Desperately need help with mower deck installation

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone out there understands what is going on with my Sears Custom 8E. I bought a suburban 38" deck and mounts and lifting lever for it, all of which have been installed (after about 6 months of mishaps, I might add...). However, with everything installed, the deck is about 3 inches lower in the front than the rear.

How do I fix this? Am I missing a part?

Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!

I have the same problem with one of my custom 10s,with the deck all the way up the front is lower. I bought another deck to replace a rusty one and now its doing it,all the parts look identical to the original and the original went up even.

Hi, Thanks for replying. I just talked to my mechanic earlier, and he thinks maybe the lever is not in the right place, but he can't find any other place for it to be mounted on the tractor itself.

Can anyone send some pictures of exactly where the lever is supposed to be mounted?

Thanks!

I have two custom 10s and both have identical looking decks and parts but one works correctly and the other is different.

OK, can anyone tell me how to upload pictures? I went and took them, but all I can do is try to "host as picture" and when I tell it to upload, it doesn't appear.

Thanks!

Lynne G.

Click "Host an image."

"File" button should be selected.

Use "Browse" button next to file box to select location of photo on your computer.

Image will autosize to 800 pixels.

Click "Host It" buttton.

A list of URL's will come up. Copy URL using box nest to image location. Use bottom URL of the three shown.

Click text that says "Upload"

Go to insert image (right next to host image) and paste previously copied URL.

Click OK and image will be inserted. DONE! :-)

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Sorry it's so many steps; the message board is free, so I have no control over its operation in that respect.

I haven't inserted a pic for a while, so I had to go through the steps again. I had the boxes open when I was typing the directions in this message.

Sample pics are of my youngest daughter many years ago riding on a SS12 at the Little Guys show in Pennsylvannia.

If you are still having trouble with the pics, you can email them to me and I will post them for you:

sware56920@yahoo.com

Thanks,
Spence

Here are pictures of the crooked deck. Right now, as it is, the lever is pushed forward to raise the deck and backward to lower it. Is this correct? To recap, this deck was bought from ebay and my mechanic is trying to put it on my Custom 8E tractor for me, but the deck hangs crooked and is about 3 inches lower in the front than in the back (hard to tell in the pix).

Can anyone help me?

Thanks!

Lynne G.

I am wondering if the holes for the front bracket have been changed in the later productions.

Hi 66custom6,

Do you have a picture of one that has the holes somewhere else? We can always drill new holes in the frame.

Thanks!

Lynne G.

I dont know if that is the problem and I need to do some measuring to see if that is what the problem is.

It's so hard to diagnose problems like this over the internet. It might be just as hard in person judging from what you are saying. All I can offer is some suggestions and observations.

1. Judging by the different colors of the mounting hardware, I can assume that they came from different machines.

2. There are manuals available online for the decks. I would download them and study each at length to see if I could find differences.

http://www.stripmine.org/sears/

http://vintagesearsgardentractors.com/files/custom_mower_deck.pdf

3. At first glance, I would say that the "pivot link front" (manual terminology) is too short.

4. But then one manual shows the up position being all the way back on the handle, and the other manual shows up being all the way forward. Again....point one, different hardware?

5. The deck has to move up and down in a vertical line. Is it doing so now? If so, maybe trying to put shorter "pivot link front" pieces on may be the easiest solution. They look like pieces of flat stock....easy enough to make.

6. I noticed that there are notches cut out of the links to clear other hardware. If the deck goes up to a certain point, then tilts, I would suspect the links are hitting something.

7. The deck is a "floating" type. When properly mounted you should be able to rock it up and down on the ends when it's up (if the wheels don't hit). It should be loose in a sense, so that it able to "float" over ground contours.

Looking at the pictures reminds me of the "I Spy" thing they used to have in the Sunday Papers when I was a kid. They were two drawings.... with minute differences that you had to search for to find. :-)

I wish I could be of more help.

