Mower deck hanger
 

Model 147 48" 3 spindle deck. I was not paying enough attention and must have had one deck hanger nut come loose and the deck hanger fall off. I noticed it when the second deck hanger bolt sheared off. Got a hold of Chris at he sent me a couple new ones which I thought were the right size(my mistake) but are too big. The new ones are 1/2' and the original must have been 3/8". Has anyone ever tried to drill out the bolt holes on one of these old decks? Is it possible to do yourself or should I take it to a machine shop?

Thanks - Leon

If you are referring to drilling out the holes in the cast iron pice I would not do it as it may weaken the bracket. Best to get the correct size holders.

How about a pic of what your talking about.

See picture below.

"Two support clevises and four nuts."
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...cc48indeck.jpg

If your deck is anything like most of the old decks I've seen it won't take much drilling for you to enlarge the hole, probably bigger than you originally wanted. :)

There is absolutely nothing special about those bolts...go to any hardware store and get some 3/8" x 1 1/2" carriage bolts and be done with it.

If you are talking about the two "clevises" that bolt to the center casting on the front of the deck, I believe that the two different sizes are 1/2" and 5/8". Not sure if I would drill the casting or not, it would depend on how much "meat" there is around each hole.

Argh, I was looking at the stuff circled in red...

I, too, would not drill that casting unless there's a lot of extra material around the holes.

Puzzled
 

I am puzzled as to how the nut came off of the hanger bolt. Mine has two 5/8 inch lock nuts that are so hard to turn that I hate to adjust them. The top nuts are just simple nuts that cinch up the hanger bolt to the deck and are not lock nuts. You might have a PO problem with other hardware if he didn't use a lock nut on that critical part of your tractor.

Sorry Matt. I threw that old picture I had modified up there. It was already in my Photobucket account.

Regarding the clevises. I ran into the same problem. I decided not to drill the casting out to the larger size (5/8" I think) for the same reasons stated.

I just robbed my clevises from my 38" deck. (Can't use both decks at the same time. :) )

Cheers