44C Deck Overhaul

[Stanton]

Old deck bearings were beginning to rattle around too much, so thought I'd tear down and replace. My old deck had two aluminum type spindle housings and a steel one. The aluminum type have replaceable bearings, but the steel one is enclosed. Bought a few parts decks earlier this year, so started with tearing down the old ones and seeing what I have.

Old deck, pretty beat up over the years:

Here's the two aluminum and one steel housing. You can tell the aluminum ones have the multiple gussets for support:

Found a third aluminum housing from a parts deck and disassembled:

Next, gotta get the deflector shield repaired and reinforced:

Then after everything's been wire wheeled down, a coat of primer:

Couldn't help myself on shooting red on the deflector:

New bearings and seals back in the spindles and attached back to the freshly painted deck:

Broke the tension spring (on order) so will have to wait for a week or so before seeing if all this work was really an improvement or not.

[Ken (48 Cub)]

That's the same deck that is on my 1282 minus the deflector shield...always wondered what those two holes were for.

Looks great.

[Bill Hudson]

...always wondered what those two holes were for. ...

I use the holes to mount an expanded metal piece that effectively converts my deck to a mulching deck. I install the expanded metal piece when the leaves begin to fall. I don't rake leaves.

Bill

[dgrapes59]

Looking good Stanton, if it works half as good as it's looking it will be a mowing machine!

[randallc]

As always, great job.

[Bermuda Ken]

The 44 decks are highly rebuild able. I was surprised to see that CCC has dropped the deck shells from service parts. Now we really need to be careful in not wrecking them.

[Stanton]

The 44 decks are highly rebuild able. I was surprised to see that CCC has dropped the deck shells from service parts. Now we really need to be careful in not wrecking them.

True.

Discovered this weekend after attaching the newly refurbished spindles to the deck, that the spindles are too tight; blades are hard to rotate by hand. Need to shim them or see if the bearing retainers are too far down inside the housing. There's a split spacer in there, but they need to be more loose for the belt to rotate the blades freely. I'll tear them apart and fix it (hopefully).

[gitractorman]

Those deflector shields are scarce because most folks throw them away. You'll find, if you mow in high grass the deflector shield just piles the grass clippings in a row at the edge of the deck. It can be useful if you don't want clippings flying everywhere, but most folks take those off after mowing in heavy grass a time or two.

Nice job on the restoration. Those decks really cut nice when they're tuned up and mounted correctly.

[Stanton]

Those deflector shields are scarce because most folks throw them away. You'll find, if you mow in high grass the deflector shield just piles the grass clippings in a row at the edge of the deck. It can be useful if you don't want clippings flying everywhere, but most folks take those off after mowing in heavy grass a time or two.

Nice job on the restoration. Those decks really cut nice when they're tuned up and mounted correctly.

Having never used one, I can see that's exactly what will happen. Will probably remove it, but thought it looked good anyway.

[Bermuda Ken]

If you use the Gator mulcher blades, the deflector won't be necessary to have at all. The grass will be cut up into much smaller pieces no matter how tall it is.

[gitractorman]

Yep, I'll second the gator blades. I have a set on my 50C mower deck and they are MUCH better!!!

[Stanton]

To finish up this thread...

Got home from church Sunday afternoon and got the rest of the deck together and leveled.



Took it out for a couple test cuts; did well. Nice and quiet with the new deck bearings. Was waiting on some company to come over and visit, but when they didn't show, decided to cut the rest of the yard. Took the normal 1-1/2 hours, but the deck was nice. An enjoyable venture. Now I'm back to having a fully functioning garden tractor/mower (CCC 782) AND a dedicated lawn mower (MTD XT2).

[Don McCombs]

Looks great!

[BigBill]

My 44" deck cuts my grass the best of all the cc decks.