Mower deck D140 48" Deck w/ bagger Part Issue

normanthums said:

Idler pulley replacement. Research shows two possibilities for small pulley. GY22082 Fits SN After 600001 or GY20629 Fits SN Before 600000. Would this be SN of tractor?
And maybe most importantly what is the difference between the two pulleys?
So far I have not been able to find any difference in the specs that I found.
I want to know because JD obviously used crappy bearings on mine. A little over 50 hours on the tractor and all idlers are bad with two of them making lots of dry bearing noise already with play. One, the seal is destroyed and obviously terrible seal design. Reminds me of early Chinese auto bearings that only carried 90 day warranty.

Hoping to find the pulleys are physically the same except one uses a better bearing. Help please.

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Will1988 said:

I work at a dealership, and I believe the one pulley is a bit wider than the other.
The serial number sticker on your deck should match the serial number of your tractor.
As far as a better bearing, don't hold your breath.
These machines are designed to have a 5-7 year lifespan.
John Deere does not hide that fact.
They are made 'cheaper' to compete with MTD.
The bearings don't last as long as the bearings in a higher model John Deere.
The only way to make them last as long as possible is to not hose your machine off after mowing.
A warm or hot bearing will draw in the cold water like a sponge.
This is pretty much the case with any hot bearing with cold water though.
We always recommend customers to use a leaf blower or compressed air to blow debris off the mower deck.
It is recommended to only hose the machine off once or twice a season, and only after it has cooled completely from mowing.
Then you can start the machine and run the deck for a few seconds to spin the water off the tops of the pulleys.
We have had the most success with this method.
Hope this helps!


Will

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normanthums said:

Do you know which is wider? The old pulley shows that the belt has traveled the full width of the pulley. If that was the mod I wonder why. And if the newer pulley would be a better choice because they mount on the same idler arm. The only other modification that might need the change would involve the tractor clutch pulley assembly.
The number on my tractor is 08???? so apparently a very early model but only about 3 years old. And it only has 54 hours.
JD might not be hiding that it is a low end poor build machine but they certainly are not making that common knowledge. The previous AYP lasted 14 years after being terribly abused in its early years because of yard condition. If the deck was not shot I'd have expected at least another 5 years. So who is JD competing with? A family friend had worked in there corporate years ago and came across a memo stating intent to build cheap decks so they could sell more replacement units. I guess after all these years they maintain that position. Way too many issues.

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The previous AYP lasted 14 years after being terribly abused in its early years because of yard condition. If the deck was not shot I'd have expected at least another 5 years. So who is JD competing with? A family friend had worked in there corporate years ago and came across a memo stating intent to build cheap decks so they could sell more replacement units. I guess after all these years they maintain that position. Way too many issues.

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bertsmobile1 said:

The one you bought 14 years ago is nothing like the one you will buy today.
There is a SICKNESS inherit with capitalist economies now days that everything HAS TO BE CHEAPER every year.
Cost savings from technology & volume effiencies were all spent by the 80's but the population continued to DEMMAND cheaper products.
So the companies made them cheaper by using cheaper materials thinner steel, plastic & low life bearings and lately exporting local jobs to third world countries like China.

My 1966 Rover has double row bearings in all of the idler pulleys.
You wont find them in any modern mower.
My 1966 Rover ride on cost 6 months wages
Most 2019 ride ons are around 3 weeks wages
Will they be of equivalent quality and last 50 years absolutely not but the dollar price ( not the real price ) is low and that is all that Joe Public looks at.

Volume is king when it comes to reducing production costs so if Joe Public will not pay for quality then you make the rubbish that Joe public will happily pay for if you intend to stay in that sector.
There is a reason why a company that only makes quality products like Honda stopped making ride ons.
Because their good reputation was worth more than the profits from selling junk
Try find some one with horror stories about their old Hondas. The only thing they bitch about to me is 20 years after they bought it , they can not get some parts.
Same story with vertical shaft engines.
Honda stopped making them because they refused to down grade they engines to a price level that the public would pay for.

Same story with engines full stop
Find a company that uses the substantially longer life horizontal shaft engine over the dirt cheap short life vertical shaft engines.
Find a vertical shaft engine that has real rolling element bearings or even a thrust bearing on the crank shaft.

Electronic calculators produced a generation where the right number suddenly became more important than understanding how you got to the number or what it means.
Computers made this worse and smart phones have really stupified the population where they will ignore proper evaluation & testing when they rush out & buy something just because a person has 25,000 followers said it is good.
This is regardless of weather the blogger has the necessary expertise to back up their claims ( 99.9999999999999999999% don't ).
And even the Joe Public can not understand that the real price is hours worked to buy it not the numbers on the price tag.

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