Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hello.

This may be a stupid question, but I am having troubles figuring out how to remove the wheels. Nowhere in the manual does it tell you how to do so. It mentions removing the wheels in one section about friction disc replacement. This model has a differential and maybe it makes it harder, unsure.  On the outside of the wheel there is a lock clip that I can remove, but it doesn't seem to release anything. I am guessing its there to hold the wheel in place, but it doesn't give any slack with it gone.  Could it be rusted on? There seems to be quite a bit of rust coming from around the wheel, main reason why I would like to take it off, to grease it up a bit.  The is also a triangle type mount bolted on to the main box chasis (rake/bushing?), this mount has three bolts in it.  I tried to remove these nuts thinking maybe it needed to be loose for the wheel to come off and of couse all the bolts cracked off VERY easily.  So now I have no choice but to get the wheel off so that I can get the cracked off bolts out of that bracket (rake/bushing) and put new ones in. This machine is only one year old and its rusting like no tomorrow. I have taken care of most rust now and the wheels are last to take a look at.

Hope somebody can help me get the wheels off..

Cheers
Goofie Newfie

WoooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooo!

Wheel is off.. Thanks Pvrp.  I did just what you said. Removed the axle and smacked it out. Now to clean these parts up and put it back :)  Only problem I ran into was the roll pin. I never had a punch, so I ran off to get one, tried other things first, but nothing worked like the punch.  I did wonder how hard it would be to get back in tho. Not looking forward to that part, but none the less. Wheel is OFF! Yipppeeee :)

Inside the wheel and the axle it was rusted quite bad and felt like a very ruff sandpaper. Glad I caught this now. Soaking it in so pb blaster right now to cut off most of the rust before some light sanding.

Thanks to all the helped, certainly gave me the confidence and knowledge to get this done.

Cheers
Goofie Newfie

goofienewfie wrote:
Good news !  Roll pins aren't hard to re-install though it looks like the pin is up against the side of the box which
may mean using the punch to drive it back in which can be a bit awkward.  I don't know what size punch you bought
but it's easier on the pin if the tip of the punch is bigger than the pin.   The pin is a spring and its ends are a bit
tapered so as long as you line it up properly before tapping on it it should go in ok.  It's a lot easier when you can hit
on it directly with a hammer.

Just out of curiosity, how rusted are the clips that hold the wheels on ?  I really don't understand this design,
it just seems so flimsy to me.  Sure the clips do the job on the showroom floor but how long will they last in hard
work in salt saturated street slush ?  In comparison, my 1999 Ariens 1024 has four half-inch bolts holding
each wheel on.

Paul

pvrp wrote:
The roll pin is right up against a washer that is tight to the box, I have two size punches, the one bigger was definitely better.. Not much room to work at the roll pin, but I am sure I can get it back in. Just not without some hassle tho, always the way :)  I have the axles and differential all back and assembled, but its not %100 percent complete. Having trouble getting the bolts out of the rake that I original broke off trying to remove the one wheel.  All three are snapped off and rusted pretty good in there. Have broke off two screw extractors trying to remove them. Only one bolt left without a broken of screw extractor it in right now.  Any tips on removing them. The screw extractors I am using are a reversible drill bit type. I have seem another that are almost twisted square / diamond shaped without any drill grooves. Wonder if they are better?  About to give up on that and buy a new rake, don't imagine it will be that expensive.  The nylon bushing inside is in great shape and the heat didn't seem to do any harm to it.

As for the clips, they seem to be in great shape. Aside from being covered in rusted grease, they are good. Maybe the rusted grease helped :)  The concept seems to be ok, Not sure in the long haul. I am sort of glad that it was these clips as the bolt would probably caused more problems for me, according to the rust I had to deal with.

lol, $9.95 Cdn for the rake shaft.  Would have been better to just buy that originally. Cost me same price for screw extractor kit.  Oh well, least I still got three more sizes left to crack off some other time. :)

I ran into the same problem last weekend on my 3 year old 926DLE Pro.  I thought it would be a good idea to take the wheels while it was still "new" before they rusted on.  I was too late.  The right side wheel came off with a little work.  The left side is rusted to the axle.  It will come out but it's going to take the axle and the differential and everything else that's attached to the axle with it.  I decided to leave well enough alone for now.  I just have to be sure the right side wheel doesn't rust to the axle so that I can take the axle off if it should become necessary. 

I don't know how many people  already include removing the wheels as part of their pre-season checklist but in my opinion it should be in the manual, along with a specification for an anti-sieze coating that can be applied. 

I definitely agree. This should be in the manual under yearly service. I even think how the wheels are removed should be in there as well. Even knowing now how easy it is with it well greased. But they assume that wheel removal is common knowledge in my manual. With the rust it seem to be more to it at first, but would have ease my mind knowing there was not if written in the manual, then I would know it was rusted for sure.

Cheers
Goofie Newfie