125255 Hydro Transmission Brackets Kit for Hustler Raptor Zero Turn Mower 552564 552565 552566 552567, New Upgraded Thicker Brackets Replacement Service Kit

This kit does not say it fit 52 inch limited edition. However, the thickness of the axle bracket is so much thicker than my original that I decided to attempt to make it fit for my 52 inch mower.New bracket are longer and would cause the hydro to be .45 to .5 ( measuring error?) inch lower!That means the drive pulley and the tensioner needs to drop .5 inch too. The whole pulley drive plane needs to drop with the hydros.To do that, I was going to use a lathe to cut the drive pulley and put the cut section on top or find some shims so that the PTO pulley plane would maintain the same.I did more research and found out that Hustler has another pulley 605675 that drop the plane exactly .438 inch!! I do not understand why Hustler did not use it on the 52 inch mower to make it the same!! So much fuss for the limited edition. It does not mean it’s better it means the buyer is more left out.But I was happy to order 605675 from Amazon.Then I made a spacer .5 inch. Change out the tensioner carriage bolt 3/8 by 3 inch long in order to lower the pulley rotating plane. To do that requires to remove the engine mounting bolts(4) to remove old tensioner bolt.After new drive pulley and tensioner and PTO are back in with new rotating plane established, I tentatively put back the damaged hydro junction plate and made some measurement. Since the cheaply made 52 in model junction plate was cracked, I was unable to get the two hydro’s to be parallel to each other. This is done by measuring the top and bottom edges of the hydro housing castings looking from the rear. If there’s a difference that explains why belt is thrown.Unfortunately, Hustler does not make a reinforced bracket for the 52 in limited model. So I still need to make my own reinforced brackets. I made two 1 inch diameter 9 inch long rods drilled and tapped for M10 bolts and weld to a 1/4 inch thick plate. I cut up the old plate ends as fixture for welding the rods.A strong junction plate is crucial because the lack of it will cause hydro to be out of parallel even with the stronger axel bracket in place!The simpler solution would be to buy the same replacement cheesy junction bracket and hope that the new stronger axel brackets will reduce the junction plate cracking. But from high stress it will probably loosen junction bolts or crack again.Dropping the drive pulley plane by .5 inch has a side benefit to have more hand clearance when replacing hydro belt. Before it was almost no clearance and belt replacement was very difficult.I don’t have anything good to say about the 52 in being left out in such important fix. Without stronger brackets and junction plate, the system is weak and the hydro can become out of parallel and that is when the drive belt keeps getting thrown and chewed up. My bitter personal experience.The result! I put the junction bracket on and the top and bottom parallel measures only different by 1/16 inches. Could have made the rods shorter. Start the engine and test run well. Hasn’t thow the belt like before yet! [...]