John Deere 7500 Ball Joint Conversion Kit

John Deere 7500 Fairway Mower

I had a John Deere 7500 fairway mower that needed the rear inner ball joint replaced. I looked up the factory part and discovered it was over $300 dollars for just one inner tie rod. I have seven of these mowers and three of the 8800's which take the same ball joints. It was time to make a conversion kit.

The steering cylinder has internal threads (M16 x 1.50). The ball joint has external threads (M18 x 1.5). I looked for hours to find a direct replacement with no luck. As you may know, John Deere does a great job at making parts proprietary. As a result, I contacted Moog Suspension Parts. The gentleman I spoke with sent me a PDF of inner tie rod ends and outer tie rod ends. It listed all the specifications for each ball joint part number. From the PDF, I was able to find something that was close. The issue with the closest outer tie rod I could find, was that the taper that goes through the spindle was, in fact, too small.

That started another search for an adapter to fit the spindle hole. The top of the hole in the spindle has an I.D. of .875". The closest outer ball joint I could find had an OD. of .708" at it's largest point.  After some more research, I found an adapter from Teraflex (part # 990113). I contacted a representative from Teraflex to get the dimensions of the adapter. The adapter has a straight OD of .875" and inside it has a 1.5 inch/foot taper. The top of the taper is .663" and it is .556" at the bottom.

I had to remove the taper from the spindle. I started with a 13/16" drill bit, followed by a 7/8" bit. After the hole was drilled, I installed the adapter.

I ordered the inner ball joint (part # EV415) and outer ball joint (part # ES3466) from O'Reilly Auto Parts.  The inner ball joint has external threads (M16 x 1.5) on the cylinder end and (M14 x 1.5) on the other side. It's length measures 6.29 inches. The outer ball joint has internal threads (M14 x 1.5) and measures 3.70 inches.  I had to cut off a 1/4 inch on the inner ball joint (part # EV415) and a 1/2 inch on the outer ball joint (part # ES3466) to make room for adjustment. I replaced the inner and outer ball joints on both sides.

This project took a lot of research but, in the end, was well worth it. The total cost of the repairs to replace the ball joints on both sides was under $100 dollars. If I had replaced all the same parts from John Deere it would have been over $1200 dollars. 

Masterpro EV415 - $12.06

Masterpro ES3466 - $22.12

Teraflex 990113 - $11.39

If you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email tmanning@ansleygc.org

John Deere 2653 Belt

I've only changed 2 belts on a John Deere 2653 before but that was enough for me to realize I didn't want to do any more of them.  Anyone that has changed one before knows how big of a mess and time consuming it is.  I've done the trick of putting on two belts and zip tie one to the fan shroud so when one breaks the second is there and ready to go.  My complaint is any repair in the category of "Maintenance on a wearable item" should be as simple and quick as possible.  However this one isn't.
With my woodworking hobby I have come across several link belts and always wondered if it would work in this situation.  I put one on a 2653 in summer of 2012 and it is still going strong.  The belt cost is 33.99 and goes on in 20 minutes instead of 4 hours.  The nature of link belts are they run quieter and cooler so there is less stretching.  If you have a belt that is troublesome to get to, try this belt.  It may be the missing link to an easy repair.

I updated this post and included a pic of the link belt part number and some description.  The OEM belt has an effective length of 34 inches and 1/2 wide.  You'll need the 1/2" wide link belt in the 4' section.  Pay attention to the arrows printed on the link belt.  It will tell you the direction the belt needs to travel for proper operation.  When you're done with the install you'll just have a short section of belt left over.

Blower rack on JD 2500

   This started out as an idea to prevent a separate guy from having to drive around in front and behind each triplex mower blowing debris and clippings.  We need a blower rack on the triplex but where?  There isn't a good place with access to the frame on the JD 2500.  It needed to accommodate a stihl or redmax blower, not impede operator view and not have to be removed to service anything.  Between the ROPS was the only real option for location.  So, I drew it up on paper and it actually turned out like it was supposed to. Go figure...
   All total I spent around 3 days building this rack.  It could be done in 4 hrs now that I have the layout.  I added the 3/4 square tube to this rack because I didn't have enough angle.  This steel was ordered for racks on trailers but turned into a rack for triplex. The bushing is a club car front leaf spring spacer that I cut a 1/4" length off for each side. I put a bungee on it and bent the hooks closed so it can't be removed.  The operator simply lifts the bungee up and and over the blower backrest to remove blower.  The only thing I'm going to change on this one and the second one is to make the lower bolt (the one the rack rests on) a 4.5" long carriage bolt and put a spacer on it for the rack to rest on. If you have any questions about this just ask. cphillipsgolf@gmail.com or on twitter @CAPgolf
    

Getting the geometry worked out for
the bolt holes was quite fun.
Haven't used that Math in a while, good to
know I still can though.