Stuck rear axle wedge (50)

Now that my 50 is running (quietly) again, it's time to revisit an old aggravation. The rear wheel tapered sleeves on the left wheel are stuck to the wheel and axle. And I mean STUCK stuck. I loosened the three bolts, and tightened both jackscrews to the maximum. In fact I was so enthusiastic I twisted the head off one of the jackscrews!

And yet it's still wedged tight. I actually spent several hours (years ago) bush hogging and driving it around with the screws loose, and it never did come apart. After years of more rust-in-place, I doubt it's any looser now.

How do I get it loose without sledging a pipe slipped over the axle (that's hard on the internal axle bearings) or using explosives? I've never seen one stuck so hard. One adjusting pinion on my 70D was frozen solid in the casting, but the wedges still came out as designed...

Thanks
Charles

Charles,

This is how I have done it on my 50. You say "I loosened the three bolts," now back them out a half to 3/4 of an inch then give each one , ONE good sharp rap with a short handled 3lbs. hammer (not your 8lbs. sledge). They came loose quickly and I did not break anything in the process. What is it with the wheels on a 50, hardest ones I have had to move. Good luck.

Dan

If it is like the later new gen, you need to loosen the inside wedge as well, and beat on the axle shaft; up and down and not like the book said on the end.
On the end does not work as good as up and down

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This is one method of loosening/removing the half key sleeve (wheel hub).

Raise the rear wheel axle and rotate the tire/wheel/cast center so that the key half sleeve is on bottom.

Take a look at the photo below of the three, special plated bolts (cap screws).



Remove all three bolts, rotate the tire/wheel/cast center, and apply your favorite penetrate in the indicated spots.



Apply your favorite penetrate on the other side of the key half sleeve in the indicated spots.



The penetrate used on all our tractors is a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid.

After applying penetrate on both sides, use a small, 10 pound hammer to "lightly" tap both half sleeves on the back side of the tire/wheel/cast center.

Rotate the tire/wheel/cast center 180^o, apply your favorite penetrate, and "lightly" tap both half sleeves again.

Take a look at the photo below of the jack screws.



Note the mushroomed head and thread wear; use a socket instead of a hammer on the jack screws.

Rotate the tire/wheel/cast center so that the key half sleeve is on bottom.

Insert two jack screws in the two holes between the cap screw holes.

You might consider tapping the threads in both holes before inserting the jack screws.



Rotate the tire/wheel/cast center so that the key half sleeve is on bottom.

Turn the jack screws clockwise until they are both tight.

Repeat: apply penetrate, "lightly" tap both half sleeves, rotate the tire/wheel/cast center 180^o, apply penetrate, and "lightly" tap both half sleeves again.

Repeat: rotate the tire/wheel/cast center so that the key half sleeve is on bottom.

Repeat: turn the jack screws clockwise until they are both tight.

Keep repeating the above steps until the key half sleeve comes loose.

You can check the grooves on the jack screws once it comes loose.





It may take a while to get it loose so be patient.

Hope this helps.

James has given a good tutorial here. I will add that after I remove the cork on the pinion bolt I use a blow gun to blow out as much dry rust as possible. You will usually get a bunch. This way you can get the penetrant closer to where it needs to be. If this hole is on the top you can get a lot of penetrant in there. Mike

Thanks for the detailed reply with pics! Unfortunately I tried this 16 years ago and had no luck then. Also no results today. However, as I mentioned there is one jack screw broken off flush at the bottom of the hole, so I only have one to tighten. I've whacked on the end of the three securing bolts, and used a drift & hammer on the visible edge of the (key) sleeve.

I've been using PB Blaster but have in the past had excellent results with acetone + ATF too. But it doesn't come in a spray can. Also note that it separates into two parts fairly quickly so needs to be shaken immediately before application. I'll try that next.

I've been "tapping" with four and eight pound hammers. Even took two small (1.5 ton) bottle jacks and set them between the axle housing and the rim flange, cranked them up to max and started tapping again. No movement whatsoever. I drove the tractor around a bumpy field for a while with all the bolts backed out. Still stuck fast. This is the most impressive holding power of rust I've ever seen.

Would an acetylene torch do any good? I doubt I could get all that cast iron hot enough.

Last resort is to remove the rim/tire, then cut the wheel (center section) away from the sleeves and buy a replacement!

Incidentally, the adjusting pinion is also frozen solid. I had a similar frozen pinion on my 70D and ended up removing the wheel, arc-cutting the pinion in half, and driving out the pieces with a sledge! The penetrant had made it along the shaft no more than 3/4" and the rusted-together areas were a good 2" on each half.

You need to apply pressure with the jack screws. Kind of hard to do now though. With pressure applied and I think I have that side of tractor jacked up take a BIG sledge and whack the end of the axle ! It really does work. You might need to make one of those notched out pipes now to drive on the wedge half.

I will go over this again with you,, I get all the "Real Bad" ones.. First drive the pinon drive/bolt out of the housing,, the one that turns the cog,,it must come out first to keep from shearing teeth off the cog when the wheel brakes loose, remove the three large bolts on the out side and if you can get to them the three on the inside,,and of course have the tractor jacked up,,now using a 2"X6"X2' positioned on a floor jack, use this to hold up a bottle jack (at least a 9 ton size),,set the jack against the draw bar frame (with the jack pump on the lower side) and use enough good blocking to reach to the cast hub,,the floor jack helps keep all this together,,now jack some pressure to the hub, your hubs are probably 1500R's so they will not deal with maximum pressure like a 4020/4430 hub will so stop when your jack handle gets firm,,know using a 10-12 lb. sledge smack the end of the axle as hard as you can,,and I mean like your trying to win a cigar at the Fair,,this works and don't worry about the axle or any thing else,,the only thing that can go wrong here is too much pressure on that light casting..

Again with me? Have we discussed it before? (We may have, I've owned this tractor for 17 years and this rear wheel has been stuck the whole time) Although I did find a similar post by you from 2012 to others with this common problem.

I am going to try a pipe with a 180 degree cut on the end so only one wedge is contacted. Hopefully I can find locally a foot of 3" ID pipe with a 1/4" thick wall, and a scrap of 1/2" or heavier steel plate for a striking pad. I do have a 20 ton bottle jack too.

The pinion bolt is totally stuck also, but I will keep pecking at it too.

This worked easy.
http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/viewtopic.php?t=1268184

Thanks, I'll keep that on my list of methods to try before cutting the center off and buying a used one
It doesn't look like a fun place to wrestle my big drill motor, between the wheel and the tractor (especially with it stuck 8" in
from the end).