Hello from upstate NY

[Paul Raymond]

Thanks Harry,I was thinking the same thing.I have been reading some other threads and saw this mentioned before.For the time being,I have ordered 2 replacement pullies and maybe just heating and twisting the brackets like someone else said and see how it looks/runs.

 

[kmcconaughey]

I noticed that the tension spring is not hooked up correctly. It should hook between the two holes.

Like this:

 

[mfrade]

Good catch Kraig!

 

[RAllison]

Whew....I thought I had my new spring in the wrong way!

 

[Paul Raymond]

If you look closer, the face of that pulley is a little spread right below the latch handle. That was after the pulley came apart. I just put things back to get the pics Harry asked for.
Glad I didn't replace the blades yet!

 

[hydroharry]

Paul - I didn't say anything about the spring because I wanted to see if there were any other "Eagle Eye" guys on here
(and I was really hoping Kraig would take 30-45 minutes to put a NF mule drive together)

 

[Paul Raymond]

 

[Mark Evans]

Hey Kraig and Paul - thinking further about this, and since Paul said one of the pulleys seems to have failed, I'm wondering if the pulley bearings failed because the belt puts twisting pressure on the pulley (I also noticed in Paul's pics that one pulley has a big dent).

Kraig - (one way or another I may get you to come up with enough time to test out this theory). You posted a couple pics of a wide frame mule drive and sub-frame on another thread, and I'm reposting below. In these pics you can see the angled pulleys and the sub-frame offset. If Paul could get these parts (complete wide frame mule drive with the sub-frame that has the offset) it looks to me like all he'd need to do is the following:
Switch the narrow frame hanger bracket onto the wide frame mule drive, along with the narrow frame tension spring (since the wide frame tension spring is to wide to fit). He'd have to figure out how to attach the back end of the spring which I think maybe just a matter of a longer bolt holding the pulley BUT since the pulley is at an angle that may not be the real answer.

View attachment 145192

View attachment 145193

It looks like the main shaft is a little bent and both pulley brackets bent also needs parts straightened !!!!

 

[kmcconaughey]

It looks like the main shaft is a little bent and both pulley brackets bent also needs parts straightened !!!!

No, the pulley brackets are supposed to be angled somewhat to direct the belt towards the offset center pulley.

Here's one from my collection, note it has the same/similar bend in the pulley brackets:

 

[kmcconaughey]

Here's the mower deck that goes with the mule drive I posted above. Note the angle that the belt has to take to get to the center pulley. You can see by the dirt/dust left on the mower where the belt runs.

 

[Mark Evans]

Mine on the 782 44c deck worked better with the brackets straightened out and hitting in line with belt feed and let the belt keep in line !!!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Paul, after looking at this photo I'm curious if the tie rod is mounted into the steering spindle levers from the top or bottom? It looks like it might be mounted to the bottom.

The tie rod should mount in this orientation, with the studs on the tie rod ends pointing down into the steering spindle levers:

Not like this (please excuse my poor edit of the tie rod ends...):

 

[Paul Raymond]

Hmmm,not sure about that,but the steering is going to get looked at pretty soon.It's not super sloppy,but a little too much for my liking.I will be sure too look at that.

 

[balbrecht]

Just for some background on putting the 44 inch decks on the narrow frame machines here is some info. IH did offer an adapter kit for this application. If you go through the parts search for a 44a deck it still lists the adapter package for serial numbers 65458 to 400000 and has the parts diagram for it. In fact, I remember my dad discussing this with my uncle (IH dealer) when the deck on his 127 started to get some serious rust 30 years ago. Going to a newer deck was an option over just replacing the deck shell.



Unfortunately the adapter package diagram no longer lists what the part number was for the idler support on the front hanger, but it looks different in the adapter package diagram than in the narrow frame diagram, and the wide frame QA hanger still shows a part number, so I would guess they were unique, with the adapter package having the pulleys angled at the deck pully like the wide frame as has been mentioned here.

One difference I see in the parts numbers list between the adapter package and the regular QA narrow frame setup are in the two linkages that go off the lift arm down to the subframe. Those hangers also are different from the wide frame linkage part number, so they appear to be unique to the adapter package (106504-C2 and 106504-C2). The center pivot linkage also appears to be unique to the adapter package with a part number of 106502-C1. The wide frame hanger no longer lists a part number for that piece, so it's hard to tell for sure. The main part of the hanger assembly for the adapter package appears to be the same as for a wide frame, as the parts diagram just refers you back to the hanger diagram for the wide frame.

Based on the pictures I would guess this setup was not the 44a adapter package for a narrow frame, but something someone made work from a mix of standard wide frame and narrow frame QA parts.

Hope that helps.

 

[balbrecht]

Oh, out of curiosity what is the dealer on the sticker on your machine? I grew up in upstate.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Brian, excellent info! I wonder if the rear linkages might just be a bit longer to allow for more clearance?

Here's the exploded view of the adapter kit:

 

[hydroharry]

Kraig - how is it you have all that WF mule drive and deck stuff, yet you have no WF tractors?

 

[kmcconaughey]

Hydro, oh come on now, how did you forget that I have a 1450 that I picked up back in 2017? You even posted about it back then regarding the cold weather start kit that it has on it:

From the Forum Archives...

 

[Paul Raymond]

Kraig,I took a quick look today,the tie rods are mounted correctly.

Brian,the dealer sticker is from: Robinson Farm Equipment CO INC in Canton NY.Google search did not give me anything local.Paper work I got with the tractor came from Malone before I got it locally here in Massena.

Thanks for all the replies/comments......now you got me looking for a WF mule drive to get it done a little more correctly! LOL

 

[hydroharry]

Kraig - hahaha, geez 2017 is 4 years ago. I can't remember everything (although I should).