NOT HAPPY

I think you might remember my last posts about the exspensive plastic
fan meant to cool the hydro on my 383.

well while i had it apart, i took a look at some other things and
noticed A) the pulley belt was way too short causing B) the pulley the
fan was attached to to be worn loose around the shaft nearly
destroying the woodruff key on the pump.

went to the cub store, and they wanted nearly $60 for a new pulley
PLUS shipping. by this time I am getting peeved at these outrageous
prices and go to the local hardware store to build a replacement.
about $20

get it all together, get everything nice and snug, make sure there is
plenty of clearance, runs it for a bit with the fender and tire off to
make sure nothing is conflicting.

looks like i'm mowing lawn today. get the fender one, get the tire
one, drive it out the back yard and I hear CRUNCH and see blades from
my $37 plastic fan fly thru the air.

so frutstrated right now that i dont even WANT to tear it all apart to
find out why. I WANT A D@MN METAL FAN.

On May 4, 2:38 pm, Tater wrote:
NOT HAPPY

I think you might remember my last posts about the exspensive plastic
fan meant to cool the hydro on my 383.

well while i had it apart, i took a look at some other things and
noticed A) the pulley belt was way too short causing B) the pulley the
fan was attached to to be worn loose around the shaft nearly
destroying the woodruff key on the pump.

went to the cub store, and they wanted nearly $60 for a new pulley
PLUS shipping. by this time I am getting peeved at these outrageous
prices and go to the local hardware store to build a replacement.
about $20

get it all together, get everything nice and snug, make sure there is
plenty of clearance, runs it for a bit with the fender and tire off to
make sure nothing is conflicting.

looks like i'm mowing lawn today. get the fender one, get the tire
one, drive it out the back yard and I hear CRUNCH and see blades from
my $37 plastic fan fly thru the air.

so frutstrated right now that i dont even WANT to tear it all apart to
find out why. I WANT A D@MN METAL FAN.

I'm gonna' predict the worn pulley also wore the shaft and the key
came loose leading to the destruction of the fan. Suspect a metal fan
would have just gotten mangled and perhaps chopped up something else
on its way as well...

"Tater" wrote
NOT HAPPY
went to the cub store, and they wanted nearly $60 for a new pulley
PLUS shipping. by this time I am getting peeved at these outrageous
prices and go to the local hardware store to build a replacement.
about $20

You sound like my ex-brother-outlaw, always trying to jerry rig something.

Gary, is that you?

Nothing wrong with jerry rigging when the factory stuff is crap.
"Tony Q." wrote in message
...

"Tater" wrote
NOT HAPPY
went to the cub store, and they wanted nearly $60 for a new pulley
PLUS shipping. by this time I am getting peeved at these outrageous
prices and go to the local hardware store to build a replacement.
about $20

You sound like my ex-brother-outlaw, always trying to jerry rig something.

Gary, is that you?

On May 6, 2:03 pm, "Larry and a Cat named Dub" hdyman58
wrote:
Nothing wrong with jerry rigging when the factory stuff is crap.
....

Previous thread on the subject really didn't establish that the
problem is at all related to an under-designed factory part -- it
appeared from what Tater posted before he ran through a bunch of heavy
brush and destroyed the fan that way before. This time he's indicated
the pulley was worn to a very poor state and replaced it w/ something
else -- it's pretty likely that repair didn't solve all the problems
existing. That the tractor is 20+ years old probably has some bearing
on the problems...

On May 4, 4:06 pm, dpb wrote:
On May 4, 2:38 pm, Tater wrote:

so frutstrated right now that i dont even WANT to tear it all apart to
find out why. I WANT A D@MN METAL FAN.

I'm gonna' predict the worn pulley also wore the shaft and the key
came loose leading to the destruction of the fan. Suspect a metal fan
would have just gotten mangled and perhaps chopped up something else
on its way as well...

nope, when i rebuilt the pulley, I made sure the shaft was secure, and
replaced the key.

I now have a 2 blade metal fan blade crudely installed. a $0.10 chunk
of metal is lasting longer than the $37 fan blade. mower still
overheats, but takes 2 hours instead of 20 minutes.

still dont see why it chewed up the fan. plans are underway to rig up
a better metal fan using sections of metal pipe weled together.

followup time:

On May 6, 3:36 pm, dpb wrote:
On May 6, 2:03 pm, "Larry and a Cat named Dub" wrote:
Nothing wrong with jerry rigging when the factory stuff is crap.

Previous thread on the subject really didn't establish that the
problem is at all related to an under-designed factory part

not sure now, I would have agreed with you before, but.......

-- it
appeared from what Tater posted before he ran through a bunch of heavy
brush and destroyed the fan that way before.

that was the first prognosis. now after chewing thru another one,
rebuilding the worn pulley, making a metal fan blade out of a
7"x2"x1/8" piece of strap, bent to act crudely like a prop. and having
limited sucess, I think the overpriced cheap plastic fan blade has a
design flaw or two.

This time he's indicated
the pulley was worn to a very poor state and replaced it w/ something
else -- it's pretty likely that repair didn't solve all the problems
existing. That the tractor is 20+ years old probably has some bearing
on the problems...

oh agreed! my rant was no more than 10 minutes from the desctruction
of $37 worth of non-useable plastic with no other option in sight
except to build my own replacement.

"limited success" means that i got it to work, replaced all the other
parts someone else jury rigged on the mower, got to mow for about 2
hours before the transmission overheated. got my 1.4 acres mowed in
less than a day and alsmost ran thru a tank of gas before something
else became a problem

the new problem
maybe when i replaced all the belts, i got some of the guides wrong,
or maybe my jury rigged pulley aint perfect, or maybe my rigged fan is
rubbing on the belt(real doubtfull). but i wore out a belt yesterday.
not real worried, only $6, and i'll do some checking to see what was
causing the problem. everything looked great, so I am guessing it is
just a tiny adjustment i fouled up. please no comments, i think i got
it figgured out

On May 28, 10:09 am, Tater wrote:
followup time:

....
that was the first prognosis. now after chewing thru another one,
rebuilding the worn pulley, making a metal fan blade out of a
7"x2"x1/8" piece of strap, bent to act crudely like a prop. and having
limited sucess, I think the overpriced cheap plastic fan blade has a
design flaw or two.
....

Well, the thing that puzzles me on that score is that if there were
rampant early failures a manufacturer of the reputation of Cadet would
have resolved it w/ a replacement part. That apparently they haven't
makes me think the problem is all _that_ widespread so I'm left to
conclude there's a problem w/ your particular machine...

....

the new problem
maybe when i replaced all the belts, i got some of the guides wrong,
or maybe my jury rigged pulley aint perfect, or maybe my rigged fan is
rubbing on the belt(real doubtfull). but i wore out a belt yesterday.
not real worried, only $6, and i'll do some checking to see what was
causing the problem. everything looked great, so I am guessing it is
just a tiny adjustment i fouled up. please no comments, i think i got
it figgured out

Well what's the fun in that???

After all, this is usenet and if we can't sit on the sidelines and
either carp or smirk or offer useless advice/opinions, what's the
point???

Anyway, good luck...although did you look at some of the alternative
metal fans on some of the other models to see if by chance one has the
right pulley/shaft diameters and thickness? During the earlier
exchange I did a search and found several of the same OD but didn't go
further than that...