turbofiat124
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2011
- Threads
- 83
- Messages
- 288
The other day Dad tells me the trianglular piece welded that holds the tie rods to the steering column broke on his SR1533.
So yesterday I removed the steering column and welded the piece back. It looked bent and knowing my father it looks like once again he has hit something hard. Not to mention in the past he has hit fence boards and knocked the tire off the rim which has also cracked both rims and has sheered off at the hub! Both front wheels!
So I don't know if the alignment issue is due to where I didn't get the piece welded on straight or it was like this before it broke. I personally think he rammed the front end into something and cracked the weld and the whole front end is bent all the hell because my co-worker said he had never seen this piece break.
After I put everythign back together I noticed that with the steering column centered, one of the front wheels is pointing outward. I test mowed after the fact and the steering feels quite awkward. No doubt this will also wear the tires out.
I thought there might be some sort of adjustment like on a car tie-rod end to adjust the toe in but there doesn't appear to be any.
Also notice that the front end appears to have negative camber and the front end sits at an angle. I'm not sure if the later is because it's not sitting on level ground and is an optical illusion.
I did notice out of the tie rod ends is about "crapped out" for lack of a better term. The ball looks like it is about to pop out of it's socket but don't think that is what is causing the alignment issue because otherwise there is no play in that wheel. The nut that holds that particular tie rod end to the steering column was loose which I think what caused the wear. I noticed on my Snapper this same nut would periodically work loose and would point one of the wheels out. Probably from mowing in a mostly counter clockwise rotation maybe? Lock-tite finally fixed it on mine.
One idea that came to mind was to take the "good" tie rod end and cut a section out of it. Say 1". Then thread the ends, connect both sections together with a thread coupler with a nut on each end to adjust the toe-in.
Anyone ever done this? Pics? Otherwise I can't find any other adjustments on the front end.
This mower is getting in bad shape. I asked Dad if he thought about replacing it. He said, "Well Yeah, but don't want to replace it until I absolutely have to". In other words he wants me to keep patching it up until something really expensive breaks on it.
So yesterday I removed the steering column and welded the piece back. It looked bent and knowing my father it looks like once again he has hit something hard. Not to mention in the past he has hit fence boards and knocked the tire off the rim which has also cracked both rims and has sheered off at the hub! Both front wheels!
So I don't know if the alignment issue is due to where I didn't get the piece welded on straight or it was like this before it broke. I personally think he rammed the front end into something and cracked the weld and the whole front end is bent all the hell because my co-worker said he had never seen this piece break.
After I put everythign back together I noticed that with the steering column centered, one of the front wheels is pointing outward. I test mowed after the fact and the steering feels quite awkward. No doubt this will also wear the tires out.
I thought there might be some sort of adjustment like on a car tie-rod end to adjust the toe in but there doesn't appear to be any.
Also notice that the front end appears to have negative camber and the front end sits at an angle. I'm not sure if the later is because it's not sitting on level ground and is an optical illusion.
I did notice out of the tie rod ends is about "crapped out" for lack of a better term. The ball looks like it is about to pop out of it's socket but don't think that is what is causing the alignment issue because otherwise there is no play in that wheel. The nut that holds that particular tie rod end to the steering column was loose which I think what caused the wear. I noticed on my Snapper this same nut would periodically work loose and would point one of the wheels out. Probably from mowing in a mostly counter clockwise rotation maybe? Lock-tite finally fixed it on mine.
One idea that came to mind was to take the "good" tie rod end and cut a section out of it. Say 1". Then thread the ends, connect both sections together with a thread coupler with a nut on each end to adjust the toe-in.
Anyone ever done this? Pics? Otherwise I can't find any other adjustments on the front end.
This mower is getting in bad shape. I asked Dad if he thought about replacing it. He said, "Well Yeah, but don't want to replace it until I absolutely have to". In other words he wants me to keep patching it up until something really expensive breaks on it.
