For Don Rudolph

kenbob

Well-known Member
Your comment about the head being hard to remove reminds me of last week when I tried to change the axle boots on my snapper rider. The job requires removing one wheel.
The wheel is 3 bolts bolted to a flange held on the axle by a tapered bolt. It did not look like it was ever apart. I bought this mower last year and the guy obviously
kept it clean all the time. That might have lead to the problem.(to much water) That axle flange would not come off. I used PB and endless tapping. Then I rented a
gear puller. Still wouldn't come so we put some heat on it. Still nothing. Then I finally decided to crank away a turn a day on the puller. When the flanges started to
bend, I went to the net (should have done that first) and found this is not an uncommon problem. One guy bent the arms on his puller and couldn't get it to budge.
Another guy who posts lots of Snapper stuff cut one off with a dremel tool. I didn't have one so I sawed to the axle in 2 places with the saws all. and then drove a
wedge in my saw cut. It finally came off. Oddly there was little rust or anything else on the shaft or in the flange hole. Luckily I got it off without nicking the
axle. I figured I better replace the axle bearing while I had it apart. That was pressed in. I expected the worst since that was SUPPOSED to fit tight. I pressed it
out with a bolt and nut and some washers and probably never exerted 1/4 of the pressure to remove a pressed in bushing that I used to remove the flange that was supposed
to be removable! GO figure.
 
THe new flange went back on the axle with only a little tapping so it was not flared out of shape at the end of the axle.
 
It's amazing how some things come apart so easy and some things are a real challenge. It think the worst I ever encountered was the pulley hub on a DC4. The previous owner had run the pulley brake down to the steel and wore both it and the hub down to nothing. Well, we broke 1 puller and nearly broke the neighbor's puller. Then we heated it red hot and tightened the puller tight. Then my wife called us in for supper. A few minutes into the meal it sounded like a 30-06 went off. It was the pulley hub off that tapered shaft. One of the best was a used silo unloader we bought 4 years ago. It had been used only 3 seasons, but had been sitting in the silo for about 15 years. When we took it apart every nut came off like butter. We couldn't believe it. Don
 
My brother was replacing the king pin in a 63 ford pickup. It would not budge. He finally chained a 20 ton bottle jack to it and put all the pressure he could. It wouldn't move so he left it set. Like you, he heard a noise a few days later and looked and it had popped.
 

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