Hello Andrew
As Bob has said getting a deck level takes patient's. I would suggest that the first thing that you do is make sure that both Draft arms are of equal length and not bent at all, you can see this easily if you remove the draft arm Plate and lay it on the floor if an arm is bent it will not sit straight on the floor like the other one will they have to be straight and the same length to get a deck leveled correctly. It is not uncommon to find draft arms that have been Tweaked or slightly bent so make sure they are straight as well so that they support the deck evenly on both sides. John Deere sells a deck leveling Gauge tool it is Plastic and shows many different height's on it and it takes the guess work out of leveling the deck and makes it much easier than trying to measure the blade height tip's with a Tape measure. Make sure your Gauge wheel's are not touching the ground when measuring deck height they are to prevent scalping and should be off the ground some when the deck is lowered into the cutting Position. Once I make sure my draft arm's are of equal length and not bent I start measuring Blade tip's on the Right side of the Tractor looking at it from the front of the Tractor I always start with that right blade facing straight ahead.
I then check the center blade facing straight ahead, Then move to the last blade on the left that has an adjustable Lift strap where you can adjust the level height of the deck. In measuring the blade tip's it is easier to do this with the deck set in a Higher Position. Once they are all of the same height you can adjust the rock shaft screw on the rear of the Tractors to what ever height you need and check the discharge side blade tip as the Other two are all ready level now so the Three blades will be at the same exact height. If you are getting Blade tip measurement's that way off in height it may be your deck shell is bent where the blade spindle bolt's into the deck shell. I had this happen a few year's back when I hit a very large Tree root with my John Deere 140 that was hidden by leaves in the fall of the Year. The Hit was so violent that it stalled the tractor when I hit it and it Bent the deck shell where the center blade was so I had to remove the blade spindle from the deck to straighten the shell so that it was square and the mowing spindle sat flat & true again. Once I reach the desired height that I want by adjusting the rock shaft screw I put the gauge wheel's in a Position where they are barely off of the floor being a Half inch or so which completes the deck leveling process. I hope this helps, Kurt
As Bob has said getting a deck level takes patient's. I would suggest that the first thing that you do is make sure that both Draft arms are of equal length and not bent at all, you can see this easily if you remove the draft arm Plate and lay it on the floor if an arm is bent it will not sit straight on the floor like the other one will they have to be straight and the same length to get a deck leveled correctly. It is not uncommon to find draft arms that have been Tweaked or slightly bent so make sure they are straight as well so that they support the deck evenly on both sides. John Deere sells a deck leveling Gauge tool it is Plastic and shows many different height's on it and it takes the guess work out of leveling the deck and makes it much easier than trying to measure the blade height tip's with a Tape measure. Make sure your Gauge wheel's are not touching the ground when measuring deck height they are to prevent scalping and should be off the ground some when the deck is lowered into the cutting Position. Once I make sure my draft arm's are of equal length and not bent I start measuring Blade tip's on the Right side of the Tractor looking at it from the front of the Tractor I always start with that right blade facing straight ahead.
I then check the center blade facing straight ahead, Then move to the last blade on the left that has an adjustable Lift strap where you can adjust the level height of the deck. In measuring the blade tip's it is easier to do this with the deck set in a Higher Position. Once they are all of the same height you can adjust the rock shaft screw on the rear of the Tractors to what ever height you need and check the discharge side blade tip as the Other two are all ready level now so the Three blades will be at the same exact height. If you are getting Blade tip measurement's that way off in height it may be your deck shell is bent where the blade spindle bolt's into the deck shell. I had this happen a few year's back when I hit a very large Tree root with my John Deere 140 that was hidden by leaves in the fall of the Year. The Hit was so violent that it stalled the tractor when I hit it and it Bent the deck shell where the center blade was so I had to remove the blade spindle from the deck to straighten the shell so that it was square and the mowing spindle sat flat & true again. Once I reach the desired height that I want by adjusting the rock shaft screw I put the gauge wheel's in a Position where they are barely off of the floor being a Half inch or so which completes the deck leveling process. I hope this helps, Kurt
