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A friend is having me repair his mower as the drag links are loose/worn flopping around and hitting the deck pulley. Anyone have a similar experience and is there a better option besides just ordering OEM replacements? Thanks!

First figure out which variant you have as there are some different parts involved.


As the drag links themselves there are after market ones now available for most years. They are a lot more reasonable than the original price for these, even the OEM parts are half of what they once were.

Edit: I just look up those drag links and my distributor has them dirt cheap when what I paid for 5 yrs ago.

As for the links hitting the deck pulley, kinda of need to see that. Sounds like the deck is raising too far like the deck stop is missing.

Actually, he is saying when the deck is fully raised, it is still too low mowing. I'll report back when I look at it personally.

Well it is only to cut at a max of 4 inches on hard ground. Will cut lower on sod as the mower sink in to the grass bed.

Attached pics show how the drag links hit the drive pulley. The swivel ends are loose but no play/lash in them. It appears, to me, that maybe the drag links were installed incorrectly, right for left. Comments please. I'm gonna refer to the parts diagram and see if a mistake was made in assembly.

Yes that is a very good possibility.

Never had them to be hitting the PTO pulley even when they were extra sloppy.

This is the right side after flipping the drag link end for end. Hmmmm. Gonna advise replacement of both sides as the ends are loose and the link shafts themselves have been cut halfway through by contacting the pulley.

So, after installing the drag links correctly, the front is not aligned as I would expect. It was this way beforehand by the way. I would guess sometime in the past, this mower suffered an impact with one of the front wheels with something immovable. There is considerable lash/slop in the axle pivot, wheel bearings and spindle pins. Anyone ever heat up a drag link a bit to provide a means of adjustment? There is no adjustment otherwise.

67Camaro said:

So, after installing the drag links correctly, the front is not aligned as I would expect. It was this way beforehand by the way. I would guess sometime in the past, this mower suffered an impact with one of the front wheels with something immovable. There is considerable lash/slop in the axle pivot, wheel bearings and spindle pins. Anyone ever heat up a drag link a bit to provide a means of adjustment? There is no adjustment otherwise.

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You should be able to buy drag links with adjustable ends .
I see them all the time on Evilpay
Some times I just take then off & straiten the short one ( because it has been bent )
It is hit & miss so rarely do I get it 100%
I have fitted new adjustable drag links
I have cut the drag ink in the middle and threaded both ends then fitted a length of threaded tube over the drag link to adjust it.
I have cut & threaded LH & RH then used a turnbuckle to do the adjustment with
All depends upon the actual shape , the diameter of the rod and what tools I have in hand
Lately I have found Husqvarna using a non standard diameter rod which is a bitch because it has to be turned down and due to the bends it can be very hard to mount into either of my lathes .
The drag links are case hardened so you should avoid welding as it will leave them soft , found that out the expensive way .

And don't forget there are bushes in the wheels & the king pins that wear and generate slop .
I have just done a Victa VRX / Castle Garden / Mountfield / stiga Tornado where the drag link is above the mower floor and it was bent far enough to rip the oil filter ot of the engine when turning right with the front axel up on the let side

I have used a 12T press to bend a little at a time to re-align the toe in. But first replace pivot bushings and wheel bushings... A lot easier to do than NZTR version which the links comes from the factory un-aligned. Only shorten the overall length of the draglink by no more than a 1/16" at a time. You be surprised how much toe out it corrects.

For bending drag links I use the same 48" shifter I use for bending deck skirts back out
Slide the hole at the handle end over the drag link
And yes a like Pecks anchovie paste ( did you get that in the US ? ) a little bit goes a looooog way

These are new drag links and I do NOT want to remove them again because it wasn't fun getting the steering gear end apart. It is not a bunch out of alignment but I just thought if I could tweak it a bit with the aid of a oxygen/acetylene torch, I could improve it.

Nope you will destroy the hardening and it will bent really easy after that