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First off, been a member for a while just never posted before, so excuse my ranting.
I guess John Deere had a good idea with the deck leveling system so it could be "easily" done. My mower is a 2012 model with a 48" deck. Rarely have had to deal with leveling the deck but found a extremely weak point in the system, why it was engineered this way is beyond me. View attachment 29065 The part name is deceiving, "John Deere Lift Link - M164279". It is actually made to hold the bottom lock nut so the deck can be adjusted from the top with the supplied long ball head Allen wrench but the problem is the part is made of cast aluminum and does not hold the nut as designed. The area around the lock nut is so thin, the aluminum will not hold the nut. I needed to check the deck level and found it a little off and found the same problem as the 1st time I tried. That time, I ordered 2 new "John Deere Lift Link - M164279". The deck level has not been touched in 2 years or more. When trying to level the deck again yesterday, the lock nuts spins inside the recessed area designed to hold it. I knew the parts new with shipping were around $28 and just could not see wasting the money again. The way the recess is designed, you cannot get a wrench or socket on the nut to hold it. I considered putting JB Weld around it but decided it wouldn't hold. My fix, I ground the recessed area down so I could at least get a 11/16 box end wrench on it. Not the best fix but it works. Does anyone have a fix for this problem other than what I did?
I apologize if this has been brought up before, I searched and have looked and found nothing.

My bet is you don't have the original nut which fits into the link. Believe it or not, nuts do come in different sizes, even though the thread and pitch are the same. Second, you don't provide us with the serial number of your unit. The adjustment linkage has been changed three times, depending on the model year.

http://www.greenpartstore.com/48-inch-48-Mower-Deck-Parts-for-John-Deere-X360.html

Good post information.

Rivets said:

My bet is you don't have the original nut which fits into the link. Believe it or not, nuts do come in different sizes, even though the thread and pitch are the same. Second, you don't provide us with the serial number of your unit. The adjustment linkage has been changed three times, depending on the model year.

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When I replaced the part, the nut fit very snug inside the recessed area, the aluminum in the recessed area is just to thin to hold IMHO. You can squeeze the thin area by hand and see it flex. It has not been touched since replaced and adjusted, just normal use along with heat/cold cycle has let it expand is my guess. "My mower is a 2012 model" Serial # 1M0X360AACM221751 DOM 042712

Have you taken the link back to your JD dealer and shown him your problem? Maybe they had a bad batch and he is aware of a solution.

Rivets said:

Have you taken the link back to your JD dealer and shown him your problem? Maybe they had a bad batch and he is aware of a solution.

Click to expand...

I have tried and always get the same answer... "bring your mower down and let us look at it, should have the time in about 6 weeks". I did show the parts to the Parts Manager, he had no suggestions except to order replacements again.