Trip plow axle ?

Mowdigger

Member
I got my plow home this weekend and started pulling the wheels off tonight. The axle appears to be about 2 inches in diameter and the hub is about 2 1/2 inches. There are no bearings inside and the wheel flops around. What am I missing to tighten it up?
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I believe they just had a sleeve bushing in them, as far as I know. I will see if I have a parts book on them yet. When I rebuilt mine I think I found a light duty pipe to use as a bushing to tighten it up. I wasnt planning on doing all the plowing with it so I figured if I keep it greased it should work ok. I think the furrow wheel gets more pressure and abuse than the land wheel. If they had steel wheels the wheel would catch and carry dirt to the top of the wheel, it would fall off onto the axle and pretty much go right in to the axle and bearing.
 
From the books I have the later AF DF FF plows, around mid 1950s, might have had bearings in them (no picture in my manual but does list bearings), but it only lists a bushing on the older ones.
 
I have a feeling this one may have had a sleeve of some sort. There is no taper at all on the axle for a bearing to stay on. The back cup, in the picture is wore also. Did the wheel hub fit inside that cup to hold it in place?
 
The later ones with bearings may have used something on them other than a modern style bearing. But I bet you are right on it having just the sleeve bushing. I think the pipe I used was exhaust pipe as it was just thick enough to fill the gap between the axle and housing. As long as you keep it greased it will work. There have been iron on iron used for years in other applications. You may have more or less wear than that on yours. Yes the hub part of the wheel sits against the cap on the axle. If the bottom side of it is better than the top just rotate it on the axle.
 
I know you have M-M, but it looks just like a J-D harrow wheel I have. About the same situation, expcet there"s a big needle / roller bearing inside there, each roller about 3/16" diameter, 3" long, arranged in two cages end to end, about 6 or 8 bearings in each cage. Even then, there"s a lot of slop. I would think M-M would have set some sort of bearing in there, for a hard-working implement.
 
Well the back cup is wore out on both sides. Does anyone have an idea where I might find one? I may have to see about having one made.
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Yup, it is wore out, both the axle and the hub. There was a brass or bronze bushing in there that needed alot of grease. I bought a plow once that this was so wore out the guy had enough room to push a piece of PCV pipe in there to take up the play, and by golly it worked pretty good. If it were mine I'd look into finding a used one or try to shim it up some using whatever you got in the scrap pile. It doesn't have to be perfect. I think the ones with ball bearings had a hub with a 4 or 5 bolt on solid dish wheel.
 
You may, may find a good used one or maybe...big maybe NOS one. I will look at my parts but I dont think I have a good one. If you can find some pipe that is the same outer size you may be able to "splice" a piece on each side with a welder. Alot of things can be fixed on implements easier than tractors and no one will know the difference.
 
John, does yours have a solid disc wheel? I havent seen very many late MM plows of that style. Ive got two AF plows, one with the older style bottoms and one with modern style.
 
On my DF plow I had the same problem. It appeared that originally there was a cast iron insert inside the steel hub. Then this cast rotated on a greased axle that was steel of course. For reasons I have never understood, cast on steel does not wear as rapidly as steel on steel. Nevertheless I had a machine shop mill out the hub and press in a steel bushing. Good enough for low use if kept greased regularly.
 

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