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Mysterious Mower Noise

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2009-05-29          163048

A 60", 3-spindle, mid-mount mower. Mower position and belts adjusted perfectly. Blades turn freely and cannot be hitting anything.

At higher RPMs (starting around 1800) there's a fairly loud sound once every, I would say, 1.5 seconds. Seems to be coming from the blade area, but with the engine and mower noise it's a hard to localize. Sounds like two pieces of metal hitting -- clink, clink, clink.

Any guesses as to what it might be?


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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2009-05-29          163052

My guess would be it's not coming from the blade area, it's coming from higher up but the hard top of the mower deck is bouncing the sound and so you think it's coming from there.

I'd say the sound is likely coming from either the tractor itself or the hardware that the deck hangs from.

Get a couple of bungee cords and use them to put tension on all the mounting brackets and linkages that move, just be careful to avoid belts and or shafts. If that stops the noise you now know where to start looking. Then remove the bungees one at a time till the noise comes back.

Best of luck. ....

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greg_g
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1816 Western Kentucky
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2009-05-29          163057

My YM240 had a 3 spindle MMM as well - 60" or 72", I forget. But it was of a design that was raised/lowered/supported by the rear lift arms. The transmission was back there too, driven by the rear PTO. Then one helluva long drive belt went forward to the deck. Is that the kind you have, or do you have a conventional mid-PTO and hanger setup?

//greg// ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2009-05-29          163059

I have a ztr mower that with belt change about same noise developed. Seems where it was joined was not as clean a splice as it should be and as that area goes over I think only a certain pulley it makes a little odd noise. ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2009-05-29          163065

Greg, mine is the same as yours.

No noise with PTO disconnected, so it's in the mower. No difference whether mower is high or low, so nothing's hitting the tractor. Could be one of the new belts if there's some metal protruding from one, so I'll check for that. ....

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greg_g
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1816 Western Kentucky
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2009-05-29          163067

Quote:
Originally Posted by auerbach | view 163065
Could be one of the new belts
Ah - new belts. Methinks you've got a spindle going bad. The old belt will have stretched over the years. Assuming the new ones are the correct size, they're going to be putting more lateral tension on the vertical spindles. Drive off the deck, remove the belts, tip the deck up in the air the same as if you were going to remove the blades for sharpening. Instead, grab the blades and test the spindle bearings the same way you would check for loose wheel bearings on a car.

//greg// ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2009-05-30          163070

I check belt tension whether new or old, and I didn't think bad bearings could make that kind of noise. BUT: last year a spindle failed so the others, now 30 years old, could go any time, so you may well be right. ....

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