[volvo4fun]

The front of my 46" deck is bent up. Imagine the deck sitting on a flat surface without any of the wheel or rollers on it, then the back, left and rights sides all touch the floor. The front (where the roller is) is up probably 2"-3"
Looking for some ideas of what to use to get this back in place.
I don't think that banging this with a hammer will do much good.
TIA

 

[900thun]

I'm not much of a believer in using a hammer for things like this. Fortunately I have hydraulic rams, jacks and a large shop press to push with even controlled force. I learned this from my Dad many years ago on the farm. Things don't get all bent up this way.
If it's truly twisted (I'd make absolutely sure), I would try putting the three lower corners on wood blocks and use a hydraulic jack (with a truck or something heavy) to push down on the high corner.
It would be good if one of us can check our decks for comparison and pictures would help.

 

[greendude]

The only way I could even attempt to straighten my 46'' deck was with a porta power (hand operated hydraulic ram) and a crescent wrench on the lip to help ease it

 

[woodpecker41]

When I worked for JD back in the 1970s/80s I was taught by the regional JD corporate service guy to use a BFH and if that didn't work get a bigger BFH. Roger

 

[ab318]

I had the same problem, also the middle pulley was tilted to the front.
I used this 10 tons car body jack kit to fix it:

The other end of the jack was under the main center beam of the house in the basement.
The key is to stop pumping when the house begin to rise.

Andre

 

[craft57]

I use my 14 Ton Excavator to straighten lots of things …… amazing how easy it is to control with no extra damage like cracking welds and joints like a BBFH will do ! …… just steady smooth down pressure and no risk of kicking out jacks ….. JMHO

 

[Hammerdown-7]

Hello Robert
I recently had to straighten the front of my Son in law's John Deere 316 deck when I restored it. it was Bent Inward a Bit. I got out my Airco gas heating torch and used a Number 10 Tip which is Huge with a hole in it's tip about 1/4" in diameter, which will drain a set of Tank's in no time Flat but one can heat steel up to 3/4" thick with this number 10 Heating tip. I Placed the deck straight down on my concrete garage floor, and had my wife hold it in that Position then I heated the area that was bent until it was Red Hot Cherry in color and used my 3-Pound maul to whack it back to where it belongs. By heating the deck metal up Cherry Hot it went back to it's original position rather easy when using my 3-Pound Maul on it. Without Heat these deck's are very hard to straighten as the metal used in them is very thick and Tough to straighten Cold. I hope this helps, Kurt

 

[ab318]

I agree with Kurt, they are very strong.
I began with using the weight of my car with no result.
Once everything straight I add those reinforcement to hopefully avoid this problem again.

Andre

 

[oldeere318]

Andre..where did you get the reinforcement rings from....?

 

[ab318]

Robert,
For the reinforcement rings, they are home made:

If you want I can send you a .JPG file of the CAD drawing for them.
Andre

 

[oldeere318]

Yes!..please do...Andre....thank you

 

[Hammerdown-7]

Hello Andre
Those Mowing deck spindle reinforcement ring's are an Excellent add on. I in the past had never hit anything with my Mowing deck's so I did not have any worries about straightening them. About Six Year's ago I was mowing The lawn where my Father and Mother in law lived it was a rental house and it has Huge Oak Tree's in the Yard with Root's exposed. It was late in the fall & I had asked my Father to Rake the leaves away from the stump area of the Tree's so that I could see these Root's clearly. He did not get around to it, so when I was mowing I managed to Hit one of The very large Root's so violent that it stalled my John Deere 140 in it's Tracks. I discovered that in the process of Hitting one of those Huge Root's that it bent my mowing deck under the Out side right Mowing deck blade spindle and I was Not Pleased.

I came home with it and removed the mowing deck as well as the Blade spindle assembly that was bent.




I then heated up the entire area with my Large gas Torch tip to a Red Cherry Hot state and used my Three Pound Maul to put it back to where it belonged being Level again checking it with my straight edge. The Mowing deck then Mowed right again Not scalping due to a bent deck at the Mowing blade spindle. I leaned a Good lesson to Not be Lazy in the future I did Not get close at all to The stump area of any of those Large Oak Trees.

For some Odd reason the Tree's in East Tennessee do Not root deep most have their root's exposed so when I had a stump Grinder home a couple of Year's ago, I ground all of the exposed Tree root's in my Yard so I would not have to worry about Hitting one with my new Replacement 48" deck that is on my 318. I am Not sure why Our Tree Root's are exposed as they are because the soil here is Not rock hard and we have very few rock's in it. The Only thing that I can Think of that causes the Root's to be exposed as they are here is due to The Hot Humid summer heat and violent mountain Thunder rain storm's that we get perhaps' The Root's are exposed to get the water and or Moisture that they need easier ? Regards, Kurt

 

[ab318]

Kurt,
When I bought mine the deck was already like that:
http://www.wfmachines.com/discus/messages/335/76813.html?1127356423
I had both problem, the middle spindle was tilted to the front probably after an accident like yours.
Also the gap on the front was around 3" like Robert instead of around 1".
The snow blower and the mower deck had serious damage made by previous owners.
I discover something interesting in the original owner manual.
I found some notes about the first owner of my 318, It was a small town.
Then maybe some operators didn't took care of it like we do.
Note: The original pictures sent by Tim Selenuk, post 116 are not those actually shown, they were different, it's a bug.
Andre