Last night I performed the first hydro/transaxle oil change on my 2015 Raptor SD 60. I removed the rear tires to get easier access to everything (and because it takes no time with my impact gun). On the left hand side, I noticed a loose bolt that connects the very front end of the hydro-drive to a cross-member and to a tab coming down from the chassis. It had a nylock nut on it, but had backed itself about an 1/8" off of being tight. I checked the right side to see if it was also loose and found that bolt sheared clean off where the threads would have just been visible below the cross-member. Here's a pic of the right side. You should be able to see a nut on the bottom.
I was pretty irritated because it was too late to get to the hardware store last night, so I finished up the oil change and left the rear wheels off the mower. Today, I picked up 2x 3 inch long grade 8 5/16 course thread bolts, four washers, and two new nylock nuts. I didn't like the fact that the factory bolts had threads inside the bolt hole. That should be all shank in my opinion to prevent wear and fatigue. The bolt I got was almost perfect. There is only about 1 whole turn of threads inside the hole. Here is the new bolt next to the broken original bolt - you can see the threads that were in the hole are pretty mangled.
Here's a shot of the new bolt installed and tightened. It sticks down farther than the original, but there is nothing nearby that could make contact with the extra bolt length.
One last pic of the broken bolt and the loose bolt that probably would have broken fairly soon. Notice that its threads are pretty boogered up too.
I was pretty irritated because it was too late to get to the hardware store last night, so I finished up the oil change and left the rear wheels off the mower. Today, I picked up 2x 3 inch long grade 8 5/16 course thread bolts, four washers, and two new nylock nuts. I didn't like the fact that the factory bolts had threads inside the bolt hole. That should be all shank in my opinion to prevent wear and fatigue. The bolt I got was almost perfect. There is only about 1 whole turn of threads inside the hole. Here is the new bolt next to the broken original bolt - you can see the threads that were in the hole are pretty mangled.
Here's a shot of the new bolt installed and tightened. It sticks down farther than the original, but there is nothing nearby that could make contact with the extra bolt length.
One last pic of the broken bolt and the loose bolt that probably would have broken fairly soon. Notice that its threads are pretty boogered up too.