1969 Mower Deck Mods

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

Call me a safety freek, but I am insistent that safety comes first. I replaced the motor-generator belt guard that was missing on the 854.

Also note that yesterday I added a PTO clutch brake to my 1969 Charger 12. I think this is an important safety feature (see Igor thread)

Today I replaced the missing belt guard on my 36" mower deck that came with the Charger.

Unfortunately the 42 was much more popular, so that is what I wound up finding at an affordable price.

I figured that at the very least I could cut both ends and have only a partial cover as on some newer models.

I started by cutting off the left end:

The deck had little pins (maybe they were threaded but I see no signs of it) and you will note I drilled a pair of holes on the guard to match.

Then I looked at what to do next. I had to cut out a hole for the pulley. Since there was no way to really line it up properly, it did take 2 attempts.

Once I was clear of the pulley, I discovered, to my glee, that it could sit on top of the left piece!

So, a few hole filled with blind rivets later... (note the pair of holes on the shorter piece where the overlap occurs. One of these holes fits on one of the deck pins therefore the inner piece is not free to move about (the other hole was "extra") .

Yesterday, in addition to the anti-scalp roller I sharpened the blade.

So, once I finished the belt cover I was ready to re-install the deck (Harder than on the later models, but still not bad) and fired her up and mowed the small side yards. No problem, Secretariat is ready to mow!

And I was stopped by a neighbor up the street that may want to know how much I would charge to mow his yard (good feed for the horse fund perhaps?). Nice to meet a new neighbor. I think I'll tell him that I'll do it once for free and then we'll see about a price and terms.

Cheers

PS - sorry about the lack of pictures - I fixed that this morning

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

PS

The anti-scalp roller seems to have made a difference when I mowed a couple of tricky spots!