BX2380 mower deck grinding noise

[Yan33]

Hey all,
I have a BX2380 with approximately 90 hours on it. Prior to installing my deck this spring, I greased it all up (did that in the fall as well), then removed and sharpened all my blades. They were all re-installed properly and I then mounted the deck on to my tractor.

During my first mowing session, every minute or so I hear a loud grinding sound on the left side of my mower deck. It also sounds as if the blade is hitting the edge of my deck as it’s spinning? The grinding usually lasts around 3-5 seconds then stops. It continues to do that every minute or two when I’m mowing.

At first I thought my blade might be coming loose, but I checked it and it’s on nice and tight. My blades do have a few dings in them from hitting the odd rock while mowing last season, but they’re still straight and seem to rotate as they should.

Anyone on here ever encounter this problem? Would love to hear any advice on what I should be doing or what I’m missing. Thanks guys!

 

[imnukensc]

I suppose you could have a spindle bearing wearing out, but make sure the deck isn't bent just enough for a blade tip to hit it.

 

[Yan33]

I suppose you could have a spindle bearing wearing out, but make sure the deck isn't bent just enough for a blade tip to hit it.

would a bearing wear out that fast? The mower deck probably has only 25 hours of use on it.My deck doesn’t appear to be bent at all…

 

[RCW]

While they shouldn’t interfere with each other, best to turn the blades to make sure they aren’t contacting each other as well.

Something certainly sounds off.

 

[skeets]

Did you change or sharpen the blades? If so you might want to check the torque on the blade bolts, a lose blade will make some strange sounds

 

[Donystoy]

I would be removing the deck and the belt that joins the spindles. Then spin them separately and check for roughness. Time to check the gear box as well.

 

[atitus]

3-5 sec is a long time for it to do it then stop. Many many rotations in that time. By any chance does it happen at specific point in your yard? High spot maybe? Could the spindle be contacting the ground?

 

[PaulL]

My deck has exhibited behaviour similar to what you describe. Two different causes at different times:

1. I mowed some rough terrain and ate some sticks and rocks and other things. The lip on the bottom of the deck bent just enough that the blade could sometimes touch it. Crescent spanner on the lip to bend it back out. I'd check for this by turning the blades and looking to see if there's anywhere they are close to touching. Usually it touching was in turn caused by loading the deck hard (mowing long or wet grass), which could wobble the blade enough to touch, and then cause the whole thing to keep wobbling

2. The washers on the blades appear to have a direction to them - they have a slight cup. One of my blades will spin on the spindle if I a) mount those washers the wrong way round, b) don't do it up super tight, and c) again, load the mower heavily with wet or long grass. My interpretation is it's getting a clump of grass which is binding the blade on the edge of the deck and forcing the blade to spin. It also sometimes can do it when I have the rubber chute down (I have a chain on it to pull it up) and I've loaded the mower a lot, particularly if I'm on a bit of an angle so that the grass isn't clearing from the deck easily.

Bottom line - it started after you took the blades off, most likely cause is the blades being upside down or otherwise wrongly installed, or not tight enough on the spindles. It's a pretty new deck, so unlikely to be a bearing, but it could be.

 

[icspots]

Hey all,
I have a BX2380 with approximately 90 hours on it. Prior to installing my deck this spring, I greased it all up (did that in the fall as well), then removed and sharpened all my blades. They were all re-installed properly and I then mounted the deck on to my tractor.

During my first mowing session, every minute or so I hear a loud grinding sound on the left side of my mower deck. It also sounds as if the blade is hitting the edge of my deck as it’s spinning? The grinding usually lasts around 3-5 seconds then stops. It continues to do that every minute or two when I’m mowing.

At first I thought my blade might be coming loose, but I checked it and it’s on nice and tight. My blades do have a few dings in them from hitting the odd rock while mowing last season, but they’re still straight and seem to rotate as they should.

Anyone on here ever encounter this problem? Would love to hear any advice on what I should be doing or what I’m missing. Thanks guys!

Have you happened to check your pulley bolts recently? Just last week I took the mower out for the third time this season. Halfway through I start hearing an intermittent hum/buzzing. Comes and goes, sometimes more acute, other times just a little hiccup. Maybe 10 min after it starts I hear squeaking and smell burning. Shut everything down and found that all four of the bolts in the left hand pulley had come out, deformed the bolt holes in the pulley, stripped off the bolts, and shaved off some of the inside of the pulley. Belt was actually fine, the smell was just it slipping for that last little bit.

Picked up a new pulley locally, got it swapped out and put on lock nuts on both sides. The right hand ones were only slightly tighter than finger tight when I checked them. Didn’t even need to hold the bolt head to unthread them. Those are definitely on my ‘check periodically’ list now.

 

[Yan33]

Hey guys,

Thank you to all of you for providing me with some feedback. I apologize for taking so long to post a reply, it’s been a hectic month!

It looks like the grinding was caused by my blades hitting each other while rotating. I took the deck off and examined the blade rotation and noticed that two of the blades’ ends lined up perfectly at one point and appeared to touch each other slightly.

im still not sure why they would only grind every minute or so… but I loosed one of the blades and rotated it a bit and haven’t had the problem since! Thankfully it wasn easy fix.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Hey guys,

Thank you to all of you for providing me with some feedback. I apologize for taking so long to post a reply, it’s been a hectic month!

It looks like the grinding was caused by my blades hitting each other while rotating. I took the deck off and examined the blade rotation and noticed that two of the blades’ ends lined up perfectly at one point and appeared to touch each other slightly.

im still not sure why they would only grind every minute or so… but I loosed one of the blades and rotated it a bit and haven’t had the problem since! Thankfully it wasn easy fix.

You do know that makes no sense, as the blades are not clocked with a timing gear so they will move at different rates at different times.

If the blades are hitting they are the wrong blades or something has caused them to come closer together, like warn or loose spindle mounts.
Usually grinding sounds are bearings going out.