On top of the re engineering of the design, I'm not sure if you touched on it of its part of your issue with the later design, is the quality of the metal going into the casts. All of the decks I have that pre date 1978 all have much less damage than anything produced from 78 onwards.
I have had to buy 3 of the side pull super start Mustangs to make 1 good one and it's because 2 of them were very good, all accept the bases that have large pieces broke by what I guess is larger rocks
I only see this damage on this era of deck and the second release of the white Power Torque Mustangs. Its the same with my powerplus mowers, the decks all have corrosion or breaks that shouldn't happen and didn't pre 1978! So I agreed that the changes made to the alloy used in the cast made them so much weaker and then design changes caused even more issues.....
