My son ("wh_702", Nick, or Hobie ) was trying to finish mowing the neighbor's yard this morning when the John Deere 185 decided to quit moving. He asked for some help to push it back to the garage, but being the lazy fellow that I am, I decided to pull rather than push!
A search for the original location of a small piece of aluminum found on the ground under the rear of the tractor soon took place, and I found a broken CAST ALUMINUM hydro control arm. This part fastens to the direction control shaft on the Sundstrand pump with a pinch bolt, and the linkage from the fender-mounted shifter hooks to the other end.
It shouldn't be an expensive part, BUT the entire unit has to be removed from the tractor so the pump can be separated from the transaxle to install the arm! (it's too close to the axle housing to just slide the new arm on. )
Thanks to "Mrs. R", here' s a few pictures and a LINK to a short video.

TT, VERY picture-worthy for sure.
The link only goes to the home page tho....

I've had a few of those links do that, Eldon.
I reposted it - can you check it again, please?

It worked for me.
Good pics and video Terry. Nice to see a Horse rescue a Deere !
Mike..........

Yep, Works ok now.
Thanks Mrs. R !!

PRICELESS! -AL

Link didn't work for me, wonder if this will work better?

I replaced the link for the third time. (it actually didn't work that time for me either -- it has to be Photobucket! )
Anyhow....
I just found out that the arm (P/N M73226) is NLA. This one can't be welded, so it looks like I'll have to make one.

Yep, NOTHING RUNS FROM WORK LIKE A DEERE!

Very nice, I work with a big JD fan, surely I wouldn't stoop so low as to rub this in.....yeah right!!

Mike R

Just in case anyone happens to get around a late 80's JD 175/185 in a scrap yard -- or even your neighbors yard , this is the arm I'm trying to find:

FYI, the 185 is the only lawn tractor of that vintage from JD that used the Sundstrand units and those were only on the later serial numbers. The early 185s as well as the 165 and 175 used Eaton units.

I was just going by what a GTS moderator with a green and yellow tractor in his avatar posted a few days ago.
The only thing I am certain about is that it's becoming a real big pain in my ___, and now his son's 317 is broke again and he wants me to fix it too.

The earlier 185's had Eatons in them, and apparently it wasn't strong enough for the 17 hp Kawasaki engines in the 185. So starting with serial number 475001 JD used the Sundstrand unit. Here's the serial number breakdown for the Sundstrand units per JDParts (185) (SN 475001-750000 & 010001-100000)

I dunno but ....

I know the clearances are tight but....

I would look to see if you could re-suse this with the aid of a U bolt. It would straddle the shaft and this piece.

Imagine one part of the U comes down right next to and parallel to the exisiting bolt. (right in front of the bolt as shown in your picture.

The other half of the bolt would come down behind the bracket and the left side of the shaft.

The flat of the U bolt would go diagonally across the bottom of this arm, thereby bracing the broken part up against the keyway.

Or, you could just use some bailing wire ...

If you are lucky you might even be able to do all this without diassembling the whole mess!

Good luck