Spence
VSGT

Did you ever get the problem fixed,I still need to attend to mine but it works at the height I like so it will be a project when I get bored. You have the same deck as mine as it has the same sticker and wondering if its a newer version,I have a older bare deck and will do some measuring and see what I can come up with.

I just got done with installing a older deck on my 73? custom 10 with the later deck lift assembly and it works like it should,so I got looking at the two tractors and noticed the later deck lift had a extra arm and the later deck has a bracket with nothing attached to it so I am wondering if the two are related. If I can remember correctly I think I removed something from that bracket on the later deck when installing it on my tractor,I am thinking it could be some kind of short arm but its been over 5 years since I installed the deck. Both the later and early decks look identical so I do not know what is different and thinking about removing both decks for a closer look to see if I can find any differences,I think we need to look at the later tractors with the later decks to see what is going on.

Since my last reply I had been looking on craigslist and looked at pics of a ST 10 and I think that is what our decks are from,they look identical to the older decks but can not figure out what the difference is. I am thinking the ST decks must only be used with the later redesigned deck lift.

Ok ... don't know if this will help but I too have a 1969 Sears 10XL. My deck did't come with lift hardware except for front swing arms. Currently searching for it. May have to make my own.
That said, this is what I know. From your pics of the hardware, you may have the arms reversed. the notch in the rear arms is to clear the foot rest rods in the front. That would make the front come up higher. I have read that the hight position should be level with the lever dictating that and the rear 6" wheels should be set (various holes supplied in wheel mount) to 1/2" above the ground on a level surface given the tires are inflated properly. They are only there so the rear doesn't drag on a lump in the ground contour and not continuously ride on level ground. At the decks highest setting the back of the rear wheels do sit behind the front of the rear wheels a bit (noticed this from looking at other units on the web with decks).

If I can't find a lift for mine I may need some help with swing arm dimensions to fab my own. From what I have seen, that is what makes the deck float level and I am assuming the arms are of equal length to make it geometrically work. Setting two 2x4s under the deck,front to rear, on both sides and stacked to provide 3" of clearance, I have concluded that center to center of the holes to be 7 1/2" with a 1/2" hole for the upper tractor mount and a 3/8" hole for the deck. Given that and what I have said earlier, I just thought about measuring the front arms, which I have, and copying them. Duh ... That still leaves me to find a lift arm and brackets. I believe the lift arms are attached to a rod from the handle and extends the with of the mower so it lifts against both rear swing arms. Hope this helps you fortunate enough to have the complete lift assemblies.

I HAVE BEEN READING THIS POST & REPLIES, SEEMS EVERONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE SAME IDEA OF THE PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM IS NOT IN WHERE THE MOUNTING HOLES ARE IN THE FRAME BUT WHERE THE HARDWARE MOUNTING HOLES ARE DRILLED IN THE FRONT MOUNT AREA OF THE DECK, JUST GET YOUR OLD DECK AN MEASURE THE DISTANCE FROM FRONT TO BACK MOUNT HOLED IN DECK, I THINK YOU WILL FIND THE HOLES ON THE DECK YOU NOW ARE MOUNTING ARE A BIT CLOSER TOGETHER FROM FRONT TO BACK, IF YOU CHANGE THE LENGTH OF THE LINKS THE DECK WOULD NOT HANG LEVEL. JUST MY TWO CENTS WORTH.
HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY JIMMY

I just put a 36 inch cast aluminum deck from a 68 custom 7 on a 66 custom 6 and its doing the same,since I have two tractors doing the same I am going to make some shorter brackets to put on the front and see how it does.

I think I found out the problem today,I went and found a pair of those flat brackets that hold up the front of the deck to drill new holes in and found that the set I grabbed were a little shorter then the ones on my tractor. What I think was done is the location of the front bracket on the deck had been moved so there are at least two different lenght brackets so just shorten the brackets you have and all should be good.