King Kutter Outer Hub Bearing Replacement Question - Pull the shaft?

[Rford]

King Kutter II 60TG tiller. The outer hub bearing is messed up from lack of grease and dirt. Looks to me like there are about 12 of them left out of 20 or so. Pretty gritty. Cleaned it out last year, greased it up and used it but I'm going to need to replace the bearing at some point. I'm hoping I don't have to pull the whole thing apart, although it might not be that big a deal, I really haven't looked it over closely and have asked KK if they have a service manual for sale...they responded that the parts manual was available on line so I'm assuming they are telling me I'm too dumb to realize there are 12 bolts holding the whole thing together....but I'm hoping someone has done this job and can tell me what not to do.

Here's my questions:

Can I pull the bearing without pulling the hub? I doubt it from the looks of things.

What's all involved in pulling the shaft if that's what I need to do to get the outer hub separated?

Press on hub? Will it come off with some heat and a puller? Once the hub is off, can I just the bearing be replaced without the hub too?

Thanks in advance.

This tiller has worked well and hard for me. The bearing failure was my own fault for not taking care of it and realizing it needed some grease.

 

[Rford]

Bump this morning.

 

[Baby Grand]

Assuming it's the bearing on the side oposite the gear drive?
I would guess from the parts catalog it should unbolt and slide off:
http://www.kingkutter.com/store-parts.aspx?id=7038
You'll probably want to hold the tiller on your 3pt hitch and support the spool with a car jack so the weight isn't loading the bearing when you take it out.

 

[Rford]

Assuming it's the bearing on the side oposite the gear drive?
I would guess from the parts catalog it should unbolt and slide off:
http://www.kingkutter.com/store-parts.aspx?id=7038
You'll probably want to hold the tiller on your 3pt hitch and support the spool with a car jack so the weight isn't loading the bearing when you take it out.

I'm probably overthinking it, the parts diagram helps some. The way the hub is mounted it has to slide inward and so the shaft will need to move over which will require the opposite site gear/bearing/ etc. to slide over as well, which means basically taking the whole unit apart, although the gear box, drive cover and shaft might all move together with the removal of a few bolts. I guess I'll have to look at it a bit closer.

 

[ChristopherHawkins77]

Were you able to fix the tiller? I've got to replace bearings on the drive side. Any help on how to do this would be appreciated.

 

[Rford]

Sorry...I've been lucky and even though the outer bearing race had gotten dry and dirty which chewed up some of the bearings I've been able to clean it up and keep it greased and running. Figure I'll just wait until something gives before I replace it. I have had the new bearing sitting on a shelf now for a couple years.

 

[ChristopherHawkins77]

Thanks for your response.

 

[Rford]

Thanks for your response.

No problem. In fact, if you tackle yours please take some photos and come back when you are done and post....

 

[Razo]

I'm replacing my outboard hub and i had to get it all out from the gear end. Pull the gear box off and you can angle it out the front and get a 3 jaw puller on it. Prybars and profanity got it all apart for me. I had to get an inch longer bolt to press my new bearing back on but your results might vary.

 

[Razo]

Looking back i should have just cut the outboard flange off a couple of inches below the frame and welded gussets on it that i could bolt back into. Strokes of genius show up too late sometimes