Not paying attention... Lost a wheel

[DKCDKC]

I know... I know... The JD manual says to check the wheel bolts for the first 100 hours. But the focus of the manual and a lot of comments here seems to be on the front wheels. I did that. Today a rear wheel almost fell off. One bolt is holding it. Really embarrassing. And the tractor is blocking my driveway. I was grading out some ruts.

Since I do glance over the tractor regularly when I check the oil, etc., I don't know how I missed loose bolts. But I must have. Doesn't seem to have hurt the hub threads as far as I can see, but I can't see a lot. I found one bolt that was nicely stripped. Don't know where the others are.

And it had to happen on a Friday when the JD dealer is closed until Monday... Unless I want to drive 60 miles round trip. I decided to jack it up a bit, which would cause the rear wheel to rotate back into position, then swipe a couple of nuts from the other wheel and bolt the loose one back in place. But it was very cold, and I worry about messing with a rear wheel - filled - so I played it cool and called my friendly neighbor - he of the 7 large John Deere tractors, nice four bay tractor garage, etc... He's coming over tomorrow with his collection of special jacks and such to put the wheel back... And he didn't laugh at me... Yet. His tractors are all 60 hp plus, so they use different bolts, but he says he has a box of smaller wheel bolts that might match what I have. Here's hoping. Luckily he owes me a few favors for corralling some of his wayward cows a few times and getting them off the highway. But he'd help anyway.

I like rural folks. It's being stupid and not actually checking the wheel bolts that bugs me. A good lesson I guess.

 

[burnieman]

Ya. I check my nuts even when I know they're ok. Something I've done since I was about 12

 

[ol'oilburner]

Ya. I check my nuts even when I know they're ok. Something I've done since I was about 12[/QUOTE]

Haha, ya me too

 

[texasjohn]

Well, while you've got your wrenches out, better check the bolts holding the FEL onto the tractor frame/mounts....mine were tight but not torqued to spec when I checked them...couldn't believe it, but numerous others have reported similar situation...so, best to check your FEL mounting nuts/bolts as well.

 

[pclausen]

I had the same thing on my 5085M. I started hearing these strange clicking noises while driving. Decided to pull back to the shop and investigate. Turns out all the bolts that hold the center piece to the outer rim were loose on both sides!

 

[kevin37b]

You've got a good neighbor .

 

[vtsnowedin]

Part of it is expansion and contraction of the metal parts with the changing weather. When it is sitting in the sun the rim expands or tries to and as it can't expand against the bolt head it expands away from the center of the bolt hole. When it goes down to zero some night it contracts in all directions making the steel under the bolt head just a bit thinner then it was. Repeat the cycle enough times and the once properly tightened bolt becomes lose. The only cure is to place a wrench on them once in a while and try them. Your eyes are not a wrench and certainly not a torque wrench.

 

[DKCDKC]

The neighbor, who is indeed a good neighbor, came over and we had the tractor jacked up within a few minutes. Swapped around some bolts to get it going and moved the tractor out of the road. Since the neighbor was not able to come up with any bolts that fit, I went to my brother-in-law a mile away. He's sick and wouldn't be using his almost identical tractor for a week. With his permission, I borrowed bolts from his tractor and used on mine. Unfortunately I found that one of the bolt holes had been damaged so that the bolt wouldn't go in. My neighbor doesn't have a tool for that size bolt, so I may have to call the dealer and have one of his guys come out next week and re-thread the hole.

But the tractor's back in the shed, the road is smooth for expected guests, and my wife's satisfied.

 

[etcallhome]

Glad to hear you got it back in the shed. Checked mine again and found at least 3 of the rear bolts loose. Had put the wheel weights on and said the heck with that so left the weights off.

 

[hosspuller]

Likely only the first couple of threads were damaged. A tap for the wheel bolt will be a lot less expensive than a service call. Plus, you'll have it to clean the threads in the future.

If you can access the threads from the other side of the hub, start the tap in the undamaged threads. Then, run the tap completely through.

Remember to turn 90 degrees then back 90 degrees to avoid breaking the tap by loading it too much at one time.