johncar
Bronze Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2015
- Messages
- 61
- Location
- Gympie, Australia
- Tractor
- Deutz-Fahr Agrofarm 100 GS, Kubota F3680, Kubota RTV-X1120D, Canycom Razorback CMX186
Just for anyone who is interested in this type of DIY thing.
Having bought a second hand ex govt F3680 a couple of months back, been going over the external parts that have significant wear. My place is not a nice flat lawn but more like a cow paddock so the gauge wheels will cop plenty of work!!
So this weeks project was to repair/replace the gauge wheel holder/assemblies and axles to something more durable.
Because there are no generic parts on these things I needed to either buy it all from Kubota at about $500 for spindles, bushes, axles etc. but because partly due to the cost and the wearing design, I decided to make or at least adapt other cheaper generic parts to make my own and hopefully much stronger and almost maintenance free.
The originals are high maintenance and relatively high wearing pin /bush style and I wanted sealed ball or roller bearing so I decided to try use small trailer type hubs for the pivots and stub axles to replace the spindles. So the small 4 stud hubs gave me a completely sealed and fully adjustable dual tapered roller bearing setup.
To match the original mower deck mounts the 10" x 1 1/2" stub axles had to be machined down in a lathe to 32mm the full length stopping at the seal machining. Then drilled and tapped so that they can be solidly secured to the mower deck mounts. You could still install multiple height holes but I only use the one height of about 90mm (3 1/2") but I can still move it an inch or so either way up or down If I needed to. If you wanted a real low cut, this design would limit you to about 60mm or 2 1/2" minimum cutting height.
For the stirrup section that takes the wheel I just fabricated it out of some flat steel, sides: 8mm x 75mm (5/16" x 3")
, top: 8mm x 100mm x 122mm and replicated the same angles etc as the originals. Drill the top to take the hub and legs to take the wheel.
Instead of the kubota axles I used a 19mm high tensile bolt with nyloc nut which is cheap and easily replaced. It has an advantage of being able to adjust minimal side play to the wheel and also help to keep dirt out of the wheels unsealed bearings.
So for anyone who would like to do such a thing, not a lot of difficult engineering required, easy enough to do if you can cut, weld and drill the steel. if you don't have access to a lathe or a friend with one it shouldn't cost much to have it done at an engineering shop. I have my own tools so it was fairly quick and easy for me.
I didn't worry about the anti spin indent thing that the originals have as I don't believe it will be needed with this setup. Haven't done any mowing with them yet but driving around they seem to work very smoothly. Will give an update after a bit of mowing time.
The cost of all the new parts was about $110 and about 10 hours my own time.
The original parts can still go back on at any time if ever required as none of that was altered at all.
Anyway I will try and attach some pics as they tell a better story.
Having bought a second hand ex govt F3680 a couple of months back, been going over the external parts that have significant wear. My place is not a nice flat lawn but more like a cow paddock so the gauge wheels will cop plenty of work!!
So this weeks project was to repair/replace the gauge wheel holder/assemblies and axles to something more durable.
Because there are no generic parts on these things I needed to either buy it all from Kubota at about $500 for spindles, bushes, axles etc. but because partly due to the cost and the wearing design, I decided to make or at least adapt other cheaper generic parts to make my own and hopefully much stronger and almost maintenance free.
The originals are high maintenance and relatively high wearing pin /bush style and I wanted sealed ball or roller bearing so I decided to try use small trailer type hubs for the pivots and stub axles to replace the spindles. So the small 4 stud hubs gave me a completely sealed and fully adjustable dual tapered roller bearing setup.
To match the original mower deck mounts the 10" x 1 1/2" stub axles had to be machined down in a lathe to 32mm the full length stopping at the seal machining. Then drilled and tapped so that they can be solidly secured to the mower deck mounts. You could still install multiple height holes but I only use the one height of about 90mm (3 1/2") but I can still move it an inch or so either way up or down If I needed to. If you wanted a real low cut, this design would limit you to about 60mm or 2 1/2" minimum cutting height.
For the stirrup section that takes the wheel I just fabricated it out of some flat steel, sides: 8mm x 75mm (5/16" x 3")
, top: 8mm x 100mm x 122mm and replicated the same angles etc as the originals. Drill the top to take the hub and legs to take the wheel.
Instead of the kubota axles I used a 19mm high tensile bolt with nyloc nut which is cheap and easily replaced. It has an advantage of being able to adjust minimal side play to the wheel and also help to keep dirt out of the wheels unsealed bearings.
So for anyone who would like to do such a thing, not a lot of difficult engineering required, easy enough to do if you can cut, weld and drill the steel. if you don't have access to a lathe or a friend with one it shouldn't cost much to have it done at an engineering shop. I have my own tools so it was fairly quick and easy for me.
I didn't worry about the anti spin indent thing that the originals have as I don't believe it will be needed with this setup. Haven't done any mowing with them yet but driving around they seem to work very smoothly. Will give an update after a bit of mowing time.
The cost of all the new parts was about $110 and about 10 hours my own time.
The original parts can still go back on at any time if ever required as none of that was altered at all.
Anyway I will try and attach some pics as they tell a better story.
