430 drive shaft yolk interchangable with 318?

The 318 is belt driven for the deck, there is no splined shaft or driveshaft.

Hi Mike. I think he is referring to the transmission driveshaft. Although the hydro unit is splined, I have no idea if that shaft is the same size as the front PTO shaft on a 400/420/430.

Kent

Bill

If your asking if the output shaft of the hydro pump on the 318/420/430 are the same YES they are.

Same splines and everything, the rear PTO is inter-changable between them.

Now, if the question was the front PTO shaft, NO the 430 is a lot different than the 318/420. The 430 uses the stub shaft and is driven by two belts. This shaft along with the PTO extension shaft is used for a 47 snowblower or broom.
You might be able to find someone who has a worn shaft and machine the splines off it and use a coupling to mate with the output of the loader pump.

Are you mounting the loader pump up front or on the rear of the tractor?

Thanks Mike and Kent. Yes, I am looking for the drive shaft that runs the mower deck on a 430/420. I looked at my hydro unit and the splined shaft is smaller in diameter than the PTO shaft. Guess that means one thing...back to searching for a mower deck drive shaft!!! I'm open other ideas if you have one! Thanks, Bill

Romeo that is a great idea. I have the shaft extension but didn't want to ruin the splined portion of the shaft. If someone has a worn one that would be most helpful.

That is exactly what I need, #21. Any idea where I can find one? Does the dealer still have them available?

Bill, I picked up a Cub Cadet mower drive shaft on ebay, and it had a female 1 inch by 15 spline yoke on it. I think that is the same as Deere runs on the front pto. It was a Weisler (spelling?) series 6 shaft, if I remember correctly. The center section of the shaft in the parts breakdown above looks like the center section on my old MCS drive shaft that drives off the rear 2000 rpm pto. Weisler shows a H section that would work maybe.

I have a GX335 with the Kawasaki motor.

Since inheriting the tractor from my dad I've noticed that the battery light is almost always on when the tractor engine is under load (mowing, pulling a trailer, etc).

Lately, I've noticed a new "bearing" noise from the engine.

Today, the tractor wouldn't start (clacking noise from the starter). I put a charger on the new (3 week old) battery for a few hours and the tractor then started right up.

If this was a car I'd replace the alternator, but its a garden tractor. How does the machine make electricity to charge the battery? What part should I replace? My first guess is the starter, (part number MIA11408 ?) but $400 feels like an expensive part to throw blindly at a problem...

Also, any thoughts on the bearing noise would be appreciated.

Nathan first welcome to WFMs. It is probably one of 2 parts. Either the stator or the voltage regulator. The starter has nothing to do with charging the battery. How good are you at testing electronics and do you have a VOM meter? If you have no idea what I am talking about you probably should have a professional do the repair. The basic test is to test the voltage across the battery terminals with the engine off. It should be 12.5 volts DC or more. Then start the engine and test again across the battery terminals and you should then be getting 13.5 to 14 volts DC. If you don't have that the next test is to test the two leads on the voltage regulator that come out from under the flywheel. You should have about 28 to 30 volts AC with the engine running fast. If you get less than that the stator is bad. It is then just a matter of replacing the bad part. Roger

Thanks for the response Roger - that's perfect. I'll run a test with the voltmeter tomorrow.

So what actally generates electrical current in the engine? I heard once that outboard motors have a combination "generator" and starter and was guessing the kawasaki motor was similar.

How hard is getting access to the voltage regulator? Does the engine come off?

The stator is a bunch of coils under the flywheel that magnets in the flywheel pass by. That is basically what your car alternator has. This produces AC electricity which the voltage regulator/rectifier converts to DC and controls the voltage level. Th voltage regulator is actually a rectifier also. Some of the very simple systems that Briggs uses just use a diode instead of a voltage regulator to do this. Almost all small engines with charging systems use this type of system and have done so for the last 40 years. Go to the library or buy a used book on small engine repair and they will go into more detail. Roger

Ok, so I used a multimeter to check the DC voltage on the battery. I got a constant 12.[7-8] volts. Reading didn't change more than 0.1V when the tractor was running. Reading did not change with throttle position either.

I then measured both AC and DC voltage across the voltage regulator (I measured between the two black connectors on what I think is the voltage regulator, see photo at: https://plus.google.com/111377247907500438220/posts/bsTzquUjVe3
).

The AC reading briefly ran up to about 13 but then died to zero. Oddly, the DC reading did the same???

Does this mean my voltage regulator is broken?

Ok, I take it back, When I actually measure on the metal prongs of the voltage regulator I get ~ 13 V_RMS at idle and ~28 V_RMS at full throttle. I'll take this as indication that the starter might be ok and the voltage regulator should be replaced.

That indicates the VR is bad. Roger