BravoXray
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
- Messages
- 2,688
- Location
- Nothern Indiana
- Tractor
- Kubota BX2230, John Deere 430 Diesel
Last week, my cousin called me about his JD mower having a loose right rear wheel. I went over and looked at it, and it looked like the bearing had failed. He brought it over to my shop, and on closer inspection, the hub was loose in the wheel bearing. I'd never seen a all wheel steering mower up close, let alone worked on one, and it looked very similar to a 4WD pickup front axle setup. Because the hub was so loose in the bearing when the weight was off the wheel, the pivot bolts would slide out of the pivot bearings, but wouldn't quite come clear off. The snap sing on the end of the stub axle had one ear broken off, and after struggling with it for a while, I finally fired up the torch and cut it in half. The hub should have just slid off the axle, but required putting a puller on it to force the axle out of the hub. Once that was off, the knuckle and the stub axle and u-joint assembly came off. The pivot pins/bolts are threaded into the upper ear on the transmission end, and on the lower ear on the knuckle. They have a 1 1/8" head, and when I tried removing the one on the axle housing with a long 1/2" breaker bar, and it wouldn't move. Put my big Milwaukee 1/2" impact on it, and it never budged after s couple of minutes of hammering on it. I heated the area with the torch nearly red hot, and it still wouldn't loosen it. So, I pulled out my old Snap-On AT750 3/4" air impact and applied it. It came loose in about 100 milliseconds. Put the knuckle in the vise and hit it with the impact, and that one came right out too.
Got everything cleaned up, and it appears the hub loosened up in the bearing and wore until it got loose enough for it to be noticed. The bearing had worn the hub mating surface barrel shaped, as you can see in the last picture, and actually shrunk the inboard area so the stub axle spline was tight, requiring the puller to push it out. Pulled the snap ring holding the hub bearing in, and pressed it out. The bearing is tight, though noisy and dry, so we are going to replace it, the two pivot bearings, the washer and snap ring.
He should have the parts on Wednesday, looks like ~$400 for all of them. The hub alone was ~$250. JD sure is proud of their parts, like everyone else, I guess.
Should go back together pretty easily and get him back to mowing again soon.
Got everything cleaned up, and it appears the hub loosened up in the bearing and wore until it got loose enough for it to be noticed. The bearing had worn the hub mating surface barrel shaped, as you can see in the last picture, and actually shrunk the inboard area so the stub axle spline was tight, requiring the puller to push it out. Pulled the snap ring holding the hub bearing in, and pressed it out. The bearing is tight, though noisy and dry, so we are going to replace it, the two pivot bearings, the washer and snap ring.
He should have the parts on Wednesday, looks like ~$400 for all of them. The hub alone was ~$250. JD sure is proud of their parts, like everyone else, I guess.
Should go back together pretty easily and get him back to mowing again soon.
