The new project: fabricating a PK mower deck hitch

Installed the hitch assembly on the CS to see how it fits and check the mule drive pats out the other idle pulley won't be here for another week, but I did get a length of 1/2" round stock and put a couple of bends in it will wait until I get the deck in place before completing it getting close to having only a couple more things to fabricate main one being the bars that attach the deck to the hitch and I can't do that until I get the dek out of winter storage and that's going to be some work as it happened to be the first thing in last fall so there is a lawn tractor 2 decks and snow plow blade in front of it
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Well nice surprise this afternoon the idler pulley arrived today it was suppose to be here on Friday but the sooner the better for me, anyway got the bushing installed in it and assembled to the mule assembly and it looks good and is getting close to being completed, if its not raining tomorrow I may try to get the deck out of storage

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Hey Gary every time I look at one of those Tape worm V-belt arrangements I have to think about the instructions that come with most belt driven equipment. For example, The pulleys must not be more that .020 out of alignment or the belts will not run true. This can cause premature belt failure and or make it difficult to keep the belts on the pulley's.
Anyone who has worked on a lawn or garden tractor can tell you the belts run all over the place and in most cases do it just fine for years at a time as long as the pulley's and bearings are in good condition.
 
Today I worked on fabricating the bars that connect the deck to the hitch on the tractor, they are L shaped the the short arm mounting vertical on to the very front of the hitch and the long arm attaches to the mower deck, the shart arm has about 5 holes so the deck front height can be set at varying heights, I found an old hitch for a horse drawn dirt scoop in the goodie pile so I cut out what I wanted with the Oxy-acet torch, they were bent at approx a 45 degree angle so heated them up to cheery red and got a 90 degree bend in them and cut them to the lengths needed and that was it for today, tomorrow I'll drill the holes as needed. didn't get the deck out as it was cold and windy maybe tomorrow or Friday20230419_151704.jpg20230419_151712.jpg
 
Today I pretty much finished up the mule drive part of the hitch assembly, made a new adapter that mounts on the pulley assembly shaft, it has a 1/2" hole drilled thru for the on/off control rod and a 3/16" for a roll pin pinning it to the pulley shaft. The first one I made I wasn't watching what I was doing and drilled it crooked got it straight this time. Now whats left is to get the deck under the tractor and measure where to drill the holes in the L shaped bars, mount the deck install the drive belt and then I have to finish the on/off bar, will have to heat and bend the part that goes into the adapter I built to the right angle
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Its a nice sunny morning not real warm but not bad, so I got busy and got the deck out of storage and put a snowplow a blower and the snow pusher in the shed didn't have time to get the snowcaster in but will get it done in a day or so. So now I get the deck under the CS and line it up and finish the mounting hitch bars
 
Went to drill the holes in the hitch bars no problem but drilling the Simplicity hitch attachment was another story it is apparently hardened finally got one 1/8th in pilot hole drilled nd the other side no way dulled 3 bits in short order and barely maye a dimple in the metal so I took it to my friends shop and he's going to put in in his Bridgeport and use a carbide cutter to cut a 3/8" hole hopefully he'll get it done this afternoon
 
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