On Sun, 10 May 2015 00:26:37 -0500, "Terry Coombs"
wrote:

The mower deck I got with my very used 1982 yr model JD 317 yard tractor
has an advanced case of cancer , to the point that I wouldn't dare spin up
the blades for fear that one spindle would come loose and hurt me .
Yesterday I bought another deck and it doesn't have the same cancer problems
, but it does have some cracks at the mount points from metal fatigue .
Since these areas of the original deck are in much better shape I'm
considering doing some surgery . I don't plant to use this mower as hard as
it has been , but I also don't want to have recurring fatigue cracks . The
worst one is at the front mount point , and also looks to be the easiest to
cut out and replace . This would also replace the mount brackets with the
much-better ones from the original , and won't really be any more work that
repairing the cracks and straightening brackets .
The rear mount cracks I'm not worried about , I'll be cutting the mounts
off and replacing them with the originals since the newer mount is
different . Same size deck , just a different year model . So do I need to
be concerned with it cracking again ? I only want to do this once , that
thing is going to be a pain to R&R , and I can't access that area with it
mounted .
FWIW , it's a 46" mower deck with 3 blades , which I plan to modify to be
like the blades on brush hogs , with the blades pivot mounted on discs so if
I hit something it won't tear things up as bad . I'm not mowing the green
at the 15th hole , I'm keeping the brush and weeds knocked down in a small
orchard and other selected areas around our clearing in the woods .
Greetings Terry,
Over the years I have repaired several John Deere mower decks by
welding. A few customers have come back asking for more repairs on
other items. I always ask how the last repair I did for them was
working out. No failures of my repairs yet. In every instance I added
metal over the weld repair to spread the load. I usually use 1/8 flat
bar. I always weld completely around the extra metal to prevent rust.
Eric