I finished the deck and made some improvments. Look at how they designed the deck rollers, these are what adjust the height of the deck and ride on the ground. These things probably spin a million times each time you mow. I got some schedule 80 PVC pipe, 2" sealed bearings and glued a 2 3/8 rubber hose to the pipe. They are strong and spin real nice now. The front casters are another joke. The bolt they used had threads that were digging into the bearing and wearing it out. I cut it off and welded a longer bolt so that the bearing will ride on solid steel. They didn't even use bearings in the wheels, I took care of that.
The spindles needed new bearings and seals. I found the bearings but couldn't find the seals at my local auto parts guy so I got them from Cub. I think I heard that you can install the bottom seal backwards so it will push the grease out and not the seal, that's what I did.
I drained the gearbox, cleaned and added new 80W-90 gear oil.
I only mowed 2 times with it so far and it is by far the best mowing machine I own. I need to get pics of me mowing
. The blade speed seems soo much faster then the 1811. The steering is easy and has a very small turnung radius. I'm trying to get acclimated to the foot pedal control system and when using the cruise control it will sometimes disengage almost causing me to go flying over the steering wheel. All in all I think it's a good mowing machine and will soon find out if it's good in the garden when I get my NOS cat 0 hitch installed.
Now on to the next project!
