John Deere 420: Part 6 - Deck Removal

How I remove the deck from a 420 or 430 John Deere Garden Tractor.

[@fgaryam]

Just a note. If you wiggle the deck so one deck wheel passes the front tractor tire at a time (rather than trying to pull the deck square to the tractor) It clears easily. 1. Drag the left side of the deck rearwards close to the left rear tractor tire. 2. Go around to the right side of the deck and drag the deck rearward until it touches the right rear tractor tire. Then pull the deck outward from under the tractor, continuing to rub very lightly against the left rear tractor tire until the left front deck wheel clears the left front tractor tire and situates itself under the tractor. The left rear deck wheel is still outside (not under the tractor yet). 3. Go to the left side and work the left deck rear wheel forward and around the left rear tractor tire. 5. Go back to the right side and pull out and wiggle until you do the same thing working around the right front tractor tire. You'll have to wiggle both forward and aft to do this. I hope you see the wiggle motion you need. A video would be nice doing this. But I'm no video person. This method does require sliding the deck wheels sideways some instead of rolling, but I find that it doesn't require much effort to do this. Also. There's no reason to jack up the tractor unless you're a big man! We little guys just lay on our side or stomach or back to remove the pto driveshaft. NOTE: On my 50 inch deck, you can't turn the deck wheels crosswise as with the 60 inch. So you're actually dragging the deck under the tractor and rolling one side back and forward to accomplish the wiggle. Do it once or twice and it becomes easy to get the hang of it. Last tip. I tie a rope to some point on the left side of the deck and pass it under the tractor to the right side. Then I remain on the right side and pull on the rope to control the movement of the left side of the deck rather than run back and forth from right to left of the tractor. OK I'm done!

[@williamriley2528]

I use the claw of a claw hammer to pull out the draft arm spring pin releases.

[@mmrbeef]

I have used that as well.

[@dreamer04ag]

Thank you for posting- It's hard to find anything on the 430 because it's so old....But she starts up every season :). Only wish there was more explanation about removing the PTO

[@joe-ix1pm]

I have a gr2120 and I can have the deck off in 20 seconds.

[@mmrbeef]

That's great and I have a gold fish. The deck comes off my X758 pretty quick, it takes me more than 20 second to get in the seat and safely drive over the deck so you might want to slow down and give your self 30-45 seconds.

[@thebubbacontinuum2645]

Same piece of junk on my 430. John Deere must hire engineers out of rehab facilities.

[@jhurley12]

First view, like, and comment!