I finally got to bring the mower to the Milwaukee electric car club's EV build day. I got another member to come to my house and pick it up with a trailer to bring it down to the build day.
I talked with the guys about my problems and we all agreed the deck should be looked at. So, we removed it and found that at least two of the three spindles bearings that should be replaced.
We got the deck off the mower, and tipped it up to get a better look at the bottom to see what kind of adjustments I had. One of the guys thought I could adjust the drive belt so I might not need a new one. He adjusted it and thinks it might work just fine now.
With the deck off, I set about taking it apart. I took the top covers off and found tons of grass clippings stuff around the pulleys and belt. It was a real mess. This picture is after I cleaned a good deal of it all up already.
Another good idea that one of the guys there had was to get a cogged belt for the deck. The cogged belts can more easily bend around tight radii and thus less power will be spent. This should lower my amperage at least a bit.
After it was all said and done, the entire deck was take apart. I have the bearings and will be stopping by a local bearing shop to find something to replace them with.
There was also much talk about battery configuration of the mower. I mentioned that I had run it at 36V and it pulled 100A. The pulleys are a bit large at that voltage. If I went lower, the pulleys would be sized pretty much perfectly, so 24V is kind of looking like what I am going to go to. One of our members works at a golf course, so I am going to contact him and see what the possibility is of me getting four 8V batteries.
I also cut a few more slots for the motor into the frame. Unfortunately, my bolt circle is off, and the right side bolt is going to be a small notch in the frame rather than a slotted hole. Oh well, I think 5 bolts will hold!
