Bent deck?

[JimSraj 479]

Last year I had a 1 owner 1990 312-8 follow me home. It came with a 42” deck. I did the usual new-to-me tractor work even thought it ran well. The quality of the mow was though, in my opinion, poor.  Seemed like the blades were not cutting in the same plane. Spindles all turn easily and are quite. Last fall I removed the deck for cleaning and winter storage and oiling of the underside. As I’m getting ready to remount it I noticed the blades are definitely not planar. There is about 1/2” difference in height difference between the ends of adjacent blades when they are nearest to one another. Looking closer at the spindle housings shows them all to be slightly tilted away from the discharge end of the deck. The deck must be bent at the spindle mounting holes from what I’m seeing. 
Has anyone else had this problem?  What did you do to fix it and how successful was it?
Thanks in advance for any help. 

[Wvtroutbum81 233]

I had one with one spindle mount bent bad. Stripped deck down and used heat with a hammer and dolly. Take you time and move the metal slowly. Check progress with straight edge from the bottom side of deck. Take your time and work metal slow  

[Ed Kennell 40,457]

I have a 42"RD that I did a lot of welding repair.    I I finally had to use thin washer shims under the spindle housing the level the blades.

[953 nut 57,854]

9 hours ago, JimSraj said:

The deck must be bent at the spindle mounting holes from what I’m seeing. 

Look them over closely, could be cracked where the deck was pressed when formed. I had a 42" SD that had cracks on two mounting areas. Bent them back, welded the cracks and all was good again

[peter lena 9,087]

@JimSraj  most important to have a very solid  hold on that deck , have used a  pipe wrench  inside of  empty  spindle  mount  base , with a  4 ft  pipe helper , easily over powered  the bend area , the leverage , lets you gently tweek  the bend area . initially  secured deck  up to a tree , for  solid leverage  advantage . just and experiment  , that worked , pete  

[oliver2-44 10,354]

if you find the deck mount area cracked Wheel Horse used to sell a weld in repair blank.  

A local shop or Lowel at Wheel Horse Parts and more can probable make you one. 

[JimSraj 479]

Thanks for that info. The deck does not appear to have any cracks. I’ll know more once the spindles are removed. Looks like those repair parts wouldn’t be too hard to make. Do you know how thick they were?  I have another deck that does have some cracks around the bolt holes. Might be an option for that one.