-shop neighbor the other day and asked about plastic welding and he suggested a product called "Super Fast" which is a glue like product they use to repair plastic bumpers and stuff like windshield washer reservoirs--tabs get broken off in a collision and they glue them back on. He showed me some and they are stronger than factory. Not real attractive, but hidden, it'd be great. He says once you squirt it out of the tube, you have about 30 seconds to work with it and it's done--super fast! I may pull the hood and try that. I'm wondering why you would want to take the plenum out of the hood--unless one or the other broke and the other was still good. In my case, both are broken.......

I'll try to get some pics soon, but I'll be out of town all next week--youth church camp!

Thanks again!

 

[Vigilant]

I used to have an LX255 with what looked like a very similar hood. WAY too flimsy. Once when I shut the hood, it didn't want to go, so I pushed it down a bit. It cracked way too easily. The hood on my X500 looks like similar construction. This one doesn't want to open. I'm going to start opening it by grabbing each side below the latch. Made my sick to my stomach when that first one broke.