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New guy with a 7116


LalanP111

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Long story short, I picked up a 7116 at auction for a steal. Came with the snow blade and the deck. I got the tractor running and everything working to only find that the deck mows on a heck of an angle. I've looked up on how to level the deck and tried everything to get it to mow even and the only thing I've managed to do is scalp my test sections of yard. The front of the deck is almost an inch lower than the rear. What am I doing wrong? The rear rollers keep the back of the deck up even but when I use the lift cable to float the deck it hangs at an extreme angle. Nothing is catching and everything is free. Any advice is appreciated! 

 

Also if anyone has any pics of the electric lift mounted, that would be greatly appreciated as it appears that's the only item mine is missing. 

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Look at the front of the mower deck. Two rods run from the back ot the deck to the front, and have turnbuckle at the front end. To raise or lower the front of the deck, adjust the length of the rods.  I think you lengthen them to raise the front of the deck, that should cause the front attachment points to lower in relation to the blades and thereby make the front of the deck raise.

 

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I broke them loose and adjusted them both ways because I could figure it out and neither direction seemed to change the height. Another thing I noticed is when searching for a new deck, it appears there are some sort of rollers under the deck between blades 1 and 3 on mint condition decks that seem to be removed from my deck. Would that make a difference on the front height? 

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It sounds like you’re trying to mow with the cable raised. That’s not how Simplicity tractors mow.  The cable is only for transport. 

For mowing, the front of the deck hangs from the front pins and the rear rides on the almost full width rear roller bar.  The two rollers under the deck are anti-scalping rollers.  The issue with these decks is the maximum mowing height is about 3”, and that’s with good rollers and roller bar.  

 

Edited by PhanDad
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Ok, I will try to post a pic tonight of the deck, maybe its mounted wrong or something because those front adjusters don't do anything. I had a heck if a time even getting them to move from being seized. 

 

What little I mowed, even though it's super low, was absolutely beautiful.  Thanks for all replies so far. My hope is that I can find a better condition 48" deck to replace my 42". 

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Does everything look right? Nothing backwards or out of the ordinary? I know the adjusters are far from even on each side, they are like that to try to compensate for the deck being at such an angle. I followed a video on YouTube from Zippo to level it and got nowhere with the angles. 

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The top collar on the adjusting screw on the right side is upside down - the shiny one in the middle picture.

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This is the only pic of my 42" deck mounted on a 7016H:

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The roller bar is down as far as it will go.

Unmounted pics for comparison:

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I believe @AC710 found the problem (hopefully only one).  Obviously your deck is missing the stone guard.

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The leading tip of the center blade should be 1/8" to 1/4" higher than the rear tip of the outer blades. Deck should be higher in the front than the rear. It appears the left side of the deck is bent and caved-in somewhat. That is a common problem on these machines. Straightening it may help.  Is the lift cable free enough to allow the deck to drop all the way down or is it possibly hanging up and binding? 

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Take a look at the area circled in yellow. The bracket appears to be pulling away from the deck. It should be flush up against it. This may also cause problems with leveling the deck. As @GWGAllisfan said, increasing the length of the front yokes will raise the front of the deck

damaged_deck.jpg

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I noticed the same thing Chris727 did.  I looks like  you have some structural damage to the deck, how much is tough to tell.  The front of the outlet chute ought to be just about vertical, so when it got bent in it probably started pulling that mounting tab away.  I would take the deck off, clean it good, then go around and tighten up every bolt you can.  Straighten out that front lip and you may have to do some mallet massage to get that bracket back flush.

While you're at it, spray penetrating oil on the adjusting handles in the rear and turnbuckles on the front on arms.  Once you have it all broken loose, set everything on both sides to right in the middle of it's adjust range with it off the tractor.  Use a ruler to measure how much exposed thread there is so you at least have a square starting point.  Then remount it and go through the leveling procedure again.  

I know it seems like a lot but with 4 different adjustment points and several bends, you're just chasing your tail trying to get this level.  Once you have it, though, you shouldn't really have to do it again.  I got mine leveled well several years back and haven't touched it since.  

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I adjust these decks to 2 1/2" at the back of the 2 side blades with the blades pointed fore aft and use a piece of 2 1/2" angle iron as a gauge.

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First thing, take apart the adjustment setup and flip over the top bracket in the stack. It's upside down. That's why the roller is so crooked. This will allow you to set the  two adjusters equally and maximize (or select) the cutting depth. Then go about pounding out the dents, straightening  and fine tuning.

deck bracket.jpg

deck bracket.jpg

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So wanted to give you guys a little update. Been busy with work and had a nice long Memorial Day weekend at camp with no phone signal so I haven't been around to do much with the deck.

 

Last night I took the tractor to the shop on my family farm where I have a shop press, porta power, welder and everything else i might need to get this deck back to square. I'll try to grab a pic of the D17IV for you guys as we are hearing up for hay season.

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On 5/23/2019 at 5:16 AM, LalanP111 said:

Also if anyone has any pics of the electric lift mounted, that would be greatly appreciated as it appears that's the only item mine is missing. 

Some poor pics of mounted electric lift:

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What the "kit" looks like:

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I don't think the wiring harness is complete OEM in the above pic.

The two most important parts:

IMG_7173.thumb.jpg.1c5bdef895a1edc876db7beaf6caacde.jpg

Note the mounting pin locations.  There are other model electric lift with the pins in different places. 

 

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I hope you have as good of luck with your 7116 as I have with mine. 

Mine is a tank. Does a great job. Very well built

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So I finally got some shop time with the 7116. Pulled the deck and found some extensive damage that will need attention. I removed what was left of the anti scalp rolling mounts and cleaned it up well. While waiting on help to put the porta power on and start the repairs I decided with the naked tractor to put my snow blade on for the first time. It fit awesome but I've definitely decided since I am missing the electric lift that I will be getting the hydro lift to handle the weight. 

So onto my new problem, after parking the tractor to help move some hay equipment the 7116 would not start. Cranked great but no fire. After pulling the spark plug it seems I've lost all spark. A simple finger in the hole test says there is spark to the plug but nothing to the top of the plug so tomorrow I will be going by the napa to see if they have a champion plug that fits. Hopefully that fixes my no start issue. If anyone else has any input that would be much appreciated, especially since I haven't pulled the tin off the motor to find the points yet. 

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Good news! A new Champion Copper Top was the fix for my 100% loss of spark, I've never had a plug fail to that degree but I'm glad it was only a $2.29 + tax fix!

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On 6/7/2019 at 12:14 PM, LalanP111 said:

Good news! A new Champion Copper Top was the fix for my 100% loss of spark, I've never had a plug fail to that degree but I'm glad it was only a $2.29 + tax fix!

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That NEVER happens to me until I spend 50 bucks on other things I didn't need in the 1st place. 

Congrats on the cheap fix!

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So I'll start with my on going issue. I fried another spark plug. Which plug is everyone running in their Briggs? And could there be an issue with the tractor itself causing the spark plug to completely fail?

 

Next up, my deck is back on and mowing!!! After hours of bending, beating, and a little help from a bottle jack since the porta power wouldn't fit, the deck is as close to square as possible. Found some screwy things the previous owner must have done and also fixed some of his messes in the process. Pretty proud of how it came out! 

 

Also got the pressure washer out and cleaned things up and super cleaned everything including the underside of the deck and the old girl looks pretty good for all original. 

 

Speaking of all original, snapped a quick pic of the all original D17 IV hooked up to the round baler. Enjoy! 

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