We bought the Rhino several years ago as a used mower. Actually, very used. The axle spindles that support the rear wheels had been severely eroded making it difficult for the bearings and seals to work well. Recently the bearings on the outside wheel of the center section went out and it started flopping around.
After removing the wheel, it seemed that there was no point in trying to put new bearings and grease seals on that spindle. So, I've ordered some parts (looking forward to seeing what actually arrives).
In the meantime, mowing still needs to be done. I cycle the sheep around different pastures. After they leave a pasture, it needs to be mowed to cut down the plants they don't eat. Otherwise, the undesirable plants would begin to take over. With the outside wheel missing the mower is very unstable with the wings up and I have to be very careful when traveling from one point to the next.
So we undertook to move the inside wheel to the outside position. However, the spindle was very frozen into the housing. It would not budge, even using a large pipewrench with an 8 foot pipe extension to the handle while beating on it with a slege hammer wouldn't move it. Jeffrey even tried welding a bead of metal on to the housing to heat it up, while I tried to move it with the pipewrench.
With the slot cut, Jeffrey welded a chain to the end of the shaft so I could pull on it with the Fiat tractor while he beat on it with the sledge and turned it with the pipewrench.
And after all of this, it came out.
We beat out the inner wheel.
Once the housing interior was cleaned out and the inner wheel spindle cleaned, it slipped quite readily into the outer position.
No comments:
Post a Comment