2160 cutting

[tonebone]

i brought this up awhile ago, but havent solved it yet. 2160 w/ 48'' deck, mows level and nice, but leaves a line of CUT grass between 1st and 2nd blade. I've replaced blades,spindles,belts,pulleys,ensured deck is level. Measured distance between all blades and it is all consistent. Switched everything around,and still leaves cut grass between 1st and 2nd blade. This leads me to believe that the issue is with the deck itself,but I dont know where to go from here. Any ideas/suggestions?? Thanks in advance.

[Vince_o]

Are you missing any baffels on the deck? Are you using a mulch plug?

[tonebone]

The thing mowed perfect before, nothing changed . It still mows well, jt just started leaving the cut grass between 1and 2 nd blade. No baffles under deck. Only baffles I see on a parts breakdown are for the mulching attachment, which I don't have. !!!!

[ol'George]

I have a 50C deck that will do that if the ends of the blade tip are not @ square. in other words after sharping them, the very tip gets rounded and it tends to push the grass away rather than hitting it square and cutting it.
My deck has verry little blade overlap and it will miss on corners, or if I go to fast.
A 1/4" more overlap would do wonders.

[tonebone]

I'm doing more mowing w/ my JD since this thing is leaving grass trails behind. I honestly don't know what else to do, short of buying a new deck. I can't imagine doing that though, has to be something, since it mowed great before , and nothing had been changed or adjusted.!

[alsparl]

I was curious about this so I searched the net and found some ideas that helped solve the issue for other mower owners, none of which are my own. I learned a lot by the research and hope one of these will fix your issue.

***Install a new drive belt (this seems to be the biggest culpret for many)
***Check the tension of the idler pulley as a number have said this was not tight


Other responses that fixed the problems were:
*Use high lift blades
*Make sure the part numbers on the bottom of the blades match
*The front roller/caster is pushing the grass down and the blade does not have enough suction to lift and cut properly
*Make sure you are mowing at the recommended engine RPMs
*Make sure your spindles are not bent
*Make sure your spindle bearings are not bad
*Make sure the spindle housing bolts are all tight
*Check tractor tire pressure

http://www.jackssmallengines.com/MowingProblems.cfm
http://troybilt.custhelp.com/app/ans...iding-mower%3F

[ol'George]

Are the blades possibly installed upside down?
I have seen that more than once.
---Now I know nobody would do that on purpose, but sometimes we are multitasking and do not pay good attention.

[tonebone]

I finally decided to replace the deck, since it was the only thing left. As i searched E Bay, pictures of decks for sale showed baffles that i did not have on my deck. I had removed the mulch baffles years ago, and obviously removed the smaller baffles that were suppose to be there. Although the thing mowed great for years w/o the baffles, abd suddenly started leaving cut grass strips just last year. Long story short, i dug up the removed baffle, reinstalled and everything is perfect now. Thanks for everyones replies and info...

[alsparl]

That is awesome news. Glad you still had them before you went and bought a new shell.