General Product Question
Customer service suggested that I post the following information so that the technical/engineering group would see this. The bolt holding the front axle on my 2010 model LGT2554 broke, causing steering problems and allowing the deck front lift assembly to go into the blades. Fortunately no injury resulted when the rod and bracket were flung from under the mower deck. When I looked at the bolt, I immediately recognized that it had failed because of crystallization. This happened because the hardened bolt was too short. The root of the bolt thread was in the pressure point for the axle bracket so all the force was focused there. The hardened bolt crystallized, leaving only about 10% of the metal supporting the load. To correct this, I replaced the broken bolt with one that is one-quarter inch longer and put a thick washer behind the nut so that the bolt shaft extends through the bracket and the thread root has only a tensile load on it. Since this has potentially serious safety implications, I wanted to report my findings to someone who could assess this appropriately.
