How To Remove Air Filter Cover John Deere Lawn Mower

Cracked John Deere Lawn Tractor Hood John Deere hoods ofttimes get cracks in them. When they do, nosotros get phone calls. "How practice I fix my John Deere lawn tractor hood?" they enquire. "It's made of 'plastic'." they say. The "plastic" from which *most* John Deere lawn tractors are fabricated is polycarbonate. This is a very rigid plastic and, when it gets common cold, it gets brittle and breaks easily. With all of the vibrations from the mower, not to mention the bumps that the mower has to endure, it's no wonder they interruption. Not only that, but when you lot plow off the mower, all of that heat from the engine tends to "melt" the plastic making information technology fifty-fifty more brittle.

This polycarbonate plastic was used for years back in the 90's on Ford, Mercedes, and Hyundai bumper covers. The auto manufacturers don't use polycarbonate anymore for several reasons. When a polycarbonate bumper gets in a standoff (especially in freezing atmospheric condition), the bumper would shatter and not blot much of the touch on. Of class, the main reason the manufacturers don't use polycarbonate for bumper covers anymore is because polycarbonate is more than expensive and heavier than, say, polypropylene (which is what they apply now).

Polycarbonate can be easily repaired. We did it, and torso shops did information technology for years. We still do information technology occasionally.

Nosotros had someone local bring us a John Deere lawn tractor hood that was cracked in several places. He used packing tape to concord it together. Of class, it didn't agree very well or he wouldn't have brought information technology to us! He said he wasn't too concerned almost the appearance. He simply wanted it repaired. That fabricated this job much easier.

Since we get then many calls about repairing John Deere lawn tractor hoods, nosotros idea nosotros would practice the world a favor and show you, pace-by-pace, how to repair them.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step i

As you can see, this John Deere lawn tractor hood was cracked all the way down the length of the hood. The programme is to remove the tape residual, marshal the scissure, and tape it together temporarily, then weld the backside.

Footstep ii

We need to become that record residuum off. It doesn't come up off with lather and water, and so you'll demand to become some Super Prep Plastic Cleaner. It has some mild solvents and alcohol in it that will emulsify the tape residual without attacking the plastic. Wipe it off with a make clean paper towel in one direction. If yous need to clean it some more, exist certain to betrayal a clean role of the paper towel. Otherwise, you lot are just spreading the goo around.

Pace iii

To hold the damage in alignment while repairing, we used some Aluminum Tape. This aluminum tape is really thick and more rigid than that stuff you get at habitation improvement stores. Not only that, but it is super viscid.

Step 4

Polycarbonate tends to get crusty and oxidized over time. The rut radiating from the engine oxidizes it quicker. Your welding rod will not melt together with the crust, so yous demand to get rid of the crusty surface. To get the best weld, you lot need to weld to un-oxidized plastic. We used a rotary tool with with a carbide cutting wheel to remove this crusty, oxidized surface.

Step v

We used the polycarbonate strips to weld forth the scissure line. This will give a stronger repair than using the 1/eight" inch (3 mm) rods.

Step six

To further strengthen the repair, and to help forestall it from re-breaking, we welded a "T" at the stop. Cracked plastics normally re-break at the edge, so by "T'ing" off the repair at the border, you will reduce the chance of a re-break.

Step 7

Later on the weld cools off, it is condom to remove the aluminum tape from the other side. Afterwards peeling of the tape, nosotros noticed that the repair was really strong. Nosotros had originally planned on welding along the crack line with the 1/8" inch (3 mm) rods, just that would have been ugly, and John Deere owners seem to be really proud of their green machines. Even though the owner *said* advent wasn't important, we decided Non to weld the visible side in the interest of appearance.

Step viii

Nosotros "T'd" off the repair at the edge to strengthen that spot (since that is unremarkably where re-breaks occur). Since we didn't weld the visible side, we decided to "T" information technology off in several locations on the backside to compensate for not welding the visible side.