on 5/26/2008 8:26 AM George Abbot said the following:
My guess is that one mandrel assembly is out of alignment on my one
year old craftsman 20hp 42" model 917.27682.

It was scalping the lawn when going over bumps at low heights. I
thought it was a bent blade but did the same with a new blade.

I removed the deck and did some tests. One blade is at the same depth
when rotated 360 (so works fine) while the other is low on one blade
tip and high on the other. It is slightly beyond the edge of the
bottom of the deck, so obviously will scalp the lawn if the deck
bottoms out.

If the blade is removed and replaced about 180, the low/high reverses.

If the blades are swapped, the low/high is still about the same on the
same mandrel.

I noticed that there are four bolts around the pulley/blade drive
assembly and wonder if the alignment can be corrected?

Are they tight? Perhaps some came loose causing the belt to pull the
pulley to one side.


I know I can probably shim it at the blade to get it into alignment,
but is there another fix?

Or is it beyond repair? I am reluctant to replace the pulley assembly
in case the deck itself has an alignment problem.

Unfortunately, the machine did not come with a IPB of the mower deck,
only the tractor, so I cannot figure out just what is involved in the
pulley/blade drive assembly.

Any help appreciated.

GA


--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
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