GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - My new Craftsman garden tractor needs an alignment bad!!!

[email protected] · 26-09-2007, 09:26 PM posted to alt.home.lawn.garden

wrote:
Problem solved, tractor aligned.

First, I needed a way to measure the toe. I installed a pair of 48"
steel rods to the outside of the front wheels, making sure that they
touch the front and rear of the rim. With the wheels perfectly
aligned, they should be parallel and have the same distance between
them next to the wheels and at their end. Initially, my suspicions
were confirmed: 37.25 inches at the wheel, 35 inches 40" further. 2.25
inches in 40" is 3.2 degrees.

I thought I should make my alignment easily adjustable, so bending the
rods was out. The steering shaft with a gear at its bottom and the
steering plate gear are held on a steel plate that is screwed to the
frame. That plate ensures a correct gap between the two gears and is
held in place to the frame by 4 screws. A bit of geometry convinced me
that if that plate could move forward by only 1/4", it would provide
me with plenty of toe adjustment range.

So I dismantled the steering shaft, the two links at the spindles and
took out the 4 screws that hold the plate to the frame. I widened the
4 holes in the plate horizontally towards the back (the plate needs to
move forward) by about 1/4". I put everything back together and left
the 4 screws loose by about 1 turn. I then verified that I had a large
play in the toe by playing with the two steel rods that were attached
to the wheels. I made sure the distance between the rods read 37.25
inches both at the wheel and at their end and that whatever play there
was in the system was creating a toe in. I then tightened the 4
screws. That way, while in motion the backward force would keep the
toe at the end of its play and the wheels parallel.

Something I don't understand. If this is new, and you think it isn't
right, why do you void what little warranty these things have by making
"repairs" yourself? Why do you not go back to the dealer you bought it
from and have them fix it right. It may not even need "fixed" and it may
be that the toe in is correct for that tractor. I sure wouldn't be
bending anything.
Tinkerers.