I have and older Model I think 917.254941 38" Lt4000. After 16 or so years I thought I would take the slop out of my steering and I would bump the fence occassionally with the front tire and hear that slipping sound. Then, after that it wouldn't turn to the left very far. Depending on the model you can still get most all the parts for the steering. I replaced the Shaft, Sector gear, support shaft, pitman shaft and the steering bushing. Now most parts you can get to except for the steering shaft. you either have to tear the dash apart and get to the top bracket to to get the shaft out due to the spline gears at the bottom won't come through the steering bushing mount hole on my model (hopefully the newer one don't have this bad design flaw). Also don't forget the bolt (allen head, on my model) on the support shaft mounted on the bottom of the steering shaft. if you don't have to take the steering shaft out, usually this plastic piece is worn. Slop is you biggest problem, I had to shim up the pittman shaft to close the gap between the sector gear and the shaft lower spline teeth with thin washers or shims stock. This took me about 3 tries to get it to turn the way I wanted it and to get all the slop out. This is no small task and make sure you center the sector gear in the steering shaft. and watch the travel from side to side. I made an alignment mark on mine to get it centered and a reference mark in case it slips again. There is alot of pressure put on the sector gear. I also had wear in the steering bracket that mounts at the bottom to the frame cross support plate. I ended up cutting a hole in the bottom of that plate so I could remove the steering shaft out the bottom without tearing the dash apart. You could also have wear in the front axle bushing spacer which will alot the front axle to move back and forth or the single pivot mounting bolt could be loose alowing the slop. IMO you will never get the same travel to the left as the right. I think the design prevents this and most people turn to the right more sharply. If I was going to buy my son-in-law a mower it would be a push mower (if I had one)this would make him understand the finer things in life don't come free. Any product that has stress put on parts are going to wear, it's a fact of mechanical devises, LTs are just like cars, you can drive them for ever if you take care of them or you can get one every three or four years and not have to worry about wear much.

Amazing what happen to equipment when it gets loaned out?. About 30 years ago I used sears and sawbuck cheap radial arm saw, this was after the day before I helped the guy finish off shed/pole barn style work shop. he was cutting ruff cut 4 by 4 oaks. the next day I was cutting 1/4" plywood the saw quite on the 3rd cut. But, beings I was using it at the time I called sear repair man out. $139 bucks later on a 350 dollar saw. I learned a good lesson that day? Don't borrow equipment. Knowing the day before probably what burnt the saw out. but I still didn't want that on me. JD usually engineers there equipment pretty good, I know my LX system is rock solid with 350 hours on it, but it's not as heavy as you X500. I would say it wasn't normal for the steering to wear out that quickly. Replacement parts are probably going to be pretty high, hopfully you won't have to do it again. But, as rusti suggested some anual pre-ventive greasing sure wouldn't hurt IMO.

To: ase_tech and Tarus Owner: The symptoms most asuredely point to a belt that is too loose. By the comments presented above, it seems that it has slipped before and probably is worn because it has been run for some time while loose. Tightening the belt may be a fix, or it may a short term patch-up for a worn belt. I'd certainly inspect the belt before giving it a clean bill of health. Indications are that it may need replacing. To the Tarus Owner: One source of overstress of the belt happens when the driver turns the wheel all the way to its stop, either right or left, until he hears squealing of belt slippage, or a hissing noise of the overpressure relief valve. Don't persist in forcing the front wheel against its turn stop. It is not a good practice. In your case after you wet the belt, you temporarily lost power steering assist and had manual only. You did not "loose" steering, but got a surprise of how hard it was to turn the steering wheel without power assist. The steering wheel was very hard to turn unless the car was rolling some. This is normal - welcome to the days before power steering. One other desgin feature that was working against you was the gearing is made 'faster' for power assist steering units than for manual. When (in my distant past) manufacturers offered both power and non-power steering, the gear ratios of these steering units were different. The manual unit required more turns of the steering wheel to go from lock-to-lock than for the power unit. This gave a more mechanical advantage to the manual unit. Can you drive with the power assist disabled? Yes, but you should not drive great distances, but should get it repaired as soon as pratical. Why? Besides driver fatigue and control, power assist takes the lion's share of the load off the steering gear teeth and lengethens its life. Today's rack-and-pinion steering depends on the power assist for longevitiy of the rack gear.

The special tool is a puller for the pump pulley, and then the re-installer. The bolts that hold the pump to the bracket are behind the pulley, and the bracket also only has an opening sufficient for the pump shaft to stick through, so no matter what, the pulley has to come off in the car, and then be pressed back on in the car. Yes you can buy the tool, for a cheap version, you'll be spending about $50. For one that will last over many uses, figure about $200. As far as your local small shops not already owning this tool, that directly comes from the very likely possibility that they are underpriced, and therefore have to control expenses to the point that they cannot purchase tools like this. I can only imagine what else they SHOULD be buying in scan tools, DSO's DVOM's, information sources, and above all training. But they have themselves caught in a downward spiral. Seriously, expect them to go out of business fairly soon, and at the same time you can almost be assured that no one will be there to replace them. The reason for that is for someone to be able to get another shop going, they would have to price correctly. Which means not like the two you presently have. Then they will have to struggle through all of the endless times that they will hear "but Henry down the street will do that for half that price". Yea, your in for a rough ride when it comes to keeping your vehicles running.