Hi All , I have been fixing a 1980's ride on mower for an old lady I know who still uses this mower to do her lawns at the age of 83. The first problem was a rattle which turned out to be a bearing on the cutter deck blade. When I went to do the deck the front wheel was also leaning right out as she had clipped a tree stump and the box section axle has split, I then noticed that the other front wheel was wobbling all over the place once it was off the ground. So the offending bits were stripped off which left the mower half stripped as one bolt that had to come out up over to get the axle off needed the whole front engine cover grill etc to be removed then the engine itself to be loosened to raise it to get this one bolt out.
Anyway these are the bits, the axle is thin box section welded in places and had just spilt, letting the wheel flop all over.
This is the damaged side that has spit.
I then noticed the other side looked different , it looked as if its been repaired in the past for the same problem. It had been plated up to make it stronger.
I hammered the distorted area back into shape around a bit of scrap box section.
Welded up the splits , then tacked some more heavy plate around the area.
Welded up these new plates, it will not be this are that bends next time !
The wheel that was very slack on the shaft was caused due to the bronze bush being worn away to the point of falling to bits.
I had some bushes the right outside diameter but too small inside so bored them out to match the axle on the little Chester DB8 lathe, this fixed the wheel, the other one was fine so may have been replace at some time ?
Right thats the bit that had nothing wrong with it last time I saw the mower fixed now for the main job. The cutter deck has rusted through in a few places and been bodged before badly as usual, then the bearings in the shafts for the blade also eeded replacing on bpth sides.
This is the state of the tinwork and previous repairs.
This is what was left of the bearings on one side and the other was not far off this but still in oe bit. I was surprised but nothing was too seized so they replaced ok. I have just ground off all the nuts and bolts as they were rusted beyond ever coming back off and are just M8 bolts.
The plan with the cutter deck tinwork is to make do with what steel I have lying about, I have made cardboard patters and will do it in several sections from the outside so it looks decent once done, I have cut the cardboard templates out here and will then fit steel sections inbetween the central gaps then weld a strip around the whole thing like a skirt once this top section is on.
This is the cardboard templates , its worth spending a bit of time and getting these right as its easier than messing about altering the steel a few times.
Spot the difference, this is the same two sections in steel , its about 2mm thick so will be good to weld the skirt on to.
This is as far as I have got up to now so still plenty to do .
Cheers Mick.
