Binding Control Arms on New Mowers

[RustyBoy]

I've been looking at the ZT HD mowers and noticed that 4 out of 5 mowers have their right control arm binding at the point where it flexes and meets the bracket. As I looked closely, I found that there just isn't enough of clearance for the control arm to not slide against the black bracket. I looked at a couple other models and some of those models have the identical binding problem. It's really not a big deal as it doesn't bind badly enough to get stuck but what I saw happening on the floor models is that the paint is being scraped away from the control arm and bracket, which eventually will cause the paint to completely scrape away and make way for rust. Is this a common problem with that style control arm? I thought that the only remedy would be to bend the bracket outwards by approx. 1/16".

 

[wjjones]

I've been looking at the ZT HD mowers and noticed that 4 out of 5 mowers have their right control arm binding at the point where it flexes and meets the bracket. As I looked closely, I found that there just isn't enough of clearance for the control arm to not slide against the black bracket. I looked at a couple other models and some of those models have the identical binding problem. It's really not a big deal as it doesn't bind badly enough to get stuck but what I saw happening on the floor models is that the paint is being scraped away from the control arm and bracket, which eventually will cause the paint to completely scrape away and make way for rust. Is this a common problem with that style control arm? I thought that the only remedy would be to bend the bracket outwards by approx. 1/16".

I fixed one on a zt that had the control arm bind to the point it broke, and fell down.

 

[RustyBoy]

I fixed one on a zt that had the control arm bind to the point it broke, and fell down.

Since I've seen the binding issue on the 2013 and 2014 models, not just the ZT HD. And I see some others with the same bracket that work flawlessly with absolutely no friction. I wonder why Gravely's quality control doesn't fix it - this is definitely not rocket science and would be a simple fix. Makes me wonder that if Gravely allows the tolerance to be so bad on such an obvious item, I wonder what else is wrong that I can't see.

 

[wjjones]

Since I've seen the binding issue on the 2013 and 2014 models, not just the ZT HD. And I see some others with the same bracket that work flawlessly with absolutely no friction. I wonder why Gravely's quality control doesn't fix it - this is definitely not rocket science and would be a simple fix. Makes me wonder that if Gravely allows the tolerance to be so bad on such an obvious item, I wonder what else is wrong that I can't see.

They will never see it as a problem unless someone reports the issue, and then they still might, or might not address the problem.