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420 60 inch deck draft arms

7.6K views 29 replies 6 participants last post by  kosmc  
#1 ·
Do they make different draft arms for the 420 60 inch deck or are they all the same? Do the 430 and 420 decks interchange? I only ask because no matter what I seem to do my deck won't lift off of the ground to pull the wheels up. The only way I can do it is to set the deck at 2 1/2 inches. That is too short. Is it possible the wrong wheels could be on? Draft arm length is 17 inches from the point they attach at the deck to the center of the rod that goes across at the front of the lawn mower. Front wheels are 6 inches back wheels are 8 inches. Help me get unfrustrated.

Paul
 
#3 ·
I already tried adjusting them and brought them all the way in. Then the deck would seem to want to move up and down less. It just made it worse. And it was a bear to do. Does somebody have a picture of their rear lift pieces for the back of the deck? No matter what I do it seems that mine will not lift high enough.

Paul
 
#5 ·
Paul - If I remember correctly,the actual lift straps are adjustable.Check them,they may have broke before and been welded,or someone could have the wrong straps installed,or they may just need to be shortened by the adjusters on the clevis end. Not sure if your rocker shaft adjuster can limit the lift ,but it's worth a shot to look into that also.If you ain't familiar with it; It's the long threaded rod on the back of tractor that controls cylinder "apparent" travel when lowering implements.


Hope you figure it out 'fore the grass gets too high!
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also ; You do have the correct size wheels.

Dave
 
#15 ·
Paul My measurement is not going to help you cause mine is not on the tractor,so it's not oriented at all.., BUT, and this is big, I think I remember once when I connected my 420 front draft arms on the tractor, I put it on wrong and it would not lift the deck. Remove it and try hook it up the other way it will go before you try any thing else.My memory of this is very old,maybe 10 years or so, so I could totally be flippin' here myself , but it's worth a try to see if the draft arm won't orient itself differently than you have it now.Just like the angle pieces Gary mentioned can get out of orientation ,I think so too ,can the draft arm mount. I'm talking in refference to the locking bar orientation,and how it possitions itself.Also remember that I'm sort of old and work on lots of different tractors,So I could be way out in left field here!
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Dave
 
#17 ·
I know this dosen't help Paul, but my 430 does the same thing. I have adjusted the deck height, I raised the two deck mounts, and the draft arms and the wheels still don't come off the ground 100%. I was going to pull the limiting strap off the three point hitch and see if it will raise anymore without it.

Adam
 
#18 ·
May help to see pictures of your deck - Mine doesn't appear to lift as high as I'd like , judging by the front wheels , but I can attribute this to the many hits the front wheels have taken , which has contributed to a general amount of deck bending.

I've often considered what it would take to straighten this out - to bring the front of the the deck back up to a level plane , but somehow never dedicated the effort to do so , seeing as as how infrequent the mower was used (only to beat up the weeds in the two horse pastures), and wasn't at all concerned about the looks of the cut.

Now I'm rambling here ; But you might just want to check the squareness of the deck in the front horizontal and vertical planes . Just a little bit of bend will mean a lot , when it comes to the front wheels being at the correct height .

I would also check any and all connect points for wear ; as sloppiness at any joints will effect the overall attitude of the deck in relation to a horizontal plane .

Just trying to help ;
Dave
 
#19 ·
I can give that a shot, but with the gauge wheels being set at 3 1/2 inches the rear wheels barely come off the ground. If I want to mow at 4 inches the wheels won't come off the ground. I can mow with the gauge wheels on the ground but it beats everything up so bad. I can manually pull up on the deck so I know it's not hitting anything.

Signed,

Mower Deck Malfunction In Minnesota
 
#23 ·
Paul - Just think , That big 60" is one heavy SOB , and over the years has been beatin' around , up and down , sideways too . To get everything perfect would be a major undertaking , and could involve welding to tighten up holes , new hardware , etc , and possibly some serious deck frame straightning/tweaking .

I know you are looking for some Happy Medium to get you going without a big lot of hassle . I wouldn't f-fool around with the angle lift thing,as yours have not been flipped , which simply means that the L arms can rotate 180 degrees if the lift straps that go back to the rocker shaft , and the deck lift arms are not connected to them. Has nothing to do with moving them to the opposite side of tractor ,or even removing them . But yours are oriented the same as mine are , {still not saying mine aren't flipped wrong} , but I'm pretty sure they're not . Maybe some one else can look at your picture and chime in on the L bracket lift angle arm . Like I said , I've never been happy with the "lift" on mine . It had 1000 hrs' on it when I got it ,with split time between mowing and front blading.
I like the idea of altering the end of the lift strap at the rocker shaft connect point to affectively shorten the strap for more lift, but only if all other adjustments prove ineffective first

You WILL get this thing done.

Dave
 
#25 ·
Paul - Do what you want .., but simply drilling new holes MAY not get you the optimum results.I'm saying this because a new hole will have to be far enough away from the old hole to be strong enough ; and , to be able to not merge itself into the old hole . By then , I believe you will have shortened the strap way to much. But you will have to be the judge of that., And as I'm not the one sizing things up , I can't really be sure if I'm correct.

I was thinking of maybe welding a couple washers on both sides of the lift straps about a half inch closer to the front or tractor , and then taking out the section of lift strap that would be in the center of the washers(new hole). I can't say how much shorter you will need to make the strap, you'll have to gauge it for yourself with the real world effects that you have in front of you . Also ,any material used , if going that route would have to be hardened to a certain degree to keep it from rapid wear.

Good luck with your quest !!!

Dave