# 400 and 50 deck (same deck as 420s and 430s have)



## rbig (Sep 5, 2004)

Ran into another guy in the forum who's been kind to me and patient. As a result, I've learned a great deal about my 60 deck I didn't know before this. 

I have a 400 with the 60" deck with 2 front, castering wheels. 

Questions:

1. I have 4 of the slotted spacers on the topside of each of the front caster spindles, and none on bottom. Some of the pics in the manuals show one spacer being inserted below the caster spindle bracket. Is there any problem having 4 up and none down? I need this configuration to get the deck low enough for lawn mowing.

2. On the 400, I can run the depth control all the way up (clockwise), and yet the deck still goes higher than the upper depth control limit, and will come back down to it. I would have assumed I could hold the deck in the full up position. But, the way the depth control runs out of travel, I can't get the deck to hold in the full up position. Is this normal? Anything I can do to make the holding level of the depth control higher? Seems to run through it's vertical travel limits freely. 

3. On my rear gauge wheels in the fore and aft (straight ahead) position: I can pin the wheels in the 3rd hole from the top, but can't get the wheels up enough to pin the 4th hole from the shaft top. The manuals show that wheels pinned in the 3rd hole should give me a 3" cutting height, when the deck is lowered until the caster and gauge wheels clear the bare ground by 1/4". The manuals also show that I should be able to do down to 2" cutting height by pinning in the 4th hole from the spindle top. 

Anyone else had this problem?


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## rbig (Sep 5, 2004)

Woops----meant 60" deck vice 50.


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

rbig, sorry for the delay in a reply. Somehow this post got by us all. In answer to question #1; I believe you can set the slotted spacers however you want. They are for setting the height of the front anti-scalp wheel. I have a 72" mower deck and set mine with all but one spacer on the botton to get a 5 inch cut. 

As far as an answer for questions #2 & #3; hopefully some of the other Deere owners will jump in and post their thoughts. I at least wanted to get you a partial answer and get your post bumped back up to the top for some visibility and hopefully a good answer.


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## rbig (Sep 5, 2004)

Yes, I am still seeking enlightenment on #2. 

#s 1 and 3 are answered. Seems my rear gauge wheel problem was simply some paint keeping the shaft from going higher in the holder. Once I spotted that, I was able to do the wheels right. 

In regard to #1, a number of guys who have those kinds of decks tell me to put the spacers wherever I need 'em; no problem.


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