I recently bought the mower and proceeded to mow a 7 inch thick lawn.... The right blade deck pulley ended up stripping out and stripping out the spindle with it... I bought a new mandrel and pulley ($150) and replaced them. It lasted 5 minutes and did it again... So, I decided that I would make due with what I had. I ground off the zinc on the pulley/spindle nut and surface ground the inside of the pulley. I then welded (MIG) the nut to the pulley. Reassembled the mower and took it for a mow. It worked great for about 2 minutes until the weld broke away from the pulley....
I assumed the pulley was zinc coated steel ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I3LQ7K0 )? What do you all think this pulley made of? It's definitely to heavy to be aluminum.
NVM, decided to give it a 3rd try. I must not have ground all the zinc off.... working great now... I have covid and am trying to think... not very easy... lol
How easy does the spindle spin ?
You have a serious problem with that deck if it can strip out a pulley that fast assuming you tightened the nut to specification
