X-Mark Mower Deck Repair

[Don52]

My customer broke off the right hand bracket that supported the mower deck. I believe that the problem was that at some point in the past 5 years he hit something hard. Figure 3 shows a force diagram which would explain the dent that I observed in the top of the mower deck. The first step was heating up the dent and pounding it out against a large piece of steel.

[Don52]

The 1/4" support bracket was broken off clean and also had a crack about halfway through. I grooved and welded up this crack first so that the bracket had a chance of sitting flat on the mower deck. Next I clamped the bracket straight and pulled in the bottom of the bracket flat on the mower deck. It looks like a lot of clamps, but I added them one by one until the bracket was exactly where I wanted it and straight. I welded up the spider cracks and then tack welded the bracket in place. Next I welded up the groove in the 1/4" plate of the broken bracket to the piece still attached to the mower deck.

[Don52]

I added an additional bottom plate for additional support and hopefully to help stop denting of the top of the mower deck. I added an additional weld to attach the bottom plate of the broken bracket to the sides of the mower deck for good measure. I decided to beef up the 1/4' plate that broke with a fish plate, which I set back from the edge of the original 1/4" plate by about 1/5". The last step was priming and painting it. My shop was 50 degrees F so I used my 1000 watt shop lights and my 800 degree heat gun to help the paint to set up before we reinstalled the deck on the tractor.

-Don

[smawgmaw]

What is the "gun" in the last two pics? I am not familar with it. Is it a type of powder coating system or heat gun?

[Don52]

What is the "gun" in the last two pics? I am not familar with it. Is it a type of powder coating system or heat gun?

It’s just a heat gun.

-Don

[smawgmaw]

It’s just a heat gun.

-Don

That was my first guess. I just was not sure.

[ryanjones2150]

Did you stop drill the cracks running all over the place?

As usual, excellent job documenting the repair.

[Aeronca41]

Did you stop drill the cracks running all over the place?

As usual, excellent job documenting the repair.

I'll second that. Don, your pics and explanations are really great. And nice work, too!

[Don52]

Did you stop drill the cracks running all over the place?

As usual, excellent job documenting the repair.

Perhaps I should, but I don’t typically drill the end of the crack. When I grind out the crack I always grind beyond the end of the crack a little. I also start welding at the open end of the crack and weld towards the closed end, so the weld will have good penetration at the end of the ground out crack.

-Don

[topgunner]

Excellent work, that is professionally done!

[Sberry]

I did one similar a while back. The factory weld just stopped short and was just not enough. I weld around the corner and some on the back, didnt need to add.

[mongobird]

Don, a nice job on what is actually a complex repair. Breaks like that tend to happen when the ExMark's (and others) go curb hopping.

[Farris]

Looks like a professional job to me